Jacques Barrot, EC Vice President for Justice, Freedom and Security, in an opinion piece about migrants and refugees written for the Times of Malta warned of risks that must be avoided, including the “risk … of believing that migratory flows and the right to asylum can be dealt with mainly at national level, without the need for very close coordination within Europe. Such fragmentation of migratory policies is an absurdity within the borderless Schengen area.”
Barrot said that he will soon be making “a large number of legislative proposals” to build upon the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum. Barrot said that asylum seekers must be covered by a single procedure regardless of where the application is made and there need to be “solidarity between member states, to take the pressure off certain countries that are being overwhelmed by migration because of their geographical position.”
Barrot called for the Dublin Regulation to be amended so that asylum applications may be pursued in a member state other than the state of first arrival: “there is a vital need to think about how to set up a voluntary programme for the balanced distribution of refugees within Europe.”
Barrot also called for an international conference to be held in Libya during the Libyan Presidency of the African Union to discuss closer cooperation with countries bordering the Mediterranean “so as to effectively combat people traffickers and establish arrangements for the reception and protection of asylum-seekers which meet international standards.”
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MIGRANTS AT SEA 