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Immigration - new material (32)

01 December 1997

Review: Afschrikken en Afschuiven (Scare 'em and Shift 'em) European asylum policy in the Last Twelve years. Jelle van Buuren and Wil van der Schans. Stichting Eurowatch (In Dutch).

This is a well written and informative analysis of European immigration and asylum policy, starting with the creation of the Schengen treaty, and finishing with the Treaty of Amsterdam. The writers aim to show how the apparently attractive idea of a Europe without internal borders has been perverted into an increasingly repressive and unaccountable system of internal control, as well as how migrants and asylum seekers became the target of increasingly draconian measures aimed against them

As a Dutch language text it contains a bias towards analysing the Dutch input into European asylum and immigration policy. Yet this too is useful demonstrating how the liberal reputation that the Netherlands enjoys throughout the world did not stop the Dutch government from being instrumental in the creation of the undemocratic structures condemned in the pamphlet.

"Afschrikken en Afschuiven" is available from: Stichting Eurowatch Postboys 365 2300 AJ Leiden priced at florins 15, France. Towards a just and humane asylum policy Human Rights Watch October 1997 pp29. Evaluation of French asylum policies and analysis of reform proposals the Weil report that have been transposed into draft legislation. In particular Human Rights Watch has found deficiencies in access to the asylum procedure, in procedural rights and in the restrictive interpretation of France's obligations under the Geneva Refugee Convention. The report concludes that the current draft law does not adequately address the identified problems.