European Challenge: The Future of the European Migration and Asylum Policy

The future of Europe’s migration and asylum policy was discussed in Gotland during the annually held Almedalen week, taking place 4-10 July this year.

The Swedish EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström's Chef de Cabinet Maria Åsenius talked with UNHCR’s Regional Representative for the Baltic and Nordic countries Hans ten Feld and the Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy Billström on Thursday 7^th of July, at an event organised by the EU delegation in Sweden and moderated by well- known journalist John Chrispinsson. Europe's borders and limitations were discussed on global, European and national levels, and among other issues the following questions were posed: What is happening at EU level when it comes to the common asylum and migration policy? What does Sweden want? How does the UNHCR view developments in Sweden and the EU? Can we achieve a more sustainable distribution of responsibilities and if so, how? What will the common rules now being prepared in the EU look like?

“It is a myth that Europe would be facing refugee flows”, ten Feld said. “Of the 43,7 million displaced in 2010 only some 15 million crossed borders to become refugees, and only a small proportion of those came to Europe. The most recent example of this we find in North Africa, where less than 2 percent of the 1.2 million persons fleeing Libya, crossed the Mediterranean. 80 per cent of the refugees reside in poor, developing countries, and in 2010 South Africa had the most asylum-seekers, not any country in Europe or North America. We must broaden our perspective on these matters”, ten Feld emphasized.

The European Commission has given the heads of states and governments the task of reaching a political agreement on a common asylum and migration policy in 2012. The main point of the policy is to have a harmonized asylum system and common grounds for the reception of refugees. According to Åsenius it is important that the European countries have common values and grant asylum on equal terms. Hans ten Feld pointed out that this is currently not the case, with greatly varying procedures, standards and outcomes. “The chances of recognition as a refugee for an Afghan national for instance vary from 0 to 91 % from one EU country to another.” he said. “At the moment it is like a lottery. The chances of getting  asylum depends on which country it is applied for, not on the actual reasons for seeking asylum in the first place. This is not acceptable”, agreed Minister Billström at the panel discussion.

Hans ten Feld concluded the discussion by highlighting the need for open minds as well as open borders. Furthemore he stressed that the EU countries should practice both internal and external solidarity. “The fact that the EU has agreed to  a common asylum and migration policy is very important not only for the EU, but globally as well”, UNHCR’s ten Feld summed up. “In the 60^th anniversary year of the 1951 Refugee Convention it is even more important that harmonization of policy and practice happens based on the highest possible standards as intended when the Convention was drafted following WW II.”

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