EU fails to tackle 'asylum shopping'

Nineteen member states have failed to implement EU rules to prevent “asylum shopping” and abuse of claims for refugee status.

Favourable asylum regimes in some EU countries have been blamed for “pull factors” pushing waves of refugees and illegal immigrants to Europe’s borders.

National capitals and EU officials have long been concerned at multiple applications from refugees looking for the best regime across the EU’s 25 different administrations.

But so far only six national governments, Estonia, Lithuania, Austria, France, Slovenia and Luxembourg have implemented the “cornerstone” asylum legislation.

The European commission is warning national capitals that the legislation – agreed in May 2005 – will be enforced in the EU courts to ensure a “level playing field” across Europe.

“This is very regrettable because we all want a common asylum system without pull factors and asylum shopping,” said a spokesman.

“We very much hope that member states will implement as soon as possible or we will make use of the powers available to us to enforce the treaties.”

Figures highlighted by Brussels show “huge discrepancies” between the acceptance of similar refugee applications across the EU.

A Chechen asylum seeker has a 23 per cent chance of getting asylum status in Germany but the probability slides to zero per cent in Slovakia.

Justice commissioner Franco Frattini stressed that the directive was needed to guarantee “that the protection needs of asylum seekers will be assessed according to the same criteria”.

“This will greatly contribute to reducing the current great variances in recognition rates between member states and therewith reducing one pull factor for ‘asylum shopping’,” he said in a statement.

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