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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:42 am 
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Junior

Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:52 pm
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What are your thoughts on this....was in the daily mail news today


Britain will be asked to accept thousands more refugees a year as part of moves by Brussels towards a single immigration and asylum policy across the EU.
Many will come from war zones such as Somalia and Sudan under plans for a 'Joint EU Resettlement Programme'.
In an attempt to reduce public concern about the cost, Britain will be offered 4,000 euros (£3,500) for every refugee it accepts.
Asylum seekers in Calais queue for food handouts distributed by local charity workers. The EU wants to force European countries take more asylum seekers and share the load more equally
The project, launched by European Commission vice-president Jacques Barrot yesterday, is widely seen as the first part of a Brussels blueprint to roll out a common immigration and asylum policy across the EU.
Later this month the Commission will publish plans for immigration 'burden sharing', which could see asylum seekers who land in EU countries such as Italy and Malta moved to the UK.
A spokesman said yesterday that this was a 'pressing issue' for the EU.
Draft documents from the Commission state that the EU's international image is suffering because of the ' relatively low' number of refugees accepted by member states.
Last year the EU accepted 6.7 per cent of the 65,596 refugees who were legally resettled around the world.
The Commission did not set a public target for the new programme yesterday, but a Brussels source said the figure should be 'much closer to 20 per cent'.
Damian Green: Control
Mr Barrot said more than 200,000 refugees were likely to need resettlement next year, mostly from poor countries bordering war zones.
He urged the EU to make itself a 'model of humanity' and demonstrate 'concrete solidarity with Third World countries hosting large numbers of refugees'.
If the EU were to accept 20 per cent that would equate to 40,000 refugees a year.
Britain's share, based on population, would be about 5,300.
Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green last night said it was vital that the UK kept control of the total number of immigrants entering the country, rather than handing power to Brussels.
He said co- operation on dealing with refugees should depend on other EU countries helping to stop the flow of illegal immigrants to Britain.
Mr Green said: 'There is nothing wrong with trying to plan the numbers of successful refugees - anything would be better than the chaos Britain's system has suffered in recent years.
'But Britain could only take part if we had control of the numbers arriving here under the scheme, and if other countries co-operate more in preventing the build-up of asylum seekers at Calais.'
Stephen Booth, of think-tank Open Europe, said handing over control of immigration and asylum policy risked creating a public backlash.
He added: 'Asylum policy is a sensitive issue for the public and national governments therefore need to be clear and open about where EU asylum policy is heading in order to avoid a backlash from their citizens.'
Britain is one of only ten EU countries to operate a formal refugee resettlement programme.
Over the past five years the UK has accepted 2,500 refugees on top of the number coming in through the wider immigration and asylum system.
A Home Office spokesman welcomed the new scheme but emphasised that it was voluntary.
He added: 'We are pleased to see the EU move towards a common system of refugee resettlement, which has the potential to benefit some of the world's most vulnerable people.
'We will consider and scrutinise the details of these new proposals very carefully prior to agreement and the UK has the ability to opt out of any proposal that is not in our national interest.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... z0Q1UCf5T1


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