Arrival of asylum seekers at European airports
Recommendation 1475
(2000)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 26 September 2000 (27th Sitting) (see Doc. 8761, report of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography, rapporteur: Mr Gross). Text adopted by the Assembly on 26 September 2000 (27thSitting).
- Thesaurus
1. Since the mid-1980s the member states of the
Council of Europe have been increasingly confronted with growing numbers of
asylum seekers, many of whom arrive at airports. Besides the problem of
ensuring that all asylum seekers are treated in accordance with international
refugee law, this increase in numbers has created a specific problem with
regard to airport reception facilities. Officials need to be clear that their
role is to uphold asylum and not to be the agents of deterrence. The challenge
is particularly serious for the airports receiving the greatest numbers of
applicants (such as Frankfurt, Paris or London), and those which have been
confronted with this problem for a relatively short time (to be found mainly in
central, eastern and southern European countries).
2. The handling of requests for asylum at this stage is an important part of
the refugee status determination procedure as a whole. Access to a country’s
procedure for the granting of refugee status is essential to the concept of
international protection. Yet asylum seekers arriving at airports may be denied
access to this procedure, resulting in the risk of refoulement and violation of
their human rights.
3. Moreover, incoherent and unjustifiably lengthy procedures, in particular
combined with difficult conditions at the airport (for example, unsatisfactory
reception centres) may cause undue hardship to asylum seekers.
4. The harmonisation of national asylum policies at European level is more than ever necessary. In this context, the Assembly recalls and reaffirms its past recommendations designed to improve the protection and treatment afforded to asylum seekers, in particular its
Recommendation 1163 (1991) on the arrival of asylum seekers at European airports;
Recommendation 1236 (1994) on the right of asylum;
Recommendation 1309 (1996) on the training of officials receiving asylum seekers at border points;
Recommendation 1327 (1997) on the protection and reinforcement of the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe;
Recommendation 1374 (1998) on the situation of refugee women in Europe; and
Recommendation 1440 (2000) on the restrictions on asylum in the member states of the Council of Europe and the European Union. The Assembly stresses the need for sustained co-ordination of asylum and immigration policies between the European Union and the Council of Europe.
5. The Assembly notes with satisfaction that in general reception conditions at the visited airports have considerably improved since it adopted
Recommendation 1163 on the subject. It also welcomes the adoption of Recommendation No. R (94) 5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on guidelines to inspire practices of the member states of the Council of Europe concerning the arrival of asylum seekers at European airports.
6. Nevertheless, the Assembly notes with concern that basic problems subsist
at several airports receiving asylum seekers, including shortage of
accommodation and inadequate material conditions and equipment. Further
improvement may in some cases require a review of the nature and
characteristics of the authority in charge of managing the airport.
7. The Assembly notes with particular concern that the material and
humanitarian conditions in which asylum seekers are received at certain
airports are well below acceptable standards. Even if in some cases these can
be partly explained by poor economic conditions in the country itself, or by
the large number of applicants, the relevant national authorities should be
urged to improve the situation as quickly as possible.
8. The Assembly welcomes the initiative of the Netherlands in setting up an
ad hoc parliamentary committee to investigate the conditions in which asylum
seekers are received at Schiphol airport. This example should be followed by
all Council of Europe member states in the framework of a wider investigation
into the treatment received by asylum seekers in general, throughout the whole
refugee status determination procedure.
9. The Parliamentary Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
9.1 step up the monitoring of member states’
compliance with international refugee law with reference to the reception of
asylum seekers, and with the relevant recommendations of the Committee of
Ministers;
9.2 instruct the appropriate committee to ensure
that the situation at those airports where particular shortcomings have been
noted are improved by the member states concerned;
9.3 further
intensify Europe-wide co-operation in the field of asylum with a view to
undertaking a general overview of the situation of asylum seekers in the light
of international refugee instruments;
10. The
Assembly also recommends that the Committee of Ministers urge the member states
to:
10.1 review their national legislation and
practices with reference to the reception of asylum seekers, and in particular:
a to include guarantees to protect asylum
seekers in the readmission agreements to which they are parties;
b to ensure that the “safe third country” and “safe country of origin”
principles are not applied in an arbitrary manner, and that clear criteria are
used for designating certain countries as “safe” on the basis of those
recommended by the Ad hoc Committee of Experts on the Legal Aspects of
Territorial Asylum, Refugees and Stateless Persons (CAHAR);
c to provide that in every case, a rejected asylum seeker should have a
right to appeal, and that such an appeal should have a suspensive
effect;
d to define the maximum duration of stay at an airport, as well as at
any reception or detention centre pending the outcome of the determination
procedure;
e to improve the conditions of detention of asylum seekers, and in
particular to make sure that they are not detained together with common
criminals;
f to re-examine the procedures used during forced deportations with a
view to the elimination of inhuman or degrading treatment;
10.2 review, and, where necessary improve the material
and humanitarian conditions of reception at the airports, and in particular:
a to provide separate accommodation for women
and men, except for families, which preferably should stay together, even for a
short stay;
b to give particular attention to unaccompanied minors, and to ensure
that they are interviewed by an appropriately qualified adult, and given
absolute priority;
c to give special attention to refugee women in accordance with Parliamentary Assembly
Recommendation 1374;
d to provide rooms which are properly heated and ventilated, and which
have natural lighting for applicants staying at airports;
e in the case of long stays, to provide applicants with access to fresh
air outdoors for at least one hour each day;
f to provide regular and nourishing meals;
g to guarantee access to medical care during the stay at the
airport;
h to ensure the presence of interpreters not only during the formal
procedure, but, in case of a prolonged stay, also outside the
procedure;
i to provide applicants with the immediate opportunity to contact
family members and with the possibility, in case of prolonged stays, of
telephoning them and receiving visits from them;
j ensure that the above requirements are also met in reception or
detention centres located outside the airport, to which applicants are
transferred for the duration of the determination procedure;
k strengthen relations with non-governmental organisations concerned
with human rights, and promote the networking of their activities;
11. Finally, the Assembly recommends that the
Committee of Ministers invite the Commission of the European Communities to
give greater priority within its Odysseus Programme to training border
officials from countries in central and eastern Europe through visits and
exchanges, with a particular view to learning about the most humane airport
reception procedures and conditions in the European countries with most
experience in this field (for example, Denmark and the Netherlands).
