PRO ASYL Presseerklärung | Press Release
19th of June, 2003
EU-summit in Thessaloniki – World Refugee Day
Broad coalition warns EU member states against transferring
refugee protection to states outside the EU.
Criticism of the plans of the British government and the UNHCR
- EU-Gipfel in Thessaloniki – Weltflüchtlingstag
Breites Bündnis warnt die EU-Staaten vor der Auslagerung des FlüchtlingsschutzesKritik an Plänen der britischen Regierung und des UNHCR - EU-summit in Thessaloniki – World Refugee Day
Broad coalition warns EU member states against transferring refugee protection to states outside the EU.
Criticism of the plans of the British government and the UNHCR
RESOURCES
International Protection and reception in the region
INFO
(partially translated)
This is a machine translation by the IBM-supported PERSONAL TRANSLATOR plus. It is slightly edited by combining its results with the translation of SYSTRAN. But you should not rely on it. If you want to use a translated text append or reference the original text.
A broad coalition of charity and human rights organizations, as well as jurists‘ organizations warns against both the plans of the British government and the ideas of the UNHCR regarding the reorganization of refugee protection in Europe. The issue will be on the agenda of the EU-summit taking place in Thessaloniki this Friday.
The Blair-government plans to return refugees arriving in Europe as quickly as possible to receiving refugee camps close to their regions of origin. The organizations criticize that such a refugee politics is not compatible with the committments resulting from the Geneva Refugee Convention. They argue that about 3/4 of all refugees in the world live in developing countries anyway and that the number of asylum applications in the EU has decreased by more than half during the last decade. It would thus not be justified to create dramatic scenarios regarding comparatively low numbers of refugees and to thereby make the public believe that the main burden of the refugee problem rests on the shoulders of the European Union. The British model is seen as resulting in a withdrawal of an entire region from the committments of the Geneva Refugee Convention. Instead of granting international legal protection, there would be humanitarian aid.
The proposal of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , Rudd Lubbers, to establish closed receiving centres at the borders of the European Union, on the territory of future EU-member states, has also come under criticism. Asylum applications of those emigrating from secure countries of origin presumably for economic reasons are supposed to be processed in a shortened procedure, lasting only one month. Such a procedure could only be implemented by accepting severe deficencies regarding legal protection. Supporting diverse procedure standards is seen as contradicting traditional UNHCR politics. The idea that such procedures could be carried through in one month’s time is seen as illusionary. Staying in the planned „closed reception centres“ for indefinite periods will be the result of such plans, warn the signatory organizations.
