EU Referendum


Asylum seekers: this critical hour


15/01/2015



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"Conflicts in our neighbourhood generate a constant influx of refugees towards Europe. This will not go away. On the contrary, if decisive and coordinated EU-wide action is not taken, the flows will continue".

So said Dimitris Avramopoulos, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, in Strasbourg on Tuesday (pictured). He was opening a European Parliament debate, telling those few MEPs who could be bothered to attend that the European Commission was "determined to take action".

The need has been made all the more urgent appearance of the cargo vessels, the Blue Sky M and the Ezadeen over Christmas and the New Year, necessitating the intervention of the Italian Coastguard to save the lives of around 1,200 migrants.

A little while ago, the Mail informed us that there had been six such ships in December, but Avramopoulos has now revealed that more than 12 cargo ships had arrived in Europe since September. Many more people had risked their lives coming in numerous small boats or via land borders.

When it comes to action, though, the Commissioner is focused almost entirely on one aspect of the problem. "We cannot", he says, "allow ruthless smugglers to make a fortune through criminal acts, exploiting migrants looking for a safe passage to Europe". People in need of protection, he declares, should not be risking their lives to obtain this protection.

Therein, he betrays the inherent contradictions in the EU's approach, which is poisoning its policy.

One the one hand, there is Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, which recognises the right of persons to seek asylum from persecution in other countries. And, with the Lisbon Treaty, this has been incorporated the Charter of Fundamental Rights (Article 18), making it part of the EU acquis.

On the other hand, EU law does not provide for ways to facilitate the arrival of asylum seekers. Individuals who wish to seek asylum in the EU are primarily nationals of countries requiring a visa to enter the EU. As these individuals often do not qualify for an ordinary visa, many of them are forced to cross the border in an "irregular" manner.

In other words, although EU law gives third country nationals rights of asylum, they effectively have to break the law by entering the territories of EU Member States illegally, in order to exercise those rights.

Attempting to exercise the right so generously offered by Member States, Mr Avramopoulos tells us that, in 2014, more than 276,000 migrants arrived in the EU representing an increase of 138 percent compared to the previous year.

You would think with those numbers and that increase, the emphasis would be on further measures to prevent them entering the EU, but not a bit of it. Mr Avramopoulos is mainly concerned with smugglers whom, he says, are finding new routes to Europe and are employing new methods in order to exploit desperate people who are trying to escape conflict and war.

In order to respond to the constantly evolving strategies of smugglers, he says, "the European Union, its agencies and the Member States have to step-up their cooperation and common action in a spirit of solidarity and responsibility. Better coordination and a more comprehensive approach will help to address the roots of the current flows of irregular migrants and of smuggling".

He thus "elaborates" on "the fight against smuggling and the rescue of migrants at sea", before talking about an "integrated approach" which effectively means spending millions of euros for humanitarian and other aid.

The ultimate plan to defeat the smugglers, though, is to let the asylum seekers in. That's very much what MEP Cecilia Wikström thought. "Smugglers exploit their desperation for money", she declared. "Our job is to take this business idea away from the smugglers" and create legal paths to the EU and humanitarian visas, she said.

Avramopoulos doesn't disagree. "The EU and the Member States must work together to establish a truly European programme for the resettlement of refugees", he said. Following a recent pledging conference Member States have so far offered over a total of 36,000 places to Syrian refugees, making it the largest pledge in the history of EU resettlement efforts.

However, Avramopoulos adds, overall 207,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean irregularly, and more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees have fled to  neighbouring countries. So Europe needs to do more. "We have to increase the number of refugees resettled in EU countries".

"In order to ensure that Member States share this responsibility", he says, "the Commission has set up a resettlement and relocation forum to develop, in cooperation with Member States, a fair distribution key".

The Commissioner goes on: "In this critical hour, where Europe is facing a growing number of challenges, the EU and the Member States, together, have to take credible and effective action on migration. Europe has to take charge. We have no time to spare. Together, we will move forward with commitment and resolve".

And with that, as the hour of Europe came and went, the MEPs debated the issues. In the Westminster Parliament, though, they were dealing with something far more important: whether the Greens should be allowed to join the televised debate on the general election.