madam president the number of people seeking refugee and asylum status is growing alarmingly
as the report states there are currently about twelve million refugees and about twenty-six million internally displaced persons worldwide
this is hardly surprising as some countries in continents such as africa and asia slide further into political chaos and the world slips further into a financial and economic crisis of as yet unknown depths
what we can be sure of is that over the coming months and years there will be yet more refugees and asylum-seekers
it will surprise no-one that the european parliament solution is harmonisation of national asylum systems
the report proposes a common european asylum system and a common asylum support office with common standards for granting refugee and asylum status
it proposes that national governments should not be able to hold an asylum-seeker in detention solely on the grounds that they are asylum applicants and that refugees should be allowed to request movement from one european country to another
it proposes that where an applicant is held in detention that person should have the right to a remedy before a national court
all this is a recipe for chaos and gridlock in national asylum systems
many if not most of those people who seek refugee and asylum status in european countries far from home are of course economic migrants seeking a better life
and who can blame them
but the easier we make it for them to come to europe the more will come
the common systems proposed here will make it even harder for nation states to protect their own borders and easier for untold numbers of economic migrants to cross those borders
britain needs even stricter controls not more lax ones imposed by the european union
