Brussels, 26/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - European countries are still a long way off meeting European and international standards on asylum procedures, a report published by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has revealed. “Asylum seekers must have the same chances no matter where in the EU they lodge their claim,” said Judith Kumin, UNHCR's Director for Europe, on Thursday 25 March. The 700-page report focuses on how the 2005 European directive on procedures for granting asylum is being applied in 12 member states: Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Researchers looked at over 1000 individual cases and decisions, observed hundreds of interviews of asylum seekers and interviewed asylum officials, judges, lawyers and NGOs. In general terms, the study found not only that member states were applying the asylum procedures directive in differing ways, but also that, in some instances, in ways that breach international refugee laws. Kumin said that researchers had observed problems in all member states. Practice in the EU, she went on, was far from uniform. “Asylum decision-making is an extremely difficult task. It can be a matter of life or death,” she added. During their investigations, researchers found that asylum seekers were not always afforded personal interviews, or were not given enough time to prepare for interviews or to explain their claims. Furthermore, the interpreters were not always available or sufficiently well qualified, as in Greece. Reasons for individual decisions were not always given. In the UK, for example, a large number of requests were dealt with through the fast-track procedure, which did not always carry the same guarantees. To remedy the situation, the UNHCR recommends better training of officials in charge of examining asylum cases and an interviewers' and interpreters' code of conduct. Some of these initiatives may be taken up by the planned European Asylum Support Office, due to be set up in Malta. The report did, however, reveal good practice, for example in interpretation, especially in Belgium and Germany. In other countries, asylum seekers were correctly informed of their right of appeal against decisions. The report, “Improving Asylum Procedures”, is available at: http://www.unhcr.org/eu (B.C./transl.rt)