Right to asylum must be safeguarded – UNHCR

Denying a refugee’s right to claim asylum can have deadly consequences, UNHCR’s Europe Bureau director Vincent Cochetel stressed on Friday after a Senior Officials’ Meeting on migration held last Thursday and Friday in Valletta.

He added: “Approaches to combating human smuggling and trafficking should not be prejudicial to the right to seek asylum and will only be truly successful if legal pathways to safety are accessible to refugees.

“I am encouraged by the reiterated engagement taken by EU officials in Valletta to promote the principles of solidarity, shared responsibility and respect for international obligations in migration management,” said Mr Cochetel. “However, to ensure proper migration management, it is vital to recognise the mixed nature of migratory flows within the African continent and from the African continent to Europe, and to provide differentiated responses.

“While refugees and migrants often move along the same routes, refugees are different; they cannot return to their home countries. Denying their right to claim asylum can have deadly consequences,” he stressed.

The Senior Officials’ Meeting took place as a follow-up to last year’s Valletta Summit on Migration.

“Refugees must be included in all priority actions undertaken by the EU,” Mr Cochetel stressed, noting that “strong protection safeguards, the respect of international obligations by all states and the prospect for solutions should be at the heart of any EU-funded action.

“Initiatives that aim at strengthening resilience, self-reliance and economic opportunities should go hand-in-hand with the development of solid asylum systems and protection programmes, including in transit countries,” he added.

Mr Cochetel also underlined the need for a comprehensive and better-coordinated approach in EU-funded projects and actions to maximise their impact and ensure that the five priorities defined in the Valletta Plan of Action in November 2015 are adequately funded.

“The commitment taken at the Senior Officials’ Meeting to further promote legal migration is positive, but it must be promptly translated into reality, with a rapid increase in safe and legal pathways to Europe,” he said. “In particular, unnecessary obstacles to family reunification must be swiftly removed. Resettlement opportunities in the EU remain limited, almost virtual,” he added, noting that during the past three years, the EU has only resettled 55 vulnerable refugees from Ethiopia.

Mr Cochetel also welcomed the recognition by officials at the summit of the necessity to address the root causes of migration movements and to fight human trafficking. “However, approaches to combating human smuggling and trafficking should not be prejudicial to the right to seek asylum and will only be truly successful if legal pathways to safety are accessible to refugees,” he noted.

He also called for a dialogue on child protection to help find practical solutions to the plight of unaccompanied and separated children, including through identification, family tracing, family reunion and reintegration. “The best interests of the child must prevail in any situation”, he said.

Approaches to combating human smuggling and trafficking should not be prejudicial to the right to seek asylum and will only be truly successful if legal pathways to safety are accessible to refugees