Unsafe havens

Over the last two months, the Cabinet Office and Home Office have been developing proposals for a 'new vision' of refugee protection that is "fit for the 21st century". On 27th March 2003, the Home Office published details of its proposals in New international approaches to asylum processing and protection. The proposals were presented to the EU informal Justice and Home Affairs Committee on 28 March where it was agreed that the UK and its partners would "produce a worked up set of proposals for the June European Council, when heads of government have agreed to take this forward".

This paper sets out the Refugee Council's position on the UK government's proposals for the regional management of asylum through safe havens ('regional protection areas') and 'transit processing centres'. It builds on the Refugee Council's existing policies, including its responses to Jack Straw's 'Lisbon Agenda' and to the recent Home Office consultation on the implementation of juxtaposed controls.

Download the Refugee Council's position paper (pdf, 13 pages)

Publised on May 2003

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