The proposal of the National Thematic Network on Asylum to Develop National Policy under the Equal Community Initiative

1.Introduction

As in previous years, the proposals of the National Thematic Network on Asylum (hereafter referred to as NTG Asylum) are based on the project experiences of the Development Partnership which, in some cases, have already come to a completion during the first round of the Asylum Theme under Equal.

The group of Development Partnerships - DP4 Co-operation - has continued to operate as an excellent tool to facilitate the exchange, validation and evaluation of project experiences and results. Furthermore, important experiences have been gained by way of a growing bilateral exchange between NTG Asylum and the Development Partnership, as well as National Thematic Groups in primarily Germany, Denmark, United Kingdom, Italy and Finland. 

NTG Asylum's other activities include critical analysis of systems and policies, research and development and, not least, evaluation and validation of project results from other relevant programmes and activities (primarily those of the European Refugee Fund). Over the past year a study has been carried out on projects within the frame of the European Refugee Fund with the intention of uncovering instruments and methods for mapping, evaluation and assessing project experiences and good examples. 

NTG Asylum's conference - Kommer någon Fjärranfrån (Coming from afar), in October 2005, contributed by way of approx. 20 seminars and a concluding panel discussion to confirm the strategic themes as priorities for the next year. Within each theme a number of good examples were presented and which formed the basis of the proposals which a panel of politicians, researchers and civil servants were presented with. Thus, the conference created a forum to assess the relevance of tabled proposals springing from Development Partnerships, projects under the European Refugee Fund and NTG Asylum's activities. Conference documentation, including the concluding report can be found on NTG Asylum's website.

The NTG Asylum reference group, which was established in the last year, has also contributed to an important discussion on the principle of relevant themes, proposals and recommendations. The reference group has given an opinion on a list of policy gaps in the field of asylum and refugee policy. The reference group includes broad participation from voluntary organisations, the Parliament, researchers, media and the target group.

Close contact with the European Asylum Thematic Group has continued to provide NTG Asylum's secretariat  with penetrating insight into the whole body of European projects under the Asylum theme. 

The proposal part of this year's report has been given a somewhat new format. The evaluation and validation process mentioned above has spawned five strategic themes: Reception, Health, Education, Work/Integration, and Repatriation.

The current proposals have all been grouped under one of these five strategic themes. Additionally, a proposal on the format and framework for capitalising on project results at national level has been put forward. In those cases where previously advanced proposals are still highly relevant, this has been indicated.

2. Background

2.1 Big changes in European asylum reception

Decisive steps have been taken over the past year towards introducing a common European asylum system. The Hague Programme, established by decision of the European Council in 2004, has been made tangible in the EU Commission's work plan of June 2005, the adoption of a series of new development programmes and the EU Commission directive on minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers (henceforth called the Reception Directive) has been transposed into national legislation. There is now a European framework which includes and regulates all measures currently relevant within the frame of Equal and the European Refugee Fund. 

The Reception Directive's 28 articles encompass various aspects of reception, including access to the labour market and vocational training, school and education for minors, health care and housing and subsistence. It also covers disadvantaged groups, including unaccompanied minors and torture victims.

Previously, NTG Asylum has presented and commented on the Reception Directive and its implementation in national legislation and policy. The proposal part of this report contains references to some of the fourteen Reception Directive articles which directly relate to Equal's field of scope. A more comprehensive presentation and analysis of the Reception Directive can be found on NTG Asylum's website. 

2.2 Reduction in number of asylum seekers in Sweden but continued long waiting periods

The number of asylum seekers dropped in 2004 and in 2005 compared to 2003. The Swedish Migration Board's (henceforth called Migration Board) prognosis for 2005 estimates the number to be 17,000. The number of asylum seekers in the Migration Board's reception system has not, however, declined to the same extent - dropping from 39,000 in 2004 to 33,000 in 2005. For the period 2006 to 2008 this number is expected to hover around 33,000. According to the Migration Board, a growing number of asylum seekers are not included in the reception system, i.e. asylum seekers who have been denied asylum but remain in the country. A large number of these people will most probably eventually be granted residency following the recent adoption by the Swedish Parliament of a temporary "amnesty decision" and will thereby make their way back into the reception system.

Despite the decline in the number of asylum seekers, the total waiting time has not declined. The average duration of treatment of an asylum application, in the first instance, has dropped from 281 days in 2004 to 235 days in 2005. Since, however, approx. 80% appeal a negative decision, the total waiting time, including first instance and appeal, is in reality much higher. 

Despite recent changes in the administrative procedure and organisation designed to improve efficiency and cut waiting time, NTG Asylum maintains its assessment that waiting times will continue throughout the duration of the programme period to be between 18 and 24 months for the large majority of asylum seekers.

For a more thorough presentation and analysis of current trends we refer to NTG Asylum's website or the Swedish Migration Board's website.

2.3 Organised activities becomes uniform employment

An internal study carried out by the Migration Board into its organised activities has proposed some changes. One of the goals for the coming years is for 75% of asylum seekers to participate in organised activities under the auspices of the Swedish Migration Board (in comparison with 42% in 2003).

NTG Asylum sees,  however, the possibilities to improve organised activities based on the tabled proposal as limited. Based on the criteria in the Migration Board's terms of reference for central purchasing of organised activities for 2006-2007, it appears very unlikely that new, innovative activities or actors will have the opportunity to submit/win calls for tenders. In many cases new and innovative actors have declined submitting tenders. The decisive success criteria in call for tenders is that tenderers should have carried out similar activities since 2003 and that they can offer their services to the absolute lowest price.

2.4 A common European integration policy

A somewhat new and prioritised part of the Hague Programme and in the above mentioned action plan relates to integration policy. NTG Asylum's 2004/2005 proposal report presented recent developments in this area which are very important for the Member States. A number of new initiatives have been adopted at EU level to co-ordinate and improve integration policy. The basis for the common European integration policy are the Common Basic Principles for Integration - CBP outlined in the EU Commission Directive 389/2005 A Common Agenda for Integration: Framework for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals in the European Union.

Examples of these principles include viewing integration as a two-way process; integration demands mutual adaptation from the immigrant's and majority population's side, activity/work is fundamental to successful integration, having a basic understanding of the new language, knowledge of the new country's history and institutions, and appreciation of basic European values is essential to successful integration in asylum seeker's new country.

A more comprehensive presentation of the common European integration policy, with comments, can be found on NTG Asylum's website. 

3. Proposals

3.1 Reception

The current long waiting times will most likely persist despite changes to asylum reception procedure and organisation. The Migration Board, which is responsible for decision taking in the first instance (not appeals), has indeed reduced asylum application treatment time but since approx. 80% of all first instance decisions are appealed, waiting time is instead shifted to those bodies responsible for treating appeals. Measures that facilitate integration/re-integration during the whole waiting period must continue to be given high priority.

A key to improving asylum reception is to have a separation of responsibility between different bodies for asylum application treatment on the one hand and asylum reception on the other. The Migration Board's central procurement procedures and organisation for administering organised activities show that the possibilities to develop individualised and qualitatively improved organised activities are sharply curtailed by the current organisational structure. Large actors who have previously more or less had a monopoly in selling organised activities to the Migration Board will unfortunately continue to be given priority, especially when lowest price remains the decisive factor in the tender selection process.

Proposal

NTG Asylum proposes to separate responsibility for asylum seeker reception from asylum application treatment, thereby creating opportunities for municipalities, NGOs etc. to provide organised activities within the frame of asylum seeker reception. This issue should be considered by the Parliamentary Committee on the objective, orientation, organisation and effectiveness of Swedish integration policy and should  also be included in the Government's drafting of a new legislation based on a recent government initiated study (SOU 2003:75).

If this issue cannot be covered under the mandate of the ongoing study or Committee then the Government should establish a separate study to review asylum seeker reception.

3.2 Health

Collected experiences from both Equal and European Refugee Fund co-financed projects indicate extensive problems with asylum seekers' and refugees' health situation. NTG Asylum's research findings and seminar conclusions point clearly in the same direction, namely the existence of serious health problems among large groups of asylum seekers, a high level of health care consumption and poor insight into how the Swedish health care system works.

The reasons for the poor and problematic health care situation of asylum seekers, and indeed many other newly arriving immigrants) include, in addition to often having been traumatised in their home countries, a lack of suitable information on how the health care system works, a lack of preventive care and poor adaptation of health care services to the target group. As regards asylum seekers, there is also a complex relationship between long waiting time and the emergence and assessment of humanitarian motives and poor health.

Proposal

The previous proposal to establish health care communication officers remains a priority. This task/job should be supported by establishing a relevant university level education for asylum seekers and refugees with a suitable medical training background.

Health care issues should be given more attention in current studies and pending legislation (see above) and be included as a central element in the above mentioned study into asylum seeker reception. This proposal underscores articles 13 and 15 of the Reception Directive.

3.3 Education

According to a survey by the Swedish Migration Board of their organised activities, asylum seekers do not participate in vocational training. Article 12 of the Reception Directive recommends Member States to give asylum seekers equal access to vocational training as for others on the labour market. As noted earlier, only 42% of asylum seekers participate at all in the organised activities, primarily Swedish language training. Project experiences underscore the conclusion that the current shape of organised activities and Swedish language training are not cost effective and are poorly adapted to asylum seekers' individual needs. Also, as previously noted, it is not very probable that the Migration Board's centrally and recently procured organised activities programme will allow for individually adapted vocational counselling and training.

Proposal

Asylum seekers should be given access to suitable and adapted vocational counselling, validation and training according to article 12 of the Reception Directive. Asylum seekers who have alredy begun vocational training, in order  to facilitate re-integration, should be allowed to complete their training.

The previously proposed study into asylum seeker reception should give special attention to the issue of adapted vocational training (including vocational counselling and validation). The same goes for other related studies and drafting of relevant legislation by the Parliament. The proposals from 2004/2005 are still relevant today.

3.4 Work and integration

Work

The EU's Reception Directive was transposed in 2005 into Swedish national legislation. Follow-up studies into how the directive is being practically implemented in Member States will be carried out in 2006 by the EU Commission, by way of an external contractor, as well as by the European Asylum Thematic Group. One of the key articles of the Reception Directive (article 11) concerns asylum seekers' right to work while they wait for their asylum application to be processed. As noted by the Asylum NTG, the situation of asylum seekers in Sweden is deeply unsatisfactory with regards to access, or rather lack of, to the ordinary labour market, even though Sweden abides by the minimum criteria stipulated by the directive. The Migration Authority has ascertained in its latest survey (December 2004) that only 666 persons, of a total of 18,000 asylum seekers that were formally eligible to work without a work permit, had jobs on the ordinary labour market.

Competition between the formal system, namely the Migration Board's organised activities and employment on the ordinary labour market, and the informal economy, has grown more acute. A review by the Government of relevant legislation and a follow up of how the Reception Directive is being put into practice should therefore include a follow-up and analysis of the situation for asylum seekers in the informal labour market/economy. The consequences for asylum seekers' future integration into the ordinary labour market should also be studied.

Proposal

A thorough mapping, analysis and follow-up of asylum seekers who are working in the ordinary labour market, and those working in the informal economy, should be carried out as a step towards providing background information in order to adopt suitable measures.

An immediate overview of pertinent legislation is needed in order to give asylum seekers who appeal a negative decision in the first instance to their application for asylum in order to allow them the continued right to work (not required to have a work permit). An assessment of waiting time should encompass the whole waiting period, not only while waiting for a decision in the first instance. Alternatively, the time limit condition could be done away with altogether for all asylum seekers who are not considered to be Dublin cases or who have not provided false information to the authorities in their asylum application.

The Government is urged to follow-up how the EU directive on minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers is put into actual practice and to identify which steps have actually been taken by those Government agencies charged with responsibilities related to article 11 of the Reception Directive (incl. the Swedish Migration Board, Swedish National Labour Market Board and the Swedish Integration Board). The follow-up should be done in parallel with the EU Commission's own study, thereby providing a more thorough analysis, especially as regards the informal economy and labour market.

Integration

Efforts under the Equal Asylum Theme and the European Refugee Fund's projects aim to facilitate vocational and social integration. The extensive work now being carried out, based in part on the Hague Programme and the EU Commission's action plan (June 2005), are very pertinent to integration policy.

In Sweden, a number of Government sponsored studies have already been already been launched, or announced they will be launched soon. NTG Asylum has repeatedly stressed the importance of including a European dimension in the Swedish studies. This was done most recently in an official comment to the Government's newly established parliamentary committee to review the objectives, orientation, organisation and effectiveness of integration policy. 

Proposal

Previous proposals from 2004/2005 concerning, among else, citizenship are still relevant today. These proposals are directly linked to European integration policy as outlined by the EU Commission in it’s communication A Common Agenda for Integration. 

The Government should expand the mandate of ongoing studies in the field in order to put new emphasis on the necessity of adopting a European perspective on integration policy and to encompass the objectives and principles outlined in A Common Agenda for Integration.

Repatriation

An increasing number of asylum seekers are returning, or being sent back, to their home countries or equivalent. The Migration Board's organised activities are more and more being oriented towards repatriation. Repatriation training is a new element in the organised activities for 2006/2007. However, few asylum seekers seek voluntary repatriation. The number of repatriation cases has successively risen and totalled 34,000 in 2005. In addition to this is a sharply growing number of asylum seekers that remain in the country despite having been denied asylum.

Is Sweden on the path to building up a repatriation system instead of a reception system? Is it motivated? Is it in compliance with the EU directive on minimum standards for asylum reception? Can the Migration Board still credibly work with application evaluation, integration and repatriation? How does the Migration Board's repatriation programme work? What skills, experiences and resources do repatriated asylum seekers take with them back from Sweden to their home countries? Which occupational skills are useful both in their home countries as well as the country in which they seek asylum? What elements in the Migration Board's arsenal of organised activities can strengthen repatriated asylum seekers opportunities to provide for themselves upon their return to their home countries?

The questions outnumber the answers in this area. An important conclusion based on project experiences and assessments is that adopting simple and standardised solutions can pose a threat to the credibility of the reception system. Furthermore, it is problematic that the Migration Board is responsible for both asylum applications as well as repatriation. Recent project experiences indicate that it is unreasonable to provide repatriation oriented activities in a very early stage of the asylum seeking process. In a few Equal and European Refugee Fund co-financed projects one has been able to successfully provide vocational training to asylum seekers with a dual perspective, namely both for integration (in case asylum is granted) and re-integration (in case of future repatriation).

Few or no studies have been carried out into what happens to asylum seekers who are repatriated to their home countries. NGO led project activities in many cases appear to have been very successful when it comes to embodying activities with the dual perspective of integration/repatriation. The good will which NGOs have in the eyes of the asylum seekers is probably a success factor. An example is the Gothenburg Initiative and the Arrival Gothenburg Development Partnership (Ankomst Göteborg) which provides vocational training to women who may possibly return to Iraq.

The EU Commission's action plan includes a special section on repatriation. A new development programme and minimum standards for repatriation are expected to be put forward in the near future. ECRE has carried out a critical review of repatriation and put forward valuable proposals concerning repatriation. These proposals are supported by NTG Asylum.

Proposal

NTG Asylum intends over  the course of the programme period to carry out a review of existing repatriation oriented activities and systems. A more extensive study should be done, in connection with the planned review of the reception system and the follow-up study of the Reception Directive already proposed, into the plight of repatriated asylum seekers. In both cases the EU Commission's various initiatives in the area should be given consideration and feed into  future national proposals.

3.5 Dissemination and mainstreaming 

NTG Asylum proposed in 2003 and 2004 that the Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications (the responsible ministry) should establish a cross policy forum for analysis and implementation of results, experiences and recommendations from the national thematic groups. NTG Asylum welcomed the ministry's initiative in February 2005 to bring together representatives of the national thematic groups in Equal to establish such a forum. 

Unfortunately, however, only one other ministry participated at the meeting, namely the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Social Affairs are also concerned by issues relevant to asylum seekers but were not represented at the meeting. These ministries should therefore join the forum. 

The participating ministries are represented by their Secretary of State. The meetings should, however, be preceeded by preparatory seminars with participants at senior civil servant level to analyse current proposals and thereafter make a co-ordinated presentation of these to the responsible Secretaries of State.

Proposal

Proposals from NTG Asylum should first be discussed at civil servant level in concerned ministries before presenting them to policy decision makers at national and EU level.