Asylum crisis won’t go away Energy makes the EU turn a blind eye to … · 2019-12-18 · blind...
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SUBSCRIPTIONS STAFF One-year subscription rates: Europe: €193. Paid subscribers qualify to receive e-news service each Thursday of publication and free access to our online archives at www.europeanvoice.com © European Voice All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of European Voice. European Voice is published by The Economist Group but has complete editorial independence. The views expressed may differ from those in other publications in The Economist Group. For reprint information, please contact: [email protected] Printed by: Corelio Printing, Keerstraat 10, B-9420 Erpe-Mere, at the coldset printing department of VUM – Groot-Bijgaarden, Brussels. European Voice is printed on recycled paper. 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Letters may be edited for length and clarity. 10 27 January 2011 PUBLISHER Jürgen Debusmann EDITOR Tim King NEWS EDITOR Simon Taylor FEATURES EDITOR Andrew Gardner ASSOCIATE EDITOR Peter O’Donnell REPORTERS Constant Brand Jennifer Rankin Toby Vogel Ian Wishart PRODUCTION EDITOR Jarle Hetland SUB-EDITOR Paul Dallison GRAPHIC DESIGNER & SUB-EDITOR André Dael CARTOONIST Marco Villard FINANCIAL CONTROLLER Richard Langrish JUNIOR BUSINESS ACCOUNTANT Alison Hardy ADVOCACY SALES CO-ORDINATOR Christine Coudour SALES CO-ORDINATOR (education, recruitment and publications) Murat Dogru SENIOR CORPORATE SALES EXECUTIVE Claudio Bergamo ADVOCACY SALES EXECUTIVE Blanche Eglin CORPORATE SALES EXECUTIVE Ludwig Eickemeyer Nicholas Bruneau SPECIAL PROJECTS EXECUTIVE Soultana Tsiora MARKETING DIRECTOR Michel Deurinck EVENTS DEVELOPER AND CO-ORDINATOR Lorenzo Morselli EVENTS & MARKETING EXECUTIVE Christina Gennet OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Anne Marchadier HUMAN RESOURCES & ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT Sylvie Delmarcelle CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Laurent Falise CIRCULATION & MARKET- ING CO-ORDINATOR Etienne Bauvir Andrew Stroehlein’s ironic praise for Islam Karimov touches on many of the rea- sons why José Manuel Bar- roso, the European Com- mission’s president, should not have met the Uzbek president on Monday (“Congratulations, Mr Kari- mov!”, 20-26 January). Readers may not, though, have fully noticed one of the most important points: UN reports of torture. Back in 2002, the United Nations human-rights rapporteur Theo van Boven used the word “systematic”, and an- other UN rapporteur, Man- fred Nowak, used the same word last year. On top of that, Nowak said last year that he had received many reports of detainees being raped by police. To get an idea of how grotesque the torture can be, your readers should be re- minded about a case where very clear evidence was pro- duced. Craig Murray, a for- mer British ambassador in Tashkent, managed to get his hands on photos of the body of Muzafar Avazov, who died in prison in 2002, and when he gave them to a British forensic pathologist, he was told the injuries were consistent with being boiled alive. Most Europeans opposed the ‘war on terror’ in part be- cause politicians turned a blind eye to torture. Now, it seems, the EU is prepared to turn a blind eye to torture for even less than terrorism – gas for the Nabucco pipeline. The Commission seems to have tried to distance it- self from Karimov’s visit, saying that the Commission did not invite him. It seems an odd thing to say, since Barroso could always have said ‘No’ to the meeting. It is meeting him that is the is- sue. In any case, Karimov got what he wanted – a meeting – and will say what he wants: the Uzbek nation- al news agency, for example, says Karimov was invited by Barroso. Tereza Bellová Prague In your Entre Nous about the new head of the EU’s Asia policy, Viorel Isticioaia-Budu- ra, you noted that he joined the Romanian foreign service (European Voice, 20-26 Jan- uary) during “the darkest years of Ceaus ¸escu’s rule”. It is also worth noting how close Romania’s relationship with China was. Friday’s ruling by the Euro- pean Court of Human Rights that Greece is not a safe coun- try of asylum should come as no surprise to immigration ministers in the EU (“Expul- sion of asylum-seekers to Greece ‘illegal’,” European- Voice.com, 21 January). The court’s Grand Cham- ber found that Greece’s bro- ken asylum system and ap- palling detention conditions meant that Belgium’s transfer of an Afghan asylum-seeker to Greece in 2009 had breached a prohibition on ill- treatment and denied him an effective remedy. Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Swe- den, the UK and – on 19 Jan- uary – Germany had already suspended returns to Greece. The court’s judgment means that any other government that continues transfers is likely to fall foul of human- rights law. As the court’s ruling makes clear, the elephant in the room is the Dublin II regulation, the regulation Belgium invoked in trans- ferring the asylum-seeker. The regulation permits EU states (as well as Switzerland, Norway and Iceland) to re- turn adult asylum-seekers to the first EU country they reached without first assess- After Nicolae Ceaus ¸escu re- turned from China in 1971, he launched what became known as a ‘mini-cultural revolution’, a crackdown on Romania’s artists and intelligentsia. The year Isticioaia-Budura entered Ceaus ¸escu’s service – 1978 – was arguably the zenith of Ro- mania’s friendship with China (at least in symbolic terms), with visits by Ceaus ¸escu to Bei- jing and by Hua Guofeng, the then Chinese prime minister, to Bucharest. In the 1980s, China was too soft on commu- nist economics for Ceaus ¸escu’s taste, but he praised the Chinese regime’s massacre of protesters on Tiananmen Square in 1989. This is the environment in which Isticioaia-Budura operated as a diplomat. What did Isticioaia-Budu- ra think of Tiananmen? Did he think that Ceaus ¸escu himself should have been more like the Chinese in the brutality of his efforts to sup- press the Romanian upris- ing in 1989? Was he asked such questions before he was given his new post? Robert Langford London ing their claims. It assumes that every EU member state provides refugees with equal access to asylum and main- tains the same reception standards. But this assump- tion is false. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, has described the sit- uation in Greece for migrants and asylum-seekers as a “hu- manitarian crisis”. Of the 30,000 first asylum applica- tions Greece considered in 2010, just 11 were approved. The backlog stands at around 50,000 cases. A presidential decree adopted in November re- stores a flawed appeal sys- tem abolished in 2009 and may help reduce the back- log. It is, though, unlikely to improve poor decision-mak- ing or provide meaningful access to asylum. Greece adopted a new asy- lum law this month, which should improve the process for asylum decisions and ap- peals, but it may take more than a year to put it into effect. Neither the decree nor the new law will immediately ad- dress the appalling detention conditions faced by migrants and asylum-seekers, the cy- cling in and out of detention for migrants who cannot be removed for legal or practical reasons, or the lack of protec- tion for unaccompanied mi- grant children, who continue to be detained with adult strangers or left to fend for themselves on the streets. With more than three- quarters of migrants who en- ter the EU irregularly by land coming across the Greek bor- der from Turkey, the Dublin II regulation means that an EU country ill-equipped to assess asylum claims or to treat mi- grants humanely has to man- age a disproportionate num- ber of arrivals. The regulation has led to a similarly unfair burden for Malta and other external border states. When and if Greece im- proves its asylum system and detention conditions to the extent that Dublin II returns from other EU states can safe- ly resume, it will quickly find itself back at square one, fac- ing an ever-increasing num- ber of claims. That is likely to be accompanied by over- crowding and delays of deci- sion-making once again. The EU and member states recognise this. But the solu- tions offered to date have fo- cused on keeping migrants and asylum-seekers from en- tering Greece in the first place. In November, Frontex, the EU’s external border agency, sent border guards to bolster Greece’s border with Turkey. In December, Greece an- nounced plans to build a fence along a part of that border. And Turkey is under pressure to prevent migrants and asy- lum-seekers from entering Greece and to take back those who manage to cross the bor- der. These initiatives call into question EU member states’ commitment to the right to seek asylum. If the European Union is serious about that right, it needs to look again at the Dublin II regulation. That is tough politically. The status quo suits non- frontline states. Recent efforts by the European Commission to pursue modest reforms of Dublin II that would allow for temporary suspension of transfers in cases of mass in- flux have faltered in the face of opposition from as many as two-thirds of member states. Unless and until the Dublin II regulation is fundamental- ly reformed, the asylum crisis in Greece will not go away. And a common EU asylum system that guarantees the right to seek asylum will remain an aspiration. Benjamin Ward Deputy director Europe and central Asia division Human Rights Watch London How long was Ceaus ¸escu’s shadow? Asylum crisis won’t go away Energy makes the EU turn a blind eye to torture CONTROVERSIAL VISITOR Islam Karimov. REUTERS
Transcript of Asylum crisis won’t go away Energy makes the EU turn a blind eye to … · 2019-12-18 · blind...
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© European Voice All rights reserved. Neither thispublication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any formby any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of European Voice.
European Voice is published by The Economist Group buthas complete editorial independence. The viewsexpressed may differ from those in other publications inThe Economist Group.
For reprint information, please contact:[email protected]
Printed by: Corelio Printing, Keerstraat 10, B-9420 Erpe-Mere, at the coldset printing department of VUM – Groot-Bijgaarden, Brussels. European Voice is printed on recycled paper.
Telephone: +32 (0)2 540 9090 Email: [email protected]
LETTERS International Press Centre Résidence Palace,Rue de la Loi 155, Box 6, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
Fax:+32 (0)2 540 9071 • Letters: [email protected]: www.europeanvoice.com
We will accept letters in all EU official languages. Letter-writers by post, fax or email are requested toprovide their name, address and telephone numbers. We will consider withholding name and address
details, but this information must be provided. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.
1027 January 2011
PUBLISHERJürgen Debusmann
EDITORTim King
NEWS EDITORSimon Taylor
FEATURES EDITORAndrew Gardner
ASSOCIATE EDITORPeter O’Donnell
REPORTERSConstant BrandJennifer RankinToby VogelIan Wishart
PRODUCTION EDITORJarle Hetland
SUB-EDITORPaul Dallison
GRAPHIC DESIGNER & SUB-EDITORAndré Dael
CARTOONISTMarco Villard
FINANCIAL CONTROLLERRichard Langrish
JUNIOR BUSINESS ACCOUNTANTAlison Hardy
ADVOCACY SALES CO-ORDINATORChristine Coudour
SALES CO-ORDINATOR(education, recruitment and publications)Murat Dogru
SENIOR CORPORATE SALES EXECUTIVEClaudio Bergamo
ADVOCACY SALES EXECUTIVEBlanche Eglin
CORPORATE SALES EXECUTIVELudwig EickemeyerNicholas Bruneau
SPECIAL PROJECTS EXECUTIVESoultana Tsiora
MARKETING DIRECTORMichel Deurinck
EVENTS DEVELOPER ANDCO-ORDINATORLorenzo Morselli
EVENTS & MARKETING EXECUTIVEChristina Gennet
OPERATIONS DIRECTORAnne Marchadier
HUMAN RESOURCES & ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT Sylvie Delmarcelle
CIRCULATION ASSISTANTLaurent Falise
CIRCULATION & MARKET-ING CO-ORDINATOREtienne Bauvir
Andrew Stroehlein’s ironicpraise for Islam Karimovtouches on many of the rea-sons why José Manuel Bar-roso, the European Com-mission’s president, shouldnot have met the Uzbekpresident on Monday(“Congratulations, Mr Kari-mov!”, 20-26 January).
Readers may not, though,have fully noticed one of themost important points: UNreports of torture. Back in2002, the United Nationshuman-rights rapporteurTheo van Boven used theword “systematic”, and an-other UN rapporteur, Man-fred Nowak, used the sameword last year. On top ofthat, Nowak said last yearthat he had received manyreports of detainees beingraped by police.
To get an idea of howgrotesque the torture can be,your readers should be re-minded about a case wherevery clear evidence was pro-duced. Craig Murray, a for-mer British ambassador inTashkent, managed to gethis hands on photos of the
body of Muzafar Avazov,who died in prison in 2002,and when he gave them to aBritish forensic pathologist,he was told the injuries wereconsistent with being boiledalive.
Most Europeans opposedthe ‘war on terror’ in part be-cause politicians turned ablind eye to torture. Now, itseems, the EU is prepared toturn a blind eye to torture foreven less than terrorism – gasfor the Nabucco pipeline.
The Commission seemsto have tried to distance it-self from Karimov’s visit,saying that the Commissiondid not invite him. It seemsan odd thing to say, sinceBarroso could always havesaid ‘No’ to the meeting. It ismeeting him that is the is-sue. In any case, Karimovgot what he wanted – ameeting – and will say whathe wants: the Uzbek nation-al news agency, for example,says Karimov was invited byBarroso.
Tereza Bellová Prague
In your Entre Nous about thenew head of the EU’s Asiapolicy, Viorel Isticioaia-Budu-ra, you noted that he joinedthe Romanian foreign service(European Voice, 20-26 Jan-uary) during “the darkestyears of Ceausescu’s rule”. It isalso worth noting how closeRomania’s relationship withChina was.
Friday’s ruling by the Euro-pean Court of Human Rightsthat Greece is not a safe coun-try of asylum should come asno surprise to immigrationministers in the EU (“Expul-sion of asylum-seekers toGreece ‘illegal’,” European-Voice.com, 21 January).
The court’s Grand Cham-ber found that Greece’s bro-ken asylum system and ap-palling detention conditionsmeant that Belgium’s transferof an Afghan asylum-seekerto Greece in 2009 hadbreached a prohibition on ill-treatment and denied him aneffective remedy.
Belgium, Finland, Iceland,Netherlands, Norway, Swe-den, the UK and – on 19 Jan-uary – Germany had alreadysuspended returns to Greece.The court’s judgment meansthat any other governmentthat continues transfers islikely to fall foul of human-rights law.
As the court’s rulingmakes clear, the elephant inthe room is the Dublin IIregulation, the regulationBelgium invoked in trans-ferring the asylum-seeker.
The regulation permits EUstates (as well as Switzerland,Norway and Iceland) to re-turn adult asylum-seekers tothe first EU country theyreached without first assess-
After Nicolae Ceausescu re-turned from China in 1971, helaunched what became knownas a ‘mini-cultural revolution’,a crackdown on Romania’sartists and intelligentsia. Theyear Isticioaia-Budura enteredCeausescu’s service – 1978 –was arguably the zenith of Ro-mania’s friendship with China(at least in symbolic terms),
with visits by Ceausescu to Bei-jing and by Hua Guofeng, thethen Chinese prime minister,to Bucharest. In the 1980s,China was too soft on commu-nist economics for Ceausescu’staste, but he praised the Chinese regime’s massacre ofprotesters on TiananmenSquare in 1989. This is the environment in which
Isticioaia-Budura operated asa diplomat.
What did Isticioaia-Budu-ra think of Tiananmen? Didhe think that Ceausescuhimself should have beenmore like the Chinese in thebrutality of his efforts to sup-press the Romanian upris-ing in 1989? Was he askedsuch questions before he wasgiven his new post?
Robert LangfordLondon
ing their claims. It assumesthat every EU member stateprovides refugees with equalaccess to asylum and main-tains the same receptionstandards. But this assump-tion is false.
UNHCR, the UN refugeeagency, has described the sit-uation in Greece for migrantsand asylum-seekers as a “hu-manitarian crisis”. Of the30,000 first asylum applica-tions Greece considered in2010, just 11 were approved.The backlog stands at around50,000 cases.
A presidential decreeadopted in November re-stores a flawed appeal sys-tem abolished in 2009 andmay help reduce the back-log. It is, though, unlikely toimprove poor decision-mak-ing or provide meaningfulaccess to asylum.
Greece adopted a new asy-lum law this month, whichshould improve the processfor asylum decisions and ap-peals, but it may take morethan a year to put it into effect.
Neither the decree nor thenew law will immediately ad-dress the appalling detentionconditions faced by migrantsand asylum-seekers, the cy-cling in and out of detentionfor migrants who cannot beremoved for legal or practicalreasons, or the lack of protec-
tion for unaccompanied mi-grant children, who continueto be detained with adultstrangers or left to fend forthemselves on the streets.
With more than three-quarters of migrants who en-ter the EU irregularly by landcoming across the Greek bor-der from Turkey, the Dublin IIregulation means that an EUcountry ill-equipped to assessasylum claims or to treat mi-grants humanely has to man-age a disproportionate num-ber of arrivals. The regulationhas led to a similarly unfairburden for Malta and otherexternal border states.
When and if Greece im-proves its asylum system anddetention conditions to theextent that Dublin II returnsfrom other EU states can safe-ly resume, it will quickly finditself back at square one, fac-ing an ever-increasing num-ber of claims. That is likely tobe accompanied by over-crowding and delays of deci-sion-making once again.
The EU and member statesrecognise this. But the solu-tions offered to date have fo-cused on keeping migrantsand asylum-seekers from en-tering Greece in the first place.
In November, Frontex, theEU’s external border agency,sent border guards to bolsterGreece’s border with Turkey.
In December, Greece an-nounced plans to build a fencealong a part of that border.And Turkey is under pressureto prevent migrants and asy-lum-seekers from enteringGreece and to take back thosewho manage to cross the bor-der. These initiatives call intoquestion EU member states’commitment to the right toseek asylum.
If the European Union isserious about that right, itneeds to look again at theDublin II regulation.
That is tough politically.The status quo suits non-frontline states. Recent effortsby the European Commissionto pursue modest reforms ofDublin II that would allow fortemporary suspension oftransfers in cases of mass in-flux have faltered in the face ofopposition from as many astwo-thirds of member states.
Unless and until the DublinII regulation is fundamental-ly reformed, the asylum crisisin Greece will not go away.And a common EU asylumsystem that guarantees theright to seek asylum will remain an aspiration.
Benjamin WardDeputy director
Europe and central Asia divisionHuman Rights Watch
London
How long was Ceausescu’s shadow?
Asylum crisis won’t go away Energy makes the EU turn a blind eye to torture
CONTROVERSIAL VISITOR Islam Karimov. REUTERS
