The European Union proposes to convene an international forum to resolve the issue of resettlement of refugees from Afghanistan.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this at a press conference following an extraordinary video conference of the leaders of the G7 states.

According to her, not only EU countries should take part in the fate of refugees, but also all those who assisted the US-NATO operation in the republic.

At the same time, the politician admitted that within the union itself there is still no agreement on the number of refugees that the EU will accept.

“We proposed to hold an international forum to discuss the resettlement of refugees from Afghanistan.

We are still at the stage of consultations on how many people the EU will be able to receive, since humanitarian visas for them should be issued by the EU states, and not by the European Commission, ”said von der Leyen.

She stressed that the consequences in Afghanistan are global, therefore, the solution to this crisis "must be international." In addition, the President of the EC noted, new challenges should spur the EU countries to reach a consensus on a migration and asylum pact, which was proposed back in September 2020 as a replacement for the Dublin Agreement, but did not receive approval from a number of states.

“All the events that we are now witnessing highlight the urgent need for the EU member states and the European Parliament to come to an agreement on our proposed pact on migration and asylum.

We need a fully functioning system that would allow us to effectively manage our borders, guarantee solidarity between EU member states and cooperate with countries of origin and transit (migrants -

RT

), ”von der Leyen said.

  • Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen

  • Reuters

  • © Stephanie Lecocq

Recall that the new plan for refugees was proposed by the European Commission and provides for the overall responsibility of the EU member states for the admission or deportation of migrants. At the same time, countries are offered options to participate in resolving this problem. So, they can either accommodate refugees at home, or undertake obligations to send back home those who have not received the right to stay in the EU. At the same time, the state will make decisions on the degree of its participation on a voluntary basis, and the mandatory quotas for the admission of migrants, which were provided for by the previous document, the Dublin Agreement, will be canceled.

The financial participation of each country is proposed to be calculated depending on the GDP and population size.

However, the document stipulates that if the country was unable to deport the illegal within a certain period, then he remains on its territory, and the state receives compensation for this in the amount of € 10 thousand from the EU budget.

The countries of the "Visegrad group" - Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary - and the Mediterranean states represented by Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus expressed their disagreement with the proposed plan.

In particular, the representatives of the “Visegrad Four” pointed to an unbearable burden for their economy, and countries with a maritime border fear that they will continue to account for the main migration flow.

No common ground

Experts believe that the achievement of any specific agreements on this issue, even in the format of an international forum, is unlikely in the near future.

“The migration crisis that broke out for Europe in 2015, which has not yet been resolved, has become a serious test for European politicians, so now the EU is in a state of managerial collapse.

In this regard, obviously, the EU will not have any specific decisions regarding assistance to the Afghans, ”Vladimir Shapovalov, deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics at Moscow State Pedagogical University, expressed his opinion in a commentary on RT.

According to him, the recent initiative of Estonia is indicative, which announced that it would accept up to 30 Afghans who collaborated with the republic's military and civilian specialists.

“But this is a mockery of people who are in a humanitarian catastrophe, since it is necessary to save tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Afghans,” Shapovalov said.

Thus, Slovenia, which currently holds the presidency of the EU Council, has already unequivocally spoke in favor of the inadmissibility of providing humanitarian and migration corridors to all Afghan refugees.

“We will not allow repeating the strategic mistake of 2015 (when the EU countries announced their readiness to accept migrants from Syria and North Africa without restrictions. -

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).

We will only help those who helped us during the NATO operation and the EU member states that are on our external borders, ”Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said on Twitter.

#EU ne bo odpirala nobenih evropskih “humanitarnih” oziroma migracijskih koridorjev za #Afganistan.

Ne bomo dovolili, da se ponovi strateška napaka iz l.

2015. Pomagali bomo zgolj posameznikom, ki so pomagali nam med operacijo #NATO.

In članicam EU, ki varujejo našo zunanjo mejo.

pic.twitter.com/fyZB5XFhZh

- Janez Janša (@JJansaSDS) August 22, 2021

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz also spoke about unwillingness to see regular migrants on his territory, noting that his country already has the largest community of Afghans in the European Union, the integration of which is taking place with great difficulty.

“Tragic events are taking place in Afghanistan, but we cannot repeat the mistakes of 2015.

People from Afghanistan should be helped by neighboring states.

The EU must secure its external border, as well as fight illegal migration and smugglers, ”said Kurz on Twitter.

Die Ereignisse in Afghanistan sind dramatisch, aber wir dürfen die Fehler von 2015 nicht wiederholen.

Den Menschen aus #Afghanistan soll in benachbarten Staaten geholfen werden.

Die #EU muss die Außengrenzen sichern sowie illegale Migration und Schlepper bekämpfen.

- Sebastian Kurz (@sebastiankurz) August 22, 2021

  • Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz

  • Reuters

  • © Georges Schneider

Such statements, analysts point out, indicate that the European Union, which has supported the United States in Afghanistan for almost 20 years, now does not want to be held accountable for its steps and decisions in the international arena.

Therefore, the current European protests in defense of human rights once again turn out to be just loud words.

“The countries of the European Union bear a significant share of the responsibility for the humanitarian catastrophe that is now taking place in Afghanistan.

And they should show solidarity with those Afghans who find themselves in a dangerous situation.

However, the matter does not go further than words, and the European countries have no independent policy towards Afghanistan, as it turned out after the US left, ”explained Vladimir Shapovalov.

In this regard, says Pavel Feldman, Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the RUDN University, discussions at the forum proposed by Ursula von der Leyen will most likely boil down to the distribution of regular quotas by states.  

“Although it is obvious that the leading European countries such as Germany and France, which agreed on the American invasion of Afghanistan, would now have to bear the heaviest burden of responsibility for its consequences.

However, they are trying to transfer it to other states that had a very indirect relationship to this, "Feldman said in an interview with RT.

Vladimir Shapovalov also agrees with him.

He noted that the EU is more accustomed to giving promises than directly acting.

“It is one thing to sign letters in support of US actions in relation to Afghanistan, and it is quite another thing to take real actions to protect specific Afghan citizens.

In all likelihood, we will not wait for such actions from the EU, ”the analyst suggested.

Security threat

Recall that after the Taliban * captured Kabul and declared control over the country, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left the republic, the United States and its allies faced massive requests from Afghan citizens for political asylum. However, at the moment, representatives of Western countries only say that for now they will only evacuate their employees and their families from the local population from Afghanistan. In particular, the United States reported that since August 14, they have taken out more than 70 thousand people, Germany - about 1.6 thousand people, 1.2 thousand Afghans have already arrived in France, and Great Britain has evacuated more than 9 thousand people from the country. ...

According to Pavel Feldman, the European Union needs an up-to-date strategy on refugees who will just arrive more than ever.

After all, if now the criteria for the admission, screening and integration of migrants are not developed, then the entire security system of the EU may be under threat, the expert believes.

“Because together with people who call themselves refugees, those who adhere to a radical or extremist ideology can enter the territory of the European Union.

In addition, there is a risk that not all migrants will be able to integrate into the official economic life of the union in a short time and some of them will be marginalized, ”Feldman said.

Such a development of the situation, he added, will quickly lead to an increase in poverty and domestic crime, which will affect the living standards of the entire EU.

In this regard, analysts believe that the EU should not only discuss issues of direct placement of migrants on its territory, but also provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan itself.

However, they point out, the European Union always has reasons to delay financial injections.

In particular, Ursula von der Leyen announced on August 24 that the EU would increase the amount of humanitarian aid from € 50 million to € 200 million.At the same time, she previously reported that economic assistance to the republic for the next seven years was about € 1 billion, which is planned allocated from the budget of the union, will be frozen until the new authorities begin to respect human rights.

  • Afghans try to sneak into the airport in Kabul

  • Reuters

According to experts, such actions, together with the lack of progress towards reaching a consensus on refugees among the member states, hurt the image of the European Union.

“In this situation, the EU demonstrates a complete lack of will, desire and interest in solving the situation with the crisis in Afghanistan.

Of course, this is a serious blow to the image of the EU as a whole and its leaders in particular - France and Germany, ”said Vladimir Shapovalov.

In turn, Pavel Feldman pointed out that by its actions the European Union is increasingly undermining its authority in Asia and the Middle East.

“Nobody takes seriously the EU as a center capable of influencing the regions.

In this regard, no one checks their position with the union and does not fully rely on it, ”Feldman summed up.

*

 "Taliban" - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.