By IPS Correspondents
BRUSSELS, Mar 30 2004 (IPS)

The head of the United Nations refugee agency, and human rights groups say lives may be at risk if the EU approves tough new asylum rules.

European Union (EU) ministers met Tuesday (Mar. 30) to agree a pan-European asylum policy before 10 new states (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia) join the bloc May 1.

But Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees and a group of human rights groups led by Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), say that the new criteria proposed for refugee status may breach international law.

The EU agreed to establish a set of common asylum rules in October 1999. The two latest proposals to this end are most under fire.

The first is the draft qualification directive which lays down who qualifies as a refugee or for subsidiary protection. The latter provision is substantially for war victims.

The second, the draft asylum procedures directive, sets out how decisions should be reached in individual cases.

The numbers of asylum seekers coming into the EU "has dropped sharply and is continuing to do so," Lubbers said in a statement Monday. "There is no need to focus so single-mindedly on reducing standards and trying to deter or deny protection to as many people as possible."

Campaigners accuse EU members of ignoring recommendations by international experts.

The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are particularly concerned about the setting up of minimum procedures in member states for examining applications for asylum.

They say the proposals do not guarantee a right for all asylum seekers to remain in a country where they have sought asylum while the appeal is being processed. The NGOs have called on Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino to withdraw this directive. The organisations say this violates EU member states’ international obligations. It could "amount to an effective denial of the right to seek asylum under international law," Lubbers said. "The cumulative effect of these proposed measures is that the EU will greatly increase the chances of real refugees being forced back to their home countries."

Amnesty agrees. "We feel we have no option but to call on the EU to scrap this proposal on asylum procedures which has been shaped in reaction to populist pressures and fears whipped up about a non-existent flood of refugees into the EU," Daphne Bouteillet Paquet of Amnesty told media representatives Monday.

ECRE says it regrets that the "repeated recommendations from the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and civil society organisations have been ignored by member states."

"We know negotiations are not yet finalised, " said Maria-Teresa Gil-Bazo from ECRE. "But in the lead-up to the May deadline, the gap between the proposals on the table and international law is actually growing rather than narrowing."

The groups are also concerned about the "safe third country" concept under which asylum seekers may be sent back to another country designated as "safe".

The organisations condemn the fact that the directive will leave critical issues such as detention of asylum seekers and the right to legal assistance to the discretion of members states.

"This proposal would deny some asylum seekers access to full and fair procedures, and it would transfer them to countries outside Europe," said Ben Ward of HRW. "We’re deeply concerned that the EU is trying to get other countries to shoulder its responsibilities."

Lubbers added that Europe should be "proud of its tradition of giving asylum, of saving lives" and said it would be a "real pity" if it were to undermine the "great tradition of protecting real refugees."

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