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Europe’s plan for asylum seekers

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The World’s Gerry Hadden reports on an ambitious new plan announced by the Europe Union to resettle more refugees from around the world. It’s partly to distribute them more equally around Europe. But it’s also an attempt to lower immigration.

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MARCO WERMAN: Most of the world’s refugees have incontrovertible reasons for wanting to resettle but the countries where they want to go don’t always want to take them. The top immigration official for the European Union is proposing that Europe, at least, open its doors to more refugees. For one thing the plan would correct the imbalance between states that already take in refugees and those that don’t. For another resettling more refugees might reduce illegal immigration. We get details from The World’s Gerry Hadden.

GERRY HADDEN: Last year about 120,000 refugees applied for resettlement according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The United States took in more than half of them. Europe by contrast took in only about 7%. Today in Brussels, EU commissioner Jacques Barrot said Europe must carry more of the burden if it wants to be a beacon for human rights.

JACQUES BARROT: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

HADDEN: He said Europe must really become a model, a model of firmness when it comes to irregular immigration but also a humane model when it comes to people persecuted and forced to leave their countries.

Europe’s pledge to resettle more refugees comes as welcome news by those who work with displaced people. Gilles van Moortel is with the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees.

GILLES VAN MOORTEL: It’s true that only for the moment 10 out of 27 EU member states have resettlement programs. UNHCR has long advocated for more resettlement and indeed figures show that there will be more and more refugees to be resettled in the future.

HADDEN: The war in Iraq alone has produced some two million refugees. As wars and natural disasters cause refugee numbers to swell, Europe is worried about an increase in illegal immigration. Barrot said the asylum resettlement project would reduce illegal entries.

BARROT: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

HADDEN: He said real asylum seekers cannot possibly return home so currently they’re obliged to use traffickers to get into Europe and then apply for asylum. Working with the UNHCR we want to better organize the procedure before they enter Europe. But Barrot really is talking about a fraction of the world’s refugees – those who are seeking or have political asylum and hope to move to a third country. Immigration expert Behzad Yaghmaian says Barrot’s plan is not nearly ambitious enough. He sites Africa as an example.

BEHZAD YAGHMAIAN: In the past few years there has been more political strife in Africa. There have been more wars in Africa. And there have been more poverty and political and economic crisis in Africa. So the attempt by the European Union to accept only a fraction of one of these categories, a larger number of one of these categories, would not be able put any dent on this whole large phenomena of migration today.

HADDEN: What’s needed are jobs – legitimate jobs in Europe for non-Europeans. And there are plenty of them says Jemini Pandya of the Geneva based International Organization for Migration.

JEMINI PANDYA: The need has never really gone away. We look at certain factors like the care industry for example – medicine, health, also farm workers – that the jobs still need to be done. There aren’t enough workers in the host population willing or available to do these kinds of jobs.

HADDEN: And so it makes some economic sense for the 27 members of the EU to follow Barrot’s recommendation and take in more refugees. But each country will decide for itself and getting voters to support taking in more immigrants, refugees or otherwise, could be a hard sell. Unemployment in the EU is nearly 10% and though there are indications that the economic crisis may be ending economists say it will take longer for employment levels to increase. And that’s left some Europeans less than eager to welcome immigrants seen as competitors for jobs. For The World I’m Gerry Hadden in Barcelona.

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