THE GUARDIAN

United Nations chief pleads for warmer welcome

Ian Black in Brussels
Friday January 30, 2004
The Guardian

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, has launched a scathing attack on "fortress Europe", warning that its "dehumanising" policies towards immigrants are leading many to their deaths.

The UN chief used an appearance before the European parliament to demand a more positive approach that sees immigration as beneficial and not simply something to be curbed.

"The public has been fed images of a flood of unwelcome entrants, and of threats to their societies and identities," he told MEPs. "In the process, immigrants have sometimes been stigmatised, vilified, even dehumanised."

Mr Annan's high-profile intervention - which won him a standing ovation - came as the EU accelerates slow-moving plans for common asylum and immigration policies, with moves dominated by crackdowns on illegal migrants and "bogus" asylum seekers. These issues have risen high up the political agenda across the continent following electoral gains by populist and far-right parties, highlighting strong opposition to immigration.

The UN chief wants to counter the sense that the post-9/11 world is marked by an inevitable "clash of civilisations" between the west and Arab and Islamic societies.

His remarks came against the backdrop of fierce controversy over France's plan to bar the wearing of Muslim headscarves or other conspicuous religious symbols in schools.

Immigrants "should not be made scapegoats for a vast array of social ills".

They were "part of the solution, not part of the problem".

Ruud Lubbers, the Dutch UN high commissioner for refugees, often attacks EU policies, warning of possible breaches of the UN's 1951 convention on human rights. But yesterday's Brussels speech by Mr Annan - the embodiment of the multilateralism prized by the EU - carried even greater weight.

Mr Annan, receiving the parliament's Sakharov prize in memory of the UN staff killed in Iraq, told governments they must tackle "this silent human rights crisis [that] shames our world".

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants enter the EU every year. Illegal migrants, often exploited by unscrupulous traffickers, die weekly trying to enter Europe by crossing in small boats from Morocco or Turkey or by hiding in lorries and under trains crossing to Britain from France.

"Your asylum systems are overburdened precisely because many people who feel they must leave see no other channel through which to migrate," he said. "Many others try more desperate and clandestine measures, and are sometimes injured or even killed - suffocating in trucks, drowning at sea, or perishing in the undercarriage of aircraft."

As he spoke, news emerged of another accident in which two people drowned and at least 17 were missing after a boat carrying dozens of illegal immigrants, apparently Kurds, sank off the Greek island of Evia. A small wooden ship trying to smuggle 70 illegal immigrants to Greece sank last month off the Turkish coast. Only one person survived.

"It is the sovereign right of all states to decide which voluntary migrants they will accept, and on what terms," he said. "But we cannot simply close our doors or shut our eyes to this human tragedy."

Mr Annan said managed migration and proper integration of newcomers into Europe's ageing societies would help boost economies and ensure the continent enjoyed a better future.

"They don't want a free ride. They want a fair opportunity. They are not criminals or terrorists. They are law-abiding. They don't want to live apart. They want to integrate, while retaining their identity."

Pat Cox, president of the parliament, said the EU had a responsibility not to create a fortress Europe.

Claude Moraes, a British Labour MEP, said: "The fact that Mr Annan devoted his entire speech to the question of migration and refugees speaks for itself."

The French Green leader, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, linked Mr Annan's stance on immigration to his opposition to the US-led war on Iraq. "One year ago, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in support of the UN," he said.

"Now the time has come to defend and put into action the very contents of UN policies."

But Charles Pasqua, a former French interior minister, attacked Mr Annan's approach as "utopian", and said the UN would do better spending more on development aid and keeping migrants at home.