Transcript The Dynamics of Asylum and Burden Sharing

The Dynamics of
Asylum and BurdenSharing – Case
Studies of Malta and
Cyprus
Structure of Discussion:
• The Principle of Burden-Sharing: Does it exist in
the EU? How does the EU share the asylum
responsibilities?
• The EU Perspective
• The National Perspective : Case of Malta and
Cyprus
• Concluding Remarks
Asylum Burden-Sharing
• “Burden-sharing appears to be a fairly self-explanatory term
implying a collaborated, equitable and fair lifting of a heavy
load or weight. The burden signifies then something that has
to be dealt with and cannot or should not be ignored.”
• The asylum burden-sharing principle originated in the 1951
Refugee Convention
• The unequal distribution of asylum seekers has always been a
central issue for the European states and for the policy makers
• The EU Member States have the obligation to respect the
legal instruments – to shoulder responsibility and respect the
asylum seekers’ rights
Types of Burden-Sharing
• Three Burden-Sharing Mechanisms:
1. Sharing People – the dispersal of asylum-seekers
2. Sharing Money – providing financial support and boost the
efforts of the recipient States
3. Sharing Policy – setting a common set of laws which serve as
the minimum standards for different countries
EU Analysis
• The first treaty of the Community; the Treaty of Rome makes
no reference to the immigration of people from outside
Europe
• The Treaty of Amsterdam provided a legal basis for EU action
to legislate immigration and asylum policies on minimum
standards
• It also extended the power of the Commission, the European
Parliament and the European Court in this field – to create and
coordinate policies
• The Treaty of Lisbon has made the Charter of Fundamental
Rights of the European Union legally binding –it is likely to
result in am empowerment of the rights of asylum-seekers
within the EU
EU Programs:
• The Tampere Programme:
• 1999-2004
• Set up the European Refugee Fund with an allocated budget of
€216 million
• The Hague Programme:
• 2005-2009
• Added dimension – to regulate migratory flows by controlling and
securing the Union’s external borders – FRONTEX
• Extended and augmented the European Refugee Fund
• The Stockholm Programme:
• 2010-2014
• ‘European Asylum support Office’
The National Perspectives –
Malta & Cyprus
Asylum Applications in Malta and Cyprus
‘02
‘03
‘04
‘05
‘06
‘07
‘08
‘09
‘10
‘11
‘12
Cyprus
956
4410
9860
7750
4550
6790
3920
3200
3160
1770
1630
Malta
474
570
1000
1170
1270
1380
2610
2390
140
1860
2060
The size of the problem:
• For the period 2007 to 2011, UNHCR has named Malta and
Cyprus as the top two countries receiving on average the
highest numbers of asylum-seekers per 1,000 inhabitants on a
global scale: Malta ranked first with 20.1 and Cyprus followed
with 17.1 applications per 1,000 people respectively
• Every one migrant in Malta equates to 205 in Germany, 150 in
the UK, 150 in France and 140 in Italy
Calls for asylum burdensharing
• Malta and Cyprus have been very vociferous in campaigning
for burden-sharing measures
• Malta and Cyprus teamed up with Greece and Italy to form
the so-called Quadro Group
• Lobbying for urgent EU action regarding the disproportionate
pressures of illegal immigration and asylum seekers and
advocated the need to put the burden-sharing principle and the
notion of solidarity into effect
• Malta and Cyprus have also campaigned on individual levels
Burden-Sharing with Malta
and Cyprus
• Sharing People:
• The system remained on a voluntary basis, thus causing Malta
and Cyprus to keep on demanding more solidarity from their
counterparts
• In 2009 Malta managed to introduce a pilot project (EUREMA)
for the assistance of intra-EU resettlement of some of its
protection seekers
• During the first phase of EUREMA, in 2011, 255 places were pledged
for relocation
• In 2012, EUREMA phase 2 secured another 356 places
• Directive on Temporary Protection in the Case of Mass Influx established as a kind of burden-sharing mechanism hasn’t been
invoked since its adoption, back in 2001
Burden-Sharing with Malta
and Cyprus
• Sharing Money:
• Different funds have helped both Malta and Cyprus
• Malta and Cyprus both benefit from the ‘Solidarity and Migration
Flows’ programme, which was established in 2007
• This programme incorporates four different funds:
•
•
•
•
External Borders Fund (EBF)
The European Refugee Fund (ERF)
European Return Fund
European Integration Fund
European External Borders Fund :
2007-2013
Year
Malta (€)
Cyprus (€)
2007
5,653,277.64
2,090,547.00
2008
9,743,356.84
1,982,610.25
2009
12,537,000.00
3,430,406.00
2010
13,032,000.00
2,333,000.00
2011
16,187,000.00
2,898,000.00
2012
23,083,000.00
4,132,000.00
2013
32,499,000.00
5,818,000.00
2014
112,734,634.48
22,684,563.25
Burden-Sharing with Malta
and Cyprus
• Sharing Policy:
• As part of the accession negotiations, Malta and Cyprus were
obliged to implement the Schengen acquis as well as the Dublin II
Regulation
•
• Schengen provisions abolished the internal common checks and
transferred to the external borders where they have become stricter
“to safeguard internal security and prevent illegal immigration by
nationals of States that are not members of the European
Communities”
• Dublin II Regulation: holds that the first State of entry, is responsible
to ensure that the asylum application and process are administered
These systems have produced additional asylum burden and
responsibilities on those states already heavily burdened, by the
very fact that they are located at the external borders and have to
deal with all the asylum seekers and illegal immigrants
approaching the EU through their territories
Concluding Remarks:
• A substantial increase of asylum applications in Malta and
Cyprus in the year 2004 and onwards
• The EU has always been hesitant to promote and agree on the
physical relocation of asylum-seekers from one state to
another.
• There is a reluctance of EU Member States towards the physical
redistribution of asylum-seekers
• On an EU level, there were no ‘sharing-people’ mechanisms
implemented,
• The EU is more generous towards providing money to Malta
and Cyprus
• EU laws have been a source for the lack of burden-sharing
• Sharing-policy - contrary to distributing the problems, policy
harmonization has added extra policy restrictions to both states
Thank You