The Taoiseach says he is open minded to new ideas to relieve migration pressure.
Speaking at an EU summit in Brussels yesterday where migration was on the agenda, Simon Harris said “we should always be willing to consider innovative solutions”.
Italy this week started sending migrants to Albania where their asylum claims will be processed outside the European Union. Other countries, including the Netherlands and Austria, are considering schemes which would allow them to send failed asylum seekers to Africa if they cannot be returned home.
According to the European Commission, only one in five failed asylum seeker is successfully returned to their country of origin. That’s because the EU needs to have a so-called ‘returns agreement’ with that country that they will accept people back.
“Irish people are extremely fair. They’re extremely compassionate. We get the benefits of migration. I know the benefits of migration, but Irish people also want to know that there’s a firmness to the system, that there are rules, that the rules are applied”, said the Taoiseach.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has set out in a letter to EU leaders plans to explore other options, and to press partner countries to sign return agreements.
“Anything that Europe does, of course, must be underpinned by our common European values in terms of international law, human rights, meeting our humanitarian obligations. But we are we are facing such a such a scale of challenge when it comes to migration”, the Taoiseach said.
Before the European elections, the EU finally agreed a new Pact on Migration and Asylum. But the raft of new laws is scheduled to take two years to put in place.
It is understood that Ireland favours a speeding up of that process, so long as the balance of laws is not upset in the process.
The European Commission is expected to report back on progress in time for the next EU leaders summit in December.