Managing the Migrants - EU

What is the issue?

• Italy recently refused docking permission for a ship that rescued around 600 migrants.
• This is only yet another instance in EU countries' continuing problem of migrants' entry.

What is Italy's stance?

• Italy’s Interior Minister refused to grant docking permission for MV Aquarius, a ship that had rescued migrants.
• The ship was finally allowed to dock at Valencia, Spain.
• This was only after food had run out and the UN refugee body had made appeals.
• More than 600,000 migrants have arrived in Italy from Africa in recent years.
• Italy wants to deport 500,000 of them, and fix the migrant resettlement system.
• It also wants to build migrant reception centres in Africa.
• Italy is particular about doing away with the Dublin Regulation.
• Under this, refugees must apply for asylum in the EU country where they first landed.

What is the concern in EU?

• More than 1.8 million migrants have come to Europe since 2014.
• These have been mostly from West Asia and Africa.
• The temporary migrant resettlement system was brought in 2015.
• It was formulated to distribute migrants across the European Union.
• However, it failed when many countries refused to meet their quotas.
• Migrant inflows have fallen since their peak in 2015-16.
• However, some countries have each accepted 12,000-15,500 migrants in the recent year alone.
• Treatment of migrants and related policies are major challenges before EU countries.
• This has now become a contentious electoral issue across Europe.
• The right-wing populists are capitalising on an anti-migrant sentiment.
• Migration is top of the agenda in the present European Council meeting in Brussels.

How does it impact the German government?

• More than 1.6 million migrants have made their way to Germany since 2015.
• Most of them arrived when Chancellor Angela Merkel suspended EU migration rules in 2015.
• This was to accept migrants stranded in other countries.
• It was politically criticised, and had an impact on the elections last year.
• It now threatens the existence of the coalition government headed by Ms. Merkel's party.
• There are differences among the members in allowing migrants registered in other countries to enter Germany.

Source: The Hindu