Various European Union member states have reacted with anger over the news France is unilaterally working on a migration cooperation deal with the United Kingdom. The other member states – all with coasts on the Mediterranean and typically seeing most ‘first arrivals’ of irregular migrants, are arguing that the UK-France deal may see them forced to accept the return of irregular migrants, burdening already creaky reception facilities and deepening political.
According to Euronews, the European Commission has now stepped in to mediate in the dispute between France and the ‘Med 5’ countries, Italy, Greece, Spain, Malta and Cyprus. The Med 5 are alarmed that the reported deal being worked on between the U.K. and France, which would see people returned to France in exchange for the U.K. accepting refugee resettlements, might lead to France going on to sending those returned people back to the countries they first arrived and had their asylums processed in.
The disagreement is emblematic of a long-running complaint from the southern European states over irregular migration governance around the continent. While most people arriving in Europe to seek shelter intend to settle in the wealthier countries in Europe’s North – for reasons including family connection, language barriers and work prospects – those countries in the South such as Italy and Greece tend to be where people initially arrive and are registered. Under the EU’s ‘Dublin’ system, this at least on paper means they can be returned there, even after they’ve made their way North. That system had long generated tension, but it was in particular during the so-called ‘migrant crisis’ of 2015 and 2016 that this tension boiled over.
Italy and Greece – both suffering severe financial distress because of the Eurozone crisis and with barely any public funds or capacity for long-term asylum seeker accommodation – complained that the wealthier states in the North effectively left them to deal with the hundreds of thousands of people arriving throughout the ‘crisis’. Adding to the sense of grievance was the perception in Greece of Northern Europe’s callousness during the management of the concurrent debt crisis, which saw Greek citizens suffer extreme hardships, as well as a perception in both Italy and Greece that liberal Northern politicians were unfairly condemning them for being unwelcoming to asylum seekers even as they offered little help.
Migration – and irregular migration in particular – is currently a very politically salient issue in both France and the U.K. The leaders of both are desperate to find a ‘solution’ to the issue, in order to ward off the electoral challenges from right-wing parties such as Reform U.K. and France’s National Rally. In doing so, both leaders have come in for considerable criticism by human rights advocates for enacting policies that only make migration routes more dangerous and contribute to the dehumanization of people seeking asylum. Now, with this latest dispute appears they have drawn the ire of their allies in the EU as well. While it is not known exactly when the deal between France and the U.K. will be announced, Euronews suggests Macron’s state visit to the U.K. in early July is a likely moment.