German civil society: Asylum seekers must be able to decide in which EU country they wish to apply for international protection
A coalition of seven German organisations- Pro Asyl, Diakonie, the Paritärische Welfare Association,AWO, the Jesuit Refugee Service, the German Bar Association and the Neue Richtervereinigung – issued yesterday a memorandum criticising the current system for identifying the Member State responsible for examining an asylum claim in Europe.
The memorandum argues that the Dublin system, which establishes that as a general rule the first EU Member State that an asylum seeker enters should be the one to examine the application, overtaxes countries at the external borders of the EU and can result in asylum seekers being deprived of their rights and forced into destitution.
The coalition proposes that asylum seekers should be able to decide on which Member State to apply for protection. This would allow asylum seekers to seek refuge in countries where they can receive support from their families or communities and therefore integrate more easily and would prevent them from moving irregularly within the EU. According to the organisations, this system of free choice should be linked to a financial compensation fund to help those states receiving the highest numbers of asylum seekers.
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