As Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Norway are pressing ahead with the containment of illegal #migration, German MEP Lars Patrick Berg (ECR), shares his thoughts about this challenging and pressing political topic. The background is that in Copenhagen, the responsible ministers of these five countries have agreed to coordinate and organise joint deportation flights and repatriation programmes to return migrants without a residence permit to their countries of origin. The flights are to be organised in cooperation with the #EU border protection agency Frontex.
The Danish migration minister told journalists that the responsible government representatives from the five countries would now meet regularly in order to work better with third countries on repatriations and repatriation programmes for migrants. According to the minister, the five Nordic states have a “common interest” in “ensuring the deportation of foreigners without authorisation to stay”. The aim is to prevent migrants from travelling through the states under the radar of the authorities.
In a reaction, Lars Patrick Berg, Member of the European Parliament, comments:
“The Social Democrat government already issued a target in 2019 to reduce the number of asylum seekers to zero. Now the other Nordic countries are increasingly following the Danish model to counteract overcrowding in their cities and municipalities.
Germany, on the other hand, is refusing to take national measures and is mostly putting the brakes on at European level. Last year alone, 33.3 billion euros flowed from Germany to developing countries, although many of the countries that receive development aid from Germany refuse to take back their citizens if they have not been granted asylum in Germany. As recently as May, the Ampel coalition rejected the proposal to link development aid to the readmission of rejected asylum seekers. Against this backdrop, all the many state visits by German politicians in recent days appear to be mere symbolic politics.
German authorities have been overstretched for months now. By the deadline of 30 September 2023, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees had still not decided on the asylum procedures of 203,958 people. People from Turkey, Syria and Afghanistan account for 60 per cent of the procedures.
While other governments are taking action, the German Minister of the Interior claims that international guidelines dictate where asylum procedures should be carried out, namely in Germany. She referred to the European Convention on Human Rights. The problem is that this is not true.
There has long been a social majority in our country in favour of a migration policy that is based on the example of the Nordic EU states. It is time for the German government to find the courage to take national measures, consistently control borders, expand the list of safe countries of origin, attach conditions to development aid, speed up procedures and create legal options for asylum procedures outside Germany. Criminals must be consistently deported, integrated immigrants with prospects of staying must be given more support and quickly guided into the labour market.”
Die Eindämmung illegaler #Migration wird in Dänemark, Schweden, Finnland, Island und Norwegen weiter vorangetrieben. In Kopenhagen einigten sich die zuständigen Minister der fünf Staaten auf die Koordination und Organisation gemeinsamer Abschiebeflüge und Rückführungsprogramme,… pic.twitter.com/BYOoWJRKb8
— Lars Patrick Berg MdEP 🇩🇪 (@L_P_Berg) November 3, 2023