EMN National Contact Point for Malta has organised a two- day EMN conference on the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) as a part of their Presidency of the Council of the EU. During these two days, representatives of state administration, EU institutions and agencies, non-governmental organisations, academia, research institutes and think-tanks presented different topics in 8 panels.
The conference was open by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Interior and National Security of Malta, Kevin Mahoney. He described the main priorities of migration for Malta, being international protection, protection of borders, external dimension and legal migration. Subsequently, the Executive Director of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), José Carreira, referred to the increasing competencies and tasks of EASO during the last 2 years unprecedentedly connected to the migration crisis EU is facing. According to him, the future of the CEAS is related to the three key elements: crisis resilience, reform of the legislative acts and focus on migration root causes. He also added two more elements – new asylum agency with strong mandate and common procedures for implementation of these elements in line with the principles of solidarity and responsibility of the Member States.
The speakers of the first panel were Professor Violeta Morena-Lax of the Queen Mary University in London and Ward Lutin, Head of Information and Analysis Unit, EASO. Current statistical data and trends of the development of migration flows in Mediterranean were presented. Morena-Lax highlighted that despite the current rhetoric, the Mediterranean route is not a „new“ migration route, it has been the main route since the beginning of 90s and it remained so for mostly asylum seekers. For this reason one should stop referring to the „mixed flows“. Ward Lutin briefly presented the migratory “pull-factors“ in the cases of each countries. In case of Syria, these factors are clear, however in general the reasons are more a complex of variable reasons and motives such as smuggling networks and routes, perceptions and expectations, etc.
In the second panel the Malta Refugee Commissioner Martine Cassar introduce the activities of her office. Refugee Commissioner is an independent and impartial body responsible for receiving and assessing asylum applications. She also explained the steps of the asylum procedure in Malta and compared it to other MS procedures within the EU.
The third panel focused on the reception condition in the EU was dedicated to the practical functioning of the reception systems. Joseph St. John from the Ministry of Interior brought the best practice of Malta and Camille Ruiz on the other hand described the French example.
Legal ways of migration into the EU, and foremost the resettlement activities were the topics of the fourth panel. Conny Larsson introduced a Sweden-initiated project EU FRANK, aimed on sharing the information and resettlement experience of the countries having in place well-established resettlement schemes with the less (or not at all) experienced countries. Activities focus mostly on the pre-departure phase- planning, interviews and selections of the candidates, pre-departure preparation and reception. Federico Soda from IOM described several other legal migration paths to the EU as supplementary programs to resettlement. The so-called humanitarian admission programmes are more flexible ways of reception, focused on a specific target groups (e.g. family members of the vulnerable ones, etc.).
First day of the conference was concluded by the fifth panel on solidarity in the EU. Morena Termini from EASO explained the role and tasks of EASO in the hotspots and Zoe Nasika from Greece briefly summed up the main procedures established in Greece in order to implement the decisions on relocations.
The second day of the conference continued with the sixth panel, during which Julien Simon from ICMPD and Matilda Aku Alomatu Osei-Agyeman from the Embassy of Ghana in Malta dealt with main principles of cooperation with third countries. Different perception of the immigration/emigration can be a common complication of the cooperation. Mutual dialogue and trust building should be a path to go. Panelists also highlighted the importance of leadership, visible e.g. during the Valetta summit on migration, where positive dynamics helped to achieve agreements on highest political levels. Ownership intertwined with the responsibility is another relevant pillar of any cooperation.
Catherine Woollard (ECRE), Regina Catrambone (MOAS), Jean Peirre Gauci (The People for Change Foundation) were the guests of the seventh panel focused on the role of the civil society in migration issues. Currently we are facing a negative attitudes and sentiment (political) environment. Positive sign on the other hand is the volunteering boom and development of the financial support and activity of various actors (churches, schools, local governments, etc.) who got involved in aiding the refugees. However, there has to be a change in the attitude, from the current system focused on solving the crisis situation into the long-term system oriented more on the future challenges, panelists noted.
The eight panel with Charmaine Hili from DG HOME, European Commission (COM), MEP Miriam Dalli and Sophie Magennis from UNHCR was dedicated to the future of CEAS. As for the COM, the year 2015 was a breaking point for CEAS; the system manifested itself as being unable to react adequately on crisis situations also due to the absence of the solidarity mechanism. Therefore several intertwined asylum proposals were made, currently being discussed on the various levels in the EU institutions. Implementing an allocation mechanism is a crucial element for the reform of CEAS in order to ensure fair sharing of the burden among the Member States. MEP Dalli and her parliamentary faction considers Dublin system unfair and unable to address the crisis and bring long term solutions. More centralized system with centralised assessment of the applications, relocation mechanism and revocation of the country-of-first-entry responsibility is preferred. In such system human rights would be ensured. It is important to help building the asylum systems and capacities of the third countries. UNHCR thinks at least 30% of AMIF resources should be invested in the integration. At the moment only a small sum (cca 7%, in some cases not even that) is invested into integration. Without a thorough integration the secondary movement will reoccur.
This article was written based on the available conference material and reports. Presentations and photogallery of the conference is available. More information can be found at the website of the EMN National Contact Point for Malta.