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Political asylum seekers hit by EU policy

By Johan Huizinga*

17-08-2007

European Union policy aimed at keeping out immigrants from North and West Africa seems to be working. The influx of refugees from West Africa to the Spanish Canary Islands more than halved in the first half of 2007. But refugee organisations are warning of the consequences for political refugees. Political asylum seekers trying to reach Europe hardly have any options left.

Africans risking the extremely hazardous journey by sea to the Canary Islands

A year ago Spain was still struggling to cope with an endless influx of refugees trying to reach the Spanish Canary Islands from West Africa in flimsy boats. Particularly, the EU countries on the Mediterranean which deal directly with the stream of refugees called for coordinated European action.

Although their European partners mainly limited themselves to verbal expressions of support, the modest European initiatives are beginning to bear fruit. Under the leadership of Frontex, the European agency charged with guarding the EU's external borders, joint sea and air patrols are being carried out off the African coastline. The flow of boat people to the Canary Islands has already fallen by 60 percent this year.

Deportation
But the patrol policy is only part of the story. Spain has also signed a variety of "readmission agreements" with West African countries, allowing Madrid to send boat people back. Spain is now deporting a considerably higher number of illegal immigrants than it has done in previous years. The same goes for Italy, which has signed a comparable agreement with Libya.

Green cards The present tightened Spanish policy contrasts sharply with the situation a year ago. Then Madrid was still being heavily criticised by its European partners because the Zapatero government wanted to legalise hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. According to Amaya Valcarcel, the policy change is purely down to the current political situation. Last year the opposition fiercely attacked the government's legalisation policy. With next year's elections approaching, the socialist government won't risk a new round of legalisation. Nevertheless, Spain's economic growth is still partly based on cheap immigrant labour. But the rate of growth is slowing in sectors like construction. And the country still has around 700,000 illegal immigrants. So for the Zapatero government there is scope for a stricter policy on immigration and illegal immigrants, even if it's only temporary, in the run-up to the election.  Amaya Valcarcel adds that Spain now wants to start selecting the people the economy needs. This kind of "green card policy" is gaining popularity in Europe. But it provides no real solution to the problem of economic and political refugees in North Africa.

This might sound like music to the ears of European policy makers, but refugee organisations are far from happy. Shifting the external borders of Europe towards Africa creates a sort of buffer zone in North Africa, in which refugees are more or less beyond the protection of the law, warns Amaya Valcarcel of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance, CEAR.

She cites the example of 400 refugees in Morocco who have been granted refugee status by the UN."But although Morocco has signed the refugee treaty, it won't give them the papers they need. So they are temporarily sent back to Algeria, sometimes in dreadful conditions."Embassies
Political refugees are therefore in danger of becoming the victims of the European policy that aims to keep out all refugees and have them dealt with  in the region from which they come. What's more, hardly any EU countries still allow political refugees to claim asylum at their embassies.

The Netherlands has also ended this possibility, confirms Trees Wijn of the Dutch Council for Refugees. Only Spain and one or two other EU countries still allow it. But in practice, very few people are granted asylum through an embassy.

Boat people are being sent back before they reach Europe and without any procedure to distinguish political refugees from people coming to Europe for economic reasons. Europe prefers to refer refugees to UNHCR centres, for example in Morocco and Egypt. But even if one of these centres grants them refugee status, they still remain dependent on the goodwill of EU countries to take them in. Each year, the Netherlands accepts around 500 of these political refugees.

Plans to set up joint European asylum offices in North Africa haven't got beyond the stage of good intentions, says Jeroen Doomernik of the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies in Amsterdam.

Humanitarian disaster
The situation is "extremely worrying", says Trees Wijn of the Dutch Council for Refugees. "People are taking ever greater risks to reach Europe. The result is that thousands of people are drowning or dying of thirst. Europe doesn't actually have any answer to this humanitarian disaster. The only thing Europe can agree on is closing off its borders."

The European Union is aware of the negative side-effects of the tightened patrol and repatriation policy. But if you ask the staff at the European Commission, they can only refer you to documents containing lots of good intentions.

* RNW translation (mb)

Reaction(s):

Foreign Students Witwaterand University, 18-05-2008 - South Africa

Dear, Please inform UNHCR/Pretoria to protect us a situation secreted to prepare against the foreign students at the university of Witwaterands, about the attack against the foreigners in the town of Johannesburg, there is more than 600 foreign students in totality in the university. Please keep my anonymous name for my protection of my life. MK Johannesburg

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