EU Approves Stricter Regulations on Asylum seekers

European Union leaders have approved stricter regulations aimed at making it easier to deport asylum-seekers whose applications for refuge have been denied, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The move comes in response to growing European concern over the rising issue of irregular immigration. The EU leaders acknowledged that this is a “European challenge that requires a European response.”

The EU is grappling with a low rate of failed asylum-seekers being returned to their home countries and is already hosting millions of refugees from conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, and Afghanistan, while also dealing with asylum claims from citizens of safer countries such as Bangladesh, Turkey, and Tunisia, many of whom are ultimately deemed economic migrants and ineligible for asylum. Von der Leyen said the EU would conduct “pilot projects” using its border patrol, asylum, and police cooperation agencies to establish “fast and fair asylum procedures” at the EU’s external borders.

The EU leaders have called on the commission to “immediately mobilize substantial EU funds” to reinforce the external border with protection capabilities and infrastructure, surveillance, and equipment, according to the summit document. This decision was made after some EU countries, particularly Austria, had urged the commission to pay for reinforced fences designed to keep irregular migrants from crossing into the EU from non-EU countries like Turkey.