In its latest position paper, the Red Cross EU office has released a position paper calling on the EU and its member states to ensure that asylum seekers have safe and effective legal avenues to the EU territory to exercise their right to international protection. The paper puts forward nine recommendations aimed at ensuring access to asylum procedures, particularly by respecting refugee and human rights standards at the borders, not penalising the irregular entry of asylum seekers and ensuring an effective right of appeal against denial of entry.
The applicant, Seydmajed Ahmade, is an Afghan national who lives in Athens (Greece). Mr Ahmade arrived in Greece on 23 December 2007. He was arrested several times between then and 11 August 2008 and each time various removal decisions were taken against him. Following a fight, the applicant was arrested again on 27 August 2009. His removal was ordered once again and he was held at the police station on the ground that he posed a threat to public order and was likely to abscond on account of the criminal proceedings against him concerning the fight.
The applicant, Makhmudzhan Ergashev, is a Kyrgyzstani national who has been living in St Petersburg (Russia) since July 2006. He is an ethnic Uzbek and lived in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan before he left for Russia. In 2007, criminal proceedings were brought against Mr Ergashev in Kyrgyzstan on suspicion of embezzlement of State funds, allegedly committed in 2006-07. He was charged in absentia, declared a wanted person and an order for him to be remanded in custody was issued. In August 2010, he was arrested in Russia and detained with a view to his extradition.
The Council and the Parliament have reached an agreement on the EUROSUR regulation. This agreement will be formally adopted by the Parliament in September and later on by the Council. EUROSUR will establish a mechanism that will allow border surveillance authorities to share operational information among themselves and with FRONTEX in order to reduce the number of irregular immigrants entering the EU undetected. The regulation will apply to the surveillance of land and sea external borders.
The applicant, Mr. K., is a Russian national of Chechen origin who lives in Vienna. After the killing of his father and after having suffered arrests and beatings by Russian soldiers himself, he arrived in Austria together with his mother in 2004 and requested asylum. Their claims were rejected. However, on appeal his mother was recognized as a refugee.
During its meeting on 6-7 December the Council confirmed the political agreement on the Dublin Regulation and was informed about the state-of-play of the outstanding legislative proposals concerning the Common European Asylum System:
The European Commission will be presenting its Smart Borders package to the upcoming Justice and Home Affairs Council of 7-8 March. The package includes three proposals for regulations:
The applicant, Zhakhongir Abidov, is a Kyrgyzstan national who was born in 1981 and lives in Novosibirsk (Russia). An ethnic Uzbek, he has regularly travelled to Russia for work purposes since 2001. In June 2010 he was arrested in Novosibirsk as he was wanted by the Uzbek authorities on suspicion of setting up an extremist organisation whose aim is to overthrow the constitutional order in Uzbekistan; his extradition was also granted shortly thereafter. However, he has since been released in March 2011 when the Russian courts quashed the decision to extradite him.
The paper "Distinction, Discretion, Discrimination: the new frontiers of gender-related claims to asylum" was presented by Ms. Alice Edwards, Senior Legal Coordinator and Chief, Protection Policy and Legal Advice Section, Division of International Protection, UNHCR during the Gender, Migration and Human Rights Conference, organized by the European University Institute in Florence, Italy Uniteon 18-19 June 2012.
(Area of freedom, security and justice - Directive 2008/115/EC - Common standards and procedures for returning illegally staying third-country nationals - Applicability to asylum seekers - Possibility of keeping a third-country national in detention after an application for asylum has been made)
