EU: Euro asylum resolution thwarted (1)
01 January 1991
EU: Euro asylum resolution thwarted
artdoc March=1995
A tough new Resolution on procedures for determining asylum
claims would have been approved by the interior and justice
ministers' meeting in Brussels at the beginning of December but
for the simmering dispute between Spain and other EU states such
as Belgium over the issue of refugees of European origin. The
draft resolution was widely believed to include the abolition of
suspensive rights of appeal in `fast-track' cases, which would
mean that if the authorities deemed the application for asylum
`manifestly unfounded', the asylum-seeker is removed before the
appeal in which the court decides if the expulsion was lawful.
Several countries have already removed suspensive appeal rights,
and have been condemned by UNHCR, Amnesty International and human
rights and refugee groups; the draft Resolution is said to
propose extending the erosion of due process Europe-wide as well
as deeming various countries `safe'.
Statewatch, Vol 4 no 6, November-December 1994