Crackdown on asylum seekers

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, FEB. 10. Britain and France agreed to take steps to curb asylum seekers crossing into Britain using the Euro Star train service linking the two countries.

Immigration officials will be posted at the Paris Gare du Nord station, from where Euro Star trains leave for Britain.

Similar facilities will be extended to French officials at the international terminal of London's Waterloo station.

The checks will become operational by next summer and are expected to significantly reduce the number of mainly Asian immigrants who seek to enter Britain as asylum seekers.

An estimated 400 persons demand asylum every month at the Waterloo terminal. Britain has long accused France of being lax towards them.

France gave its support to the agreement at the just-concluded annual Franco-British summit held in the south-western French town of Cahors.

The British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, said he was ``delighted'' at the way talks had proceeded while the French President, Mr. Jacques Chirac, said the problem of illegal immigration had ``to be tackled jointly''.

Mr. Chirac will now have to consult the Cabinet and Parliament to translate his promises into law. He promised he would take ``swift measures'' for this to happen. The British Government has stepped up its offensive against the U.N. Convention on asylum rights, first with the European Union and now in bilateral talks with France.

Britain has described the Convention as obsolete and dated and called for its revision.

The U.N. convention signed by 137 countries is 50 years old this year. The U.N. Human Rights Commissioner, Ms. Mary Robinson, rejected Britain's demands that the convention be changed.

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Section  : International
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