The EU Commission wants to temporarily grant exceptions to the asylum law to the member states on the border with Belarus.

For migrants who entered illegally from there, they should in principle be allowed to use the so-called border procedure - an accelerated procedure that is otherwise customary at airports.

They should also have more time to register applicants and check their asylum claims.

In practical terms, this means that people can be interned for longer.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

  • Follow I follow

The repatriation may also be accelerated.

The measures would allow Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to put in place "swift and orderly procedures", "in full compliance with fundamental rights and international obligations, including the principle of non-refoulement," said the Commission.

Your proposal requires the approval of the Member States;

the EU Parliament only needs to be heard.

You are not considered to have entered the country

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had already given the three states the prospect of relief two weeks ago and also significantly increased the funds for border surveillance - by 200 million euros this year and next for all of them. She associated this with the expectation that asylum seekers would no longer be sent back across the green border to Belarus - as was often the case in the past - but would be cared for and heard in special, closed centers. The asylum application is to be decided there within 16 weeks, including an objection.

So far, such procedures have only existed at airports; the migrants must stay in a closed area and are considered not to have entered the country during this time. If your application is rejected, you can be deported immediately. The Commission wants to make this procedure the standard for countries with little prospect of asylum protection - this is part of the migration pact on which the states have not yet reached a consensus.

The Commission is now using for the first time a clause enshrined in the EU Treaty that allows exceptions in the event that “one or more Member States are in an emergency due to a sudden influx of third-country nationals”.

Critics, however, say that the influx does not represent such an emergency. Vice-President Margaritis Schinas, on the other hand, spoke on Wednesday of a “living expression of solidarity” with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.