Debate: The need for a European solution on asylum and migration including search and rescue
Date: WEDNESDAY, 23 NOVEMBER 2022
Speaker: Ylva Johansson
Language: EN

There’s also been a lot of focus on the problems and challenges that we have. I’m dealing with this on a daily basis. We have huge challenges. We have seen an increase of irregular arrivals along both the Western Balkan routes and the Central Med route. We have seen also that in nationalities this increase is not caused by more people that are fleeing prosecutions or in need of international protection.  We see an increase of nationalities that are probably not in need of international protection. We have seen an increase along the Western Balkan routes of Pakistanis, Cubans, Indians, Turks. We have seen an increase on the West Med route of Bangladeshis, Tunisians, Egyptians.  Of course this needs to be addressed. That’s why I was in Bangladesh, in Pakistan last week, to discuss with them the swift return of those not eligible to stay, but also legal pathways and help for the returnees. That’s why we are presenting and launched a new anti-smuggling partnership with all the Western Balkan partners. That’s why we presented last Monday a 20—point action plan to counter the Western Balkan route. That’s why we will have an extraordinary Council on Friday to discuss this.  So the challenges are huge, and of course irregular arrivals has to be addressed. This is not a proper way to come to the European Union. But I would like to use this opportunity to talk about some other issues, actually, that some of you, many of you, have been calling for – a European solution on asylum and migration.  We are so strong when we work together. When we are united and tackle challenges together we can do a lot. Let me just remind you that we managed the situation where Lukashenko tried to sell tickets, instrumentalising migrants into the European Union. We managed that together and, together with third countries, we have managed to decrease the irregular arrivals through the Western Mediterranean route and Atlantic route, thanks to good cooperation also with our African partners.  We managed last year to give humanitarian admission for 35 000 Afghans fleeing the situation in Afghanistan. We are managing right now a situation with more than 4 million Ukrainian refugees by activating the temporary protection directive.  We can do so much more when we work together. I heard somebody call that it’s time to stop debating and start working. The good news is that work is ongoing. The negotiations on the new pact on migration and asylum that we presented two years ago is really taking big steps forward. There is a very good momentum in the Council. Thanks to the Czech Presidency, but also thanks to the previous French Presidency, we are working intensively together with the Member States and are reaching new steps almost while we are speaking.  Also here in Parliament, good progress has been made on all the files and Parliament and Council has agreed on a roadmap, and I think this is a unique situation. There is a real good opportunity that we can make the decision on the whole pact on migration and asylum during this mandate.  But time is running so we have to start the real negotiations and trilogues now to be able to finalise all the files during this mandate, to show everybody that migration is not a threat. Migration is something that we need, but we need to manage migration and we need to welcome people on legal ways, but we need to prevent irregular arrivals and the risk of people’s lives.