Migration set to dominate EU summit as calls for offshoring grow louder

The leaders' summit in Brussels will cover migration policy, support for Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East.

Transcript

00:00Member states seem to be further tightening their migration policies.

00:10The subject is high on the agenda of the European Council.

00:16In a letter to capitals, Usluf Underlayan proposed to speed up returns and open detention

00:21centers in Turk countries.

00:25The Commission President is thus in line with the request of 15 member states to transfer

00:30asylum seekers to safe Turk countries.

00:36Seventeen countries also called for an accelerated expulsion of foreign nationals whose asylum

00:41application is rejected.

00:45With the return hubs, there's a key question is whether the EU member states will find

00:50willing partners in order to establish those return hubs, and more than that, also to figure

00:59out ways to get countries of origin and transit to comply in terms of readmission.

01:06In France, the new interior minister who has made immigration his priority wants to regularize

01:11undocumented migrants, but in small numbers and gradually.

01:16In Poland, Donald Tusk is considering temporarily and partially suspending the right of asylum

01:22to combat illegal immigration.

01:25Russia and Belarus are accused of orchestrating the influx of migrants using the Polish border

01:31to destabilize the EU as a hybrid attack.

01:36Warsaw believes migrants are weaponized in this way.

01:42On the other hand, fundamental EU values are at stake.

01:46This is extremely problematic.

01:51The right to asylum is a fundamental right that cannot be suspended even in times of

01:56politically declared crisis.

01:59It is protected under EU law and international law, but also by the Polish constitution,

02:05which shows that this is not a migration issue alone, but it's a broader rule of law issue.

02:12While Hungary or Italy have been marginalized in the past for their hardline migration policies,

02:17rest of the member states now also seem to be converging in this direction.