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Governments attending the European Council meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece, should reject the United Kingdom's so-called "new vision" proposal to send asylum seekers to processing centers abroad, Human Rights Watch said in a 20-page briefing paper released today.

The European Council meeting is being held on June 20, 2003, which coincides with World Refugee Day. World Refugee Day was established as a date for governments to renew their commitment to solving refugee problems.

"European governments have a choice to make on World Refugee Day," said Alison Parker, a refugee protection expert at Human Rights Watch. "They can endorse the U.K. proposal and undermine more than fifty years of international commitment to the world's refugees -- or they can reject this deeply flawed plan and preserve a system that has saved countless lives."

In its briefing paper, An Unjust "Vision" for Europe's Refugees, Human Rights Watch said the U.K. proposal was an effort to dodge responsibilities under the 1951 Refugee Convention and other human rights treaties. The U.K. proposal undermines the fundamental right to seek asylum, and the right to be protected against return to an unsafe place. The proposal would also violate the Refugee Convention by penalizing refugees for their mode of entering the United Kingdom.

The U.K. government claims that the proposal is needed because financial support for refugees is badly distributed. However, Parker pointed out that increasing funds for refugees in developing countries should not be justified by decreasing support for them in Europe.

Human Rights Watch said that serious human rights violations often await asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants in the countries proposed for processing asylum claims under the U.K. plan. Those countries include Albania, Croatia, Iran, Morocco, Somalia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Human Rights Watch said that, despite their attempts to evade responsibility, the United Kingdom and other governments could still be complicit for harm experienced by persons transferred to processing centers.

Police forces in all of the named countries except Croatia have been repeatedly accused of egregious misconduct, including returns to unsafe places, arbitrary arrests, detention and even arbitrary killings and torture of non-nationals. Some of such police misconduct has directly targeted refugees.

The countries proposed to host the centers are also among the world's poorest.

"Britain has long been a leader in assisting the developing world. But now the United Kingdom is pushing other countries to take on its responsibility for protecting refugees," Parker said. "If governments don't reject this ill-conceived plan, refugees will be forced to pay the price."

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