EU to vet asylum claims in Africa, Ukraine

By David Cronin

Date: 06/10/05

Pilot schemes for registering asylum-seekers outside the EU's territory will be set up in 2006 under plans to be approved by the Union's governments next week (12-13 October).

Tanzania and Ukraine have been identified as the probable locations for the first EU-funded 'regional protection programmes'. These would register those who have been identified as people "of concern" to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), as well as assist the national authorities of these countries in establishing a procedure for determining who qualifies for asylum.

It is also envisaged that EU states would agree on a voluntary basis to resettle refugees by offering them places to stay within their territories.

The idea follows more controversial plans put forward by the UK in 2003 and Italy in 2004. The British blueprint had suggested that the EU set up centres for processing asylum requests in countries beyond the Union's borders. Some critics of the British proposal argued that such centres would be tantamount to concentration camps.

But a paper published by the European Commission last month contained no provision on the external processing of asylum bids.

Justice and interior ministers will next week ask the Commission to present more detailed recommendations by the end of November.

In a document drawn up for the Luxembourg meeting, the programmes are described as "a first step" towards "durable solutions for those in need of international protection, as quickly and as close to their home as possible".

Diederik Kramers, Brussels spokesman for the UNHCR, said that measures to boost the protection of refugees in the regions where they originate from would be welcome. But he added that the programmes "cannot be used as a means to shift responsibilities out of the European Union", given that EU states have obligations under international law to shield those fleeing persecution.

Amnesty International has expressed concern that rather than offering protection, the programmes could be used for curbing migration into Europe. "We are calling on the EU to weigh carefully the global impact of these programmes, rather than rushing from one new concept to another," said Daphné Bouteillet-Paquet, Amnesty's justice and home affairs officer.

Peer Baneke from the European Council on Refugees and Exile, an umbrella group of organisations working on asylum questions, said he was "pleased in general terms that the debate has moved to being solidly protection-oriented". But he added that the groups would "stay vigilant" regarding EU standards on helping refugees.

Friso Roscam Abbing, a Commission spokesman, said that the programmes would enhance refugee protection. "We need to ensure that refugees have access to effective protection sooner and closer to their countries of origin than they do now," he said.

Article anticipates the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council, Luxembourg, 12-13 October 2005. Ministers were to discuss pilot schemes for registering asylum-seekers outside the EU's territory, which were expected to be set up in 2006.

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