EU's landmark asylum reform takes effect
A police officer speaks with migrants and asylum-seekers in Gran Canaria island, Spain, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
A major reform of European migration rules aimed at hardening border procedures and overhauling the asylum process came into force on June 12.
"For the first time we have a comprehensive European system," said the EU's migration chief Magnus Brunner, maintaining the reform would hand EU nations more control over comings and goings.
Migrants irregularly entering the European Union will undergo identity and security checks in a process lasting up to seven days.I dentity documents and biometric readings of their faces and fingerprints will be recorded in a database. The screening aims to determine who should receive an accelerated or normal asylum application process, and who should be sent back to their country of origin or transit.
