[back]

«News from the Cross-border Asylum Network»

"Strong bonds are our answer to the EU member states' attempt to shift their responsibility for refugees further east or to regions of origin. Cross-border cooperation is our way to take responsibility for people in need of protection".

Focus: International Conference in Tutzing, Germany, 8-10 September 2006

"No Place, Nowhere?" - Refugee Protection in Central Europe

How can we as a civil society contribute to the fact that Europe remains a place of the refugee protection and that the access for refugees to protection in Europe is ensured? How can we protect refugees beyond our borders? Experts of international organisations like UNHCR and ECRE and participants from numerous European Member States discussed these and other questions on a large conference organised by the ICF project. [Programme] [more]

Workshop Reports

1: European Deportation Station - The Dublin II Regulation and its Impact
more than two years after the entry into force of the Dublin II Regulation and before the Commission's first evaluation of its implementation, the UNHCR presented a study, which provides insight into the operation of the system by bringing together first-hand accounts from 104 respondents in 22 countries. On the basis of this research, UNHCR makes a number of recommendations... [more]

2: Resettlement - Additional Protection Mechanism?
This working group engaged in the topic of resettlement, an instrument of refugee protection, which is not well-known in Germany. The reception of refugees within the framework of resettlement programmes has in Germany not a tradition as it has in other European and particularly in non-European countries. At least partly on effort of UNHCR, in the coalition agreement of the past Federal Government was agreed that, 500 places for resettlement of refugees in Germany should be grant... [more]

3: Situation on the Eastern European External Borders
Participants of the workshop discussed problems occurring at the new Eastern external border of the European Union, namely Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, with regard to access of asylum seekers to the territory and eventually to the asylum procedure. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has been monitoring the Eastern borders for several years to find out if asylum seekers have proper access to the territory of Hungary and to the asylum procedure. The Committee has made several suggestions to the Border Guard... [more]

4: Freedom of Movement and the Detention of Asylum Seekers in Central Europe
The working group agreed on the principal of freedom of movement for migrants and refugees, even if this objective will not be achieved easily, but rather in the long run. Actually, this freedom is heavily restricted at the borders, where more and more militarised measures are taken up to hinder the movement of migrants... [more]

5: Social Reception Conditions in Central Europe
The workshop began with a presentation by Anny Knapp about the Directive's content and single articles, whereby the expert from Austria pointed out that for those seeking international protection in the EU Member States, humane reception conditions are vitally important. These include material benefits, but also participation in the social and economic life of the receiving country, such as access to education, language courses and the labour market... [more]

ICF NEWS

Czech Republic: Participation of Asylum Seekers

The Dublin Regulation sets the system of criteria upon which the state responsible for proceeding of certain asylum claim is determined. It is often criticized for expensive transfers of asylum seekers...
Read more

Hungary: Delays Transposition of EU Asylum Directives, Reception Lags Behind

As all European Union Member States, Hungary is expected to transpose the relevant provisions of the EU asylum directives in near future. The transposition requires the amendment of the Act...
Read more

Slovenia: Participation of Asylum Seekers

In the beginning of 2006, Slovenia adopted a Law on changes and amendments to the Asylum Act, which resulted in a downgrade of standards in the asylum law along the lines of the minimum standards in the EU qualification directive...
Read more

Austria: More restrictive detention on asylum seekers

The changes in the Right of Aliens, which came into force on 1 January 2006, extend the possibilities to hold asylum seekers on remand. Every third foreigner who is subject of remand pending deportation in Austria is a asylum seeker...
Read more

Poland: Detention of unaccompanied minors still practiced

On 28th of August 2006 Halina Niec Human Rights Association employees made a scheduled visit in a guarded center for aliens in Lesznowola, where they met and provided with legal help an Armenian minor. He occurred to be an unaccompanied minor, caught while illegally crossing the border...
Read more

------------------------------------------------------------
The ICF Project is solely responsible for the here contained information.
The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
ICF is co-financed by