TheTheDynamicsofof AsylumAsylumandandBurden-Burden- SharingSharing–CaseCase StudiesofofMaltaMaltaandand CyprusCyprus

Structure of Discussion: The Principle of Burden-Sharing: Does it existin the EU? How does the EU responsibilities? sharethe asylum The EU Perspective The National Perspective Cyprus : Case of Malta and Concluding Remarks

Asylum Burden-Sharing “Burden-sharing appears to be a fairly self-explanatory term implying a collaborated, equitable and fair lifting of a heavy load or weight. The burden signifies then something that has to be dealt with and cannot or should not be ignored.” The asylum burden-sharing principle originated in the 1951 Refugee Convention The unequal distribution of asylum seekers has always been a central issue for the European states and for the policy makers The EU Member States have the obligation to respect the legal instruments – to shoulder responsibility and respect the asylum seekers’ rights

Types of Burden-Sharing Three Burden-Sharing Mechanisms: 1. Sharing People – the dispersal of asylum-seekers 2. Sharing Money – providing financial support and boost the efforts of the recipient States 3. Sharing Policy – setting a common set of laws which serve as the minimum standards for different countries

EU Analysis The first treaty of the Community; the Treaty of Rome makes no reference to the immigration of people from outside Europe The Treaty of Amsterdam provided a legal basis for EU action to legislate immigration and asylum policies on minimum standards It also extended the power of the Commission, the European Parliament and the European Court in this field – to create and coordinate policies The Treaty of Lisbon has made the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union legally binding –it is likely to result in am empowerment of the rights of asylum-seekers within the EU

EU Programs: The Tampere Programme: Set up the European Refugee Fund with an allocated budget of €216 million The Hague Programme: Added dimension – to regulate migratory flows by controlling and securing the Union’s external borders – FRONTEX Extended and augmented the European Refugee Fund The Stockholm Programme: ‘European Asylum support Office’

The National Perspectives – Malta & Cyprus Asylum Applications in Malta and Cyprus ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08 ‘09 ‘10 ‘11 ‘12 Cyprus Malta

The size of the problem: For the period 2007 to 2011, UNHCR has named Malta and Cyprus as the top two countries receiving on average the highest numbers of asylum-seekers per 1,000 inhabitants on a global scale: Malta ranked first with 20.1 and Cyprus followed with 17.1 applications per 1,000 people respectively Every one migrant in Malta equates to 205 in Germany, 150 in the UK, 150 in France and 140 in Italy

Calls for asylum burden- sharing Malta and Cyprus have been very vociferous in campaigning for burden-sharing measures Malta and Cyprus teamed up with Greece and Italy to form the so-called Quadro Group Lobbying for urgent EU action regarding the disproportionate pressures of illegal immigration and asylum seekers and advocated the need to put the burden-sharing principle and the notion of solidarity into effect Malta and Cyprus have also campaigned on individual levels

Burden-Sharing with Malta and Cyprus Sharing People: The system remained on a voluntary basis, thus causing Malta and Cyprus to keep on demanding more solidarity from their counterparts In 2009 Malta managed to introduce a pilot project (EUREMA) for the assistance of intra-EU resettlement of some of its protection seekers During the first phase of EUREMA, in 2011, 255 places were pledged for relocation In 2012, EUREMA phase 2 secured another 356 places Directive on Temporary Protection in the Case of Mass Influx - established as a kind of burden-sharing mechanism hasn’t been invoked since its adoption, back in 2001

Burden-Sharing with Malta and Cyprus Sharing Money: Different funds have helped both Malta and Cyprus Malta and Cyprus both benefit from the ‘Solidarity and Migration Flows’ programme, which was established in 2007 This programme incorporates four different funds: External Borders Fund (EBF) The European Refugee Fund (ERF) European Return Fund European Integration Fund

European External Borders Fund : Year Malta (€) Cyprus (€) ,653, ,090, ,743, ,982, ,537, ,430, ,032, ,333, ,187, ,898, ,083, ,132, ,499, ,818, ,734, ,684,563.25

Burden-Sharing with Malta and Cyprus Sharing Policy: As part of the accession negotiations, Malta and Cyprus were obliged to implement the Schengen acquis as well as the Dublin II Regulation Schengen provisions abolished the internal common checks and transferred to the external borders where they have become stricter “to safeguard internal security and prevent illegal immigration by nationals of States that are not members of the European Communities” Dublin II Regulation: holds that the first State of entry, is responsible to ensure that the asylum application and process are administered These systems have produced additional asylum burden and responsibilities on those states already heavily burdened, by the very fact that they are located at the external borders and have to deal with all the asylum seekers and illegal immigrants approaching the EU through their territories

Concluding Remarks: A substantial increase of asylum applications in Malta and Cyprus in the year 2004 and onwards The EU has always been hesitant to promote and agree on the physical relocation of asylum-seekers from one state to another. There is a reluctance of EU Member States towards the physical redistribution of asylum-seekers On an EU level, there were no ‘sharing-people’ mechanisms implemented, The EU is more generous towards providing money to Malta and Cyprus EU laws have been a source for the lack of burden-sharing Sharing-policy - contrary to distributing the problems, policy harmonization has added extra policy restrictions to both states

ThankThankYouYou