Justice minister calls for reforms to Schengen/Dublin

Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter says migration will restart after the Covid-19 pandemic Keystone / Tomi Lombar

Swiss Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter has demanded a rapid reform of the Schengen/Dublin agreements, which govern free movement and asylum issues.

Speaking in Slovenia on Thursday at an informal meeting of EU interior ministers, Keller-Sutter said the migration situation was once again tense, pointing to the increasing number of asylum seekers from North Africa coming to Spain and Italy. The increasing number of migrants crossing the border from Belarus to Lithuania was also a cause for concern, she said.

“It’s therefore urgently necessary to agree on the core elements of the reform now, because no major steps have been taken since 2015,” she said, adding that this was something Switzerland regretted.

What’s more, “after coronavirus there may be major migration movements again”, she said. As a result, there must be a willingness to compromise.

“You can’t always hunker down in the trenches and insist on your own point of view. Otherwise we’ll have a situation like in 2015,” she continued, referring to when up to two million migrants and refugees arrived in Europe.

The Schengen agreement permits free movement between signatory states by doing away with systematic checks on individuals at internal borders. The Treaty of Dublin regulates asylum issues between EU states and streamlines the asylum process. Non-EU Switzerland joined Schengen/Dublin in 2005, when 54% of voters backed membership.