Brussels, 21/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Belgian authorities should not have sent an asylum seeker back to Greece, according to a ruling dated Friday 21 January (request no. 30696/09) of the European Court of Human Rights. The Court is thereby calling into question the foundation of the Community regulation Dublin II on asylum rules. According to this regulation, the Member States of the EU may send an asylum seeker back to the country where he or she gained access to the Community area, but are not obliged to do so.
When it sent this asylum seeker back to Greece, the first EU country he entered, in June 2009, Belgium exposed him to "inhumane or degrading" treatment, according to the case-law of the Council of Europe. Both States were found not to have offered the asylum seeker "effective recourse". Greece is ordered to pay the asylum seeker 1000 euros for non-material loss, Belgium 24,900.
The Strasbourg Court argues that the Belgian authorities should have been aware of the shortcomings of the asylum procedure in Greece at the time they issued the expulsion order, particularly as Belgian had been informed of them in 2008 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR), which had called on the EU to stop sending asylum seekers back to Greece
In December 2008, the European Commission proposed the revision of these rules and the suspension of returns of asylum seekers to the first country of the European Union they arrived in. This proposal aims to reduce the burden on countries such as Malta and Greece, which are faced with mass influxes of refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan. The European Parliament voted on this package of proposals at first reading and it is currently on the table of the Council.
A Commission spokesperson explained that a raft of proposals had been presented to "build a common European asylum space by 2012". These proposals amend current legislation to "raise the bar in terms of the hosting, protection and treatment of asylum seekers and in terms of recourse possibilities". One of the proposals aims to help countries faced with mass influxes of asylum seekers (mechanism temporarily to freeze the sending-back of asylum seekers to countries which already face more than their fair share of the problem). The Commission supports Greece in its efforts to develop an efficient asylum system (financial aid and expert missions). (L.C./trans.fl)