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The EU should use its trade and visa policies to pressure less developed countries to take back migrants from Europe, Belgium’s migration minister has said, as the bloc hardens its stance on immigration to counter a resurgent far right.
Anneleen Van Bossuyt, a rightwing nationalist politician, told the Financial Times that the bloc should “make more use of the leverage” it has on poorer nations who benefit from EU tariff exemptions or faster visa procedures.
The move would be a departure from Brussels’ long-held stance that trade and immigration policies are completely separate, and would echo US President Donald Trump’s approach to international negotiations.
“We really need a more effective readmission co-operation with third countries,” Van Bossuyt said, adding that there was a “whole range of measures” Europe could take to “give this clear message” that only refugees, not economic migrants, were welcome.
“Don’t come to Europe just because you are looking for a better future,” she said.
According to the European Commission, only about 20 per cent of people whose asylum applications are rejected return to their home countries — one of the main reasons being that the countries refuse to take them back.
Van Bossuyt mentioned the so-called Generalised Scheme of Preferences, which waives import duties for vulnerable developing countries, as well as EU visa policy as potential “leverage”.
“It’s very important that the European Commission is saying to countries who are benefiting from GSP advantages that, OK, you can enjoy them, but then we ask something in return,” Van Bossuyt said. “So if you don’t co-operate in the readmissions or in the returns then yeah, this will have consequences.”
Other rightwing governments in the EU have also pressured Brussels to use trade measures as a lever in negotiations with third countries. Van Bossuyt said that “you really feel at European level that minds are shifting” on the issue.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has secured a commitment from Mexico to crack down on US-bound migrants after threatening to impose punitive tariffs. He has also secured a deal with El Salvador to deport migrants to one of the harshest prisons in the world.
The Belgian government led by Prime Minister Bart De Wever, a nationalist who has long campaigned on a tougher stance on migration, was also one of the signatures in a push led by Sweden to link the EU’s visa policy more with the bloc’s migration goals. In a document, seen by the FT, nine European countries last week said the bloc should explore “whether a lack of co-operation on returns could be considered a migration risk that justifies the refusal of visa applications”.
Clamping down on immigration is the favourite topic of far-right parties, which have been rising in the polls across the continent, with countries like Germany reimposing border checks and Austria suspending the unification of families. Belgium on Thursday announced it would also introduce selective border controls this summer.
Belgium and eight other countries this month signed a letter complaining that the European Court of Human Rights had gone too far by preventing governments from expelling migrants who had been convicted for serious crimes. The court’s chief Alain Berset responded by warning against “political pressure” and said that “our task is not to weaken the [Human Rights] Convention, but to keep it strong and relevant”.
Van Bossuyt said that the letter was “not about dismantling human rights. It’s about restoring the balance”, citing examples of criminals who could not be deported because of laws protecting them from bodily harm and torture in their home countries, or due to family reunification rules.
Asylum figures in Belgium have been rising, with some 40,000 applications filed last year, including about 15,000 of people who already had applied in another member state, she said. The Belgian government has tightened rules to reject such applications and will cut benefits, limit the time asylum seekers can stay in state-funded accommodations, and impose higher income thresholds and waiting periods for family reunification, among other things.
“If you are travelling across Europe in search for the most attractive system, you won’t find it any more in Belgium,” said Van Bossuyt.
