Spain and Italy are heading for a clash over migration as Rome hardened its tough stance on refugees and the new government in Madrid called for a humane approach to asylum-seekers.
Three years after a wave of immigrants fleeing wars and chaos in the Middle East and North Africa threatened to overwhelm the European Union, the issue is back at the top of the bloc’s agenda as right wing politicians in Italy and Germany tap into voters’ resurgent anger. The refugee crisis is pushing aside a renewed drive for EU integration and looks set to compete with Brexit for attention at a summit of EU leaders next week.
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Fernando Grande-Marlaska
Photographer: Oscar del Pozo/AFP via Getty ImagesItaly’s anti-immigrant firebrand Matteo Salvini, who also heads the interior ministry in a populist coalition government, last week refused to allow a rescue ship with more than 600 people aboard to dock in Sicily -- with Spain stepping in to offer shelter. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Tuesday that the bloc needs to find a humane way to deal with immigrants that also offers protection to citizens.
“We can’t make this a choice between humanity and security,” Grande-Marlaska said in an interview with Spain’s state broadcaster TVE on Tuesday. “Security and humanity together must be completely viable.”
Two-Week UltimatumGerman Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who leads the Bavarian sister party of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, has given the chancellor a two-week ultimatum to secure an EU agreement that would return migrants to the countries in which they were first registered. If she fails to deliver, Seehofer has threatened to start turning away migrants at the German border in defiance of the chancellor.
Merkel meets French President Emmanuel Macron to prepare for next week’s EU summit with the stakes rising. Not only is the chancellor facing arguably the biggest threat to her authority of her 13 years in power, but Macron’s objective of mapping out a new wave of European integration for the euro and across the 28-nation bloc is being overshadowed by fights over immigration.
Read More, How Europe’s Refugees Are Testing Its Open Borders: QuickTake
The problem is that Seehofer’s demands would see migrants returned to countries such as Italy that deal with the majority of arrivals because of their geographic position. But the new Italian government has come to power arguing that Italians unfairly bear the brunt of the immigration influx and their EU neighbors should shoulder more of the burden.
Under the bloc’s Dublin Convention, refugees are supposed to apply for asylum in the first EU country they enter, though many push on to richer countries such as Germany.
German BurdenGermany is by far the biggest recipient of asylum applications in the EU
Source: European Asylum Support Office
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France’s Macron will also hold talks with the new Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday, ahead of the meeting of EU heads of state and government on June 28-29 in Brussels.
The leaders are set to back “regional disembarkation platforms” to help deal with the migration influx in the Mediterranean, according to a draft of the summit conclusions. “Such platforms should provide for rapid processing to distinguish between economic migrants and those in need of international protection, and reduce the incentive to embark on perilous journeys,” according to a copy of the draft obtained by Bloomberg.
The French government initially criticized Italy for turning away the refugee ship, the Aquarius, while offering no help itself, and then back-tracked to assure Italy it understands the burdens of the EU immigration policy, which Macron has long said needed to be revamped.
The French press pointed out that the government claimed it hadn’t offered to take the Aquarius because Valencia was closer than any French ports, even as the vessel sailed past Corsica. But Macron is aware that polls show the majority of the French think there are too many migrants and don’t want to accept more.
Immigrant VesselsAfter refusing access to the Aquarius on June 10, Italy’s Salvini on Saturday said he would also bar other immigrant vessels looking to dock in the country.
“These gentlemen know that Italy no longer wants to be complicit in the business of illegal immigration, and therefore they will have to look for other ports (not Italian) to go to,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Salvini told broadcaster TeleLombardia on Monday that he wanted to carry out a census of the Roma “to see who, how, how many.” He said that illegal immigrants would be expelled but “unfortunately you have to keep Italian Roma at home.” He backtracked later, saying he had no intention of setting up a register but wanted “a reconnaissance of the situation in Roma camps.”
At next week’s summit, the EU leaders also will say that the bloc’s asylum system is “severely at risk” due to secondary movements of asylum-seekers between EU nations, according to the draft conclusions. “Member States should take all necessary internal legislative and administrative measures to counter such movements and to closely cooperate amongst each other,” the leaders will say, according to the draft.
— With assistance by John Follain, Esteban Duarte, Gregory Viscusi, and Viktoria Dendrinou
(Updates with draft conclusions for EU summit starting in ninth paragraph.)