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Family reunification

01 January 1991

Family reunification
artdoc July=1993

Commentary on Draft Conclusions of European ministers responsible
for immigration affairs meeting in London on 30.11.92 and the not
yet adopted Resolution concerning Family Reunification. Standing
committee of experts in international immigration, refugee and
criminal law, Utrecht, April 1993, 65pp. The ungainly title of
this publication has the merit of telling you exactly what you
get: a closely argued critique of the work of the London
ministers, meeting (see Statewatch vol 3 no 1). The resolutions
and
conclusions on asylum, the recommendation on expulsion and the
draft resolution on family reunification are subjected to
detailed and fundamental criticisms, of which the main ones are
that they have no regard to the rights protected by the Geneva
Convention or the European Convention on Human Rights, that the
wording of each document is vague, that the documents have no
clear legal status, that they incorporate no mechanism for
uniform legal control and demonstrate and perpetuate a complete
lack of accountability for the executive.
At the end of each section there is a series of model
parliamentary questions, to be asked of each government which
participated in agreeing the measures. These are very useful,
detailed and challenging, and should be taken up in the British
and other national parliaments. The Commentary ends with the
authors' own suggested draft articles on which the law of asylum
can be based, incorporating recommendations from the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), and a list of
international instruments on the protection of family life.

Statewatch vol 3 no 3 May-June 1993