UK
must share, not shift asylum burden
LONDON, (UNHCR)
- As campaigning for UK elections gets underway the UN refugee agency
country representative Anne Dawson-Shepherd has urged political
parties to stick to facts and not propagate asylum myths during
the pre-election period.
"UNHCR
is terribly worried as among some quarters the crisis rhetoric and
lumping of asylum with migration issues continues, often fuelled
by thinly disguised xenophobia and political opportunism,"
UNHCR Representative Anne Dawson-Shepherd said. "The number
of people claiming asylum in the UK has dropped 61 percent over
the last two years, back to levels not seen since the early 1990s."
"It is
vitally important for the UK and its EU partners to manage rather
than simply react to the asylum challenge, governments need to share,
not shift burdens, and to harmonise not only their laws but also
their practice," Dawson-Shepherd declared.
Dawson-Shepherd was speaking following a press statement earlier
this week by one UK party which declared that UNHCR and the European
Commission had already established pilot schemes for overseas processing
centres in a number of north African countries.
"It is
not correct that overseas processing centres have been established,"
she said. "Certainly this would not happen in countries with
poor human rights records and which are also non-signatories of
the 1951 Refugee Convention," Dawson-Shepherd said.
The 1951 Refugee
Convention protects people from being returned to their homelands
to face persecution. Recent proposals for the UK to withdraw from
the treaty have been touted as a panacea to perceived problems with
immigration. UNHCR's position is that the Refugee Convention was
never intended to address migration control.
"Withdrawing
from the Refugee Convention and further weakening the international
asylum regime by placing the burden of caring for refugees on states
lacking adequate resources and traditions of respect for human rights
would only trigger further and more uncontrolled asylum flows, fatally
undermining international efforts for burden-sharing and refugee
protection," Dawson-Shepherd said.
The UNHCR representative
wrote to candidates for the UK parliament this week asking them
to "show political leadership and social responsibility by
working towards reversing the atmosphere of intolerance that has
been fostered towards refugees and asylum seekers."
"Refuting
false and negative stereotypes and promoting a climate of understanding
in regards to the reasons why people must still flee murderous regimes
will help ensure that asylum seekers and refugees get the support
they need while fostering better community cohesion," Dawson-Shepherd
wrote in her letter to candidates.
"Refugees
are extremely vulnerable, having experienced violence in their homelands,
and arrive in the UK without family or other support networks. They
are not a threat, but are threatened, and thus deserve Britain's
support and understanding."
On the issue
of irregular migration, the UNHCR has called for a system that provides
opportunities for refugees and migrants to come to Europe legally,
stating that policies built on exclusion are not only morally reprehensible,
it is also impractical: it will simply push all forms of migration,
including refugees, further underground.
End
contact:
Anne Dawson-Shepherd, tel. 07775.567.136
Peter Kessler, tel. 07775.566.127
