EU state policies systematically hinder refugee
arrivals
JRS report shows such
practices to be widespread in Europe
(Brussels,
7 December 2011) In its latest report, Safe and
Secure: How do Refugees Experience Europe's Borders?,
JRS presents ample evidence that European
governments actively hinder refugee arrivals. The
report will be released at an event
in Brussels on
8 December, from 10:00-13:00, at the Résidence
Palace.
Guy Goodwin-Gill, distinguished refugee scholar, and
Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, from the Vatican,
will be on hand to speak. Three refugees will
present first-hand testimony of their experiences on
the high seas, and with European border controls and
asylum systems.
''This
year the UN Refugee Agency estimates that 2000
migrants lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea
as they fled to Europe seeking protection. While the
‘Arab Spring’ may have ignited the democratic
aspirations of North Africans, it has revealed the
deep-seated aversion of EU states to give forced
migrants access to asylum procedures in Europe”,
says Stefan Kessler, JRS Europe senior policy
officer and editor of their new report.
As Europe commemorates two milestones of human
rights protection – the 60th anniversary of the 1951
UN Refugee Convention, and the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights – JRS urges EU member states to:
-
Respond swiftly to all migrants and refugees in
distress at sea and offer all those intercepted,
including at land borders, access to asylum
procedures to determine whether they are in need
of international protection; and
-
End the practice of forcibly removing migrants
to third countries where their human rights
cannot be effectively protected.
“Sixty years after the adoption of the UN Refugee
Convention, European governments still find ways to
justify the closure of EU borders at the expense of
refugees and forced migrants”, says Kessler.
The experience of one Eritrean refugee, published in
the report, is far too familiar. The boat on which
he was fleeing was intercepted by Greek authorities,
who then confiscated the engine and abandoned its
occupants. He was rescued by fishermen, but detained
upon arrival to Greek shores. More than 15,000 other
people have lost their lives trying to reach safety
in Europe since 1994.
Even those who make it to Europe cannot be
considered safe. The “Dublin Regulation”, an EU law
intended to determine member state responsibility
for examining an asylum application, rests on the
misguided assumption that asylum systems in every EU
state are one in the same. Yet in reality there are
wide variations in national asylum practices in
terms of quality, access and safeguards.
At the beginning of
2011, one-fifth of asylum applications in the UK
were recognised as refugees at the first instance;
in Greece it was just two percent. Moreover, while
many Russian asylum seekers were recognised as
refugees in France, most were given rejections in
Belgium.
“Many asylum seekers are transferred, via the
Dublin Regulation, to EU member states with
inadequate asylum systems. At best, their pleas for
protection are mishandled; at worst, totally
ignored”, says Kessler.
The report also shows how so-called “readmission
agreements” allow EU states to immediately send back migrants
to neighbouring transit countries even if there is a
real risk that their
rights will be abused. In an evaluation undertaken
in February 2011, the European Commission found this
practice potentially exposes forced migrants to
human rights violations.
In recent times, the “Friendship Treaty” between
Berlusconi and Gaddafi in 2008 led to the push back
of thousands of forced migrants – including pregnant
women and children – to Libya in the high
Mediterranean seas.
“Practices such as these are flagrant violations of
our most cherished international legal protection
instruments. Moreover, they undermine the EU’s
publicly-stated commitment to high protection
standards”, says Kessler.
For further
information contact:
Philip Amaral
Policy and
Communications Officer, JRS Europe
europe.advocacy@jrs.net
T: +32 2 250
32 23
F: +32 2 250
32 29
