EU Interior Ministers Meet in Munich to Tighten Migration Rules

Interior ministers from seventeen European countries gathered in Munich on Saturday to discuss ways to strengthen border controls, speed up responses to migration emergencies and fast-track the return of migrants.

The meeting brought together ministers from European Union member states and Britain. It follows the bloc's implementation in June of a migration and asylum pact, with governments now looking at how to reinforce and refine migration controls.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt set out proposals for a new European migration crisis mechanism. He said the plan would first establish rules to define and identify exceptional situations at the bloc's external borders. A regulatory mechanism would then be triggered once such a situation is identified, allowing repatriations to be organised through an expedited procedure.

Dobrindt also called for a greater role for Frontex, the European border security and coast guard agency, in return procedures. He said the agency could support transit countries, including those outside the European Union, in organising returns, provided those countries consent. Frontex could also be used more extensively in Dublin procedures within the EU, he added.

His remarks came after an influx of migrants over the summer into Ceuta, the Spanish territory bordering Morocco.

EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner said the shift in European migration policy was producing results. He pointed to a 55 percent fall in illegal migration over the past two years, with a further decline of more than one-third this year alone, describing the reforms as putting the European house in order.

The number of asylum applications has fallen sharply in recent months, and fewer migrants have attempted to cross the Mediterranean, even as those journeys have become more deadly than last year.