‘Hotspots’ for asylum applications: some things we urgently need to know

Through the mechanisms it is setting up for the relocation of refugees from Italy and Greece in 2015, the EU is trying to regain control of refugee movement in the EU. The tough screening process it is setting up at points of entry into the EU seems designed as a crude instrument to separate out a minority of ‘good’ refugees from what EU ministers want to convince us are a majority of ‘bad’ economic migrants, and to dispatch the latter rapidly and efficiently. But life is not that simple, and the hotspots’ screening procedures could result in large numbers of people being returned to unsafe or unviable situations without proper consideration of their claims.

• Primary Source

ESO: Information Guide: European Migration Challenges http://www.europeansources.info/record/information-guide-european-migration-challenges/

ESO: Background information: Informal meeting of heads of state or government, Brussels, 23 September 2015 http://www.europeansources.info/record/informal-meeting-of-heads-of-state-or-government-brussels-23-september-2015/

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