The impetus at Tampere for the creation of a common European immigration and asylum system is causing concern among human rights and refugee NGOs which fear that the real agenda is about making access to EU states for legitimate refugees more difficult, Patrick Smyth writes.
The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), a forum for NGOs working with refugees and immigrants, in a statement to the summit urges leaders to uphold the EU's tradition as a haven for those fleeing persecution and to go for "a protection-oriented approach and not one that is control-oriented".
Amnesty International argues that "the trend over the last decade has been on a closed-door attitude aimed at protecting Fortress Europe when the number of asylum-seekers reaching the EU is minimal."
In 1998 fewer than 30,000 were granted asylum in EU member-states.
"The EU hosted 16.5 per cent of the world's 16.5 million refugees and displaced persons last year, and even when crises arise in Europe the EU is not faced with massive influxes as recently demonstrated by the Kosovo crisis," Amnesty says. "Of the 880,000 displaced from Kosovo, only some 100,000 applied for asylum outside the region, and most of them returned after agreement was reached between NATO and Yugoslavia."
ECRE is particularly concerned to see a reaffirmation of the member-states' commitment to the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention and specifically that its definition of refugee will be taken as the starting point of any EU policy, a point also central to a UNHCR statement on the summit.
The fight against illegal immigration must not become an excuse for whittling away the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing persecution, the head of the UNHCR, Mrs Sadako Ogata, insists.
ECRE is also worried that the EU's "regionalisation" strategy, based on the idea that refugee flows should largely be dealt with by assistance to neighbouring states in a region, should not undermine the rights of refugees to seek asylum elsewhere.
"Asylum-seekers should never be returned to a region solely on the grounds that EU humanitarian aid has sponsored reception facilities to which they supposedly could have fled," ECRE argues.
Moreover, in reaching agreements with third countries about the readmission of deported refugees who have come through their territory, the EU should ensure that such refugees will be protected from return to their countries of origin.
Mrs Ogata also insists that the EU must take account of all forms and sources of persecution in its definition of those it is willing to protect. This includes recognition that persecution may be carried out by agents other than the state and that it can take such forms as sexual violence against women.
It is an expanded definition which most capitals do not wish to embrace, although the Commission acknowledges the need to safeguard such refugees.