EC:`manifestly unfounded applications'
01 January 1991
EC:`manifestly unfounded applications'
actdoc September=1993
RESOLUTION
on manifestly unfounded applications for asylum
[SN 4822/92 WGI 1282 AS 146]
MINISTERS OF THE MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
responsible for Immigration, meeting in London on 30 November and
1 December 1992,
HAVING REGARD to the objective, fixed by the European Council
meeting in Strasbourg in December 1989, of the harmonization of
their asylum policies and the work programme agreed at the meeting
at Maastricht in December 1991;
DETERMINED, in keeping with their common humanitarian tradition, to
guarantee adequate protection to refugees in accordance with the
terms of the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951, as amended by the
New York Protocol of 31 January 1967, relating to the Status of
Refugees;
NOTING that Member States may, in accordance with national
legislation, allow the exceptional stay of aliens for other
compelling reasons outside the teems of the 1951 Geneva Convention;
REAFFIRMING their commitment to the Dublin Convention of 15 June
1990, which guarantees that all asylum applicants at the border or
on the territory of a Member State will have their claim for asylum
examined and sets out rules for determining which Member State will
be responsible for that examination;
AWARE that a rising number of applicants for asylum in the Member
States are not in genuine need of protection within the Member
States within the terms of the Geneva Convention, and concerned
that such manifestly unfounded applications overload asylum
determination procedures, delay the recognition of refugees in
genuine need of protection and jeopardize the integrity of the
institution of asylum;
INSPIRED by Conclusion No. 30 of the Executive Committee of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees;
CONVINCED that their asylum policies should give no encouragement
to the misuse of asylum procedures;
MAKE THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION :
Manifestly unfounded applications
1. (a) An application for asylum shall be regarded as manifestly
unfounded because it clearly raises no substantive issue under the
Geneva Convention and New York Protocol for one of the following
reasons :
- there is clearly no substance to the applicant's claim to
fear persecution in his own country (paragraphs 6 to 8)
; or
- the claim is based on deliberate deception or is an abuse
of asylum procedures (paragraphs 9 and 10).
(b) Furthermore, without prejudice to the Dublin Convention,
an application for asylum may not be subject to determination by a
Member State of refugee status under the terms of the Geneva
Convention on the Status of Refugees when it falls within the
provisions of the Resolution on host third countries adopted by
Immigration Ministers meeting in London on 30 November and 1
December 1992.
2. Member States may include within an accelerated procedure
(where it exists or is introduced), which need not include full
examination at every level of the procedure, those applications
which fall within the terms of paragraph 1, although an application
need not be included within such procedures if there are national
policies providing for its acceptance on other grounds. Members
States may also operate admissibility procedures under which
applications may be rejected very quickly on objective grounds.
3. Member States will aim to reach initial decisions on
applications which fall within the terms of paragraph 1 as soon as
possible and at the latest within one month and to complete any
appeal or review procedures as soon as possible. Appeal or review
procedures may be more simplified than those generally available in
the case of other rejected asylum applications.
4. A decision to refuse an asylum application which falls
within the terms of paragraph 1 will be taken by a competent
authority at the appropriate level fully qualif