Re: '' Brexit was a distraction now Europe is facing a hellish 2020''
Originally Posted by
Bruce
->
You'll have to point out to us exactly where the
1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees says that.
Article 26 - Freedom of movement
Each Contracting State shall accord to refugees lawfully in its territory the right to choose their place of residence and to move freely within its territory subject to any regulations applicable to aliens generally in the same circumstances.
There is no such rule saying refugees must seek asylum in the first safe country they get to. However if they were really in fear of their lives it would be a natural assumption they would be happy to do so .
Instead they risk their lives by going from eg France to the UK in small boats .
Why?
France is a free and humane country treats its refugees well .
it would seem that these are not then refugees in fear of their lives , they are economic migrants who seek a better life.
Clearly a better life is to be had in the UK.
There is such as thing as the
Dublin Regulation or Removals which means that refugees can be removed back to the country they first registered as refugees.
I quote here an article from 'Free Movement'
'This piece of EU law provides broadly that where an asylum seeker has been fingerprinted in an EU Member State but then moves on to another EU Member State, the asylum seeker can be sent back to the first country to have the asylum claim processed there.
For example, if an asylum seeker reaches Italy, is fingerprinted then travels to the UK and claims asylum, pretty much the first thing the Home Office will do is take fingerprints, check them against the central Eurodac fingerprint database and then if a match is found notify the other country and send the asylum seeker back there pronto.
There is no legal duty or obligation on the asylum seeker to claim and remain in the first safe country and an asylum seeker who moves on is not breaking the law by doing so or disqualifying themselves from refugee status.
But as a matter of administration, one EU country can send the asylum seeker back to another EU country under this system.
There are currently several hundred such “Dublin removals” every year from the United Kingdom. It is a system that the UK is very happy with, but Italy and Greece rather less so.
An inevitable consequence of the type of Brexit currently being pursued by the UK Government is that the UK will be leaving the Common European Asylum System and the Dublin Regulation will cease to apply. The UK says that it would like to negotiate a similar agreement from outside the UK but the prospects of the EU agreeing to that seem extremely slim.
Brexit therefore means it will no longer be possible for the UK to remove those asylum seekers who reach the UK via EU countries.
Why not just send them to France anyway?
Because the French Government would not accept them. One country cannot simply send a person to another country without the receiving country’s permission. Other countries don’t do it to us and we don’t do it to them. It’s pretty basic.
Imagine, how would it work? If just placed on a boat, plane, train or automobile, the receiving officials would refuse to let the the person disembark or would just send them straight back to the UK. The UK would then face the same problem. Ferry terminals and airports would quickly start to fill with people caught in bureaucratic limbo. And what would be the consequences to our relationships with other countries?
UK border officials could physically take a person to the other country, perhaps, and then hand them over. But what happens when the receiving officials say “non”? Do the UK officials, um, just run away?
Intercepting dinghies in the Channel and then towing them to France likewise seems a tad impractical. Landing the occupants of the dinghies in France without French permission might well be rather frowned upon, I imagine. I cannot imagine the British Government being very happy if the French did the same to us.
In summary…
So, to sum up, there is no obligation on refugees to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach, although many in fact do. The UK receives a tiny number of refugees compared to other countries in the EU and beyond. There are multiple reasons why refugees might want to move on from refugee camps or travel to find family members or better prospects. If they do so, and would face a well founded fear of being persecuted in their home country, they are still refugees. There is a system within the EU called the Dublin system under which refugees can be sent back to their point of entry to the EU to have their asylum claims processed. But the type of Brexit being pursued by the British government means that the UK will be leaving the Dublin system when we leave the EU.'
Colin Yeo
Immigration and asylum barrister, blogger, writer and consultant at Garden Court Chambers in London and founder and editor of the Free Movement immigration law website.