EU considers changes to migrant asylum system

BRUSSELS, April 6 (UPI) -- European Union officials on Wednesday proposed changes to the bloc's asylum rules to better handle the influx of migrants, the largest since World War II.

The proposed changes aim to take the pressure off front-line countries that include Greece, Italy and Malta, where some 1.8 million migrants landed in 2015 to escape violence in the Middle East and North Africa. That's six times the number of arrivals in 2014.

Under the current rules, known as the Dublin rules, migrants must file for asylum in the first EU country in which they arrive or they can be sent back to that country if they are later discovered. That system failed after Greece was unable to handle the overwhelming number of arrivals and Germany allowed migrants into the country without registering elsewhere.

The EU has proposed two sweeping options: The first would loosely keep the Dublin rule in place by requiring migrants to register and seek asylum in their arrival country, but would then distribute them throughout the bloc according to a predetermined formula. The second would dismantle the current rule and replace it with automatic redistribution of asylum seekers, based on individual bloc country's population and capacity to absorb the migrants.

"Let there be no doubt: Those who need protection must continue to receive it, and they should not have to put their lives in the hands of people smugglers. But the current system is not sustainable," European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said. "Different national approaches have fueled asylum shopping and irregular migration, while we have seen in the ongoing crisis that the Dublin rules have placed too much responsibility on just a few member states."

The proposed changes, subject to further discussion, would take time to implement if approved.

"In the immediate term, we have to apply the existing law to stabilize the situation. Beyond that, we need a sustainable system for the future, based on common rules, a fairer sharing of responsibility, and safe legal channels for those who need protection to get it in the EU," Timmermans said.

The proposal comes after Frontex, the bloc's border agency, warned that two of the terrorists involved in the November attacks in Paris used falsified Syrian papers on the Greek island of Leros to speed up the registration process before traveling through Europe.

"The EU external borders are confronted with three major challenges: an unprec­edented rise in migratory pressure, an increasing terrorist threat and a steady rise in the number of regular travelers," the report said. The challenge for border­ control authori­ties is thus to become more effective and efficient whilst maintaining the neces­sary quality standards."