12.3: Asylum and immigration

All EU member states are signatories to the UN Geneva Convention (1950) which commits them to protect refugees by ensuring that they may not be expelled or extradited to a state where there is a serious risk that they would be subjected to the death penalty, torture or other degrading treatment.

The EU is developing common policies on both asylum and immigration.

The Dublin Convention on asylum (signed in 1990) was a considerable step forward in European cooperation. It provided for asylum applications to be examined by whichever member state first received the asylum-seeker (this is not always easy to establish in the case of illegal entrants without papers) unless there were good reasons why the case should be handled by another member state. It was designed to forestall the possibility of asylum-seekers trying one member state after another, or several member states simultaneously, in order to gain entry into the EU. It eventually came into force in 1997.

The Maastricht Treaty (1992) designated asylum policy and immigration as areas of "common interest". The Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and the Tampere European Council (1999) gave the EU the de facto responsibility for setting a Common Immigration & Asylum Policy.

The "Hague Programme" was presented by the Dutch Presidency (October 2004) for the years 2005-2010. In May 2005 the Commission produced a road map for implementing the Hague Programme, with asylum and immigration (along with combating terrorism) top of the list of specific priority areas.

Concerning asylum, the EU is developing a Common European Asylum System, with a view to adoption by 2010.
Concerning managed migration, the Commission's 2005 proposals included a draft Directive to set uniform standards and procedures for the return of illegal immigrants to their home countries. The overall objective is to develop a Common EU Immigration policy.

RL, February 2007