Development & Aid, Europe, Headlines, Human Rights, Migration & Refugees, Population

EUROPE: Parliament Raises Refugee Rights

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Sep 30 2005 (IPS) - The debate over the European Union’s new asylum policy escalated this week as disparities emerged between European Commission and the European Parliament.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) approved a draft law Tuesday (Sep. 27) setting a minimum standard for asylum seekers across the European Union (EU). They suggested more than 100 changes to the proposals put forward by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, earlier this month.

The vote is not binding, but it sent a strong message to the Commission and to national governments that rules should be tightened to protect the rights of refugees.

The Assembly, meeting in Strasbourg, called on the EU to maintain its common procedures for considering asylum cases “in line with international standards, in particular the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees”, the key legal document in defining who is a refugee, the legal obligations of states and the rights of applicants.

The EU’s asylum policy is currently under scrutiny. The bloc aims to set up a joint asylum policy by 2010.

There are currently more than 20 different systems of asylum within the EU. Justice commissioner Franco Frattini is calling for the treatment of refugees to be harmonised.

The European Commission proposed new rules for the 25 EU nations to establish common standards on immigration and asylum on Sep. 1.

Those proposals aim to limit the number of illegal refugees risking their lives to enter the bloc via the Mediterranean Sea, and to stop “asylum shopping” where refugee applicants try to attain the best social benefits by applying in more than one EU country.

The new proposals must be approved by the European Council (of government leaders) to take effect. But many countries are reluctant to replace national rules on immigration with European regulations. The Commission says common rules are needed to keep illegal immigrants from taking advantage of big differences in procedures to slip from one nation to another.

This week the European Parliament, the only democratically elected EU institution, added its voice to the debate. Although at this stage the Parliament’s amendments are not binding on the European Council, it will have co-decision powers with the Council on refugee and asylum measures once the legislation is adopted.

The main point at issue between the Parliament and the Commission is the concept of ‘super-safe countries’ from where all applicants would be denied refugee status.

MEPs rejected this provision Tuesday. They said it goes against the Geneva Convention, which says governments may not turn refugees away without hearing their case.

MEPs called for the rights of potential refugees to be fully respected so that they have the right of appeal if refused. Refugees must be allowed to stay in the member state until any appeal procedure ends, they said.

The Parliament also slammed proposals to set up more detention centres for immigrants and asylum seekers either in the EU or outside its territory.

In case the European Council does not take the Parliament’s concerns on board, some MEPs said they would consider taking member states that do not respect refugee rights to the European Court of Justice, given the doubts about the legality of the measure.

British Liberal MEP Sarah Ludford has accused EU governments of failing to respect the Geneva Convention.

“The requirements of unanimity among EU governments, and the scapegoating of refugees, have converged to produce shabby ‘lowest common denominator’ legislation where each state has effectively exported its worst asylum practices,” she says in a statement on her website.

There is also disagreement amongst EU states themselves. Countries such as Italy and Malta, which are targets for illegal immigrants, have been pushing for stronger asylum policies, while other member states favour more lenient measures.

Italy and Germany have also been pushing for the EU to consider funding joint asylum centres in North Africa as a way to stop the illegal flow of immigrants into Europe..

In other proposals, the Commission is also considering the creation of “regional protection centres” in sub-Saharan Africa, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine so that asylum seekers could make their applications “as close to their country of origin as possible” before they are considered for entry into the bloc. The Commission is hoping that these measures, which are still in the early stages of planning, will be endorsed by member states next month.

Many EU nations have adopted tighter asylum rules in recent years. The number of asylum applications in the EU fell from 425,000 in 2002 to 282,000 last year, according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.