Assita Kanko: “The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum is still a missed opportunity”

The European Parliament finally voted on a new migration pact. MEP Assita Kanko acknowledges that the pact is based on good intentions, but points to the half-solutions it offers. “In the end, this pact is still a missed opportunity. It will not prevent the uncontrolled influx of migrants.”

“The new Pact on Migration and Asylum does nothing to prevent the uncontrolled influx helped by migrant smugglers. That is why I think that the agreement is totally inadequate on this point. Will these measures reduce the pressure on our society? I’m slightly more positive about this. I expect that handling unsuccessful asylum applications directly at the European external borders will reduce the number of secondary movements. I was directly involved in the negotiations on this myself. The expansion of the Eurodac and ECRIS databases will help all the agencies involved. We can thus support the Pact on these points. Not the others.”

Eurodac is the European database in which the fingerprints of asylum seekers are stored. This helps prevent secondary movements. ECRIS is the European database in which countries must be able to access any criminal records of asylum seekers.

“Finally, I have to add something,” says Assita Kanko. “The Vlaams Belang party thought a lot of themselves when they submitted a few amendments during the voting, knowing that it has no chance now. These measures have been negotiated for eight years, and I have not seen the Vlaams Belang MPs anywhere in these negotiations in the past five years. I say to the voter: Don’t fall into the trap. The Vlaams Belang has achieved nothing for you in the migration debate. The N-VA has however achieved something for you, even though it is still far from perfect. We are doing our parliamentary work!” Kanko concludes.