Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
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<strong>Psychosocial</strong> <strong>Notebook</strong>, Volume 2, October 2001<br />
aware that they depended on merciless smugglers, people who would have<br />
thrown two-year-old girls into the sea without an afterthought, if chased by<br />
the police. (This happened in mid-October of this year, 2000, in the<br />
Adriatic channel of Otranto).<br />
They told different stories of their time in Italy, sometimes with similar<br />
expectations but different results. The greatest wish they shared was to be<br />
back home, but only the Kosovar Albanians could hope to satisfy this<br />
desire. Others wanted to reach Germany or Belgium but could not because<br />
of European Law, which forces them to remain in the first country they<br />
reach (Italy). Most of the time, their prohibitions and rights were unknown<br />
to them before they directly experienced the limitations and constraints<br />
imposed.<br />
Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is particularly<br />
representative of the many contradictions that exist between written rights<br />
and the common experience of refugees, minority groups and migrants. It<br />
reads: “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy, in other countries,<br />
asylum from persecution”.<br />
The rights related to the status of individuals in civil society have been<br />
identified as the “first generation” of rights, while the “second generation”<br />
of rights refers to those which are political in nature. Article 14 is part of<br />
the so-called “third generation” of rights, consisting of the political rights<br />
obtained by Third World countries in the 1960s, and under which the<br />
unprotected social strata are defended. There is a more recent “fourth<br />
generation” of rights framed to protect the transmission of culture and<br />
knowledge.<br />
Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should assist the<br />
Kosovars in their request for political asylum in Belgium or Germany, and<br />
yet European standards, such as the Treaty of Schengen and the Dublin<br />
Convention, limit the right of each individual to seek and enjoy protection<br />
from persecution in other countries.<br />
Anyone reading the Dublin Convention would find within its articles clear<br />
restraints to free movement in Europe:<br />
Article 6: When it can be proved that an applicant for asylum has irregularly<br />
crossed the border into a Member State by land, sea or<br />
air, having come from a non-member State of the European<br />
Communities, the Member State thus entered shall be responsible<br />
for examining the application for asylum.<br />
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