EU divided over African asylum camps

Justice and home affairs ministers
have discussed plans to process asylum seekers in North
Africa before they reach European soil,
despite opposition from France, Belgium and
Sweden.

EU justice and home
affairs ministers have debated a proposal by German
Interior Minister Otto Schily to address growing
concerns over how the EU can stop the flow of illegal
migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. Schily
outlined his proposal to set up EU transit centres in
North Africa, where asylum applications would then be
processed. 
He considers camps the only
realistic way 
to stop waves of illegal
immigrants landing on the Italian and Spanish
coasts

. Under the proposal,
asylum-seekers would wait in these centres
while their asylum application were being
processed. 

Schilly’s proposal is meant to curb illegal
immigration and deter false asylum claims. In 2003,
only ten percent of asylum-seekers received
a positive answer to their claims. It is widely
believed that, although moving for economic
reasons, many migrants try to claim asylum
as the opportunities 

for them to come to
Europe are few and far
between.   

Meanwhile,
 Dominique de Villepin, the
French Interior Minister, said his country would have
nothing to do with such schemes. “This plan will be
very destabilising for these countries,” he said

. He cited the example of the Sangatte Centre,
which caused constant disruption to people living in
the surrounding area. 

Sweden and Belgium also voiced
opposition, arguing there were not enough guarantees
that the countries hosting the processing centres would
treat refugees fairly and respect their human
rights.

In a separate plan,
Vitorino said the European Commission, backed by the
Netherlands, would fund five UN refugee agency pilot
projects in North Africa to upgrade existing processing
facilities. The Commission and the Netherlands have
proposed funding a scheme to help Mauritania, Morocco,
Algeria, Tunisia and Libya develop their asylum
laws as well as train personnel capable of
processing asylum demands in close co-operation with the
UNHCR. It will fund 80 percent and the Dutch 20 percent
of the 1 million euro project. The idea behind such
a project is that asylum-seekers will stay in those
countries rather than try to come to Europe. 

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