Immigration remains a volcanic issue in many European countries, as the recent victory of the far-right candidate shows Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, who made this topic one of the main focuses of her speech. The European institutions fear that the constant failures to reform the European asylum system will give wings to the Eurosceptic parties ahead of the European Parliament elections in June next year, and for this reason they have also made the fight against illegal immigration one of the axes his speech.
To continue the fight against the uncontrolled influx of people into the European Union, the European Commission proposed this Tuesday a new regulation that takes a tough line against human traffickers who, according to the municipal administration’s calculations, manage to accumulate Between 4,700 and 6,000 million euros annually worldwide.
The strategy presented on Tuesday aims to harmonize this type of crime across the European Union and toughen penalties. Currently these are activities that result in the death of one or more people, as is common in canoes in all Member States a minimum prison sentence of 8 yearsNow the community board wants to almost double this period at least 15 years in all countries. In addition, Brussels intends to establish clearer definitions for this type of crime to include any incitement to attempt to cross Europe’s borders without legal permission, and that this also includes advertising on social networks and the Internet. “Today, most irregular crossings are announced on social networks, organized through messaging applications and paid for through digital money transfers. And this problem can only be solved at the international level, by working with internet companies,” said the President of the European Commission. Ursula von der Leyenduring a conference in the municipal capital.
The penalties are also imposed when, for example, a shipwreck occurs in international waters and passengers die, or on ships and aircraft registered in European countries whose crimes are committed by citizens with legitimate businesses. The purpose is to prosecute these mafia networks, not to criminalize non-governmental organizations that carry out rescue operations.
In addition, Brussels wants The national authorities are improving their means of combating this mafia and that they collect the necessary information to improve case detection and understand the scale of the challenge. Likewise, the European Commission intends to strengthen the powers of Europol in order to improve coordination between European countries and the other agencies. This includes more resources for countries that must have dedicated services connected to the Information Exchange Network (SIENA). In addition, the new specialized Europol center will also be able to cooperate with other countries in exchanging information on individual cases and deploying troops in countries outside the bloc.
The EU is aware that it cannot fight this phenomenon alone. For this reason, von der Leyen called on European institutions, international organizations, governments and internet platforms to remain united in tackling this “common challenge”. “With a global alliance, we can usher in a new era of cooperation and offer better opportunities to millions of people,” said the German politician, who also defended the need to promote channels for the legal arrival of immigrants and cooperation with countries of origin.
In addition to this proposal presented this Tuesday, the main goal is to complete the reform of the Migration and Asylum Pact before the European elections. Last October, European countries agreed to set up a crisis mechanism that will allow entry countries, in the event of a peak in migration flows, to delegate the management of asylum applications to others and not to delay the registration of applications for international protection for more than four weeks, in order not to overburden national administrations. In practice, this means less protection for applicants who may remain in detention centers at Europe’s external borders for up to 40 weeks, and potentially faster procedures for the return of people who do not have the right to remain and come from countries with low acceptance of these types of requests . Now this agreement is being negotiated with the European Parliament and attempts are being made to conclude a pact this year.
The new agreement also provides for situations in which a third country, as in the case of Morocco with Spain or Belarus with Lithuania, exploits the massive arrival of migrants, which amounts to a hybrid attack aimed at political blackmail. Italy was in favor of including non-governmental organizations carrying out rescues at sea in this definition, which the other countries rejected.