Ministers back new standards for asylum-seekers

Home affairs ministers from the European Union's member states today endorsed a compromise negotiated with the European Parliament on new legislation setting standards for the reception of asylum-seekers across the Union.  

The directive sets rules on whether and when member states can detain asylum-seekers and on the protection of vulnerable persons such as unaccompanied children or torture victims.  

Under the directive, which updates existing EU rules, member states can detain asylum-seekers only if other measures cannot be used, and only after an individual assessment of each case. They must be held in special facilities and only in exceptional cases can they be detained in ordinary prisons.  

Persons who have submitted an asylum application must be allowed to work in the host country at the latest nine months after lodging an asylum claim.  

Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom are not bound by the new directive, which was adopted without debate by member states' home affairs ministers in Luxembourg today (25 October).  

Following the formal adoption by MEPs and the Council of Ministers of the directive, member states will have two years to transpose it into domestic law.  

The directive is one of five pieces of legislation that make up the ‘Common European Asylum System' that the member states have pledged to establish by the end of the year. Negotiations between MEPs and the member states over three draft laws are underway.