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A European asylum policy is the way forward
January 28, 2005 3:29 PM
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in The Times
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in The Times
Dear Sir,
Michael Howard is misguided in trying to treat asylum and immigration in the same way. There is certainly a need for better management of legal immigration through a 'green card'-type scheme, but quotas for asylum seekers are simply not workable since refugee flows are unpredictable.
Mr. Howard's desired withdrawal from the 1951 UN Convention on refugees would be a repudiation of international obligations which his adviser, former Home office minister Timothy Kirkhope MEP, advised against. It would also breach EU law since the Convention has been incorporated into European legislation. Of course it can be done by a (very hypothetical) Tory government if Mr Howard is quite happy to pull out of the European Union.
The way forward is in fact a common European asylum policy, as the present government has recognised. This both avoids 'forum-shopping' and increases responsibility-sharing. The total number of EU asylum-seekers has reduced from almost 400,000 a year in the 3 years 1999-2001 to 232,000 last year as the policy has developed.
The urgent need at home - which 8 years of Labour government has not delivered - is to get robust and high-quality initial asylum decisions. This would reduce the number of appeals which clog the system. It requires an independent asylum agency free of political interference, frontloading of resources, reliable country and legal advice, and the fast tracking of obviously well-founded as well as unfounded claims.
Liberal Democrats would also reduce cost and avoid wasted skills and idle people by allowing claimants to work after a period of 2 months. We would reform the NASS and return asylum support to mainstream social security, and set up one-stop shop reception centres. They would also prepare failed claimants for voluntary return.
Unlike the Tories, we have serious proposals, which we debated and approved at our annual conference last September, for an effective and coherent asylum and immigration system.
Yours sincerely
Sarah Ludford
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