27 April 2021
A number of major EU countries have expressed no interest in the UK Home Office's plan to strike bilateral deals that would replicate the effects of the EU's 'Dublin' rules, and allow the UK to return asylum-seekers to the first EU state in which they were registered. Belgium, France and Germany have all said they would not sign any such deals. However, this still leaves the option of trying to remove people to non-EU states - an intention expressed in letters recently sent to asylum-seekers being held at Napier Barracks, which said: "We will attempt to remove you to [EU country] in which you were present of have a connection, or any other safe country that will receive you.”
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Source: The Independent, 25 April 2021:
"EU countries rule out bilateral asylum deals in blow to Priti Patel’s immigration plans
Exclusive: Questions over Home Office intention to deport asylum seekers to Europe as EU governments dismiss idea, saying Britain can no longer ‘count on European solidarity’
In a major blow to Priti Patel’s immigration plans, EU countries have said they will not strike bilateral agreements with Britain to facilitate the deportation of refugees to Europe.
New measures unveiled by the home secretary last month would see refugees who arrive in Britain via unauthorised routes denied an automatic right to asylum and instead forcibly removed to safe countries they passed through on their way to the UK, which are usually in the EU.
The Home Office has said it intends to replace the Dublin Regulation, which allowed it to return asylum seekers to EU member states while Britain was part of the bloc, with “bilateral returns arrangements”.
But The Independent has learnt that France, Belgium and Germany do not intend to make bilateral deals with Britain, warning that the country “cannot continue to count on European solidarity” and that it “remains bound by international law”."
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