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RIGHTS: EU Plans to Keep Asylum Seekers at Bay

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Sep 28 2005 (IPS) - New European Union proposals foresee the creation of ‘regional protection centres’ in sub-Saharan Africa and in three former Soviet states for people seeking asylum in EU member states.

The European Commission, the European Union (EU) executive, wants people seeking asylum to make their applications “as close to their country of origin as possible” before they are considered for entry into the bloc.

The first Regional Protection Programmes (RPPs) are planned in Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, and the second lot in a sub-Saharan location such as the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa.

The Commission says RPPs will deliver direct benefits to refugees and help improve the human rights situation in countries which can host large numbers of Europe-bound refugees.

The backbone of the EU executive’s argument is that most refugees are unable to access the “international protection regime” without recourse to human traffickers. At the same time, a continuing fall in the number of approved asylum applications indicates that the system is being abused by economic migrants searching for better jobs and economic security, it says.

In a statement earlier this month, EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini said the RPPs will “have nothing to do with keeping refugees in camps.” He said the RPPs aim at “increasing protection in the regions of origin, and such an approach will be complementary rather than substituting the Common European Asylum System.”

Frattini’s spokesperson Friso Roscam Abbing told IPS Wednesday that the new programmes will respond to the needs of asylum seekers “closely and quickly”, and will provide them with increased legal and financial protection.

“What’s the point of continuing with a system that is very time-consuming and very costly? We spend billions of euros in EU processing asylum seekers. The new measures will complement the current system and will not substitute the individual rights of people seeking asylum in Europe,” he said.

“This is not about building a fortress Europe, but a better modality for asylum to stop irregular asylum movement, and to stop people dying every day in the Mediterranean as they are trying to get to EU,” he added.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which was consulted on several occasions by the European Commission, cautiously welcomed the proposals.

“We are still reading details of communication but our initial response is that we welcome the engagement of the EU and its commitment to strengthening its asylum system,” William Spindler from UNHCR told IPS.

But Spindler says the UNHCR wants a guarantee that the proposals are complementary to existing asylum provisions, so that EU member states do not default on their obligations.

“It is important that these measures do not prevent asylum seekers from entering the EU, and still provide full access for them,” he said. If they do, “then we would oppose the proposals as this would be a violation of international obligations. However, as far as we can see that’s not what is being proposed, and that’s why we have provided our input.”

Roscam Abbing acknowledges such concerns, but says the proposed plans offer a balanced solution.

“Immigration will be limited because of course we don’t have 50 million jobs to offer, but it is also clear that many asylum seekers and the EU will benefit,” he said. “It’s fine to be very critical about this approach but can I hear the alternatives?”

The UNCHR says Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova must be fully consulted over the proposals. “These countries will need help to strengthen their asylum policies, more training, capacity to receive asylum seekers, improved infrastructure,” said Spindler.

Many immigration experts are calling for more debate on the plans.

Ferruccio Pastore, research fellow at the Centro Studi di Politica Internazionale, a development institute based in Rome, told IPS that he welcomes the Commission’s proposals, but that the communication is “very preliminary”.

Pastore says nothing could be worse than the current situation where African refugees die crossing the Sahara or the sea. But he warns that in practice “the risk that Regional Protection Centres turn out to be just a way to distance asylum seekers from potential host countries is quite high.”

European justice and home affairs ministers are set to endorse the proposals at their next meeting in Luxembourg Oct. 12. The Commission will then draw up concrete proposals to be presented at the European Council of EU leaders in December.