27/08/2015 Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
Michele Nicoletti (Italy, SOC), the rapporteur on revision of the Dublin Regulation for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), today expressed his welcome for the German government’s announcement that it will stop sending Syrian asylum seekers back to the country through which they first entered the European Union.
“This provision of the EU’s Dublin Regulation has a great impact on the unfair distribution of asylum seekers across EU member States,” said Mr Nicoletti, “as it tends to concentrate them in those countries that by geographical accident are most exposed to today’s unprecedented mixed migratory flows. This and other distortions severely undermine the European response to the current refugee and migration challenges, and threaten wider European solidarity.”
“I am also impressed by Germany’s reassurance that it will not be overwhelmed even by the 800,000 asylum applications that it now expects to receive in 2015,” he continued. “These two important steps show that far-sighted, humanitarian leadership, essential to addressing the current challenges, is still possible, given the political will. Other European leaders should take inspiration from this.”