Europe ‘eating into rights of claimants’

The rights of asylum seekers are being eroded by European
Commission directives, refugee campaigners were told last
week.

Bharti Patel, of the Refugee Council, told the seminar at the third
European Social Forum that, since setting out a positive framework
for refugee rights in 1999, the EU has “embarked on a policy of
closing borders and keeping numbers down”.

She criticised the latest draft directive on asylum procedures of
“smacking of basing practice on the lowest standards available”.

The European Council for Refugees in Exile has called for the
directive, which envisages restricting asylum seekers’ right to
work for three years into their application process, to be
withdrawn.

Other subjects discussed by the forum included youth justice and
the use of antisocial behaviour orders, and disability rights in
Europe.