Help Journalists Find Asylum....!! Request to Europe..!!!

Help Journalists find asylum, RSF tells EU

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has written to the 27 European Union Ministers responsible for asylum policy on "Building a Europe of Asylum" ministerial conference which began on Sept. 8 in Paris, asking them to do more to protect the dozens of journalists and free speech activists who are forced into exile each year to escape reprisals by governments or non-state groups.
"The current situation is dramatic and most journalists seeking asylum who mainly come from Eritrea, Iran, Iraq or Sri Lanka have difficulty in finding refuge," the letter says.

"The long waits in the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the almost systematic refusal of western embassies to grant them visas force the great majority to risk their lives by resorting to illegal immigration methods.

"For this reason, there is an urgent need not only to recognise the refugee status of journalists in your country seeking asylum but also to facilitate procedures for protected entry and emergency resettlement". The European governments cannot claim to be building a "Europe of asylum" as long as people seeking protection were denied access to European territory, Reporters Without Borders said.

How could they defend the fact that, despite tangible evidence of threats and dangers, some journalists spend years living in refugee camps or hiding in cities where their safety was not guaranteed?

The two-day ministerial conference began in Paris on September 8. The negotiations on asylum police were supposed to conclude in October when the European Council was to adopt a European Pact on Immigration and Asylum. Media Channel
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