Call on EU to scrap asylum rules

Human rights and refugee advocacy groups yesterday called for proposed European Union asylum rules to be scrapped, saying they breach international law and may endanger refugees' lives.

The United Nations' refugee agency also criticised the EU, which is racing to meet a self-imposed May 1 deadline to agree two key laws harmonising for the first time national rules on who can apply for asylum and how to deal with applications.

Campaigners fear the proposed rules, which EU ministers meet to debate further today in Brussels, would mean refugees could be returned to states where they face persecution.

"We have no option but to call on the EU to scrap this proposal on asylum procedures, which has been shaped in reaction to populist pressures and fears whipped up about a non-existent flood of refugees into the EU," said Daphne Bouteillet-Paquet, executive officer at Amnesty International.

Anti-immigration parties have recently gained ground in national polls in several European countries by calling for tighter immigration curbs - putting EU governments under pressure to impose restrictions on migrants.

European Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino, who drafted the proposals and can withdraw them, said in a letter to the campaigners he was concerned as well, but would reserve any judgment until he had seen a final draft.

Ireland, which currently chairs the EU, vowed it would not accept an agreement which violated international law and any of the EU's international obligations.

Representing more than 10 groups, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch told a news conference the EU would be better off with no rules than adopting standards lower than international law.

The campaigners also warned that the European Parliament could take EU governments to court over the plans, as it did recently over rules on the rights of immigrants to be joined by relatives from outside the bloc.

The main concerns centre around proposals to draw up various lists of non-EU states to where refugees could be sent if their asylum claims were rejected and from which any claims could be processed.

There are also proposals to limit when refugees may appeal against a rejected claim and Britain wants to be able to send people out of the country during an appeal.

But Amnesty International said 30-40 per cent of those granted asylum in the EU won their status on appeal. In Britain, over 10,000 people gained asylum through an appeal, it said.

"Presently, the appeal system is the only safety net preventing 14,000 people from being sent back to persecution," Ms Bouteillet-Paquet said.