On a visit to Spain's Social Democratic Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Merkel's renewed her push for an EU agreement establishing mandatory targets, i.e., quotas (although she doesn't use the word) for accepting the resettling immigrants to Europe that arrive in a irregular manner. That it, asylum seekers or refugees. The xenophobic parties and groups prefer to call them all "migrants," because that sounds more like voluntary or opportunistic immigration.
The overall number of refugees to Europe has declined drastically since the high point of 2015. But Spain is experiencing a higher number of arrivals this year compared to last. The xenophobes would like to claim that is because Spain now has a Social Democratic Chancellor that is open to immigration solutions compatible with EU and international law, as well as with some decent humane standard. The rightwing-dominated Italian government is claiming credit for causing the shift by refusing to accept emergency landings of ships that have rescued refugees at sea.
Fiona Ehlers et al explain the shift in "Aufruhr am Strand" Der Spiegel 32/2018 (04.08.2018). The translation below is mine from the print edition. Spiegel International has an English version, Spain Becomes New Target for Migrants 08/03/2018.
Es liegt aber nicht an Spanien, sondern vor allem an Marokko, dass immer mehr Migranten über die westliche Mittelmeerroute Europa erreichen. Spanische Seenotretter beobachteten schon im Juni, wie Menschen auf instabilen Schlauchbooten sogar tagsüber ungehindert in See stechen konnten - von Stränden nahe Tanger aus, aber auch aus Buchten im Osten bei Nador. Mehr als drei Dutzend Afrikaner segelten sogar auf einem Dinghi durch die Meerenge zu einem Strand im spanischen Tarifa. Am vorvergangenen Donnerstag gelang es rund 600 Migranten in der Exklave Ceuta den Grenzzaun zu überwinden.
Daten der EU-Grenzschutzagentur Frontex legen nahe, dass die Schleusermafia die Nachlässigkeit der marokkanischen Sicherheitskräfte ausnutzt. Offenbar versucht Marokko, der EU Zugeständnisse abzupressen, indem Spanien durch kaum kontrollierte Zuwanderung unter Druck gesetzt wird. Schon vor dem Regierungswechsel in Spanien fühlten sich Marokkos Regierende schlecht behandelt. Wahrend der Türkei von der EU sechs Milliarden Euro zugesagt wurden, hat Marokko für die Eindämmung der Flüchtlingsstrome in den vergangenen zehn Jahren nur hundert Millionen Euro erhalten. Seit Jahresbeginn wartet man außerdem auf Gelder, um die Grenzsicherung zu verstärken. Jetzt hat Kommissionspräsident Jean-Claude Juncker eine baldige Oberweisung zugesichert, der EU-Flüchtlingskommissar wollte in die Region reisen.
{It [the responsibility for the shift of migration routes more to Spain] is not because of Spain, but above all because of Morocco, which more and more migrants reach. Spanish sea rescuers observed already in June how people on unstable tube boats could enter the see unhindered for days at a time - coming from beaches near Tangier [in Morrocco] but also from bays near Nador [in Morocco].
Data from the EU border security agency Frontex indicates that the people-smuggling mafia are exploting the casual attitude of the Moroccan security forces. Morocco is obviously extorting EU officials to get concessions by putting Spain under pressure over its lightly controlled immigration. Even before the change of government in Spain [in June 2018], Morocco's rulers considered themselves poorly treated. While Turkey is given €6 billion [for detaining refugees headed to Europe], Morrocco in the last ten years has received only €100 million for the control of the refugee stream. In addition, they have waited since the beginning of the year to strenghen border security. Now the [EU] Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has assurred an immediate review; the EU refugee commissioner would like to travel for the region.}
This is the kind of extend-and-pretend solution on which the EU relies, especially since 2015. The Dublin Regulation has governed EU immigration policy since 1997. It requires that refugees be registered in the first EU country in which they land and required to stay there until their cases are resolved. In the recent wave of refugees, that meant that Italy, Greece, and now Spain receive a large portion of the refugees. Merkel also made a key deal with Turkey in 2015, the one referred to in the Spiegel piece, by which Turkey to agreed to hold refugees. The number there is now approaching three million.
Turkey can do the same thing that Morocco is doing at any time and, if they choose, open a new round of inter-EU disputes like those that have been raging since 2015, despite the number of refugees in Europe having gone down drastically since 2015. This is how Turkey is intimately related to refugees in the EU. And why tensions with Turkey from the EU and within NATO involve a country that holds a big club it can whack them with. That's not at all to say that such an action by Turkey would be legal or defensible. But it's an important part of the web of relationships between Turkey and the EU.
Merkel, to her credit, is using the current time in which immigration to the EU has receded to try to work out a more practical and comprehensive solution.
At the EU summit this summer, Merkel secured a vague commitment for a European solution. But how long it will take for concrete steps to be taken in that direction is anybody's guest. Many EU countries are in no hurry.
Antonio Avendaño reports in Llámame Pedro. Llámame Angela El Plural 11.08.2018 that the Merkel-Sánche meeting seems to have been a friendly one. The two visited an immigration center. They seem to be on the same page on immigration, at least in the current moment.
Thomas Urban reports in Merkel fordert Neuordnung der europäischen Asylpolitik Süddeutsche Zeitung 11.08.2018 that Merkel reiterated that the Dublin Regulation is non-functional:
Die Bundeskanzlerin fügte hinzu: "Nach der Theorie dürfte nie ein Migrant oder ein Flüchtling in Deutschland ankommen." Die Realität sei jedoch eine andere. Seit langem fordern Politiker aus den EU-Staaten am Mittelmeer das Ende des Dublin-Systems. Denn laut dem Vertrag müssten sie die ganze Last der Migration tragen, während die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, die nur EU-Staaten zu Nachbarn hat, faktisch keine Asylanten aufnehmen müsste - es sei denn, diese erreichten einen deutschen Flughafen.Clearly, once you get past the empty slogans of "close the borders" and the like, this is a very complicated political, logistic, and administrative problem. The left and center-right parties will have to find a way to defang the rightwing populist demogogy that has recently been disturbingly prominent in European politics.
Kritisiert wurde auch, dass die Rahmenbedingungen für das Dubliner Abkommen von Anfang an nicht stimmten. Denn während die meisten südeuropäischen Staaten Asylbewerbern nur Kost und Logis stellen, können sie in der Bundesrepublik mit einer zusätzlichen Unterstützung von mehreren Hundert Euro pro Monat rechnen, ganz abgesehen davon, dass die Behörden bislang nur einen Bruchteil der Ausreisepflichtigen wirklich abschoben.
Die Kanzlerin sprach sich nun für ein neues Abkommen aus, das eine "gerechte Verteilung" der Asylbewerber unter den EU-Staaten vorsieht. Doch müssten auch die Migranten ohne Bleiberecht konsequent in ihre Heimatländer zurückgebracht werden. Bislang sind ihre Versuche, eine EU-weite Regelung durchzusetzen, allerdings an Polen, der Slowakei, Tschechien und Ungarn gescheitert. Dort wird argumentiert, dass es sich vor allem um ein deutsches Problem handle, da die allermeisten Migranten dorthin wollten.
{The Chancellor added: "In theory, [under the Dublin rules] there should never be a migrant or a refugee arriving in Germany." She says that the reality is different. For a long time, politicians from EU states on the Meditteranean Sea have requested the end of the Dublin system. Because according to the treaty's terms, they have to carry the complete burden of migration, while the Federal Republic of Germany, which has only EU states as neighbors, in fact is not required to take any asylum-seekers - even those that arrive at a German airport.
The legal framework of the Dublin Agreement has also been criticized from the start for being inappropriate. Because while most of the southern European states provided asylum-seekers only room and board, in Germany there can expect an additional support of more than €100, completely apart from the fact that the officilas up until now have really expelled only a small number.
Now the Chancellor spoke out for a new agreement that envisions are "just division" of asylum-seekers among the EU states. But the migrants that don't have a right to stay must be consistently returned to their home countries. So far, her attempts to push through an EU-wide regulation have run to ground, at least with PolandSlovakia, Czechia, and Hungary. There it is argued that this involves a German problem above all, because most all of the migrants want to go there.}
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