European Commission
Malmström

I’ve just had a meeting with Amnesty International and several human rights organisations from Israel. They wanted to discuss the severe situation for migrants in the Sinai Peninsula. It is an issue that I brought up with various ministers in Cairo when I was there to visit last year, but since then the situation has gotten worse. It’s about migrants and refugees, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea, who try to get through the Sinai desert in search of asylum in Israel. Most people fall prey to smugglers who run a particuarly obnoxious game in Sinai, charging migrants for letting them through and then holding them hostage and demanding a ransom from them or their families. It involves quite a lot of money and many of the refugees testify about horrific torture, rape and various forms of degrading treatment. Obviously this can not continue. Israel and Egypt must cooperate in cracking down on this disgusting business.

And even for the refugees who do not fall into the hands of these violent smugglers, the situation is very difficult. They have no opportunity to seek asylum in Egypt. Asylum policy as such does not exist and the only possibility is to seek shelter with the UNHCR. There are several cases where the military has fired on the refugees.

The possibility of a legally secure asylum management in Israel is also very scarce. Sudanese and Eritreans get a temporary permit to stay in Israel, however, without going through any form of asylum procedure first, and without getting the right to medical care or to work. The new law, the Anti-infiltration Law, which was passed in February this year, makes it possible for the Israeli authorities to immediately detain anyone who illegally enters Israeli territory, often indefinitely, and in many cases for life. In addition, Israel is now building a long fence along the border between Israel and Egypt. It is important that, despite this, there will be possibilities for people to seek asylum in the country.

For over a year now I’ve been trying to get the Egyptians interested in a Mobility Partnership where we discuss migration, asylum, visa issues, etc. in a broad sense. We are now very close to achieving such an Partnership with Tunisia. From Egypt’s side, it has so far been turned down. We’ll see what happens after the presidential elections in June.

Around the world there are more than ten million people, who have fled their homeland because of war, persecution, natural disasters and famine, and that are in need of help and protection. Many were born and have lived their entire lives in refugee camps. Out of these ten million people, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, expects that about one percent will not be able to return to home because of the risk of persecution. They are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. UNHCR has a so-called resettlement program in which countries can sign up to help these people find a new home and a life lived in dignity.

Today, the EU has taken a historically important step towards greater solidarity in asylum policy – we have finally agreed, after several years of negotiations, to merge the quotas that the countries participating in the resettlement program have set into a joint program. The initiative behind the joint programme was taken during the Swedish Presidency and I was very active in the negotiations to get this in place. A European resettlement program means that we can pool our resources and use them more effectively. It means we might be able to empty an entire refugee camp and offer asylum to the most vulnerable.

Unfortunately, only a few states participating in the UNHCR resettlement program today. The US is the country that receives the most, taking in 80,000 refugees per year. Sweden and other Nordic countries have also taken on a big responsibility but even if when adding all places that the EU Member States provide today we only manage to reach a measly 4 500 places for refugees. We have, however, received positive signals that more EU countries are interested in participating. For our part, we in the Commission continue to support and assist those countries that want to participate. I hope that with a common European program even more countries will be willing to help and we will thus we be standing up for one of the fundamental values of our Union – solidarity. More information about resettlement can be found on UNHCR’s website.

Today I’ve spent most of the time dealing with asylum related issues. In the morning I had a meeting in the Parliament with the responsible Rapporteurs and the chief negotiator for the Danish Presidency, on the different parts in the Asylum package. The aim was to update each other on the situation and see how we can proceed. Especially with the Dublin Regulation and the Reception Conditions Directive things are moving forward and possible compromises are being chiselled out while the list of “difficult issues to resolve” becomes shorter. There is still a lot of work to be done but hopefully the formal negotiations on these two directives will take place at the end of the month.

The Asylum Procedures Directive is trickier and will take longer, but even here it is now moving forward. While we sat in the meeting today we received a report form the Committee next door who had just voted in favour of the proposal for a Joint European Resettlement Program. This is a proposal that the Commission put forward in 2009 and the last weeks there have been intense negotiations on this proposal. All the issues are now solved and the Council will take a formal decision next week and the Parliament will vote in two weeks time. This means that together with the UNHCR we will be able to pool our resources in a better and more strategic way. In this way, we can perhaps help to empty a refugee camp somewhere in the world and provide better support for refugees. The program is voluntary, but I hope that most Member States eventually will join.

2011-07-20 Malta showed itself from its best side yesterday when the EASO (European Asylum Support Office) was inaugurated. I am happy that the Support Office is now fully operational. It was also quite timely that the inauguration took place the day before the World Refugee day, that we pay special attention to today.

In my work as Commissioner I work with all aspects of migration, the functioning of the borders, the management of migration flows and the rules for reception to be applied at the EU –level. But what keeps coming back to my mind are all those people I have met in refugee camps and asylum centres. I carry their stories with me everyday.

According to UNHCR, there are approx. 43 million people displaced worldwide today. That is an intangible figure. And behind this figure are 43 million personal stories, 43 million people that don’t have a secure place to call home.

Some refugee camps are unfortunately made permanent. Children grow up and live their whole life in these camps. I often talk about the need to put in place the European Resettlement Programme. With this Programme we could be able to coordinate our efforts in order to empty an entire camp.

More than one million people have fled Libya over the past few months, the large majority were foreign workers who needed – and received – assistance in returning home. A few have arrived in Europe but a large number of people are still in refugee camps in the neighbouring North African countries. In Tunisia and Egypt there are many people fleeing the Libyan war who now have no homes, or for whom return would be as unsafe as staying in Libya (Somalis and Eritreans for example). We must find solutions for their resettlement, including here in Europe. These people should be in our thoughts even more today, on the occasion of the World Refugee Day, especially as the general attitude among decision makers these days seems to be that it is easier to talk about effective border control than humanitarian responsibility.

2011-06-19 Today I am in Valetta, Malta to inaugurate the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). The EASO will support Member States by facilitating cooperation in all aspects of the assessment of asylum claims and in the reception of asylum seekers.

Tonight there will be a big inaugural ceremony with local celebrities as well as international guests from UNHCR, the Hungarian Presidency, the incoming Polish Presidency and Ambassadors.

Practices for receiving asylum seekers still vary considerably across the EU and much more needs to be done to achieve greater convergence. In this regard, the EASO will have an important role to play.

2011-05-12 Today’s Justice and Home Affairs Council main focus was on the Communication on Migration that I presented last week. I was pleased to receive broad support from the Member States and to hear that there is general agreement that a coordinated and coherent response is necessary.

Almost all Member States share my vision: that Schengen is an incredible achievement that must be safeguarded and that the cooperation should be further strengthend. Above all we must improve the monitoring and evaluation of how the external borders are controlled, and identify what tools should be available to support Member States in difficulties controlling these borders. This was already proposed by the Commission last year. Several Member States also highlighted that there are uncertainties under concerning the circumstances in which a temporary reintroduction of border control at internal borders could be introduced and that this must be clarified. If there are to be amendments to the suspension clause in today’s rules, I should stress that it is important to me that suspension decisions should normally be made at a European level -in order to avoid unilateral, uncoordinated, decisions by Member States, which have direct impact on all other members of the Schengen area. Regrettably this is not the view of all Member States. Some work remains to be done in this regard.

After the Council meeting I invited the Member States, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, UNCHR and IOM for a big conference on the situation in Malta and the refugees from Libya. According to UNHCR there are about 8000 people from Libya in need of international protection and about 1000 refugees that have arrived to Malta. UNHCR is asking for help and so far Argentina, Australia, Canada and the US have volunteered, as well as a few European countries. All Member States in the EU have not yet offered to assist but at the end of the Conference we had around 1000 resettlements pledges in total (out of which Norway is offering to take a third!). This is not bad, but of course it is not enough. I’m hoping that more Member States will show solidarity with Malta and the refugees from Libya.

More boats are coming to the shores of Lampedusa. But now they are not only carrying Tunisian migrants, but also refugees from Libya – mainly Somalis and Eritreans who have lived in Libya for a long time and now have nowhere to go. Yesterday, 500 refugees from Libya reached Malta. I’m in daily contact with Italy to see how we can assist them. Last year Italy got a sum of money from the European Refugee Fund and the Return Fund, and all of it has not yet been used. That money can now be used to deal with the situation in Lampedusa, and we have also additional support if that would be needed.

The humanitarian situation in Lampedusa is difficult and Italy needs to move people more quickly to the mainland. From the Commission side we are now pleading also to other Member States to take their responsibility and support Malta and Italy in taking some of the refugees arriving.

Tomorrow I am going to Tunisia together with my colleague Stefan Füle. We will discuss the current refugee situation and I hope that we can also touch upon how we can organise future cooperation on mobility, migration, visa issues, and border management. I will go to the refugee camps close to Djerba and then to Tunis to meet with ministers, UNHCR, International Organisation for Migration, NGOs, and representatives of political parties.

Lunch in Cairo with UNCHR and IOM.

In Egypt last Sunday a big majority voted in favour of the constitutional amendments, which means that they are now preparing for the upcoming elections. I’m going to Egypt this afternoon together with the Hungarian Presidency, Foreign Minister János Martonyi, to meet with politicians and organisations and to learn more about the current situation.

We will have a discussion about the long term cooperation concerning migration, labour migration, visa, border control etc. Even if there will be new cooperation partners in Egypt after the election it’s important to see, already at this early stage, how the EU can assist the country in its transition.

I’m also meeting with UNHCR and IOM about the situation in the refugee camps and to see how the EU can help. Next week I’m also planning on going to Tunisia.

This morning I met with the head of the Åland government, Viveka Eriksson, and I also had a long meeting with the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. North Africa and the recent developments were of course dicussed.