Nice Treaty will deny human rights to asylum seekers

Wednesday October 16, 2002 18:25

by Phuq Hedd

Financial Times article

A further unpleasant aspect of the Nice Treaty appears to be that it will be deemed impossible to be an asylum seeker if the the applicant originates from one of the 10 eastern European "accession countries" that will be added as inferior colony-states to the EU. So, instead of evaluating the case asylum will be automatically refused because the country is "safe".

Doesn't this violate the Article3.1 of the UN Declaration on Territorial Asylum?

http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/o_asylum.htm
Article 3
1. No person referred to in article 1, paragraph 1, shall be subjected to measures such as rejection at the frontier or, if he has already entered the territory in which he seeks asylum, expulsion or compulsory return to any State where he may be subjected to persecution.

Unless what it's telling us is that there's an expectation that there'll be a mass influx of asylum seekers from eastern European countries which are going to have a permanently lower living standard compared to the rest of Europe and we want to keep them there working unhappily as a handy outer colony? Sort of gives the lie to the pseudo-liberal claptrap about letting eastern Europeans into the EU for their own good.

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EU in move on asylum claimsBy Michael MannPublished: October 16 2002 5:00 | Last Updated: October 16 2002 5:00

Asylum claims from citizens of the 10 countries expected to join the European Union in 2004 will be rejected as unfounded under plans agreed yesterday by EU interior ministers, based on an initiative from David Blunkett, home secretary.

Ministers agreed to treat applicant states as "safe", meaning that their citizens have no reason to apply for refugee status in the EU. This is in line with amendments to the nationality, immigration and asylum bill. Officials said the UK received more than 1,000 asylum applications from citizens of the EU applicant states in the second quarter of 2002. Michael Mann
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