Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...

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