 |
 |
Sangatte: UK - France agreement on asylum seekers "only practical way forward"
April 9, 2002 12:00 AM
A France-UK agreement to process asylum claimants on site at the Sangatte refugee centre is the only practical way to overcome French opposition to EU asylum proposals being voted tomorrow in the European Parliament, according to Baroness Sarah Ludford, MEP for London and justice and home affairs spokeswoman for the European Liberal Democrats, ELDR group.
While Euro-MPs are set to back EU legislation* which would make France responsible for Sangatte asylum-seekers, France is resisting this on the grounds that they are all trying to reach the UK.
Sarah Ludford says: "To avoid both risk to life and disrupted trains, the UK and French governments must therefore reach a pragmatic agreement on sharing responsibility for processing these asylum claimants, taking into account that many have family or other links in the UK."
"The eventual goal must be a simpler system in which the Member State where the claim is actually lodged processes it, but with EU financial burden-sharing. This is not realistic yet as it requires greater harmonisation between Member States´ asylum practices, and it may not be feasible while the UK stays outside the border-free Schengen area."
"In the meantime, the Sangatte situation, with the risk of death and injury and the disruption of freight trains at the Frethun terminal, cannot just be left to fester. Closing Sangatte, as the Tories propose, will just return desperate people to the streets and park benches of Calais, and not solve the problem of assaults on Chunnel security.
The Dublin II regulation aims to be more workable than the existing Convention in stopping forum-shopping and "refugees in orbit." The new provisions include responsibility on a Member State when it allows illegal immigrants to remain on its territory. This would mean France bearing primary responsibility for dealing with asylum claims of those at the Sangatte centre. France is understood to be resisting this provision in the Council of Ministers. The migrants do not currently make a claim in France.
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats