World Report 2011 - Human Rights Watch

WORLD REPORT 2011The Dublin II Regulation, which requires asylum claims to be made in the firstcountry of entry into the EU, exacerbated the burden placed on Greece’s alreadybroken asylum system (discussed below). But European Commission-led effortsto initiate modest reform encountered strong opposition from some memberstates.As of mid-2010 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) had issued orders tostates to suspend more than 750 “Dublin” returns to Greece, with thousandsmore pending or blocked at national level. In September the United Kingdom governmenthalted all such returns to Greece. As of early November the Netherlands,Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, and Norway (the latter two not EU countries)had done the same.In September the ECtHR heard a challenge to the policy brought by an Afghanreturned by Belgium to Greece, where he claims he was subjected to ill-treatmentand risked being returned to Afghanistan without proper examination of his asylumclaim. A ruling is pending at this writing.The European Commission’s May action plan on unaccompanied migrant childrencalled for a common European approach to ensure durable solutions in children’sbest interests.The UK and other EU countries (as well as Norway) pursued plans to build receptioncenters in Kabul, Afghanistan, in order to repatriate unaccompanied children,despite concerns over security and lack of safeguards.Dozens of rejected asylum seekers were returned to Iraq in at least three jointflights between April and September, despite objections by UNHCR. Frontex coordinatedat least one of these charter flights. The UK and the Netherlands organizedtheir own flights, in addition to participating in joint returns. In Novemberthe Netherlands announced a halt to such deportations after the ECtHR intervened.The UK said it would suspend removals if ordered to do so by the ECtHR.New guidelines for Frontex operations at sea, adopted in April, included a ban onreturn to persecution and the obligation to consider the needs of vulnerablegroups, including asylum seekers, children, and trafficking victims.422