An EU hotspot
An EU hotspot in Samos. The EU commission has absolved itself from any responsibility for violence in such places and says the fault lays with the member states. Photo: Joseph Boyle governments managed to largely shut down the Western Balkan route, enhance border controls, and sign off a migrant swap deal with Turkey. THE SHAKY TURKEY DEAL Turkey, which hosts some 2.7 million Syrian refugees, promised to keep them from crossing the refugee projects inside Turkey and lift short-term visas for their nationals. But the Germany-backed plan soured following a failed coup against Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in mid-July. The EU wanted Turkey to reform its anti-terror laws but Ankara refused amid repeated threats to scrap the deal altogether. Despite these diplomatic rows, the European Commission wants to keep the deal intact, fearful of a repeat of 2015 when over 800,000 arrived in a matter of months near the year's end. camps where violence is rampant and women and Infants as young as four have allegedly been assaulted at so-called hotspots, an EU concept where arrivals are screened and registered before their asylum claims are heard. The EU commission has absolved itself from any responsibility and says the fault lays squarely with the member states. The hotspots in Greece and Italy had also been intended as a clearing house for a mandatory relocation scheme aimed at distributing 160,000 people over two years. Since its September 2015 launch, the plan has failed to deliver any meaningful results as EU states baulk at being forced into meeting quotas. Even commission president Jean-Claude Juncker made light of it in November when he quipped willing to relocate to the Grand Duchy. Tens of thousands are trapped in Greece as a result. Those who managed to arrive on the Greek islands from Turkey are pushed into overcrowded was close to Germany. They are no longer there 12 — EUROPE IN REVIEW DECEMBER 2016
BROKEN ASYLUM LAWS The admission highlights the EU's shattered asylum policies, as reception and conditions in EU states vary widely. With that knowledge, refugees and Sweden as a matter of preference. Some states are pushing to morph the "solidarity solidarity" where governments would have more say over EU asylum rules. The phrase has since morphed into what the Slovak EU presidency is now calling "effective solidarity". The two nations, along with Austria, Denmark, and non-EU state Norway, set up internal border control out of fear refugees would want to settle on their territories. Austria had even threatened to shut down its Brenner Pass border with Italy, a major transit route to Germany and northern Europe. The commission, meanwhile, proposed to reform asylum rules known as Dublin that determine which member state is responsible for an asylum seeker's plan to impose a €250,000 "solidarity contribution", paid by the member state, for each person they refuse to accept under the Dublin transfer rule. All this happened amid a backdrop of growing insecurity following terrorist attacks in Brussels in Germany. The EU launched a broad package of security policies that, in some cases, also aimed at controlling migration as the EU commission piled on every arriving asylum seeker. The fear is that measures imposed in 2016 risk deal with Turkey. But focus has shifted to Africa. In October alone, a record number of 27,500 people arrived in Italy from Libya. death toll continues to climb. Brenner Pass rail station on the Italy-Austria border. Photo: Alice Latta EUROPE IN REVIEW DECEMBER 2016— 13
