(14 May 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels, Belgium – 14 May 2024
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Lorne Cook, Associated Press: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 2, 3, 4++
“European Union nations have just completed a major overhaul of their migration rulebook. The move ends years of political wrangling. It comes just as campaigning is gathering pace for Europe wide elections and migration could be a key issue. The new rules lay out how the 27 EU member countries should handle people when they try to enter Europe without permission. They range from procedures for checking migrants to see if they’re eligible for international protection, like asylum, or deporting them if they are denied entry. Mainstream political parties hope it will end bickering over who should take responsibility for migrants when they arrive in Europe, and how everyone else should help them out. But this is no quick fix. The reforms will really need two years to fully into force. And not everyone is happy. Hungary and Poland voted against the system, but they couldn’t get a big enough majority to block it. Critics say the rules are really just aimed at keeping people out. They fear that migrants could be left in limbo at Europe’s borders and even locked up for months.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mediterranean Sea – 6 October 2023
2. Various of migrants packed on a small boat being rescued by a humanitarian rescue group in the Mediterranean sea, off the Libyan coast
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels, Belgium – 14 May 2024
3. European Union flag
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kalamata, Greece – 14 June 2023
4. Various of shipwreck survivors recovering on floor under blankets
STORYLINE:
European Union nations endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s failed asylum system on Tuesday as campaigning for Europe-wide elections next month gathers pace, with migration expected to be an important issue.
EU government ministers approved 10 legislative parts of The New Pact on Migration and Asylum.
It lays out rules for the 27 member countries to handle people trying to enter without authorization, from how to screen them to establish whether they qualify for protection to deporting them if they’re not allowed to stay.
Hungary and Poland, which have long opposed any obligation for countries to host migrants or pay for their upkeep, voted against the package but were unable to block it.
Mainstream political parties believe the pact resolves the issues that have divided member nations since well over 1 million migrants swept into Europe in 2015, most fleeing war in Syria and Iraq.
They hope the system will starve the far right of vote-winning oxygen in the June 6-9 elections.
However, the vast reform package will only enter force in 2026, bringing no immediate fix to an issue that has fuelled one of the EU’s biggest political crises, dividing nations over who should take responsibility for migrants when they arrive and whether other countries should be obligated to help.
Critics say the pact will let nations detain migrants at borders and fingerprint children.
They say it’s aimed at keeping people out and infringes on their right to claim asylum.
Many fear it will result in more unscrupulous deals with poorer countries that people leave or cross to get to Europe.
AP video shot by: Mark Carlson
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