EU plans to admit more refugees

The scheme is aimed at discouraging immigrants – mainly from Africa – from attempting to reach Europe illegally. Many risk their lives as they try to enter the EU, often on rickety boats and relying on human traffickers.

The UN says 65,596 refugees were resettled worldwide last year, but the EU accepted just 4,378, or 6.7%. The Commission – the EU’s executive arm – says this "contrasts sharply with the numbers taken in by many other countries in the industrialized world, particularly the US, Canada and Australia".

Different priorities

Currently 10 EU member states operate annual national resettlement programs, including the UK, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. Some other member states, including Italy and Germany, resettle refugees on an ad hoc basis.

Germany, Luxembourg, Italy and Belgium have made specific commitments to resettle Iraqi refugees from Syria and Jordan, following discussions in November 2008, the Commission says. In such cases, the resettlement procedure is "fundamentally different" from the regular asylum procedure, the Commission says. "For a resettled refugee, the legal determination that the person in question is a refugee, that he/she deserves protection and that he/she qualifies for resettlement, takes place before the refugee is effectively transferred.

"In contrast, the normal procedure for determining refugee status commences with the request of the asylum seeker, after the arrival of the asylum seeker in an EU member state," the Commission says. Responding to the Commission’s announcement, a leading British Conservative MEP, Timothy Kirkhope, warned that the Commission’s "collective approach… could undermine our ability to decide who we grant asylum to and who we allow into our country".

"We need cast-iron guarantees that this will not be the next step towards our asylum policy being decided by Brussels," he said.

Source: Africa daily