  Refugee policy in Europe

The interior ministers of six EU member states met at the summit of the Zugspitze mountain in Germany on Friday, hoping to reach an agreement on tightening Europe's asylum and migration policy. The proposed measures include more deportations and the transfer of asylum procedures to third countries. Against this backdrop and in light of the recent far-right riots in Spain, commentators debate whether Europe's migration policy is on the right track.

Hundreds of migrants arrive on the Greek island of Crete via Libya every day. The Greek government has now decided to suspend processing of the asylum applications of refugees arriving by boat for an initial period of three months. New arrivals are to be 'arrested and detained,' Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced. In addition, a detention camp for migrants is to be set up on the island. The national press is of two minds about the initiative.

EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner, accompanied by the responsible ministers from Italy, Greece and Malta, travelled to Libya, which is currently de facto divided into eastern and western Libya, on Tuesday to discuss the refugee situation. The delegation was successful in Tripoli in western Libya, but the regime in eastern Libya, which the EU has not recognised as legitimate, denied it entry at Benghazi airport. What geopolitical forces are behind the incident and what impact will it have on the migration issue?

In recent weeks, the number of refugees trying to reach Europe via Libya has increased substantially. Now Athens plans to use the navy to patrol the Libyan coast and ward them off. The message Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wants to send: people smugglers won't be allowed to dictate who comes to Greece. The national press is divided.

A Berlin court has ruled that it is against EU law for border police to refuse entry to asylum seekers found on German territory during border controls, and that Germany violated asylum law when it sent back three Somali nationals at its border with Poland. The ruling comes after Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt ordered stepped-up border controls and authorised expulsions in May. Commentators take different views of the judgement.

The Greek government has announced plans to tighten the immigration laws. Illegal residence in the country is to be punishable with up to five years in prison and the maximum period of detention pending deportation will increase from 18 to 24 months. In addition, previous provisions which gave irregular immigrants the chance to obtain a residence permit after seven years in the country, is to be abolished.

A majority of the German Bundestag on Wednesday approved a non-binding motion put forward by the CDU/CSU faction to tighten the country's migration policy, which includes the introduction of permanent border controls. The vote was hotly contested as it passed with the votes of the AfD, which is classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist organisation. Europe's press weighs in.