Migration researcher:

EU asylum pact “starts too late, not with the causes”

A reform of the EU asylum system was agreed on Wednesday, which, among other things, provides for easier deportations. This is neither a "major breakthrough" nor "forward-looking", said migration researcher Judith Kohlenberger in an interview with "ZiB 2". The pact only comes into effect when people are already at the borders.

That is too late. In order to reach an EU border, asylum seekers have already taken a high personal risk. Added to this are financial expenses and physical exertion. An EU asylum system would have to offer protection and security for both sides and be resilient, as further refugee movements would follow. However, many politicians would not dare to say this, noted Kohlenberger, who works at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

States want to push refugees onto each other.

Migrationsforscherin Judith Kohlenberger im „ZiB 2“-Interview

"Fair distribution of pressure"
In an interview with presenter Armin Wolf, she spoke of "pressure in the system", which should be distributed fairly, and a "policy of leaving people to die at the borders." According to her, the new EU asylum pact does not provide any answers to these questions. Presumably, an agreement was to be reached quickly before the elections in June.

However, the researcher does not believe that each EU country should have its own asylum system. Austria already has a "patchwork quilt" due to the different regulations in the individual federal states. Kohlenberger also pointed out that there are already many existing rules on asylum, but that these are often not implemented, for example in Hungary. "Countries want to push refugees onto each other."

Regular form also capable of consensus?
The researcher differentiates between people fleeing war, for example, and migrant workers. There are currently many people in the asylum system who do not belong here, but migrant workers also come with their families. According to Kohlenberger, there needs to be a regular form of immigration for them and this is something that can be agreed upon. In this way, major demographic crises, for example, could be taken seriously.