EU nations agree deal on asylum seekers
EU nations agreed today on joint rules for dealing with asylum seekers to keep illegal immigrants out while guaranteeing essential rights for genuine refugees.
The political agreement completed the full set of minimum standards the EU nations will have to apply to all refugees seeking asylum in the 15 current and 10 additional nations which will join on Saturday.
“It was the missing element in finalising the common EU asylum programme,” said Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, who chaired the meeting.
The agreement came two days ahead of a five year deadline and failure would have meant any new proposal would have had to be agreed unanimously by all 25 nations.
It now assures “a minimum level of protection and procedural safeguards in all member states for those are genuinely in need of international protection,” said EU Justice Commissioner Antonio Vitorino.
At the same time, the minimum rules will be “preventing abuses of asylum applications which undermine the credibility of the system,” he added.
The ministers wanted to abolish sizeable differences in asylum benefits that exist now among EU nations and eliminate a pick-and-choose regime, in which candidate refugees went to the EU country offering the best conditions.
“It is an important step to avoid asylum shopping,” said German Interior Minister Otto Schily.
Under the minimum rules, the candidate refugees will have right to comprehensive information about their situation, legal assistance, an interview with authorities and any negative result will be subject to judicial scrutiny, Vitorino said.
With such safeguards, he was convinced the deal would stand up in any court. “We are totally sure it is not in breach of the obligations of member states,” he said.
Under the rules, applicants can be sent back to transit countries which are considered safe.
Increasingly, member states have to deal with electorates seeking tougher curbs on illegal immigration and economic migrants seeking to abuse refugee status to find work in Europe.
The deal however is far less ambitious than the original proposals and are likely to be criticised by the United Nations and human rights groups, Vitorino admitted.
“We regret it but is was the best we could get,” the Commissioner said.
In 1999, EU leaders gave ministers five years to come up with a more coherent asylum policy. The deadline was Saturday, when 10 more countries join the bloc.
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