Protecting member states or the rights of asylum-seekers?

The Common European Asylum System

The European Commission describes the Common European Asylum System as “a common area of protection and solidarity based on a common asylum procedure and a uniform status for people who have been granted international protection”. At present, asylum decisions vary widely between the member states.

Core elements of the new system, in addition to the European Asylum Support Office in Malta, are revisions to the Dublin II regulation and two new directives – on how an applicant's asylum status is to be determined, and on how asylum-seekers are to be treated while waiting for the outcome of that process. Both directives are completely deadlocked in talks between the member states: the reception conditions directive still has more than 120 objections or reservations by member states.

On all three pieces of legislation – the Dublin regulation and the directives on asylum procedures and reception conditions – negotiations between the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament have yet to start.

A final element concerns a revision of the regulation on Eurodac, a database containing the fingerprints of all asylum-seekers in the EU. The Commission is resisting demands by the member states that police and other law enforcement officials outside the asylum system should gain access to the database. For that reason, the Commission intends to propose a revised regulation only after the other elements have been adopted.

Greek asylum woes

Greece is struggling to deal with illegal migrants and asylum-seekers at a time when the government's capacity to act is severely curtailed by austerity measures. “The commitment is there,” Robert Visser, the executive director of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), says of the Greek authorities, “but the capacity is a real, serious concern.” EASO is assisting the authorities in reducing the backlog in asylum applications and in setting up a system that prevents backlogs in the first place. But Greece's austerity programme, Visser says, is pulling in the other direction.

A recent research paper by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) highlights the extent of the challenge. Each week at the main point of entry with Turkey, border guards apprehend more refugees and migrants than the total national housing capacity for asylum-seekers. “Even if all the people wishing to apply for asylum are in fact doing so, and all applications proceed to a final decision within the intended six months, Greece would still have to at least quintuple its reception capacity to meet housing needs,” the report concludes.

*Paul McDonough and Evangelia (Lilian) Tsourdi, “Putting solidarity to the test: assessing Europe's response to the asylum crisis in Greece,” UNHCR research paper No. 231.