EU ministers agree common asylum rules

All EU countries will apply the same rules to people seeking asylum following a deal agreed by justice ministers meeting in Luxembourg last night.

Aimed at keeping illegal immigrants out, the raft of new standards have been criticised by Amnesty International and a host of organisations as offering no protection to refugees and breaking international laws and standards.

The ministers were facing a deadline of May 1 to agree the set of rules and Justice Minister Michael McDowell, who chaired the meeting, said the agreement was of immense importance.

However, the details of one of the more controversial aspects of the agreement have still to be worked out.

This deals with the concept of safe third countries where EU states especially Britain and Germany want to be able to automatically return people.

They will be able to do this if the refugees have passed through these countries on their way to the EU or if their country of origin is considered to be safe.

Amnesty is particularly critical of this because they say there is not a proper appeal system for asylum seekers before being deported.

The justice ministers agreed with the Irish presidency to deal with this separately and have experts working on drawing up a set of requirements countries would have to meet before they could be considered safe.

One of the aims of the common rules is to stop immigrants going to particular countries because it is easier to gain access or because benefits are better.

Mr McDowell said: "The agreement achieved on this directive is of immense importance. Coupled with the Asylum Qualification Directive, which was adopted today, we have now put in place the final two cornerstones of a common EU asylum system."

Had the 15 ministers failed to reach agreement yesterday the package would then have had to come before the EU 25 following enlargement and get the unanimous support of all countries.

The Justice Commissioner Antonio Vitorino said he was satisfied that the regulations do meet the legal standards and international obligations under the Geneva Convention.

"We are not concerned that there is any watering down of our Treaty requirements or international rights contrary to what some organisations are suggesting," he said.

Work was being done in consultation with the UNHCR and asylum seekers would have access to legal aid and there would be an appeal remedy, he said.

Amnesty and over 70 bodies dealing with refugees in EU member states have said they expect the new laws will be challenged in the courts and they promised to support such legal actions.