It is regrettable that, although we are debating the Refugee Protection Bill, the attitude of the State to various refugees who come to our shores is to put them on the next plane and get them out of our jurisdiction as quickly as possible. With the opening up of Eastern Europe and the unification of Germany hundreds of thousands of refugees have been pouring into Western Europe, half a million into Germany alone. It would appear that the breakdown of Communism and its consequences was not anticipated politically or socially by the EC.
The increased burdens which such movements of population create have precipitated a call for a concerted response by all European states and by the EC in particular. So far, unfortunately, those states not directly affected by the problem have baulked at assisting their neighbours. The result is that many states least able to cope have huge numbers of refugees within their boundaries. In the light of the escalating problem in the former Yugoslavia alone, the EC's failure to implement a concerted and concerned immigration and asylum policy and plan for the future is short-sighted and might ultimately prejudice the stability of the entire European region.
At the Edinburgh Summit in December 1990 mere platitudes were mouthed about concern for human rights, peace and the termination of armed conflicts etc. The summit expressed its concern that "uncontrolled immigration could be destabilising and could undermine the situation of third country nationals who have legally taken up residency in the member states". However, in relation to dealing with applications for asylum, the Minister resolved, effectively, to return refugees to the first "safe" third country they had been able to reach. This notion of a "safe" country is not only shamelessly unhumanitarian, it also fails to take into consideration the stability and resources of the "safe" country.
When the EC Ministers met recently in Budapest they resolved to crack down on the organised smuggling of illegal immigrants by organised crime, to set up special police units and mobile surveillance forces, to exchange information and to adopt a common code of border checks. What they failed to do was to agree to the German demands for a common code on repatriation and there was absolute reluctance to share the financial burdens of the refugee crisis. The states that are affected by this problem have been ignored by the rest of Europe. They are Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia and, of course, Germany. It is inexcusable that Germany should have accepted 444,000 people last year compareed to 27,500 by France, 24,600 by the UK and so on. Hungary has turned away one million people since 1991.
As stated previously, the EC Commission does not have any real teeth in this area, but Commissioner Pádraig Flynn has promised to come up with some recommendations within the next six weeks. He should take into account some of the following issues in coming to his conclusions. The European Community has been totally impotent in the area of refugees and asylum seekers. There has been a lack of legal basis for taking action and there is a necessity for a supplementary Protocol to the Maastricht Treaty allowing the European Court of Justice jurisdiction in this area. A concerted campaign is required to harmonise the laws in all member states, including Ireland. There should be promotion of the flexibility within the Dublin Convention and the Schengen Agreement to seek that Governments use their discretion in individual cases regarding repatriation or not.
Exclusionary tactics such as maximum quotas, lists of safe countries and restrictions of immigrants to one application for asylum are insensitive and in many cases fly in the face of the conventions on Human Rights. No account is taken of the financial crisis that can accrue for countries who have to cope with an influx of refugees and no account is taken of the implications for fledgeling democracies that have enough problems of their own, such as Poland and Slovakia. There are dangers of instability in the regions, particularly in the Balkan region, which are unable to cope with the burden of refugees at present—and the prospect of a further two million refugees from the Balkan region alone does not bear thinking about.
The implications for the European Community, including Ireland, are noteworthy. Until the EC decides to face the music, it cannot respond properly to the long term refugee problem. Everything the EC has done up to now has been crisis management only. Scare tactics of prophesying increased terrorism, drugs and organised crime are not substantiated and are merely a short term sop. If the EC wants to form a European union within a region surrounded by friendly and stable neighbours it will have to discard its insular attitudes and frame sensible policies on this issue. It must form a policy to assist and integrate immigrants or it will have to share the blame if the potential for unrest spreads. The internal market came into force on 1 January 1993 but this will become a reality only when internal borders of the Community are removed.
The Government should be offering more assistance to refugees and establishing fairer procedures for examining applications for asylum. It should voice its objection to any attempt to create parallel conventions with bordering non-EC states towards throwing a cordon sanitaire around the EC, thus preventing access to any refugees. The Government should be demanding that Commissioner Flynn recommends a concerted and humanitarian response by all EC countries and a sharing of the burden. Above all, the Government could take a major step forward this evening by supporting Deputy Shatter's Bill. All political parties in this House recognise that a problem exists and that this Bill addresses that problem. Therefore, I appeal to the Government, particularly the Labour Party, who have spoken eloquently about this matter in the past, to ensure the passage of this Bill through this House.
