EU asylum requests skyrocket

6.9.2023

Question for written answer  E-002570/2023
to the Commission
Rule 138
Nadine Morano (PPE)

The EU Agency for Asylum has just revealed that EU asylum applications in the first half of the year are 28 % up on last year. This means applications are at their highest level since the migration crisis in 2015 and 2016. At this pace, the agency estimates that at least 1 million asylum applications will have been lodged in the EU by the end of the year.

Less than half of these applications receive a favourable outcome, meaning that a majority of them are unfounded. The asylum process is widely misused for economic immigration purposes, and criminal organisations profit from this.

In view of the above:

• 1.What steps does the Commission intend to take to stop the asylum process being misused?
• 2.Is the Commission planning to draw up a blacklist of third countries that are uncooperative on migration, along the lines of the blacklist of tax havens?
• 3.A number of Member States are currently grappling with this issue. With that in mind, is the Commission intending to bring forward proposals on the processing and accommodation of asylum seekers in countries outside the EU, with a view to breaking the smugglers’ criminal business model?

Submitted: 6.9.2023