New EU migration plans are recipe for failure

Today’s suggestion by the European Commission on plans for new ‘controlled centers’ for refugees and other migrants inside the EU, and its proposed arrangements for disembarking migrants rescued in the Mediterranean in countries outside the EU, were condemned by Oxfam today.

Reacting to the news, Oxfam’s Europe migration campaign lead Evelien van Roemburg said:

“What the European Commission calls ‘controlled centers’ are de facto detention camps. This idea has been tried and failed before – leaving vulnerable people living in deplorable, inhumane conditions in so-called ‘EU hotspots’ in Italy and Greece. Rather than creating more camps, European governments must reform the European asylum system so that it is based on responsibility sharing between all member states, and puts people’s personal safety, needs and rights first.

“Refugees in ‘EU hotspots’ regularly wait over two years for authorities to make a decision on their asylum claims, through procedures that are often opaque and unfair. This puts asylum seekers, many of whom are traumatized or victims of trafficking, in a legal limbo without access to basic services such as healthcare or education for children.

 “If EU member states are already struggling to provide proper care and a fair process for assessing asylum claims, there is no reason to believe that ‘disembarkation platforms’ outside the EU will be any better. They are just another attempt by Europe to offload its responsibilities to poorer countries outside of the EU. This approach to migration is a recipe for failure, and directly threatens the rights of women, men and children on the move.”