ILGA-Europe launches asylum mailing list

Source: ILGA-Europe

New mailing list dedicated to asylum matters in the EU and in other European countries

This mailing list is getting settled as the Beginning of 2010. The first participants are the attendees of the workshop organised on asylum topics during the 2009 ILGA-Europe conference in Malta. Other participants may be included as our exchanges develop.
 
1.  Exchange of information on the implementation of the EU legislation

The EU legislation provides a common ground for all national legislations on  asylum. The national laws can be more generous than the European one, but however the latter provides minimum standards of protection for asylum seekers and of obligations for the Member States. Denmark is the only EU country that opted out. We all know that, in a lot of EU Member States, even this minimal level of protection is not correctly ensured. It is more than essential for European NGOs to  be  able  to  communicate  on  the  ground  of  existing  examples,  since  the European institutions have the mission to ensure a correct implementation of EU law. ILGA-Europe, thanks to its presence in Brussels, and as a member of the NGO platform on migration and asylum, is in a position to contribute to that job, provided we sum up information coming from our national members.

An issue at stake in 2010 is the review of the EU legislation. All the relevant directives and regulations are currently going into a review process. This process started in 2007, and is going on quite slowly due to the highly controversial debates between Member States. Another new element is the settlement of a new European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in the coming month, as well as the introduction of a yearly debate on migration and asylum at EU level. ILGA-Europe will follow up on these questions, and also use tools such as our EU network  to  share  information.  This  mailing  list  will  be  an  important  way  to
communicate.
 
2.  Exchange of information on individual cases

The purpose of the exchange on individual cases is to help building a common knowledge of the way the European legislation is implemented. Hopefully, it will help us to better articulate our political positions as regards the different existing directives and regulations. As such, the exchange on individual cases will be complementary to the exchange of information mentioned in paragraph 1.
 
Another reason for collecting information on individual stories is that such stories can sometimes be reported to our contacts in the European institutions. On that ground, members of the European Parliament may develop an input on the on-going recast of the EU legislation. On that ground too, it will be easier to call on the European  Commission  to take action (infringement  procedure) against Member States, wherever the legislation is not properly implemented.

In case of emergency, and should ILGA-Europe’s intervention be of some use (for example to organise  political  initiatives to avoid the deportation of  a homosexual or transgender asylum seeker), you can contact me directly using joel@ilga-europe.com my address at ILGA-Europe’s office.

3.  Some rules to facilitate the list’s functioning

The mailing list is a moderated mailing list. In other words, whenever a message is sent, the moderator has to accept it before it is sent to all recipients. Please think of it when you consider sending a message.

If a message appears to be directed at only a small number of the mailing list’s participant, or if it contains only a simple question to which ILGA-Europe can provide the answer, the moderator might decide to answer directly to the sender, or alternatively to forward the message to the relevant recipients.

However, the moderator will work in a way that does not prevent debates to happen on the mailing list.

To subscribe email asylum-subscribe@ilga-europe.org