4 Amendments of Ska KELLER related to 2015/0125(NLE)
Amendment 47 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 8
Recital 8
(8) According to data of the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders (Frontex), the Central and Eastern Mediterranean route were the main areas for irregular border crossing into the Union in 2014. In 2014, more than 170 000 migrants arrived in Italy alone in an irregular manner, representing an increase of 277% compared to 2013, including more than 26100 children, of whom around 13000 were unaccompanied (7.6% of the total migrants arrived). A steady increase was also witnessed by Greece with more than 50 000 irregular migrants reaching the country, representing an increase of 153% compared to 2013. Statistics for the first months of 2015 confirm this clear trend in respect of Italy. From January to June 2015 Italy witnessed a 5% increase of irregular border crossings as compared to the same period in the previous year. In addition, Greece has faced in the first months of 2015 a sharp increase in the number of irregular border crossings, corresponding to a more than 50% of the total number of irregular border crossings in 2014 (almost 28 000 in the first four months of 2015six-fold increase in comparison with the same period in the previous year and nearly a 140% increase compared to the previous year as a whole (76 293 from January to June 2015, according to data by Frontex, in comparison to a total number of almost 55 000 in 2014). A significant proportion of the total number of irregular migrants detected in these two regions included migrants of nationalities which, based on the Eurostat data, meet a high Union level recognition rate (in 2014, the Syrians and the Eritreans, for which the Union recognition rate is more than 75%, represented more than 40% of the irregular migrants in Italy and more than 50% of them in Greece; from January to June 2015 Syrians and Eritreans represented 30% of arrivals to Italy and nearly 60% to Greece). According to Eurostat, 30 505 Syrians were found to be irregularly present in Greece in 2014 compared to 8 220 in 2013.
Amendment 88 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 25
Recital 25
(25) When deciding which applicants in clear need of international protection should be relocated from Italy and Greece, priority should be given to vulnerable applicants and among those special attention should be given to unaccompanied children, within the meaning of Articles 21 and 22 of Directive 2013/33/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council10. In this respect, special needs of applicants, including health, should be of primary concern. The best interests of the child should always be a primary consideration. 10 Directive 2013/33/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 laying down standards for the reception of applicants for international protection (recast) (OJ L 180, 29.6.2013, p.96).
Amendment 95 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 26 a (new)
Recital 26 a (new)
(26a) A core lesson to be learned from the pilot project on relocation from Malta (EUREMA) is that expectations and preferences should be managed properly. As an initial step, applicants should be given the possibility to express their preferences. They should rank five Member States among the Member States by order of preference and support their preferences by elements such as family ties, social ties and cultural ties such as language skills, previous stay, previous studies and previous work experience. This should take place in the course of the initial processing. As a second step, the respective Member States should be informed about the applicants’ preferences. They then should be given the possibility to indicate their preferences for applicants among those applicants who had expressed their preference for the Member State concerned. Member States should support their preferences by aspects such as family, social and cultural ties. Liaison officers appointed by Member States could facilitate the procedure by conducting interviews with the respective applicants. Applicants should also have the possibility to consult with other actors such as NGOs, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration. In particular, unaccompanied children should have access to child-rights organizations. Finally, Italy and Greece, with the assistance of EASO, should take a decision to relocate each of the applicants to a specific Member State by taking the preferences as much as possible into account. UNHCR should be consulted on their best practices developed in resettlement including on the management of preferences and specific qualifications.
Amendment 109 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 30 a (new)
Recital 30 a (new)