The European Union member states have welcomed a plan to establish an EU asylum agency. The planned agency is to provide for uniform asylum regulations in all 27 EU countries. It will also assist southern European countries which face a large influx of African asylum seekers. The agency is to have around a hundred staff. Malta has formally declared its interest in hosting the EU's Asylum Agency. Cyprus and Greece, both of which have also shown interest in hosting the agency, did not express any opinion on Malta's candidacy and only said the agency's seat should be in the Mediterranean.
Besides coordinating asylum policy, the EU's Asylum Agency will also have a technical set-up to send specialised teams of experts to member states affected by extraordinary asylum pressures. These teams will help the national authorities in identification, translation, interpretation, accommodation and repatriation issues related to would-be asylum seekers.
1 comment:
A good question with the Asylum Support Office is what kind of a relationship is it going to have with FRONTEX... arguably they are going to do similar if not the same job (i.e. special teams of experts). Is it that FRONTEX is now officially the bad guys and EASO is going to tell them what they're doing wrong?
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