33 in the army now – portfolio
CONTENTS
topic page
Dilemma: at the frontier 3
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 4
The European Convention on Human Rights 4
Definition of the term “refugee” 5
Schengen Agreement: An Overview 6
Schengen Agreement: Official Summary 7
Das Schengener Informationssystem (SIS) 10
Geregelte Einreise von Flüchtlingen 11
Asylum laws in the Schengen area 13
Drittstaatenregelung 14
Drittstaaten-Regelung bleibt 17
Why people seek to leave Bosnia 18
Asylum seekers: Europe´s dilemma 18
UK 19
Germany 20
Netherlands 21
Belgium 21
France 22
Austria 23
Einreise: Asyl in Österreich 24
Asylgesuch bei der Einreise 25
Aus dem österreichischen Asylgewetz 1997 27
10 Jahre Schengen 29
Acquisition of Hungarian Citizenship 30
Korrespondenz mit Amnesty International Österreich 31
Dilemma: In the Army now
Bozo Mladenovic came to Austria in the middle of the 1990s as a victim of the war in Bosnia. He came from Pale, a Serbian bastion in Bosnia and he was declared to be a refugee and he could stay in Austria. Bozo went to school and got a job, ten years after his escape from Bosnia he became an Austrian citizen. Soon he was called to the army and there he was sent to the frontier between Austria and Hungary that is also a border of the so called “Schengen agreement”. On a monitoring tour he gets hold of a man of his age, it is his friend Dejan whom he hasn´t seen since his escape from Bosnia. Dejan was brought to the frontier by people smugglers and he wanted to immigrate to Germany on illegal ways. He had given the final tip that a top-listed war criminal could be caught and therefore he came in great troubles so that he had to leave Pale immediately. Bozo himself knows about how to be a refugee, but on the other hand he also had made a vow on the constitution and he is aware of the fact that letting Dejan go would cause serious troubles if his partner on their monitoring tour would break this secret or – even worse – he was caught by his military supervisors.
Now Bozo has to decide whether he should arrest Dejan according to his instructions and deliver him to the police or if he should let Dejan go.
Why?
THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
The European Convention on Human Rights
ARTICLE 2
1. Everyone's right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law.
2. Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:
o (a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence;
o (b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent escape of a person lawfully detained;
o (c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection.
http://www.hri.org/docs/ECHR50.html
DEFINITION OF THE TERM “REFUGEE”
A. For the purposes of the present Convention, the term “refugee” shall apply to any person who:
(1) Has been considered a refugee under the Arrangements of 12 May 1926 and 30 June 1928 or under the Conventions of 28 October 1933 and 10 February 1938, the Protocol of 14 September 1939 or the Constitution of the International Refugee Organization; Decisions of non-eligibility taken by the International Refugee Organization during the period of its activities shall not prevent the status of refugee being accorded to persons who fulfil the conditions of paragraph 2 of this section;
(2) As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is
unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.
In the case of a person who has more than one nationality, the term “the country of his nationality” shall mean each of the countries of which he is a national, and a person shall not be deemed to be lacking the protection of the country of his nationality
if, without any valid reason based on well-founded fear, he has not availed himself of the protection of one of the countries of which he is a national.
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/protect/opendoc.pdf?tbl=PROTECTION&id=3b66c2aa10
Asylum is a form of protection given by a State on its territory based on the principle of non-refoulement and internationally or nationally recognised refugee rights. It is granted to a person who is unable to seek protection in his/her country of citizenship and/or residence in particular for fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/asylum/printer/fsj_asylum_intro_en.htm
SCHENGEN AGREEMENT: AN OVERVIEW
The 1985 Schengen Agreement is an agreement among European states which allows for common immigration policies (including the Schengen visa) and a border system. A total of 26 countries – including all European Union states except the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, but including non-EU members Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland – have signed the agreement and 15 have implemented it so far. Border posts and checks have been removed between Schengen countries and a common 'Schengen visa' allows access to the area. However, the agreement does not cover residency or work permits for non-EU nationals.
Membership
· June 14, 1985 Belgium, France, West Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands
· November 27, 1990 - Italy
· June 25, 1992 - Portugal, Spain
· November 6, 1992 - Greece
· April 28, 1995 - Austria
· December 19, 1996 - Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
· May 1, 2004 - Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia (not yet implemented)
· October 16, 2004 - Switzerland (ratified by referendum on June 5, 2005)
Before Schengen, citizens of western European countries could travel to neighbouring countries by showing their national ID card or passport at the border. Nationals of some other countries required separate visas for every country in Europe they wished to visit. A vast network of border posts existed around the continent, disrupting traffic, trade and causing delays and costs to both businesses and visitors.
For non-EU country citizens who wish to visit Europe as tourists, they are required to get only the common Schengen Visa from the Embassy/Consulate of any of the Schengen countries. After this, they may visit any or all of the Schengen countries as tourists without hinderance. They are not required to get separate visas for all the (Schengen) European countries they wish to visit. This applies, of course, only for visit to those countries who have implemented the Schengen agreement.
The Schengen Agreement removed border checks between participating countries. The Schengen Agreement also means that participating countries will co-ordinate their external controls. This is necessary since a person acceptable to one country but not to another can still enter both, if one admits him. For example, immigration policy must be agreed upon as immigrants can enter through the most relaxed border and make their way to less hospitable countries once within Schengenland unless entry criteria are homogeneous.
The Schengen Agreement intends to harmonise the laws and regulations of several policy areas, in order to minimise the extent to which criminals can take advantage of the relaxation of controls. For example, the Dutch policy on drugs differs from the French policy, and a person could buy drugs in the Netherlands and transport them to France to sell on the black market. This is much easier when there are no border controls between the two countries (via Belgium). As a result of this particular difference in policy France insisted on maintaining border controls on people entering France from the Benelux countries for some time after the agreement was implemented.
Mere possession of a uniform visa does not confer automatic right of entry. It will only be granted if the other transit or entry conditions laid down by the Schengen Agreement have been met, notably the means of subsistence that aliens must have at their disposal, as well as the purpose and the conditions of the stay.
http://www.wikipedia.co.uk
SCHENGEN AGREEMENT: OFFICIAL SUMMARY
“The practicalities of free movement within an area without internal border controls were first set out by the Schengen Agreement in 1985 and the subsequent Schengen Convention in 1995 that abolishedcontrols on internal borders between the signatory countries. The Amsterdam Treaty on the European Union, which came into force on the 1 May 1999, incorporated the set of measures adopted under the Schengen umbrella into the Unions legal and institutional framework. These measures are now fully accepted by 13 EU Member States (with the exception of the United Kingdom and Ireland), as well as other countries external to the Union (Norway and Iceland). New applicants to the Union will have to fulfil these same requirements. The Schengen principles of free circulation of people are backed by improved and still developing security measures to ensure that the EUs internal security is not threatened.”
http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/freetravel/frontiers/fsj_freetravel_schengen_en.htm
What is the Schengen information system (SIS)?
The Schengen information system (SIS) was set up to allow police forces and consular agents from the Schengen countries to access data on specific individuals (i.e. criminals wanted for arrest or extradition, missing persons, third-country nationals to be refused entry, etc.) and on goods which have been lost or stolen. These data are supplied by the Member States via national sections (N-SIS) that are connected to a central technical function (C-SIS).
The data related to persons may include data on:
· persons wanted for arrest for extradition purposes;
· aliens for whom an alert has been issued for the purposes of refusing entry;
· missing persons or on persons needing temporary police protection (minors, in particular);
· witnesses and persons summoned to appear before judicial authorities;
· persons to be submitted to discreet surveillance or specific checks for the purposes of prosecuting criminal offences or for the prevention of threats to public security.
The SIS is supplemented by a network known as Sirene (supplementary information request at the national entry) Phase II, which allows communication between the Sirene offices in every Schengen State. The Sirene offices are the intermediaries between the national authorities responsible for the data on the SIS (judges, police, alien offices). The Sirene Phase II network is being replaced by the Sisnet network. Sisnet will be used to communicate between C-SIS and N-SIS. Since August 2001, it is also used for communication between Sirene and Vision.
http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/freetravel/frontiers/fsj_freetravel_schengen_en.htm
Für ausländische Staatsbürger mit Aufenthaltsrecht in einem der Schengen-Länder (wie z.B. der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) ist es möglich, jedes andere Schengen-Land ohne Visum zu besuchen.
http://www.swedenabroad.com/pages/general.asp?id=18276&expand=15430
Etwas später kam zum Schengen-Abkommen noch die DublinerÜbereinkunft hinzu. Dublin ist die Hauptstadtder RepublikIrland.Das Übereinkommenbesagt, dass ein Asylsuchender nur in einem der Schengen-Länder einen Asylantrag stellen darf. Asyl dürfen die Menschen in Anspruch nehmen, die in ihrer Heimat politisch verfolgt werden.
Doch viele Antragsteller auf Asyl sind nicht vor einem Regime, sondern vor dem Hunger in ihrer Heimat geflüchtet - doch dies wird als Grund nicht anerkannt. Lehnen also zum Beispiel die Niederlande einen Antrag auf politisches Asyl ab, so darf der abgelehnte Asylbewerber sein Glück nicht noch einmal in Deutschland, Frankreich oder einem anderen Dublin-Staat versuchen.
Tatsächlich muss ein Land nicht zwangsläufig in der EU sein, um mitmachen zu können. Sosind Norwegen und Island im Jahre 1996 dem Schengen-Abkommen beigetreten, obwohl beide Länder nicht zur Europäischen Union gehören.
Es ist sogar möglich, nur "teilweise" Schengen beizutreten. Großbritannien und Irland sind seit dem Jahr 2000 zwar Mitglieder - aber wer aus einem anderen Schengen-Land auf die "Insel" reisen möchte, wirdtrotzdem an der Grenze kontrolliert. Die Zusammenarbeit dieser beiden Länder mit den anderen Schengen-Staaten ist nämlich auf die Strafverfolgung beschränkt und gilt nicht für die Reisefreiheit.
Für Staatsbürger der Schengen-Staaten (mit Ausnahme derBriten und Iren) ist es heute ganz einfach, von einem Mitgliedsland ins andere zu reisen. Aber für alle Menschen, die nicht aus einem Schengen-Land kommen, ist es immer schwieriger geworden, in ein Schengen-Land zu gelangen. Sowerdenes Weißrussen künftig schwer haben, nach Polen zu reisen. Menschen aus Afrika und Asien, die ihrem Hunger und ihrer Armut entfliehen wollen, haben kaum mehr eine Möglichkeit, in den reichen Teil Europas zu gelangen.
Source: http://www.helles-koepfchen.de/artikel/1055.html
DAS SCHENGENER INFORMATIONSSYSTEM (SIS)
Das Schengener Informationssystem (SIS) ist eine nichtöffentliche Datenbank, in der Personen und Sachen im Schengen-Raum zur Fahndung ausgeschrieben werden. Zugriffsberechtigt sind nur Sicherheitsbehörden in Schengen-Ländern. Rechtsgrundlage ist das Schengener Durchführungsübereinkommen (SDÜ) und die dazugehörigen Durchführungsvereinbarungen.
Die berechtigten Stellen können im SIS Informationen über Personen oder Gegenstände anfragen oder registrieren. Die Daten betreffen zum Beispiel Personen unter Haftbefehl oder Gegenstände, von denen man die Spur verloren hat. Diese Informationen werden zwischen den teilnehmenden Ländern geteilt, von denen die meisten Unterzeichner der Schengener Übereinkommen sind, insbesondere Frankreich, Deutschland, Belgien, Niederlande und Luxemburg. Seit seiner Gründung haben sich mehrere andere Länder dem System angeschlossen: Griechenland, Österreich, Island, Schweden, Finnland, Dänemark, Italien, Portugal, Spanien und Norwegen, die später den Schengener Vertrag unterzeichnet haben. Zur Zeit wird das Schengener Informationssystem von 15 Ländern benutzt. Man beachte, dass unter ihnen Island und Norwegen nicht Mitglieder der Europäischen Union sind.