Post-Lampedusa: Hopes Dashed for New EU Asylum Policy

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/eu-agreement-with-turkey-dashes-hopes-for-new-asylum-policy-a-938091.html



Two months after the deadly shipwreck off Lampedusa, Europe has done nothing to change course on its asylum policy. A new agreement between the EU and Turkey only reinforces the practice of pushing the refugee problem to Europe's periphery.

Post-Lampedusa: Hopes Dashed for New EU Asylum Policy
By Juergen Dahlkamp and Maximilian Popp
December 10, 2013 – 11:58 AM

There can be hardly any consolation on a day when more than 300 people drown. Yet when that many refugees died in the sea off the Italian island of Lampedusa in early October, the accident at least sparked a hope that Europeans would re-evaluate their asylum policy.

Pope Francis called it a "disgrace," as did European Parliament President Martin Schulz. German President Joachim Gauck asked whether Germany has been too passive an observer in international politics, and whether "our engagement is consistent with the meaning of our country."

In light of the shock of the Lampedusa shipwreck, it seemed possible to bring radical change to a dogma of European asylum policy. Under the 2003 Dublin Regulation, refugees must apply for asylum in the first European Union member state on which they set foot. This benefits countries in the middle of Europe, especially Germany, while creating a burden on nations along the periphery, such as Italy and Bulgaria.

Two months later, it is now clear that any hopes for change in asylum policy have been dashed. The Dublin Regulation was not even mentioned in the coalition agreement between Germany's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its partner in the presumed new government, the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). There is no will to change current policy. In fact, the EU recently made a deal that amplifies the "Dublin" method of pushing the asylum problem to Europe's periphery.