| EU should not turn back Chechen refugees,
UN says 17 Sep 2004 19:07:16 GMT Source: Reuters WARSAW, Sept 17 (Reuters) - The European Union should not reject a growing number of Chechens seeking asylum in the wake of the Beslan school siege in southern Russia, the head of the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday. Ruud Lubbers spoke during a visit to Poland, which has seen more Chechen refugees arriving after the deaths this month of more than 320 people, half of them children, at the school in Beslan seized by Chechen extremists. A Polish official said they feared increased violence after the school killings, which prompted Russia to threaten pre-emptive strikes on "terrorist bases" anywhere in the world. "Chechen people have the right to knock on Europe's door. When they knock we should not push them away," said Lubbers, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "We can either give them refugee status, which Poland is already doing, or a temporary status and if they don't want to stay in Poland, they should be allowed to travel further in the EU," he told reporters. Poland, one of 10 central European countries which joined the bloc in May, says the number of refugees has doubled to about 20 per day since the Beslan tragedy. "They come with their entire families saying that following Beslan they fear the reaction from the government and increasing violence. They say they fear for their lives," Jan Wegrzyn, who heads the Repatriation and Foreigners office, told Reuters. Poland has received about 3,500 asylum requests from Chechens this year, with 300 in September. But Interior Minister Ryszard Kalisz said the country can handle the increase. Both Kalisz and Lubbers rejected ideas from some *EU states of creating a refugee camp outside the bloc's borders, possibly in Ukraine. "The issue is not to get rid of the problem but to respect human rights," Kalisz said. http://www.ecre.org/press/scrap_proposal.htm PRESS RELEASE News Release: Monday 29 March 2004 EUROPEAN COUNCIL ON REFUGEES AND EXILES AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Refugee and human rights organizations across Europe call on EU to scrap key asylum proposal (Brussels 29 March 2004) In an unprecedented move, refugee and human rights organisations across Europe are jointly calling on the European Union to scrap one of the key elements leading to the proposed Common European Asylum System. The organisations are concerned that proposals to designate certain countries as "safe countries of origin" or "safe third countries," and the absence of a guaranteed right for all asylum seekers to remain in a country of asylum pending an appeal, violate EU Member States' international obligations. "We feel we have no option but to call on the EU to scrap this proposal on asylum procedures which has been shaped in reaction to populist pressures and fears whipped up about a non-existent flood of refugees into the EU," said Daphné Bouteillet Paquet of Amnesty International, speaking at a joint press conference in Brussels today. "We no longer regard this proposal as credible. It is in breach of the EU's own commitments in the Charter of Fundamental Rights." |