European Refugee Crisis.

There seems to be little action taking place to resolve the situation and now they are talking of changing the rules laid down in the Dublin Agreement, which states that those seeking asylum in Europe need to apply in the first country they reach,

The rules have worked fine for years, however numbers have increased including large numbers of economic migrants who have swelled the numbers and do not qualify for asylum. Last year Germany announced it would accept anyone who reached it border and this effectively destroyed any form of control, causing millions of people to cross from Turkey to Greece and North Africa to Italy, Malta and France, many without documents. European countries were eventually forced to temporary close their borders as they could not cope.

Germany has now admitted that it cannot cope with the 1.1 million refugees and in it fact does not even know where over half of them are because they only registered names and country of origin before allowing them to travel to the area of Germany they wished to live in to apply for Asylum and it is possible that some may have left Germany for other countries.

Immigrant are increasingly being accused of causing problems in countries they are living in including Germany and Sweden, probably the worse case being in Calais where some 150 broke through security fences and 50 of them boarded a ferry bound for the UK. They complain about living conditions in the “Jungle” camps both in Calais and Dunkirk but are unlikely to use new facilities under construction by the French Government at Dunkirk as they fear they will become internment camps.

The truth is that many immigrants will not be granted asylum as they are merely economic migrants and not refugees whose lives are in danger. Law and order has broken down what is need is for refugees to be able to register as asylum seekers either before they travel to Europe or on arrival. There needs to be a way to fast track applications, rejecting those who are economic migrant who should apply for visa's in the normal way

UK Asylum – If someone is at risk of being persecuted in their own country, they may go abroad and ask for asylum in another country. Granting ‘asylum’ means giving someone permission to remain in another country because of that risk of persecution.

In legal terms, a person who has asked for asylum in the UK and is waiting for a decision on that claim is called an asylum seeker. Someone who has received a positive decision on his or her asylum claim is called a refugee.

Although some asylum seekers might enter the UK illegally, once they have applied for asylum they are no longer ‘illegal’. Anyone seeking protection is entitled to stay in the UK while awaiting a decision on their asylum claim.

The right to claim asylum is in international law. Governments are obliged to provide protection to people who meet the criteria for asylum. The UK has signed these international laws and they are part of UK legislation.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member