Karner’s proposal: the return of migrants should be accelerated

European interior ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Thursday. One of the issues on the table is illegal migration. Austria and the Netherlands propose innovations in the field of returns. People without protection status should be required to be prepared for their return and return procedures should be simplified.

Moreover, the newly formulated legal text is not intended to provide much room for legal interpretation. The paper from Austria and the Netherlands is supported by 15 other countries.

“Judicial asylum system”
“A fair and credible asylum system requires consistent deportations. People who are not allowed to stay must fulfill their obligation to leave the country. Anyone who does not cooperate must face the consequences,” said Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.

The proposals are supported by a total of fifteen other countries and were sent to the Commission at the end of this week. The program of the EU Council of Home Affairs Ministers on Thursday also includes discussions on the situation in the Schengen area, the timetable for the electronic registration of people entering and leaving the EU and the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime .

Interview with the Hungarian Minister of the Interior
In addition to the summit, Karner will also hold a bilateral meeting with Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter, who is currently President of the Council. “We continue to promote the development of a stricter and therefore fairer migration policy in Europe. As with asylum procedures in third countries and the discussion about deportations to Syria and Afghanistan, the initiative this time also comes from Austria. Europe must carry out more deportations faster,” Karner said.

France announces tightening of asylum rules
More and more countries in Europe are choosing a tougher course. The new French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said this weekend that he sees the need for asylum applications to be processed in safe third countries outside the EU. In addition, he wants to conclude agreements with third countries whereby illegal migrants, who can be proven to have passed through or have family ties there, can be returned (even if they are not citizens of the third country). He mentions Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan as examples for Afghan citizens. He will appoint a chief negotiator for such agreements in the near future.

The Court of Justice’s ruling on Afghan women causes outrage
And he also wants to renegotiate the return policy. The current version, which sets a deadline for the possibility of voluntary return, would make an efficient return policy virtually impossible, especially because those affected go into hiding. In light of these developments, a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice, according to which all Afghan women have a general right to remain in Europe, is causing disbelief. Well-known lawyers are calling for a reconsideration of European asylum case law.

“The smugglers just have to make sure they bring women from Afghanistan to an EU country. “The members of the nuclear family then come via family reunification,” says European lawyer Walter Obwexer from Innsbruck. He called for a change in case law to prevent political pressure from “calling into question the entire construction of the protection of fundamental rights with the ECHR and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as with the ECtHR and the CJEU.”

Former Supreme Court President Irmgard Griss made similar statements. The decision is in line with previous case law and is “consistent”, but the circumstances have now “changed enormously”. A “certain correction” of the Court of Justice’s ruling on migration issues is therefore “necessary”, the former NEOS MP said. “You also have to take the attitude of the population into account. Otherwise, confidence in case law and the reputation of the judge will be damaged