London MEP condemns Straw's "Fortress Europe"

12.00.00am GMT Tue 6th Feb 2001

London Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has accused Home Secretary Jack Straw of seeking to undermine the protection of refugees in Europe by watering down the 1951 Geneva Convention.

Sarah Ludford, who is spokesperson on justice and home affairs for European Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament, said:

"Is Jack Straw seriously saying that the "modernisation" the Convention requires is an abandonment of Europe's post-war pledge to offer protection to genuine asylum-seekers? Does he want to go back to the door-slamming that victims of Nazi persecution met in the 1930s?"

"Jack Straw proposes a 'fortress Europe' whereby asylum seekers are normally banned from seeking protection here. But if they are shuffled onto poor countries with no regard for whether they will be safe, this risks breaching international refugee and human rights laws."

"Jack Straw and Labour should not collude in building the myth that most asylum-seekers are 'bogus', when in fact immigration officers recognise almost half of applicants are deserving of protection in the UK."