The events in Zurich-Afghanistan could trigger the European Union to build a common immigration policy, European Commissioner Margaritis Schinas said in a newspaper interview.
EU member states are concerned that the Taliban takeover could cause a reappearance of the 2015/16 crisis. At this time, more than one million migrants, mainly from the Middle East, arrived, expanding the security and welfare system and promoting support for the far-right group.
“It’s true that we are in great danger now, but the EU did not cause the situation, yet we are again required to be part of the solution,” immigration policy said. Greek Commissioners, including Wiener Zeitung, told Austria daily
He hasn’t seen the immigration crisis, but said, “I want to avoid the reflexes of returning to the 2015 crisis before it becomes clear how the situation will evolve.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) states that by the end of the year, up to 500,000 Afghans will be able to flee their hometowns.
This time, the EU has stronger foreign border protection and financial resources to support Afghanistan’s neighbors, and while EU member states’ policies are increasingly converging, they are better prepared, Sinas said.
“Therefore, as proposed by the EU Commission in September, I now consider it the moment to agree on a common European immigration and asylum policy,” he said.
Migration has undermined the EU unity of 27 member states, and there have been proposals to legally require all states to host a share of refugees denied by Austria as well as some former communist countries.
Mr. Sinas expressed strong opposition to the arrangement between the “mass of left and right fringes” and said that there were still differences among the members, but after the French presidential election in May 2022, the new government was Germany.
By Michael Shields
