Press
Before the European elections, the EU wanted to clear up the issue of asylum. But now there are shocking reports from partner countries. There is harsh criticism from the SPD.
Shortly before the European elections brings the asylum policy EU In need of explanation: Security forces from North African partner countries such as Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania sometimes abandon asylum seekers in the desert, reports Mirror and BR. The EU knows about it, it was said.
The German European Parliament member Udo Bullmann (SPD) exercises at the request of IPPEN.MEDIA Criticism of Brussels’ asylum course. “These reports reinforce my skepticism about the regulations that have been made,” said Bullmann, referring to the first “asylum pact” decided in April. “They also fuel my doubts about the quality of the so-called migration agreements pursued by Ursula von der Leyen with the region’s autocrats,” he added. Bullmann is chairman of the human rights subcommittee in the EU Parliament.
EU partners Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania: Reports of “blatant human rights violations”
In order to curb illegal migration, the EU is relying on strategic partnerships with countries of origin and transit. In return for financial aid, which sometimes runs into billions, these countries are to tighten border protection. Refugee and human rights organisations have long been criticising “dirty deals” with authoritarian states. In November, Green MEP Erik Marquardt criticised IPPEN.MEDIA “Naivety” in the negotiations with Tunisia, for example.
According to the latest publications, the EU countries in Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania are equipping the units that are said to be responsible for the actions – Bullmann spoke of reports of “blatant human rights violations by security forces”. He wrote about the role of the EU states Mirror: “They train officers, deliver buses and pickup trucks. The same vehicle models can sometimes be seen in videos of the arrests.”
Von der Leyen’s spokesman Eric Mamer referred to a “rapidly changing situation”. The EU Commission will “continue to work on it”. He did not comment on the allegations in detail. Commission spokeswoman Ana Pisonero added that the partner countries are “sovereign states” that are responsible for their own security forces. The governments of Mauritania, Tunisia and Morocco rejected allegations of human rights violations. However, such reports are not entirely new.
EU agreement with North Africa: SPD MP sees great threats to asylum
Bullmann stressed that the European Parliament and the Subcommittee on Human Rights have long been calling for improvements to the agreements – such as “security guarantees to protect human rights” or better cooperation with civil society organisations in the countries concerned.
![SPD politician Udo Bullmann in the European Parliament (archive photo).](https://www.merkur.de/assets/images/34/632/34632513-spd-politiker-udo-bullmann-im-europaparlament-archivbild-2bJU5NvCJsBG.jpg)
The SPD politician also warned of further weak points in the asylum pact. “I see a great risk in the fact that just transiting through a supposedly safe third country, whose criteria have also been significantly lowered, can be enough to cause asylum applications to be rejected as inadmissible,” he warned with a view to the reform. At the same time, the proposed crisis regulation could serve to suspend rules for the protection of asylum seekers – for example if sea rescue and humanitarian aid are “carelessly” classified as “instrumentalization” and “destabilization of a member state or the EU”.
Like his party friends Maria Noichl and Dietmar Köster, Bullmann was one of only three SPD MPs to vote against the package, abbreviated to “GEAS”. The German Green parliamentarians had unanimously spoken out against it, even though the traffic light coalition had helped make the agreement possible. An “EU asylum system based on fundamental and human rights” is absolutely necessary, Bullmann said IPPEN.MEDIA. The EU Parliament must “closely monitor the procedure to ensure compliance with human rights standards”. (fn with material from AFP)
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