International

The European asylum system stands on the point of collapse. Italy has now joined Greece in the list of EU member states which, according to the European Court of Human Rights, treats asylum seekers so badly that no further requests for asylum may be transferred there. That sort of news can be found in the media, along with tales of the terrible situation in relation to shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, through which thousands of migrants per year are drowning. Less well-known is the fact that our truck drivers are driving through the Channel Tunnel with increasing anxiety: it’s hard to prevent asylum seekers from riding in the trailer as stowaways, and the police offer no assistance, rather seeing the drivers as lawbreakers. This is completely back-to-front, and adds one more to the long list of reasons why the European asylum system must be immediately reformed.

Photo: Le Pouce de Jey (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Calais has been screaming for years for help. Thousands of asylum seekers and migrants are trying to get to England and wait around for the best possibility to travel unlawfully across the channel. One way is to try to climb unseen into a trailer and get yourself carried through the Channel Tunnel in it. Truck drivers are alert to this, because if migrants are apprehended in their vehicles, they can expect stiff fines.

Recently, however, I received an email from a driver which knocked me sideways. There is chaos with the trains, and the police on the French side give the impression of having totally lost control. Drivers who go to the police for help with migrants they’ve found in their trailers and who won’t get out are not only snapped at, but sometimes themselves seen as suspects and placed under arrest. This account from the driver in question gave me the impression that the police transfer their own frustration to the drivers. This is scandalous, of course, but the reason for their actions probably lies deeper.

Because asylum seekers are not treated well in a number of member states, they will travel across the whole of Europe on their way to a country where they expect the best reception, or where there’s a prospect of work, or where they have family or friends. The member states no longer have this under control. In some places this is particularly visible, as in Calais.

So it’s high time that we saw a fundamental reorientation of the Dublin system – as the asylum system within the EU is called, after the city in which the current division of responsibility and the rules and practices governing the system were adopted. European asylum centres within the EU, close to its external borders, should be created to ensure that asylum seekers no longer need to trek across Europe in search of a decent reception. That would be good for everyone. Once I’d had the email from the truck driver, I was well aware that these workers too would breathe a sigh of relief if thousands of migrants and asylum seekers were no longer trying to jump into their vehicles. Things can’t go on like this: innocent people made victims, while the EU’s Immigration Ministers simply sit on their plush chairs and do nothing. Time for action.