Asylum and immigration: how Brussels wants to change the Dublin regulation

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It is a subject that has been tearing Europeans apart for more than five years.

Two weeks after the fire which destroyed the Moria migrant camp on September 9, on the island of Lesbos in Greece, Brussels will present an overhaul of the European asylum and migration system, called the "migration pact".

The European Commission wants to change the famous Dublin regulation providing for asylum applications to be examined in the country where the person sets foot first. 

A "new solidarity mechanism"

The main problem with this regulation is that its text dates from before the 2015 migration crisis and that it did not anticipate the case of a massive influx of migrants.

Hence the strong tensions in recent years between Greece and Italy on the one hand, which are very often countries of first arrival, and the rest of the Union on the other.

It is therefore to avoid finding a similar situation that the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, wants to set up a "new European system of governance of migration with common structures for asylum and return, but also a new solidarity mechanism ". 

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All member countries must contribute in an emergency

Concretely, Brussels wants all member countries to contribute in an emergency.

Either by taking some of the asylum seekers in charge, or by taking care of the deportation of the rejected asylum seekers to their country of origin.

In return, the so-called “first reception” countries would register all migrants with the support of European agencies and they would do an initial screening on the spot.

With this "migration pact", the European Commission wants to believe that it will finally come to an agreement between the 27 on a subject that has divided them for years.