Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I think that, on issues related to asylum and immigration, the Union currently has two options. The first is to lay down rules that are clear, fair and which protect those who are fighting for freedom and all those who are fleeing from dictatorships, persecution or poverty. The second is to equate asylum applicants with illegal immigrants, thus turning these people into scapegoats. It is very rare for a Member of Parliament to oppose a positive acquis communautaire, as it was affirmed at Tampere that there was a need for common rules in the area of asylum procedures. I am also surprised that, despite the adoption, in 2001, of an initial resolution which aimed to provide asylum applicants with a decent standard of living and to enforce respect for human rights, our rapporteur has attempted to restrict these rights, which flies in the very face of fundamental rights which are also an acquis communautaire. At the same time, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has condemned laws passed by the Danish and Italian Governments that call into question the right to live as a family by limiting family reunification, the right to love the person of one’s choice by attacking mixed marriages and that even seek to limit the number of asylum applicants. Furthermore, France – my own country, as it happens – which has traditionally defended human rights, has just voted a Jean-Marie Le Pen through to the second round of the presidential elections, a politician who has used the subject of immigrants and asylum applicants for his own gains. It is irresponsible to throw ourselves headlong into this matter and refuse to resolve the real problems by making third-country nationals carry the can. No, Mr Hernández Mollar, Europe’s problem is that of unemployment and exclusion, not that of third-country nationals and asylum applicants. But I can in no way accuse you of xenophobia, as last year, we worked together in El Ejido on a fact-finding mission, precisely in order to protect those who have been victims of xenophobic aggression. But how can you, at the same time, fail to mention to the House that those who exploit these victims are, in fact, those who make them work; those who exploit them are, in fact, the bosses who employ them to moonlight; those who exploit them are, in fact, the very landlords that provide their slum housing. So, we must have the courage to lay the blame on those who exploit them and we must stop blaming the immigrants by turning them into scapegoats. Today, we must make families more stable and help the men and women who are in dire need of reassurance and support, as their lives are often in danger, even when they live in exile. We must have the courage, therefore, to blame the traffickers in human beings, those who exploit them, and not the immigrants themselves. Lastly, we have a duty to create a genuine policy for cooperation and dialogue between the north and south, because as long as there is poverty and one-party rule in the south, it is to be expected that these people, as we ourselves have done in our history, will try to reach areas where they are better... (The President cut the speaker off)

Political group: GUE-NGL