EU urged to adopt approach based on human rights

The European Union must respect the human rights it espouses in its migration and asylum policy, according to six organisations which wrote to the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council that met yesterday.

The organisations are Caritas Europa, the Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe, the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community, the International Catholic Migration Commission, the Jesuit Refugee Service - Europe and the Quaker Council for European Affairs.

The organisations highlighted the increasingly desperate situation that men and women face when trying to enter the EU, either as migrants or as asylum seekers.

They reiterated the dignity of all humans and human rights and stressed the EU's duty to observe such rights in all its dealings particularly when considering re-admission agreements with third countries and in fostering partnerships with countries of transit and origin.

Humans attempting to enter the EU by irregular means must not be criminalised, especially when considering that some of them may qualify for refugee status under the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, the organisations said.

They called on the EU to develop a human rights based approach to migration and asylum policy if it wished to provide a long-term solution for this phenomenon.

The proposals for the adoption of restrictive policies do not provide a durable, humane response, they stressed.