Brussels, 12 Mar - Today the Slovenian Presidency presented the conclusions of the conference on the challenges of EU external border management, held in Brdo, Slovenia. During the conference the interior ministers of EU Member States together with those of Iceland, Norway and Switzerland discussed the Border Management Package that was presented last month by Justice, Freedom and Security Commissioner Frattini. In response to this package ECRE had expressed concerns regarding the EU's failure to properly address the fact that, while all EU countries have a right to control their borders, they have an equally important obligation to provide international protection to persons fleeing torture and persecution. Today's ministerial discussions once again failed to tackle the issue of how to ensure respect for the right to seek asylum while securing the EU's external borders. With few ways to travel legally to the EU, refugees are usually forced to travel irregularly in so-called 'mixed flows' with other migrants. Taking ever greater risks, many people suffer horrific violence and human rights abuses on their journey to Europe and on arrival.

But most refugees cannot physically reach the EU due to the many extraterritorial border control measures now in place. It's not surprising that asylum applications in EU countries are at their lowest level for 20 years. ECRE's Secretary General Bjarte Vandvik said: ''It is worrying that once again the EU has failed to address the universal right to seek asylum within these important discussions on the management of the EU's external borders. EU countries appear unconcerned that their border control measures may soon render the right to seek asylum in Europe completely meaningless.'' Within the Border Management Package, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders (FRONTEX) was given a positive assessment based partly on the number of people prevented from crossing the EU's borders irregularly. After an in-depth inquiry on FRONTEX, the UK's House of Lords last week recommended that an evaluation of FRONTEX should show in particular the kinds of people intercepted or turned back, and the extent to which the operations are effective in reducing, and not displacing, illegal immigration''. "ECRE is urging EU countries and FRONTEX to maintain Europe's human rights values by integrating measures that promote respect for the rights of refugees and migrants into the development of a EU borders regime", Bjarte Vandvik stated. 

For further comments/background and interviews: 

ECRE Secretary General, Bjarte Vandvik
Tel: +32 2 234 3806 or +32 496288 047
Bvandvik@ecre.org   

Senior Policy Officer, Patricia Coelho
Tel: +44 207 377 7556 ext 210
Pcoelho@ecre.org        

Note for the editors:  1) The European Council on Refugees and Exiles represents refugee-assisting NGOs in 27European countries, and is concerned with the protection and integration of all individualsseeking protection in Europe 2) In December 2007 ECRE issued a paper on access to protection in Europe called Defending refugees' access to protection in Europe that can be read as a 5-page summary or in full 3) On 5 December 2007 ECRE together with the British Refugee Council gave evidence to the UK House of Lords' Inquiry on Frontex. ECRE and the Refugee Council's joint response is available here and the full House of Lords report here. 4) In November 2007 ECRE's published a policy briefing on border monitoring which assesses border control policies and practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia, available at: http://www.ecre.org/files/ECRE_Border_Policy.pdf