EU to set up asylum agency
The European Commission on Wednesday (18 February) proposed the setting up of a regulatory agency on asylum to help EU countries dealing with big influxes of refugees with on-call support teams and transfer of asylum seekers to other member states.
The 'European Asylum Support Office' would be set up in 2010 if member states and EU parliament agree by the end of this year. It would have no decision-making powers and act as a regulatory agency, EU justice and home affairs commissioner Jacques Barrot explained at a press conference.
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"The main task of the office would be to support practical co-operation on asylum," he told journalists.
"Member states who are under particular pressure will be helped through instruments for intra-community transfers facilitated by the office."
A team of on-call experts from all across Europe should be created to help member states struggling with big waves of asylum seekers.
With as many as 67,000 crossing the Mediterranean to seek asylum in Europe in 2008, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has urged the EU to make sure they are received in proper conditions.
More than half of these asylum seekers went to Italy and Malta alone, where they were crammed in centres which were criticised by the UN and the European Parliament. These two countries, together with Greece and Cyprus last month, called on the other EU members to share the burden and help combat the problem.
The commission proposal earmarks an initial budget of €5 million out of the European refugee fund, which would triple by 2013. The agency, based in Brussels, would kick off with 24 staff, to be bolstered to 60-100 people in the coming years.
UNHCR would have a representative with observer status on the board of the agency, composed of 27 member states and the commission. It welcomed this proposal and was ready to contribute with experts, although the efficiency of the agency "remains to be seen," Gilles Van Moortel, UNHCR spokesman told this website.
An advisory body would also allow non-governmental organisations to have their say in the work of the agency.
"We hope that this support office will improve the conditions for asylum seekers in Europe. The most problematic countries are Malta, Greece and Italy, but also many other member states," French MEP Martine Roure told EUobserver. She added that the civil liberties committee had requested the set up of such an office, in order to harmonise asylum procedures across Europe.
Intolerable conditions
Earlier this month, the parliament endorsed Ms Roure's report on "intolerable" conditions in many detention centres for asylum seekers, citing poor hygiene, overcrowding and a lack of medical care as key concerns.
A number of member states were making increased use of detention, the report found, stressing that a person should not in any event be held in detention for the sole reason that he or she is seeking international protection.
Meanwhile, non-governmental organisations called for the agency to be subject to parliamentary oversight.
"ECRE is of the opinion that the European Parliament should have a stronger role in the appointment of the director of the asylum office, have a substantial say on the work plan and be able to request specific pieces of work from the office," a press release from the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) reads. ECRE is a pan-European network of non-governmental organisations dealing with asylum issues.