Joint Statement: New EU leadership must uphold the right to asylum in Europe
Ahead of the first plenary of the newly elected European Parliament, 95 human rights and humanitarian organisations are calling on the new EU leadership to take a firm stance to maintain the right to asylum and the rule of law.
Posted on 09 Jul 2024
The organizations, which include Amnesty International, the Danish Refugee Council, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam, are alarmed by recent attempts from several EU countries to evade or ‘externalize’ their international legal responsibilities, by shifting asylum processing and refugee protection to countries outside the EU.These controversial proposals seek to dismantle the core tenet of international protection: that people under a jurisdiction have a right to seek asylum in that jurisdiction and have that claim fairly examined.
“Externalising asylum processing and refugee protection has serious consequences for refugees’ rights. The EU needs a reality check: the majority of refugees – indeed 75% - are hosted in low- and middle-income countries. Equitable responsibility-sharing and safeguarding people’s right to seek asylum in the EU are necessary to ensure refugee protection globally.” said Céline Mias, DRC Brussels, EU Director.
The EU needs a reality check: the majority of refugees – indeed 75% - are hosted in low- and middle-income countries.
/ Céline Mias, DRC Brussels, EU Director.
Wherever these schemes have been attempted, they have been rife with rights violations, placing countless people in prolonged arbitrary detention and an unbearable legal limbo, denying them crucial legal safeguards and guarantees, while costing taxpayers inordinate sums.
At a time when 75% of refugees worldwide are hosted by low and middle-income countries, these proposals send a dangerous signal about EU countries’ lack of commitment to the rule of law, international treaties, and the global refugee protection system.
In a public statement issued today, the organizations call on the EU to abandon these proposals which stand in stark contrast to existing EU law and the recently agreed EU Migration Pact.
Instead, the EU must support humane, sustainable and realistic migration and asylum policies that benefit both people seeking safety and the communities that welcome them.
The statement follows a letter by 15 member states calling on the European Commission to explore possibilities for external processing of asylum claims, including through changes to EU law. European Commission President von der Leyen wrote at the end of June that these “innovative ideas […] will certainly deserve our attention” in the new political cycle.
These proposals build on a long line of measures geared at preventing the arrival of people seeking asylum in the EU through agreements with countries outside of the EU, with little to no attention paid to the human rights records of those authorities.
These partnerships have already resulted in countless human rights violations and demonstrated the EU’s limited ability or interest in monitoring or enforcing human rights standards outside of EU territory when it comes to migration.