Social Reception Conditions - Foundations of a Fair Asylum Law

The social reception conditions for refugees determine their reality of life in the receiving country. Those who flee their homes to escape persecution and continuous human rights abuses need support. They need access to important information and documents, social and legal assistance, medical care, accommodation, clothes, food, access to the labour market, education and the opportunity for freedom of movement.

In addition, the quality of the asylum process is dependent on the reception conditions in a particular country. Good reception conditions are prerequisites for a fair and efficient asylum process. The experiences of human rights organisations demonstrate that access to legal assistance and to crucial information on the asylum process, particularly in the beginning of the process, are essential to ensuring an efficient and fair asylum process. For example, asylum seekers who understand the significance of their interview with the immigration agency will know to include the important details of their history of persecution in their testimony. Detailed testimony also relieves courts of the unnecessary burden of reviewing and correcting the erroneous decisions of the immigration agency. Moreover, only those refugees who feel safe will be psychologically able to proceed with the process.

A fair asylum process also ensures the implementation of the Geneva Refugee Convention throughout the EU. Otherwise, an asylum process will generate low recognition rates and result in the deportation of refugees who are deserving of asylum protection. This not only causes inevitable human tragedy, but also violates the principle of non-refoulement contained in the Geneva Refugee Convention. Reception conditions of refugees are therefore a key element in the protection of refugees within the EU. Reception conditions are both the beginning and the end of refugee protection in Europe.

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