UNHCR’s recommendations to Sweden for its European Union Presidency
The preparations for the Stockholm Programme will bring the European asylum policies into the spotlight. To assist Sweden when leading the negotiations on the Programme, UNHCR has presented a number of recommendations on refugee protection to be taken into consideration.
Please see the full document for more details:
UNHCR’s recommendations to Sweden for its European Union Presidency
The asylum procedure is currently undergoing a harmonization process within the European Union. Policies and interpretations are to be consistent throughout Europe, with the aim of making it insignificant in which country an asylum-seeker asks for protection. The process is supported by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and is believed to have the possibility of bringing forth improvements as well as bridging existing gaps in the system.
To assist Sweden’s attempts, UNHCR has published guidelines and recommendations for its European Union Presidency. First of all, UNHCR calls on Sweden to use its Presidency to reassert the importance of a rights-based approach to border management and migration control. Recent events, including Italy’s push-backs of boat people and European Parliament elections in which anti-immigrant parties scored big gains in a number of EU countries, give rise to concern about Europe’s commitment to ensuring access to protection.
Carrying on, UNHCR is of the opinion that the solidarity among EU Member States to assist those facing particular pressures resulting from the arrival of irregular migrants and asylum seekers should be strengthened. To do so, a menu of options is suggested including the relocation from one Member State to another of persons recognized as refugees. However, UNHCR points out that this should not be at the expense of solidarity with non-EU countries hosting large refugee populations. There must be a much stronger EU engagement in refugee resettlement. Currently, the EU offers less than 10% of global resettlement places.
Our recommendations also stress the need to improve the quality and consistency of decision-making on asylum claims across the EU. The current situation, whereby applications from persons of the same nationality and with similar case histories have totally different outcomes from one country to another undermines the very premise of a Common European Asylum System. UNHCR hopes that the planned European Asylum Support Office will give top priority to this matter.
Although the European Commissions proposals for amendment of existing EU laws of asylum have met with considerable resistance from Member States, UNHCR – with the international mandate for protecting and assisting refugees – believe that legislative amendments are needed to fill gaps and improve standards.
Please see the full document for more details:
UNHCR’s recommendations to Sweden for its European Union Presidency
Swedish EU-Presidency 2009
This website is no longer updated. It was a UNHCR Stockholm initiative meant to facilitate the monitoring of refugee and asylum issues during Sweden's European Union Presidency 1 July – 31 December 2009.
