The European Parliament approved the reform of EU migration legislation

On April 10, the European Parliament adopted the "Pact on Migration and Asylum" — a package of measures designed to revise the system of granting asylum to migrants and streamline and simplify the procedure of deportation to the homeland.

This was reported by the press service of the European Parliament and the BBC.

In particular, it will require EU member states to share responsibility for asylum seekers. Under the proposed rules, the 27 EU countries would be required to either take in thousands of migrants from "frontline" countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain, or provide additional funding or resources in their place.

The pact also stipulates that asylum applications with "low chances of being accepted" should be processed quickly, without the mandatory admission of the applicant to the territory of the EU.

The purpose of the agreement is to process asylum applications within a maximum of 12 weeks. In case of refusal, asylum seekers must be forcibly returned to their homeland within the same period.

For seven days, migrants will undergo an enhanced screening procedure at the entrance, which will include identification, health and security checks.

Biometric data of all migrants over the age of six will be collected, and a mechanism will be created to respond to a sudden increase in the number of arrivals.

The migration pact still needs to be approved by the EU Council. The rules are expected to take effect in two years.

The situation with migrants in the EU

In 2015, the EU faced a crisis when more than a million irregular migrants, mostly those fleeing the Russian bombing of Syria, arrived in European Union countries, effectively causing the collapse of the then migration and asylum system.

After that, European countries began intensive work on the creation of a new common system for regulating migration and asylum, and in September 2020 announced a pact that was supposed to be a pan-European response to the problem.

However, despite some progress in securing borders and adopting tougher laws, EU countries have so far been unable to agree on a pact. Within the bloc, there have been major divisions between peripheral countries such as Greece and Italy, which receive large numbers of irregular migrants, and the EUʼs interior.

In 2023, almost 380 000 people crossed the EU borders illegally — this is the highest number since 2016, the BBC notes.