In "How to Read the Air," a novel by Dinaw Mengestu published last year, the narrator, Jonas Woldemariam, describes how he worked for a spell at a refugee resettlement center in Manhattan, sorting the applications of asylum seekers — and, at times, embellishing them.
Critics say the mass expulsion would violate EU regulations and the UN Refugee Convention, which mandates that countries who have signed it examine the application of all asylum seekers.
There are no details about the sex of each of the applicants nor for the number of asylum applications received this year.
It is a potentially risky move, given his application for an extension of asylum is up for renewal next year, so why do it?
Powerful Germany backs the plan - loudly - as the country that receives the lion share of asylum application in Europe- 200,000 last year alone.
Italy turned down around 60% of of asylum applications made in the country in 2015 but numbers of applications are low because many people want to reach countries such as Germany, Sweden or the UK.
About 70percentt of asylum applications fail because the government determines the applicants to be economic migrants rather than people who need political protection.
The European Union is expected to receive its highest-ever annual number of asylum applications by the end of this year, after a record-breaking 626,000 applications were reviewed in 2014.
This is against a backdrop of declining numbers of asylum applications across Europe over the past decade – in particular, UNHCR report a drop of 33% in applications in southern EU member states between 2009 and 2010.
The stated purpose of the treaty is "promoting the orderly handling of asylum applications".
