Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-02-Speech-2-082"
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"en.20011002.3.2-082"2
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"Mr President, I would ask Members to ponder one question: is it viable in today's world for all matters of asylum policy to be decided within the parameters of the Geneva Convention? The Geneva Convention drafted in 1951 was conceived as a temporary measure. It was negotiated in a very different world – a world still haunted by the shameful failure of Western countries to offer sanctuary to the victims of European fascism. It was designed first and foremost to ensure that refugees from communist tyranny would have access to safe havens.
But the world has moved on. Mass air travel has facilitated unprecedented migratory flows. The great majority of those seeking better lives in new countries are actuated by understandable – indeed laudable – economic motives. But the terms of the 1951 Convention, and specifically the requirement to assess all claims individually, even if the applicant is manifestly coming from a safe country, encourage economic migrants to seek entry as refugees. This clogs the system to the disbenefit of those genuinely fleeing from injustice and wrong.
I support, as Mr Pirker's report does, a degree of controlled primary immigration. All countries can benefit from the energy and enterprise of people who are prepared to cross whole continents in search of a better future.
For such a policy to gain public consent it must be fair and transparent and it must be open to account. It cannot be right for the judiciaries of our Members States, by applying a peculiar interpretation of the 1951 Convention, to operate an immigration policy beyond the control of elected politicians.
If we want to manage a sustainable policy of legal immigration and, at the same time, protect the rights of those most in need of sanctuary, we must take back control of our asylum laws from the judges. Far from enlarging the scope of the Geneva Convention, as Mr Evans suggests, we should scrap this outmoded accord and replace it with something more suited to the modern world."@en1
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