The European Union (EU) is introducing a new immigration policy that strengthens exclusion and isolation instead of inclusion.
It is exactly 10 years since former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "We can do it," and took in a large number of Syrian refugees in 2015. As social problems related to immigrants erupted across Europe and hard-line conservatives riding anti-immigrant sentiment gained ground, experts said a shift from openness to control was inevitable.
According to Reuters and Politico on the 8th local time, interior ministers from the EU's 27 countries reached a final agreement at a council meeting in Brussels, Belgium, to introduce an amendment to the rules on returning people staying illegally.
There are two main pillars of the amendment. First, it creates a legal basis to send migrants who were denied asylum or lack residency status to "return hubs," reception facilities in third countries that have agreements with the EU.
Put simply, a return hub is a "holding area for migrants" set up outside Europe. It is a facility where migrants stay before setting foot on the European mainland, or after a deportation decision and before returning to their home countries. It expands across the EU the model that Italy pursued in Albania and the United Kingdom in Rwanda. The EU plans to sign agreements with nearby third countries such as Tunisia and prepare reception facilities.
Earlier, in Nov. 2023, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni signed an agreement with Albania and built two migrant reception centers at Shengjin port in northwestern Albania and the nearby Gjadër area. The facilities began operating last year. Mostly, irregular migrants heading to Italy by boat across the Mediterranean go directly to these centers after being rescued by the coast guard. The centers accept individual asylum applications and decide within 28 days whether to allow entry into Italy or return to the home country. If asylum is denied, they can be detained for up to 18 months.
Until now, under the 2008 return directive, the EU encouraged voluntary return even for irregular migrants. Even if they had crossed into Europe illegally, they were given a departure deadline of one to four weeks, and if they voluntarily returned home within that period, no additional sanctions were imposed.
The new amendment greatly strengthens coercive measures. Once classified as an irregular migrant, a person can be detained immediately. If authorities judge there is a risk of flight, the detention period is extended. In a news release the same day, the EU Council said it "strengthened cooperation among member states to effectively return people staying illegally."
The political outlet Politico said, "EU leaders are more pressed by votes right in front of them than by legal controversy," adding, "They see building return hubs as the 'only alternative' to stop irregular migrants."
Also starting next year, the EU will operate a solidarity pool to help countries where irregular migrants mostly arrive. The EU has long clashed with Eastern European countries such as Poland and Hungary that refuse to accept migrants. The fund is an official workaround to preempt such conflict — "if you do not want to take migrants, resolve it with money."
From next year, EU member states must take in, divided by country, some of the roughly 21,000 refugees and migrants per year. If a country does not want to accept the migrants allocated to it, it can pay a contribution of 20,000 euros per person (about 34 million won). Major outlets effectively called this a "migration refusal tax." The money collected is expected to reach about 420 million euros per year (about 720 billion won).
This money will be used as a public fund to ease the burden on front-line countries heavily strained by refugee intake. Instead of going straight to the country that received migrants, the European Commission would manage the funds and deploy them as needed. Major outlets said the money would be used specifically for infrastructure needed to house and manage refugees, livelihood support, and medical and education services.
During the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis, about 1.3 million irregular migrants poured into Europe at once. Back then, sympathy toward migrants was dominant in Europe. But over 10 years, the economic downturn from the pandemic, terror threats and soaring prices combined to change the view of migrants from people to be protected to "expense drivers" or "potential criminals."
Denmark Minister for Immigration Rasmus Stoklund, after the meeting, said, "The reality is that three out of four people staying illegally do not return home and settle in Europe," adding, "This regulation is a starting gun that clearly shows them they have no right to remain in Europe."
According to Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, about 510,000 people applied for asylum in just the first half of 2024. Only 20% to 30% of deportation orders were carried out. That means at least 350,000 migrants newly flowed into Europe in the first half of last year.
As a result, the values of human rights and the right to asylum that Europe had upheld for more than half a century since World War II have been pushed aside by the yardsticks of security and expense efficiency. Even Western European countries that led calls to "show tolerance to immigrants," such as France, Germany and the Netherlands, are reeling under a barrage of anti-immigrant pressure. In Germany, Alternative for Germany (AfD), which campaigns on an anti-immigrant platform, won first place in local elections. In France, National Rally (RN) led by Marine Le Pen is effectively the largest opposition party and is swaying the government.
The agreement still needs final approval by the European Parliament before it takes effect. But the prevailing view is that passage is only a matter of time because a right-wing coalition won a majority in the European Parliament elections in June. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau warned the media before the meeting that "if we fail to protect Europeans, populism will sweep us away."
Recently, even U.S. President Donald Trump poured criticism on European allies, saying their border controls are "too lax" and "pathetically weak." He provoked European leaders with rhetoric that "the United States is sealing the border with Mexico and Canada while Europe is opening the door to terrorists."
Euronews suggested that "the new agreement indicates that Trump-style isolationism and country-first thinking are serving as practical guidelines for European decision-makers," adding, "It is the EU's last-ditch effort to improve numbers on irregular migrants, but the human rights violations and legal disputes that arise in the process will be another expense Europe has to bear."