The European Union is drawing up a plan to overhaul its 1951 Refugee Convention that prevents countries from rejecting asylum seekers at their borders in a belated effort to address Europe’s exploding migrant crisis. The Times has the story.
There is a growing consensus across Europe that the 1951 Refugee Convention, drafted after the Second World War and added to by rulings in the European and EU courts, is no longer fit for purpose.
“It should be noted that these principles were developed after the end of the Second World War, and were characterised by a very different geopolitical situation to that of today,” said a diplomatic paper seen by the Times.
The 1951 convention is signed by 144 countries and defines legal obligations for countries enshrined in the fundamental principle of non-refoulement. This principle establishes that no asylum seeker may be returned to a country where his or her life or freedom could be seriously threatened.
This is becoming increasingly called into question as European countries have struggled to deal with millions of requests for refugee status over the past decade and to return failed asylum seekers.
EU governments are concerned that national powers allowing “limitations on the application” of the right of asylum are currently only permitted in “extraordinary situations” that do not take the “new reality” into account, the paper states.
“A broader reference to the challenges we face needs to be considered,” it continues. “The lack of alternatives to accepting applications for international protection and the respect of the principle of non-refoulement certainly require in-depth discussion.”
The paper, drafted by Poland and discussed by EU interior ministers last Thursday, precedes new proposals this spring to accelerate deportation of failed asylum seekers and to deport refugees or other migrants involved in crime.
European governments hope the measures “could also stimulate discussion of the issue internationally”, said the paper, leading to potential legal changes to the convention backed by countries such as Britain or the US. …
EU plans for new rules allowing deportations and the creation of repatriation centres outside European territory are one of the “innovative solutions” planned for this year that will be challenged in courts as a breach of the convention.
Giorgia Meloni’s Government in Italy has pressed ahead with plans to process asylum seekers in Albania despite two court rulings that have challenged the “accelerated border procedure” on the grounds it undermines the right to asylum established by the refugee convention.
In many European countries, notably Germany, failed asylum seekers or refugees with permanent residence have committed violent crimes and murders while remaining in the country under the protection of refugee laws that have prevented their deportation.
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