Legal Avenues to Protection - Position Paper

Position Paper: Legal Avenues to Access International Protection in the EU

Recommendations of the National Red Cross Societies of the Member States of the European Union and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

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The Red Cross calls on the European Union (EU) and its Member States to respect their international obligations under the 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 Protocol and to ensure asylum seekers have safe and effective legal avenues to the EU territory to exercise their right to international protection.

To this effect, the Red Cross makes the following nine recommendations to the EU and its Member States:

1. Respect European refugee and Human rights standards at European borders and beyond.
2. Do not penalise irregular entry of asylum seekers.
3. Ensure an effective right of appeal against denial of entry.
4. Set up independent border monitoring mechanisms.
5. Support a fundamental rights’ culture within FRONTEX.
6. Allow for exemptions from EU visa regulations and promote the issuing of humanitarian and protection visas.
7. Assess the impact of carrier sanctions on international obligations.
8. Commit to resettling higher numbers of refugees.
9. Cooperate more closely with Civil Society in the elaboration, implementation and evaluation of policies.

The aim of the present position paper is to put forward recommendations to ensure that safe and effective legal avenues for persons in need of international protection are put in place. It is imperative that the measures put forward in this document are seen as complementary forms of seeking protection, that in no way constrain the right of asylum seekers to ask for international protection irrespective of the way they arrived in the EU. These recommendations do not intend to relieve the EU and its Member States from the responsibility of creating a fair and well functioning Common European Asylum System.

You can also read the PERCO (Platform for European Red Cross Cooperation on Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants) Position on the Need to Create Legal Avenues to Access International Protection within the European Union adopted on 6 November 2012.