BRUSSELS: Amnesty International has condemned an EU proposal to set up transit camps for asylum-seekers outside EU borders as unlawful and unworkable.
In an open letter to EU leaders in advance of tomorrow's summit near the Greek city of Thessaloniki, Amnesty warns that the EU's approach to asylum "shows a lack of strategic thinking, the absence of a long-term perspective and an overriding emphasis on control and repression".
Asylum and immigration are the first items on the agenda at the summit and EU leaders will discuss a British proposal to establish processing centres for asylum-seekers outside the EU. Britain's Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw suggested this week that such centres could be established in the Horn of Africa to deal with asylum-seekers closer to their countries of origin.
The leaders are expected to encourage interested member-states to conduct pilot projects along the lines of the British proposal in close co-operation with the UNHCR.
In a study published today, however, Amnesty says that responsibility, enforceability and accountability for refugee protection would be weak and unclear in processing zones outside the EU.
"In Amnesty International's view the proposal contravenes the intent and purpose of the right to seek and enjoy asylum set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the protection regime established by the Refugee Convention, and also seeks to avoid other binding obligations of international human rights law," it says.
Sweden is leading opposition to the British plan but most member-states, including Ireland, are supporting the proposal. The Government has not ruled out participating in a pilot project to assess the proposal's potential to reduce the number of "spontaneous" asylum-seekers arriving in the EU and to offer protection to refugees close to their homes.
Sweden is concerned about the prospect of EU countries transferring asylum-seekers to processing camps outside the EU and Amnesty suggests that such transfers could be illegal. In its letter to EU leaders, Amnesty suggests the proposals fail to address the realities of migration.
"These proposals represent restrictive measures that fail to deal meaningfully and realistically not only with the realities of protecting refugees and asylum-seekers in developing regions, and the causes of onward movement, but also with the current realities of the movement of people, not least of which is that many countries of first asylum cannot offer effective protection or assistance, due to their own political and economic difficulties," it says. Legal migration into the EU is about 0.2 per cent of the population each year.