Foreign territory : the internationalisation of EU asylum policy

Content

 Executive summary: key findings and recommendations
 Introduction
 Refugee realities: the view from the ground
 The EU and asylum: growing influence, global reach
 On EU territory: decisions about safety elsewhere
 On the edges of the EU: ‘managing migration’ from Europe’s neighbours
 Regions of origin (I): new approaches to orderly entry
 Regions of origin (II): enhancing protection or exporting asylum?
 Countries of origin: the root causes of refugee flows
 Summary of recommendations
 Annex 1: Profile of Sri Lanka
 Annex 2: Profile of The United Republic of Tanzania
 Annex 3: Profile of The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Executive summary: key findings and recommendations

The countries of the European Union (EU) host only a small and declining fraction of the world’s 13 million refugees, but there are few more politicised issues than asylum in Europe. European policy makers have already introduced measures to limit and deter asylum seekers, but now asylum policy is being moved overseas. In the past two years alone, EU member states and institutions have presented an array of initiatives with one common theme: instead of receiving asylum seekers on EU territory, they propose to deal with them abroad. All these proposals have real implications for the people who are fleeing for their own safety and often for their lives – implications which European governments have largely failed to consider.

This study measures the fast-moving ‘internationalisation’ of EU asylum policy against the very principles of refugee protection to which the EU has publicly re-affirmed its commitment. We trace asylum policy from EU territory to its borders and periphery, then from nearby transit countries to host countries in regions of origin, and finally to refugees’ own countries.

The report draws together two strands of research. The first analyses the elements of EU policy that make up the internationalised asylum agenda. The second uses field research into refugee realities in Sri Lanka, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Tanzania in order to bring hitherto silent voices into the EU’s discussions.

On EU territory: decisions about safety elsewhere

All asylum seekers are entitled to have their claims individually examined in a full and fair procedure, regardless of their country of origin, their countries of transit, and their method of entry to the EU.

The ‘harmonisation’ of the divergent asylum laws of EU member states focuses on creating minimum standards for domestic systems, but contains two provisions with international implications. Asylum seekers from countries on so-called ‘safe lists’can be rejected without a full hearing. Our research in Sri Lanka demonstrated that no country can or should be designated as ‘safe for all’. The prospect of rejection also confronts asylum seekers who have fled from countries where there are deemed to be ‘non-state agents of protection’. Even the military might of the EU’s Operation Artemis in the Democratic Republic of Congo was only able to provide protection to a few people in a limited area. Both provisions make sweeping assumptions about conditions in countries of origin which could result in asylum seekers being returned to places where their lives and safety may be under threat.

Fulfilment of EU obligations to asylum seekers on their own territory must be the starting point for any global engagement. EU member states must eradicate subjective, selective, and outdated country-of-origin information from their decision-making processes. If states cannot base their domestic procedures on reliable information, there is little hope for the far more ambitious and complex extra-territorial plans.

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Oxfam. - Foreign territory : the internationalisation of EU asylum policy / Oxfam. - Oxford : Oxfam, 2005. - 1 vol. (XI-131 p.) : cartes ; 26 cm. - Notes bibliogr. Index. – ISBN 0-85598-557-7