Brussels, 17/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - The NGO Amnesty International (AI) urged the 27 EU member states, on 17 January, to do more in the Syrian refugee crisis and to act immediately, taking the view that the response given to date by EU countries is insufficient. The call was launched at the meeting of justice and home ministers meeting informally in Dublin on Thursday. They were to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria and ways to ease the suffering of the refugees. Syria, which has been at war since March 2011, has so far seen around 620,000 people flee the country to seek refuge in Lebanon, Jordan or Turkey. At least two million people are displaced within the country, according to United Nations figures. The winter conditions as well as recent flooding in the refugee camps in Jordan are making the situation even more complicated for the refugees, AI states with concern, calling on EU countries to do more and to give practical support for the thousands of people who have fled their homeland.
In Dublin, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres delivered the same message to ministers present and called for additional financial commitment, one source has revealed. Although the EU has so far allocated nearly €358 million to easing the needs of the Syrian population, the regional protection programme currently being developed, and which aims to facilitate the everyday lives of those who have fled to neighbouring countries, requires funding - in this case, around one billion dollars to help up to one million Syrian refugees. Last July, in Nicosia, under the Cypriot Presidency of the EU Council, home ministers began to discuss their response to the Syrian migration crisis. Last October, they then enacted the principle of the regional protection plan. Member states, on the other hand, have not finalised any programmes for re-settlement of Syrian war refugees on their soil. In Dublin, Gutteres had asked each state to take in 500 people identified as being particularly vulnerable, including several Palestinian refugees. Commissioner Cecilia Malmström also called on member states to follow up the request, saying it would be a “magnificent gesture of solidarity”, all the more as the number of persons concerned for re-settlement is not large. On Thursday afternoon, no member state had yet given a positive answer to Gutteres or Malmström's requests, the latter pointed out. The Swedish commissioner said she hoped member states would be generous.
The EU member states have, in recent months, had to face a clear rise in requests for asylum from Syrian nationals, around 93% of whom receive “positive responses”, a source points out. Although no overall policy has yet been decided at EU level for Syrian nationals, some member states almost automatically grant them international protection but the treatment “varies considerably from one member state to the next”, AI deplores. Between April 2011 and October 2012, some 23,500 Syrians filed requests for asylum in the EU and 15,000 of those requests were in Germany and Sweden, according to Eurostat figures. Furthermore, that trend has clearly accelerated since May 2012 with nearly 3,000 requests submitted for the month of September alone, says Eurostat.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) states it is therefore urgent that EU countries come to an agreement on a common approach for hosting Syrian asylum seekers. In some countries, asylum seekers remain subject to automatic detention, HRW denounces in a report, especially in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and even in Belgium. Given that the number of Syrians seeking protection in the EU is growing, HWR states, member states should plan to invoke a temporary protection scheme at European level. That scheme would, in particular, grant Syrians a permit to stay for the whole duration of the period during which protection is needed, giving them an authorisation to work, find lodging and gain access to medical care. (SP/transl.jl)