The European Commission has once again been unable to answer questions on the issue of founded asylum applications from Albanians in European Union member states.
Thousands of Albanians seek asylum in the EU and UK every month, and hundreds of applications every year are approved. Primary reasons include blood feuds, arranged marriages, domestic violence, and even political persecution. Reducing unfounded asylum is one of Albania’s conditions for EU accessions, and while numbers are fluctuating, founded cases remain a constant.
During an interview at Exit’s partner EURACTIV’s offices in Brussels on Wednesday 8 December with Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas, Exit asked, “Do you not think attention should be paid as to the reason why these people are applying and being accepted? Why are there founded cases of asylum coming from a potential EU member state? What is being done to figure out what is driving thousands of people to seek asylum?”
Margaritis did not answer the question specifically and said that Albania is monitoring the situation. He then said, “you are taking from the Albanian perspective, but you are raising a broader issue of migration flows to Europe. The main reason for having irregular migration flows is that we have not yet reached an agreement on an EU act for migration and asylum. This is the biggest pull factor for smugglers to try to go through our cracks.”
Exit reminded Schinas that they were asking about the Albanian issue of founded migration and not the migration crisis taking place along the borders with Belarus.
Again, Margaritis refused to be drawn. He said, “yes, but I will tell you why this [an EU migration pact] would help Albania because the fact of not having such a system where everything connects to everything else produces everything that we don’t like, such as irregular flows going through the mountains.”
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“Man boats are coming here from there and all sorts of international smuggling networks, very sophisticated operations that push people this way or that way. Good agreements with countries of origin and transit, solid and robust management for external border asylum procedures…then I can guarantee that you will see very few people.”
This issue has been raised by Exit to the Commission previously. Once again, they could not give any examples of what is or should be done to get to the root of the issue regarding founded asylum cases in the EU and UK.
