Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-23-Speech-1-069"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2002-09-23"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Common asylum procedure and internal security2
dcterms:Language	"el"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20020923.5.1-069"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2002-09-23-Speech-1-0702
lpv:speaker	lp:Anna Karamanou2
lpv:spokenAs	member; EMPL (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 member; Members from the European Parliament to the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union (ACP-EU) (2002-02-06--2004-07-19)3 unknown; Panellinio Socialistiko Kinima (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; Delegation for relations with the countries of south-east Europe (2002-02-07--2004-07-19)3 member; Conference of Committee Chairs (2002-01-21--2004-07-19)3 chair; Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities (2002-01-21--2004-07-19)3 member_of_the_bureau; PES (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 substitute; Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs (2002-03-13--2004-07-19)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, Commissioner, we all know that the events of September 11 and the war on terrorism are being used as an excuse in several Member States of the European Union to block progress on an integrated European asylum policy. The number of asylum seekers in the European Union fell by nearly two-thirds over the first 4 months of 2002, compared with the same period last year, having almost doubled over ten years. In Greece, which is usually generous towards asylum seekers, only 59 out of 2,810 applicants were granted asylum in the first half of 2002. This is a dramatic fall in comparison with 2001, when almost ten times as many applications were granted. At the same time, according to statistics from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, most mass movements of refugees are offered refuge by neighbouring, equally poor countries; fewer are opting to flee to the West, that is when they manage to get here at all. For example, out of four million Afghan refugees, only 38,600 asylum applications were filed in the Union last year, i.e. only one Afghan in a thousand asked for protection from the European Union; most fled to neighbouring countries. These statistics speak for themselves and claims that waves of refugees are supposedly threatening Europe and that we should pull up the drawbridge are groundless. At the same time, of course, xenophobia in the European Union is increasing, while the debate has lost sight of what it is that forces these people to travel so far from home in a bid to escape the endless violation of human rights in their own countries. It is not just that strict controls do nothing to prevent asylum seekers from heading for Europe; they encourage many to try and enter illegally, creating work for gangs of smugglers. And as a result, we end up counting corpses on our borders and coastlines and trying to deal with new forms of slavery and exploitation. We agree with the open method of coordination, Commissioner, but it is hardly an integrated solution to the problem and we trust that we shall have an integrated policy by the end of 2003."@en1

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