The European Parliament has voted to make it easier for asylum seekers to be deported to third EU countries. This means that people who want to apply for asylum can also be deported to countries where they have never lived before. Instead of in the EU they should seek protection there. The proposal came from the European Commission and became known as the Rwanda model.
This means that people are denied a regular asylum procedure in EU countries. This would make a deportation agreement like the one between Italy and Albania possible, which has so far been slowed down several times by national and European courts.
The next step is to resolve final disputes between the EU states and the European Parliament be clarified.
Criticism of voting with the right
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A majority of MPs from the right-of-center factions, including AfD MPs, voted for the new regulation. The Left, the Greens and the Social Democrats overwhelmingly voted against it. The Greens had previously called on Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) not to vote with a right-wing majority.
The EU parliamentary group leader of the Greens, Erik Marquardt, previously said that he expected that there would be no common line with right-wing extremists at the European level either. He criticized the fact that the EPP group, which also includes the CDU/CSU, accepts working with “right-wing extremists, climate deniers and Putin lobbyists”. The EVP replied that there would be no active cooperation with right-wing extremists.
New list of “safe countries of origin” clears hurdles
Parliament also approved a common list of safe countries of origin to which deportations could take place. In the future, it should be possible to deport people more quickly to countries such as Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt. Kosovo, Colombia, India and Bangladesh are also said to be on the list.
In principle, all EU accession candidates should be considered safe third countries. These would be, for example, Albania, Montenegro or Turkey. The EU states and parliament will negotiate again on this.
