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                  European Commission to Unveil Asylum Options

   by VOA News

   The European Commission is due Wednesday to release a paper describing
   at least two options for dealing with the near-unprecedented influx of
   migrants seeking asylum within European borders.

   Media reports say EU authorities in Brussels will unveil a proposal to
   overhaul the European asylum rules, and another proposal to simply
   modify the existing plan, known as the Dublin regulation.

   Reports say the EU policy paper describes "significant structural
   weaknesses and shortcomings" in Europe's asylum and migration policy,
   which dates back to the 1990s.

   One option would modify the existing Dublin rules, which state that
   migrants must apply for asylum in the first EU country they enter, a
   rule that has placed a heavy burden on Greece and Italy at the eastern
   border of the EU. The new option would add a "fairness mechanism"
   allowing migrants to be distributed to other parts of the EU in times
   of crisis, to take the burden off the border nations.

   ''

   But the other option outlined in the policy paper is to scrap the
   Dublin regulation altogether and implement a mandatory redistribution
   system based on a nation's economy and the degree to which it could
   handle an influx of asylum-seekers. It would be a variation on the plan
   under which the EU is currently operating, in which member states have
   agreed to resettle some 160,000 Syrian refugees among them. So far,
   only about 1,000 refugees have been resettled under that plan, calling
   into question its practicality.

   On Monday the first group of Syrian refugees sent from Turkey to Europe
   arrived in Hanover, Germany, under a controversial program to deport
   illegal migrants in exchange for Syrian refugees who qualify for EU
   asylum.

   While the Syrians traveled west, deported migrants from the Greek
   island of Lesbos were sent back east to Turkey.

   The deal aims to break up the lucrative people smuggling operations
   that operate out of Turkey.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/european-commission-to-unveil-asylum-
   options/3271430.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/european-commission-to-unveil-asylum-options/3271430.html