Update Paper I for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Flavia Cuervo, Director Naman Anand, Assistant Director Tejas Bachiraju, Assistant Director Alisha Deshmukh, Assistant Director Harvard Model United Nations India August 12-15, 2016
2 Update Paper I for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The Granting of Asylum in Europe Today, the Middle East has is in an almost constant state of turmoil. The region is infested with militants, insurgents and other violent nonstate actors which not only induce undue violence but also act as catalysts to generate huge numbers of people without homes. These people have to run away from their own country in fear of their safety, only to be unwelcome in other countries. Asylum, can be inferred in international law, as the protection granted by a state to a foreign citizen against his own state. This is where the term asylum seeker comes in. In general, a person who is seeking asylum in another country is called an asylum seeker. This person who seeks asylum in another country, if granted asylum legally by that country, becomes a refugee. As stated in the guide, there are three types of asylum territorial, extraterritorial, and neutral. In this update paper, we shall focus on granting of asylum in Europe and in particular, Germany. With the influx of migrants in Europe, coming mainly from the Middle East, there has arisen a major crisis in Europe called as the European Migrant Crisis. According to the UNHCR, the top three nationalities of the over one million Mediterranean Sea arrivals between January 2015 and March 2016 were Syrian (46.7%), Afghan (20.9%) and Iraqi (9.4%). As per reports from Eurostat, the European Union received into their territory, a total of 1.2 million first time asylum applications in 2015. Of these, the EU member states Hungary, Sweden, Austria, and Germany accepted two-thirds. In the European Union, Common European Asylum System (CEAS) has been tasked with overseeing the protection of rights of refugees under international law are protected. It sets the minimum standards required by asylum seekers to be granted the status of a refugee. Currently, the EU registers asylum seekers mostly in its borders or countries neighboring the EU. This method of registration has created massive inconvenience in those countries and the concern to initiate a process of registering asylum seekers within the EU itself has been alluded. Moreover, systems have been initiated within neighboring countries to register asylum seekers. After registering, the asylum seekers are conferred asylum (temporary) after a meticulous process, often exceeding a year. Asylum seekers are then relocated to suitable member states. If the asylum seeker, now referred to as a refugee, wishes to change the country/ member state allotted to him, he does so by a method commonly called as asylum shopping. In this method, he chooses the member state which provides him with the maximum benefits. According to former European Commissioner for Justice, Franco Frattini, 12% of asylum seekers exercise this method. However, this system of approach highly falls short of justice. The European Union, in this regard, does not function as an integrated unit as most member states refuse to cooperate. What persists is 28 dysfunctional systems that cause an uneven distribution of refugees. To add on to that, the Dublin System which allows for any EU country to send the asylum seeker to seek refuge in the first EU country that he, creates an unfair disadvantage to the Southern member states since most asylum seekers enter from the south. But, nowadays, this type of transfer is fairly redundant. An extensive point to be underlined is that unlike tourists and settled residents, people who seek asylum cannot move freely within the EU. Another hurdle that must be taken into account is that a large number of EU member states have put up restrictive policies. For example, the United Kingdom has put up the UK Borders Act 2007, Italy has passed the Bossi-Fini Act of July 2002, which again hinders the process of granting asylum by EU as a whole. The EU has committed to taking immediate steps for protecting asylum seekers under the revised European Agenda on Migration. The cornerstone of a new plan for granting asylum in countries that receive relatively low numbers of refugees, especially in Central Europe has been laid. That includes the relocation of 160,000 refugees across
Harvard Model United Nations India 2016 3 the EU by the next two years. Another step taken to aid the registration of asylum seekers at the borders is the deploying of experts from European Asylum Support Office (at borders). Nonetheless, the biggest problem continues to be the establishment of a uniform system across the EU for granting asylum to asylum seekers entering its territory. This takes into account not only granting of asylum in itself but also ways to tackle problems that come with it, such as, food, clothing, shelter, violence and epidemics. Lastly, a large number of Europeans, and particularly those in Central Europe, have started becoming antagonists of asylum seekers. This is because they are under the impression that refugees take up a lot of their resources and engender unnecessary pests such as violence. Even so, some groups have taken advantage of the situation and turned it into a tool used to battle the government. A major consequence is the rise of extreme rightwing anti-immigration groups. Let s now see Germany s stance on asylum seekers. Germany in particular has a very peculiar stance on people seeking refugee status. Since 2015, Germany has been receiving refugees in huge numbers. This act won huge appreciation for Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel. The right of asylum for people suffering political persecution is a basic right specified in Article 16a of the German Basic Law. In a general sense, right of asylum, as set down by 1951 Refugee Convention established the definition of refugee and grants protections to refugees under the law. These protections are cross checked by the Federal Office For Migration and Refugees. In Germany, the refugee status is monitored by The German residence act, however, it does not define the concept of asylum. Political refugees are granted protection by the rules set down by the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Although this Refugee Convention was in place and fully valid, since 1953, December, Germany often did not grant full refugee status to asylum seekers. Instead, it only imparted them a recognition of their asylum. With the passage of the Qualification Directive and another law passed in August 2007, official refugee status is granted to refugees along with the status of being entitled to political asylum when necessary. Today, the refugee status is equivalent to the status of a person entitled to political asylum with respect to the right of residence. The asylum law monitors the administrative proceedings that grant the refugee the status of a political asylum seeker. Currently, the application and granting process for asylum seekers in Germany is as follows: The admission procedure is surveilled by Asylum Procedure Act. An asylum seeker must register for seeking asylum in any of the German reception centers where his basic information is recorded. After a federal agency office is assigned to him, he must again personally apply for asylum. In this application, the asylum seeker must mention his need for asylum: whether he fears deportation, persecution or any other reason. Afterwards, the necessary documents are procured; if the asylum seeker does not have the complete set of required documents then he can apply only at the border. After that, he is granted a temporary residence permit depending on the duration of stay. Finally, to be granted asylum, there is an official hearing in the migration office. However, holders of the temporary residence permit cannot work within the first 3 months of residing in the country. In addition to that, the asylum seeker will have to keep renewing his application until he is granted permanent residence. If neither refugee protection nor asylum can be conferred, the BAMF ( Federal Office for Migration and Refugees) inspects if there are grounds for a deportation ban. Notwithstanding that this is a written procedure, it is easy to see that the number of applications far exceeds the number of asylum seekers that can be granted asylum. Consequently, asylum seekers have to wait for months and sometimes years, for their turn to enter the country. Further, false
4 Update Paper I for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or incomplete information, if provided by the asylum seeker, is conducive to delay and severe consequences. The number of applications filed in Germany in 2014 were 202,834 while 128,911 decisions were made. Recognition of a refugee status was granted to 1.8% of the applications. In 2015, 282,762 decisions regarding asylum applications were made with Syrians having the most successful applications. Lately, Germany has started having second thoughts on granting asylum. This concern has risen due to the increasing instability of birth and death rates, pressure of resources in Germany, sexual assault cases, illegal migrants, etc. In the wake of the crisis, right-wing anti-immigration groups like Pegida and the Eurosceptic Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party have been put on the map. Recently, Chancellor Angela Merkel presented a new Refugee Integration Law to integrate refugees. This law is meant to be applied only to legitimate asylum seekers and not to illegal migrants. According to leaked government reports, 49% of asylum seekers whose application have not been accepted, have not left the country. Hence they resolve to sustaining their families with drug dealing and petty theft. The new integration law aims to motivate refugees to learn enough German so that they can sustain themselves by finding a job and do not have to resort to theft. The key points of focus of this plan include obligatory courses on culture and language, work programs, relaxation of labor laws, and steps towards permanent residency. The law which was presented in May has amassed a lot of criticism and is thought to be counterproductive. Firstly it is thought to be a government ploy to reassure German voters as well as to curb the rise of the extreme right wing anti-immigration groups. Secondly there is a shortage of German instructors which raises the question of who will teach German to refugees. Thirdly, it has not been clearly outlined as to who will pay for the implementation of this law. Lastly, this law has yet to receive the green signal from the German Parliament. Works Referenced 1. Understanding Migration and Asylum in the European Union. Open Society Foundations. 2016 Open Society Foundations, October 2015. Web. 6 July 2016 <https://www.opensocietyfoundations. org/explainers/understanding-migration-andasylum-european-union> 2. Lydia Tomkiw. Europe Refugee Crisis 2016: Germany Integration Law Called Milestone, But Its Effectiveness Is Questioned. International Business Times. IBT Media Inc, May 25, 2016. Web. 6 July 2016 <http://www.ibtimes.com/ europe-refugee-crisis-2016-germany-integrationlaw-called-milestone-its-effectiveness-2373896> 3. George J. Andreopoulos. Asylum. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc, Web. 5 July 2016 <https://global. britannica.com/topic/asylum> 4. SYRIAN REFUGEES, Germany s Refugee Crisis. People and Power, Aljazeera. Al Jazeera Media Network, 3 March 2016. Web. 6 July 2016 <http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/ peopleandpower/2016/03/germany-refugeecrisis-160302135618356.html> 5. Migration and integration, Asylum and refugee protection. Federal Ministry of the Interior. The Federal Ministry of the Interior - 2016, Web. 6 July 2016 <http://www.bmi.bund. de/en/topics/migration-integration/asylum- Refugee-Protection/Asylum-Refugee-Protection_ Germany/asylum-refugee-policy-germany_node. html> 6. Asylum in Germany. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 4 July 2016 <https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/asylum_in_germany>
Harvard Model United Nations India 2016 5 7. Ben Knight. ASYLUM POLICY, Merkel presents new refugee integration law as milestone. DW Made for minds. Deutsche Welle, 25.05.2016. Web. 5 July 2016 <http:// www.dw.com/en/merkel-presents-new-refugeeintegration-law-as-milestone/a-19281722> 8. Soeren Kern. Germany s New Integration Law. GASTESTONE INSTITUTE, INTERNATIONAL POLICY COUNCIL. Gatestone Institute, May 29, 2016. Web. 7 July 2-16 <http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8145/ germany-integration-law> 9. Asylum in the European Union. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, April 2015. Web. 7 July 2016 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Asylum_in_the_European_Union> 10. European migrant crisis. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, April 2015. Web. 6 July 2016 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ European_migrant_crisis>