Felix Banaszak: Green Party chief criticizes EU asylum tightening – “There is no longer a firewall in Europe” | EUROtoday

The Green Party chief Felix Banaszak has criticized the deliberate stricter European asylum laws. With the choice, asylum procedures may very well be carried out in third nations sooner or later, Banaszak instructed the Catholic News Agency (KNA) in Berlin. “In the future, people seeking protection – women and children – should be able to be deported to countries to which they have no connection in Europe without an asylum procedure,” mentioned the Green politician.

The negotiators of the EU Parliament and the Council of the EU agreed on the stricter laws in Strasbourg on Thursday evening. People ought to then apply for asylum in third nations, not in Europe. Exceptions apply to unaccompanied minors. In addition, different nations have been categorised as “safe countries of origin”. The settlement nonetheless must be formally confirmed by the Council and Parliament. The laws are a part of the EU migration and asylum package deal, which is because of come into drive by June 2026.

“Procedure puts human rights at risk”

Banaszak additional defined that the method places human rights in danger, doesn’t remedy the issues and can also be very costly. “A migration policy that blindly relies on massive tightening is not a European answer to the challenges of war and persecution in the world.”

The Green Party chief additionally accused the CDU and CSU of getting voted within the European Parliament, along with the AfD and different right-wing extremist events, for an enormous tightening of asylum legal guidelines. “There is no longer a firewall in Europe – and Friedrich Merz is watching in silence,” mentioned Banaszak.

Bread for the World additionally criticized the tightening measures. The EU has thus opened the door to the so-called “Rwanda model” and ready its implementation within the EU. The affiliation defined that the idea of “safe third countries is part of the repressive EU isolation policy. In the future, it will enable EU member states to significantly restrict access to the EU asylum system – with the vague hint that they are also safe in other regions of the world.

“People are not goods”

In doing so, the EU is shaking up the system of global refugee protection. People are not goods. “We must not accept that people are deported against their will to countries they never wanted to go to, to which they have no connection and where they are often not safe.”

Anmesty International described the tightening measures as an unprecedented attack on asylum in Europe. This attempt to circumvent international legal obligations further shifts the EU’s responsibility for refugee protection to countries outside Europe and is anything but a humane migration policy that respects people’s dignity.