EU ‘must share burden of asylum’

European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has criticised EU member states for not sharing the burden of handling refugees and those trying to enter Europe from Africa and other places. Also, the European Commission wants EU states to consider creating a single procedure for assessing asylum applications, and a single protection status for people allowed into the EU on humanitarian grounds.

European Commission: Press Release: IP/07/768: Designing the future Common European Asylum System - increasing efficiency, protection, solidarity and facilitating integration http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/768&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

European Commission: MEMO/07/229: Green Paper on the future Common European Asylum System http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/07/229&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

BBC News, 6.6.07: Europe considers single asylum policy http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6726045.stm

United Nations: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home

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