Czechia among seventeen European countries asking EU for more efficient return of migrants

Czechia is among seventeen countries that have submitted a ‘non-paper’ to the European Commission in Brussels, calling for a faster and more efficient return of migrants, whose asylum requests have been rejected, to their country of origin. The non-paper, which is currently only intended to be discussed by Commission officials, was put together by Austria and the Netherlands, and supported by EU member states including Germany, France and Sweden, as well as the non-EU countries of Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein. The document proposes to strengthen the consequences for those asylum seekers who have been ordered to return to their home country but have not yet departed, and to make the process quicker and more efficient.

This document comes ahead of a meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg, and forms part of the new Dutch government’s tougher stance on immigration. The request would see individual European governments empowered to carry out deportation from Europe "with full respect for fundamental rights".