Bid to end hostility faced by refugees

Date: 10/12/1998

By Gareth Harding

THE European Commission will next week unveil a 20-million-ecu action plan designed to ensure that asylum-seekers do not face discrimination once they have been given the right to stay in an EU member state.

Although recent figures show that the number of asylum-seekers and refugees is levelling out across Europe and even falling slightly in some countries, there is still a widespread belief that the EU is being 'flooded' with migrants fleeing persecution.

The Commission, along with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has already launched a Europe-wide public awareness campaign to stem a growing backlash against 'displaced persons'.

Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn said recent discussions in the Council of Ministers on sharing the burden of coping with refugees had underlined his view that “the issue is now a European one”. However, until the Amsterdam Treaty is ratified, the Commission lacks a legal basis to deal with refugees.

This has not stopped the Commission funding more than 100 pilot projects designed to promote a more coordinated integration of displaced persons in the last two years.

The joint publicity campaign with the UNHCR features a hard-hitting series of television and radio adverts to be broadcast across the continent. Its aim is to drive home the message that “refugees deserve trust and acceptance, not hostility”.

The Commission will also fund Red Cross programmes to integrate refugees and support the European Council for Refugees and Exiles, a Brussels-based coalition of groups.

In addition, the Commission is expected to approve a programme to improve reception facilities for asylum-seekers and help people to return voluntarily to their country of origin.