Sunak and Starmer fail to convince on immigration at PMQs
Spectator (UK)Dec 27, 2022
The Facts
On Thursday, the EU agreed to reforms of its migration and asylum laws that would ease the pressure on frontline countries after 12 hours of negotiations in Luxembourg and several years of disagreement.
The European Commission has proposed transferring migrants, mostly from Italy and Greece, to nations that don't host migrants or asylum seekers, who would pay a €20K ($21.5K) fine per each refugee refused.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
The European Council's compromise decision is an important and historic step in addressing the refugee crisis. Italy and Greece are popular destinations for refugees and asylum seekers and have been overwhelmed by the numbers. The new system will provide funding as well as the opportunity to transfer some of the refugees to other EU member states and empower countries to extradite migrants as they see fit.
Establishment-critical narrative
The compromise will not actually fix the chronic deficiencies in the EU asylum system; it will only see the EU fulfill its desire to barricade Europe from asylum-seekers. The agreement is a plan for Europe to buy itself out of its responsibility to welcome refugees and exert pressure on non-EU countries to take on Europe's duty. It's a system built to fail.
