Brussels, 31/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) issued a press release on Monday 31 March 2008, criticising the Dublin mechanism whereby, as a general rule, the first EU member state that an asylum seeker enters should be the one to examine the application. 'The Dublin system is inhumane, expensive and does nothing to advance the harmonisation of EU asylum practices,' argues ECRE Secretary General Bjarte Vandvik following the release of a new ECRE report on the Dublin system, 'Sharing Responsibility for Refugee Protection in Europe: Dublin Reconsidered'. 'As long as the Dublin system continues in operation, Europe can never build a true Common Asylum System,' he added. Several EU ministers met up in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Monday at a 'Future' group meeting to look at the future of EU asylum policy (see EUROPE 9629). In its report, ECRE highlights that the current regime fails to respect refugees' rights, and is fundamentally flawed because it assumes that every EU state provides an equivalent level of protection, which is far from reality. While states try to assign responsibility, asylum seekers wait for many months with their claims unheard, and some claims are never heard. Vastly differing refugee recognition rates create an 'asylum lottery', for Iraqis, for example (see related article). In order to remedy the imperfections, ECRE suggests identifying the member state responsible for an asylum claim, considering real connections between the individuals and the member state. Factors indicating such connection could include extended family ties, language skills or education in a system similar to that of the proposed host state. As well as being unfair, ECRE points out that the Dublin system is also inefficient, resource-intensive and an obstacle to genuine sharing of responsibility between member states - and therefore most agreed transfers are never carried out. The Dublin system places a much greater strain on the member states near the EU's external borders, which often have less capacity to handle asylum claims and therefore cannot guarantee adequate reception conditions for refugees. In 2005, Poland saw its case load of asylum seekers increase by 19% and Slovakia by 12%. In July 2008, the European Commission is planning to publish an action plan for asylum in the future, and amendments to three pieces of legislation, the Dublin II Regulation, the Eurodac Regulation and the Directive on reception conditions for refugees. For further information on the ECRE report, see: http: //http://www.ecre.org/ (B.C.)