The European Union is set to impose tougher rules on illegal migrants whose refugee applications have been denied.
According to AFP, this was disclosed by the European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen, on Friday.
The measures are a reaction to the growing unease in various European countries about surging unauthorized immigration.
At the end of a 16-hour session, EU leaders concluded that this issue is “a European concern that deserves a European response.”
A major worry for the EU is the small number of failed asylum applicants who are sent back to their home countries.
To implement “quick and fair asylum procedures” at the bloc’s external frontiers, von der Leyen said “trial projects” will rely on the EU’s border patrol, asylum, and police cooperation agencies.
According to the summit paper, EU leaders have requested that the commission “quickly mobilise substantial EU funding” to bolster that external border with “protection capacities and infrastructure, means of observation, including aerial surveillance,” and equipment.
A “principle” for using a court ruling in another EU member state to repatriate an irregular migrant to their home country was also agreed upon at the meeting.
That would be an effort to curb “asylum shopping,” the practice by which asylum seekers go to a different nation after being denied entry to their home country.
According to von der Leyen, the EU leaders also decided “to strengthen the use of the safe-country principles,” which will pave the way for the formation of an unified list by the bloc.
