Immigration security

EU to pressure refugees’ home countries with visa restrictions to make them take back their citizens

Countries unwilling to take back citizens that arrived in Europe via irregular channels will face EU visa restrictions. The migration crisis remains one of the prime irritants in the bloc, with some members highly critical of how Brussels has handled it.

The decision to apply pressure through visa restrictions was taken during the two-day summit of EU leaders that ended in Brussels on Friday, Reuters reported. The agency named Bangladesh and Nigeria as potential targets for such measures.

The EU considers many of the people seeking asylum in member countries to be economic migrants and seeks to send them home. Under European rules, this would be tricky with refugees that fled countries like Syria, where peoples’ lives could be in danger.