RIGHTS-EU: Move to Toughen Asylum Law

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Greta Hopkins

BRUSSELS, Jun 21 2002 (IPS) - A draft asylum law adopted by the European Commission will erode rights to seek refuge in Europe, human rights groups say.

The draft law proposed by the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union (EU) sets common basic standards on how asylum seekers should be treated by all member countries of the EU.

A common asylum policy is being debated at a meeting of EU heads of government in Seville in Spain June 21 and 22.

The draft law seeks to introduce new categories of asylum seekers who would face “accelerated procedures” over an earlier proposal in September 2000. The earlier draft was rejected because it sought to place several constraints on member states, and required them to change national procedures.

The new draft law provides for rapid preliminary examination of repeat applications, and it allows member states to reject asylum seekers at the border. It continues to give member states power to deport rejected asylum seekers before a decision is made on their appeals.

The draft law would allow member states to establish a list of “safe third countries” from where all applications would be considered bogus.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is among EU leaders pushing for a common system to help beat “asylum-shopping”. This means migrants choose the easiest EU nation to enter, and then seek out the nation with the most favourable conditions.

United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson has urged EU leaders to bring a sense of proportion to talks in Seville. She says asylum applications in Europe are already seven per cent lower in the first quarter of this year from the final quarter of last year.

Charlotte Altenhoner, legal officer at the London-based European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), a coalition of 72 refugee-assisting agencies working in 28 countries, told IPS that some provisions in the draft law could violate the Geneva Convention on Refugees and the European Convention on Human Rights. The Geneva Convention, for example, forbids return of asylum seekers to a country where they would be in danger.

The United Nations Commission for Human Rights (UNHCR) says that applicants waiting for the results of thier appeal must be allowed stay in a safe country. The draft law threatens this right, says UNHCR spokesman Diederik Kramers. “It would hardly allow protection for refugees arriving from dangerous hotspots,” he told IPS.

The UNHCR is also concerned about the proposal for a list of “safe third countries”. Kramers gives the example of an asylum applicant from Angola who arrives through Zambia to Europe. Since Zambia is considered “safe”, the EU state could send the Angolan back to Zambia without even processing an asylum application. The draft law does not require member states to ensure that the applicant can claim asylum procedure in the third state.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement to mark World Refugee Day Thursday that an increasing number of countries appear determined to close their borders to refugees, “breaking with half a century of accumulated international norms and practices.” In several countries in the industrialised world, “asylum seekers are being stigmatised as potential criminals,” he said.

Fast-track processing of asylum applications reduces the chance of a fair hearing, says Altenhoner. Asylum seekers may be put on fast track because they have not complied with a procedural requirement such as respecting a deadline, or destroying travel documents, she says.

Rights activists say that asylum seekers are often rejected at the border. This could happen because of incorrect or incomplete information. Altenhoner says asylum seekers are often forced to destroy their identity papers to escape persecution.

Altenhoner says that the draft law provides for standardising procedures at the lowest level, rather than at the level of states that respect asylum rights most. “We fear that other member states may rush to change their laws so they can also benefit from lower asylum standards,” she told IPS.