Die EU verschärft den Druck auf afrikanische Staaten, EU-Flüchtlingsauffanglager in Afrika zu akzeptieren. Vor der euro-afrikanischen Konferenz zur Flucht- und Migrationsbekämpfung in Malta (11.-12.11.2015) verständigen sich mehrere Regierungen afrikanischer Staaten auf einen Ablehnungskurs.

Inzwischen wird bekannt, in welchem Ausmass die deutsche Bundesregierung Militär, Frontex, Europol, BKA u.a. mit den Mitteln des Antiterrorismus in nord- und ostafrikanischen Ländern aufzuhalten gedenkt. Wichtige Planungs- und Wegbereitungsinstanzen, die die Bundesregierung beispielsweise für die tunesische Grenzaufrüstung beauftragt hat, sind ICMPD und IOM.

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(AE) JHA: African countries opposed to hosting EU asylum applicants on their soil

Brussels, 20/10/2015 (Agence Europe) – Three weeks from the Valletta summit on the migration crisis (11-12 November), several potential points of friction with African countries have been identified, according to a working paper of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU.

According to this paper, which is dated 16 October and of which EUROPE has seen a copy, the African countries would seem to have difficulty with the more-for-more principle that makes the level of EU aid conditional upon the extent of measures that the beneficiaries will take. The African countries would seem to be no less enthusiastic about the idea of establishing centres on their territory for asylum seekers potentially to be housed in the EU. These centres create fear among the African countries of a risk of externalising European immigration policy and of externalising the EU’s obligations on asylum, the working paper states. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is also reported to look badly upon the creation of these centres.

At the Valletta conference in Malta in November, the 28 EU member states are due to adopt a political statement and a joint plan of action with their African counterparts. This will focus on renewed European financial aid and legal migration programmes in exchange for regulating migration flows to the EU. For example, the African countries that cooperate with the EU could benefit from a facilitated visa policy, and African students could participate in the Erasmus+ programme. The resettlement programmes at EU level, but also at African level for the refugees in Africa, are also mentioned – even if, in the working paper, the EU does not move forward on any new resettlement place other than the 22,504 places already agreed and which must theoretically involve Syrian refugees who are currently in Syria’s neighbouring countries (see EUROPE 11363).

According to the paper of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council, most of the African countries do not like the wording of the more-for-more principle that the EU applies – for example, in the area of legal migration or the application of readmission agreements and the returns policy. The paper speaks of “highly contentious” wording between the two parties at the moment.

As regards the centres for potential asylum seekers established in Africa, the paper even speaks of “the most controversial” subject at the moment, particularly because the goal of the centres is not explained in enough detail, the working paper states. The paper adds: “It would therefore be useful for the member states that have expressed their desire to see this concept in the text to provide explanations on what they consider as the main tasks of these centres”. The African partners (and also the HCR) fear that these centres serve as an externalisation of asylum responsibilities in Europe and, while running the risk of these camps becoming permanent, they represent a long term additional burden for their own asylum systems that are already fragile and overloaded. According to the working paper, the HCR is said to deplore the fact that these centres for asylum seekers in African countries are not “a clear commitment from the member states to new resettlement programmes”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)