EU - Stricter Immigration Rules Planned
The European Parliament voted on sweeping reforms to the European Union’s migration and asylum rules.
The new EU Asylum and Migration Pact aims to manage the impact of migration to the bloc by accelerating the rejection of invalid applications and by sharing the burden of processing asylum requests more evenly among member states.
Under the new system, migrants illegally entering the EU will undergo identity, health and security checks, including biometric readings of faces and fingerprints, within seven days.
The procedure aims to determine which migrants should receive an accelerated or normal asylum application process, and which ones should be sent back to their country of origin or transit.
Children are to receive special treatment, with countries obliged to install independent monitoring mechanisms to ensure rights are upheld.
Under the new rules, the “first-country” principle will remain but additional measures including a “mandatory solidarity mechanism” would oblige other member states to shoulder a fairer share of the burden.
-www.dw.com, 10 April 2024
Arno's Commentary
The World Bank shows that from the low in 2004 of 13 million people fleeing their country in the attempt to receive refugee status, it skyrocketed to over 35 million in 2022.
What to do with refugees has caused considerable headaches for many politicians. In some of the European states, politicians openly declare, “Keep foreigners out!” That seems to be a simple solution, but it’s impossible to keep. This was clearly demonstrated in a Jerusalem Post article several years ago, which stated that in Israel, more than 20,000 illegal workers were in the country. How is that possible? Israel is the most secure country with excellent border protections and intelligence gathering.
There are many reasons why people take life-threatening risks to leave everything behind, in the hopes of participating in the prosperity and security of, in this case, Europe.
What does the Bible say? Here the proclamation of Jeremiah 22:3: “Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.”
While this issue is primarily political, we must remind ourselves that many immigrants have, for the first time, directly heard the most stunning verse in Scripture: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
