Shifting EU borders and the access to international protection

• I want to wish you all welcome to the European Parliament for this conference that I am hosting together with the Red Cross.

• My name is Cecilia Wikström, member of civil liberties committee and the legal affairs committee. I have been working on the setting up of the Common European Asylum System that was adopted in June this year, I was the rapporteur for the Dublin Regulation.

• I do believe that the new asylum system, once implemented, will provide for better guarantees and safeguards. But there is still a huge problem to be solved: the EU asylum system is only accessible for those who manage to reach the Union and who through their physical presence can apply for asylum. We know that many of the most vulnerable never make it here, they do not have the strength or the finances to make the expensive and dangerous journey here.

• This problem has become even more urgent and obvious with the war in Syria. Millions of people are fleeing and it is happening next door to Europe. While the neighbouring countries have taken a huge responsibility and kept an open door policy, Europe has failed to take responsibility. There are currently huge refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, but those countries do not have working asylum systems or the possibility to provide decent conditions for those large numbers of refugees.

• This system is creating a market for human traffickers who make a huge profit out of taking advantage of the situation. It is only by creating legal and safe routes to the EU for asylum seekers that we can eliminate the market for the traffickers and prevent future tragedies in the Mediterranean.

• I am looking forward to the discussions today, but I also hope that they will result in more than discussions. We cannot keep just observing what is happening, we need to act now.