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Refugee protection varies greatly among EU countries: study

Xinhua, September 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Refugee rights in the European Union countries vary greatly, as the benefits of livelihood or access to medical care are developed very differently in the member states, according to a new comparative study published Wednesday.

According to an example cited by the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, while the monthly cash budget for participation in social life in Germany is 143 euros (159 U.S. dollars) for an asylum seeker, it is 40 euros in Austria and 12.50 euros in Poland.

There is a mandatory directive in the EU, setting the standards for the reception of refugees. "But it is clear that the minimum standards were implemented differently from country to country, which has partly severe consequences for the individual," said Ulrich Becker, director at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy in Munich.

The comparison of allowances not only shows the discrepancy between cash payments, it is also clear that several states did not fix their benefits to the aid level that is generally valid in the country, said the study.

In Britain, for example, asylum seekers can only claim a benefit, which amounts to half of the social assistance rate. In Sweden, there are the daily rates paid well below the social assistance level, according to the study.

"This is obviously associated with the risk of failing to meet compliance with the minimum subsistence level," the study states.

What is needed is a European asylum policy that assigns responsibility for admitting refugees in a obligatory and coordinated manner, which also includes that the EU supports the border states in the reception of refugees in the framework of the Dublin system, it added.

The study will soon be published in the Journal of Comparative and International Labour and Social Law. Endit