08/12/2010 Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“The Dublin Regulation is an unfair system both for asylum seekers and for states. It is expensive and ineffective and sometimes infringes the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees,” the newly elected Chair of the PACE Committee on Migration stressed today when summing up yesterday’s committee hearing on “Dealing with Dublin: ensuring fairness for asylum seekers and member states”.
Pending the preparation of a report on this subject on the basis of its discussions, the committee, he said, already calls on the Council of the European Union to revise the Dublin system so as to establish a more effective system in full accordance with the 1951 Geneva Convention and ensure a fairer apportionment of responsibilities for asylum in Europe.
According to Mr Chope, the committee also calls on the states parties to the Dublin system to support the reform of the asylum procedure envisaged in Greece and to provide the necessary expertise to Greece to ensure that it can determine in reasonable time applications for asylum and reduce the need for detention. Administrative detention of the asylum seekers sent back under the Dublin system should only take place in circumstances prescribed by international law and in keeping with the principles of expediency and proportionality. The states parties should also consider availing themselves of the sovereignty clause embodied in the Dublin system to avoid any transfer to an inoperative asylum system.