There was no immediate comment from the government.
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Visiting an asylum center in Bavaria, Jean-Claude Juncker warned that 25 million were on the move in regions not far from Europe, more than the continent could cope with. Last year, 147 people sought shelter with only 20 approved applications.
The anti-immigration EKRE holds seven of the 101 seats in the Riigikogu, or Parliament. Still, the Interior Ministry counted over 46,000 requests for refugee status by the end of August, compared to around 28,000 for all of 2014. This was followed by asylum seekers from Albania, Afghanistan, Iraq and Serbia.
The draft, seen by Reuters, recommends “detention as a legitimate measure of last resort” and urges states to reinforce their detention capacity to ensure illegal migrants do not disappear before being deported.
The convention also states that worldwide protection should be extended to any person “with a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion”.
But the European Union already has 17 readmission agreements with various countries.
“Closing the borders – someone would have to tell us how that’s supposed to work”.
The refugee crisis has driven Mrs Merkel’s domestic polling to its lowest level in four years. The other could be the threat of extremists sneaking into these countries.
“If refugees who wish to remain in Germany are sent back to Austria, then you have to expect riots ultimately”, Austria’s Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said. He added that many other countries surrounding Europe are celebrating the crisis that it is faced with.
And there is mounting frustration within the European Union at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s refusal to seal his country’s coasts and border with Greece.
“Europe is trying to expand this list to include the Balkans and perhaps even Turkey”, said Gemenne.
May defended Britain’s policy of taking genuine refugees direct from camps in countries bordering Syria, instead of participating in an EU-wide scheme to relocate refugees from the overstretched frontline states of Greece and Italy.
Under the “action plan on return” the EU’s border agency Frontex will set up a new unit to assist with deportations. “There are a number of reasons why you might flee your country”. Kiska says it is the refusal to accept to the quota system that harms Slovakia and has led it to isolation.
“That is much more efficient than throwing the problems at one another”, said Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders. But doubts are being cast on their workability.
The European Union has been trying to balance a need to fulfil its legal and humanitarian obligations towards those seeking refuge with calls from a few member states to improve border controls and repatriate economic migrants, as thousands of refugees continue to flee Syria for the EU. He says the government hopes to speed up management of the crisis.
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“Let’s put rules, let’s fight smuggling, let’s start the project of returning all the ones who are illegally in Europe and provide help for those in need of global protection”, EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told reporters in Rome on Friday.
