Refugee protection must have equal priority with border control

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 11th Oct 2005

Ahead of tomorrow's (12.10.05) meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council of Ministers which will discuss immigration and refugee issues, Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP said:

"They need to come up with some coherent and effective plan to address the tragic events at the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla as well as the dire conditions at the Lampedusa detention camp in Italy."

"Through shifting responsibility onto Morocco, the Spanish government now has blood on its hands. EU governments must stop seeing everything through the prism of illegal immigration and start caring equally about refugee protection."

"In 6 years of law-making, the EU has failed to shape a credible and viable asylum and immigration regime. It has tried to slide out of its international human rights obligations as European policy has become just a combination of each state's worst practices."

Note:

Several immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa were killed and hundreds injured as they tried to gain entry to the two Spanish enclaves in Morocco; many were then reportedly just dumped in the desert. MEPs who visited Lampedusa 4 weeks ago are demanding that the Italian justice minister answer accusations that the full severity of the problems there were concealed from them.