PRO ASYL Presseerklärung | Press Release

29 March 2004

Meeting of Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers
on 30 March 2004

European human rights organisations call on EU Commission
to withdraw proposal on directive on asylum procedures
PRO ASYL: a mechanism of collective protection-denial

„The European Union is losing its credibility within the international debate on refugee and human rights,“ state a number of refugee and human rights organisations across Europe jointly.

Just before tomorrow’s Council meeting, they urgently ask Commissioner Antonio Vitorino to withdraw the proposal on a directive on asylum procedures. The European umbrella organisations condemn the fact that the directive as it now stands violates international refugee and human rights standards. The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), amnesty international, Caritas Europe, Churches´ Commission for Migrants in Europe, Human Rights Watch and other umbrella organisations feel they have no choice but to demand from the EU the immediate withdrawal of the directive. (the document)

Currently, the gap between the EU proposals and international standards of protection is widening from week to week. The repeated warnings by UNHCR and non-governmental organisations have been ignored for months.

The proposal in its current form not only breaches with the EU’s own commitments in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, it implies Europe’s exit from the international refugee protection system. The „Safe Third Country“ rule the proposal aims at may function as an example: It shifts responsibility for asylum seekers to transit countries and regions of origin. In this case, it would not even be considered if the person in need of protection has any personal links to this country or whether or not he or she is even safe there.

„A so-called directive on asylum procedures that denies the refugee the right to remain in a EU member state until the end of his asylum procedure is factually a mechanism of collective protection-denial,“ says Karl Kopp, member of the Executive Committee of ECRE. According to UNHCR, 30-60% of all negative decision are revoked in second instance. If this proposal actually became European standard, asylum seekers could be sent back to a country in which they are confronted with human rights violations, or even be subjected to chain-refoulement back to the country that persecutes them.