UNHCR statement to EU and FRONTEX on access to asylum procedures

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 10 December 2010, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

UNHCR is urging EU member states, and FRONTEX as the EU’s external border agency, to ensure that asylum in Europe is not being threatened in the drive for tighter policing of the continent’s external borders. Our concern is that in its efforts to stem illegal migration, Europe should not forget that among those seeking to enter the EU are people who need international protection and are at risk of their lives.

Europe is a destination for both migrants and asylum seekers. The two have different goals and needs. Migrants may be seeking employment or other economic opportunities, refugees are people fleeing persecution or violence – they cannot return home if things don’t work out. It is this latter group that UNHCR is mandated to be concerned about.

Evidence of how difficult it has become for people seeking protection in Europe can be seen in the data on arrivals by sea in the central Mediterranean. Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta have all seen drastic reductions in arrivals by sea over the past year or two, almost certainly a result of tighter border controls, joint patrols and push-backs at sea. UNHCR estimates that some 8,800 people arrived by sea in the first 10 months of this year, compared to 32,000 in the same period in 2009 – a 72.5 percent decrease. Close to two thirds of the 2010 sea arrivals have been in Greece, while a third were in Italy, and the rest in Malta and Cyprus (see also below).

The stemming of sea arrivals is not solving the problem but shifting it elsewhere. This can be seen in the corresponding sharp rise there has been in overland arrivals in the Evros region of Greece. Evros recorded 38,992 arrivals in the first 10 months of this year compared to 7,574 in the same period in 2009 – a 415 percent increase.

UNHCR has consistently stated its concerns about the humanitarian situation for new arrivals in Greece, and the need for EU support to Greece in bringing its asylum system up to standard. An asylum seeker arriving in Greece currently has negligible chance of having his or her claim to refugee status properly assessed. Many of those arriving in Greece are detained in extremely difficult conditions, among them unaccompanied children and other vulnerable individuals. Most have neither access to legal help nor to interpretation.

Worldwide, the factors that cause people to become refugees are undiminished. High Commissioner Guterres appealed again this week, in a speech to delegates at the annual High Commissioner’s Dialogue in Geneva, for better burden-sharing arrangements with poor countries, which provide refuge for four out of every five of the world’s refugees.

UNHCR recognizes the need for border management, but this must be protection-sensitive. Border control policies that indiscriminately block arrivals encourage those seeking asylum to resort to ever riskier and more desperate routes to safety – a reason why growing numbers of asylum seekers today find themselves in the hands of people smuggling rings.

UNHCR worried about growing number of conflict IDPs

(IRIN) – The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it is concerned about the growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) caused by conflict in Afghanistan, and the fact that it is often too dangerous to assist them.

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Http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=90957

UNHCR concerned over Iraqi deportations

(IRIN) – The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has expressed concern about the growing number of deportations of Iraqi asylum-seekers from Western Europe in the last two months.

Special charter flights to take failed asylum-seekers home have increased in frequency, and Iraqis are being returned to parts of the country which are still unsafe, in contravention of UNHCR guidelines for the handling of Iraqi asylum applications, it says.

The deportations are handled by Frontex, a Warsaw-based agency set up to coordinate operations between European Union (EU) member states in the field of border security, and their planes can carry returnees from several different countries. The most recent (on 22 September) had failed asylum applicants from Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and the UK.

One of the UNHCR’s complaints is that the information provided by those countries is usually sketchy, varies from country to country and is given only very late in the process. In the case of last week’s flight, Sweden told the UNHCR the names and dates of birth of those being sent home, but not their destinations. The UK provided details of where its rejected claimants were going but not their identities.

No country told the UNHCR how many of the passengers being put on board the plane were going home voluntarily, and how many were being deported against their will, but reports from Baghdad say police had to be called to escort some of them off the plane.

A spokesperson for the UNHCR, Sybella Wilkes, called for states sending home asylum-seekers to be more transparent. “We are aware when a flight is leaving,” she told IRIN, “but we don’t know until the last minute who is on board or which countries they are coming from.”

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UNHCR and UK Immigration

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has publishes ‘Quality integration project key observations and recommendations’ key findings and recommendations from its report on the quality of decision-making in the Detained Fast Track (DFT), where asylum applications are processed under accelerated procedures in a detained environment.

The report is the first of UNHCR’s Quality Integration Project and presents findings from an audit of first instance asylum decisions made from January to March 2010 at Yarl’s Wood and Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centres. Many of the findings and recommendations reiterate those made in UNHCR’s June 2008 report on DFT decisions.

Whilst acknowledging improvements in the work of the UK Border Agency (UKBA), the study highlights significant issues with the quality of decision-making; some of which reiterate previously identified concerns. Presenting the full findings of the report to Immigration Minister Damian Green UNHCR reiterates the long-held position that detention is inherently undesirable and should be considered only as a last resort. Where asylum claims are determined under accelerated procedures, adequate and well-functioning safeguards must be in place to guarantee fairness and quality of decision-making.  UKBA’s own quality assurance mechanisms should examine the way in which DFT procedures are impacting upon quality of decisions.

UNHCR’s Representative to the UK Roland Schilling, said: “We are pleased the government is trying to make the asylum process fairer and more efficient. But the Detained Fast Track may be denying a fair and humane asylum procedure to some of the most vulnerable people, including victims of torture.”

The report notes that complex claims are routinely entering into the fast-tracked process and are not always handled in a way that is gender-sensitive. Although around a third of cases are eventually removed, this high proportion indicates that the DFT is not functioning in a way that ensures that difficult cases are screened out.  This, in turn, can impact detrimentally upon the quality of the decisions made as complexities are not addressed sufficiently.

Despite efforts to improve training of UKBA staff, UNHCR finds that decision-makers’ assessment of the merits of each case remains poor because of the heavy burden of proof placed on applicants. “Asylum seekers are often held to an evidentiary standard that is unreasonable under both UK and international asylum law,” said Schilling. “This is especially troubling given the conditions of detention and the short time frame for asylum interviews and decisions.”

Other issues identified by the report include lack of interview preparation, insufficient use of country information to assess the credibility of a claim, and poor analysis of whether an applicant’s experiences constitute persecution according to the criteria of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

UNHCR welcomes initiatives such as the Early Legal Advice Pilot which facilitates greater early collaboration between legal representatives and decision-makers to ensure quality decision-making. It is recommended this model will serve useful in the DFT. UNHCR will continue to work with the government to develop UKBA’s own quality assurance mechanisms and to improve the overall quality of asylum decisions in the UK.

For further information about UNHCR’s Quality Integration project, please visit:
http://www.unhcr.org.uk/what-we-do-in-the-uk/quality-initiative-and-integration.html

Laura Padoan
External Affairs, UNHCR
(+44) 020 7759 8092

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