WRITTEN QUESTION E-2373/01 by Olivier Dupuis (TDI) to the Commission. Extraordinary operation to receive Chechen refugees living in inhuman conditions in both Chechnya and Ingushetia.
Date: 2001-08-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Caucasus countries, ECHO, Germany, Russia, aid to refugees, human rights, political asylum, refugee

C 115 E/66

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

16.5.2002

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(17 October 2001)

It should be noted that the fact of charging traders a commission on payment card purchases does not in
itself constitute a restriction of competition.

The charges levied on traders are negotiated with the payment-card operators (banks or credit card
companies) with reference to the existing business climate. The Commission does not have access to such
data or any related information.

The situation referred to by the Honourable Member is currently being examined from a competition law
perspective by the body responsible for competition in the banking sector, namely the Bank of Italy.

(2002/C 115 E/070)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2373/01

by Olivier Dupuis (TDI) to the Commission

(8 August 2001)

Subject: Extraordinary operation to receive Chechen refugees living in inhuman conditions in both

Chechnya and Ingushetia

In the wake of a recent decision by the German authorities on Chechen refugees requesting political
asylum in Germany, all refugees who have been refused asylum-seeker status are to be deported to their
country of origin. That decision follows a statement by the German Minister for the Interior considering
fears of reprisals by Russian military and paramilitary forces against deportees to be unfounded.
Consequently, the repatriation of people seeking political asylum is no longer to be deemed an anti-
humanitarian act.

Nevertheless, numerous reports from Chechnya point to an extremely worrying humanitarian situation
with a growing shortage of supplies and drugs, a lack of hospitals and outbreaks of epidemics. Even more
seriously, a number of reports by the media and by NGOs speak of systematic and extremely severe acts of
violence committed by Russian occupation forces, both military and paramilitary, and in particular the
constant harassment of civilians living in the area, a large number of summary executions, widespread use
of torture and abduction of civilians, including for purposes of extortion.

Can the Commission provide information on the number of Chechens granted refugee status in each of
the 15 EU member countries? Does the Commission not believe that,
the tragic
humanitarian situation in Chechnya, the Union should launch an extraordinary operation 2 along the
lines of the action taken for Bosnia 2 to receive all Chechen refugees living in inhuman conditions in both
Chechnya and Ingushetia, who would be distributed fairly among the 15 Member States?

in the face of

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(22 October 2001)

The asylum statistics made available to the Commission indicate only nationality without specifying ethnic
origin.

Russians were not listed among the top 10 nationalities requesting asylum in EU Member States in 1999,
whilst in 2000 they were ranked eighth. Neither in 1999 nor 2000 were they among the top 10
nationalities to receive a favourable response to their applications for international protection. In the first
quarter of 2001,
incomplete data showed that Russians were the seventh largest national group of
applicants for asylum in the European Union.

16.5.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 115 E/67

EU Member States are bound by international agreements on asylum, particularly the 1951 Geneva
Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the status of refugees and the European Convention on
Human Rights. At the Tampere European Council of 15 and 16 October 1999 they also gave political
undertakings to implement new European asylum provisions. Since spring 1999, the Commission has
submitted a series of initiatives to the Council and to Parliament to put these undertakings and provisions
is up to
into practice by introducing Community legislation. Until such legislation is adopted,
Member States to determine asylum status in accordance with policy whilst also complying with existing
Community legislation. On 20 July 2001,
the Council adopted Directive 2001/55/EC on minimum
standards for giving temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons and on
measures promoting a balance of efforts between Member States in receiving such persons and bearing the
consequences thereof (1). The directive must be transposed into the national legislation of the Member States
by the end of December 2002.

it

The present circumstances do not justify an extraordinary EU operation to receive refugees. This is not to
say that persons of Chechen origin do not have valid individual reasons why they should receive
international protection in Member States
In these
circumstances, persons denied international protection in a Member State must have access to the means
to challenge such decisions or to substantiate claims that forced repatriation would put their lives at risk or
would not be practicable.

in accordance with international obligations.

The Commission has systematically made its concerns clear to its Russian interlocutors, at all including the
highest levels, both on the humanitarian situation in the Northern Caucasus in general and on the
operating conditions for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in particular. The European Community,
through the Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), is by far the largest donor of humanitarian aid
to the civilians affected by the war in Chechnya. To date, the total ECHO contribution to the international
relief effort in the Northern Caucasus is € 44 million. The aim is to meet the basic humanitarian needs of
displaced persons and the most vulnerable elements of the population in Chechnya, as well as in
neighbouring republics, particularly Ingushetia and Dagestan where there are up to 170 000 displaced
civilians from Chechnya. This aid concentrates in particular on food and food security, medical care, relief
items, shelter and water sanitation.

(1) OJ L 212, 7.8.2001.

(2002/C 115 E/071)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2375/01

by Olivier Dupuis (TDI) to the Commission

(8 August 2001)

Subject: The situation in North Korea

Recent reports published by the media based on first-hand experience by North Korean refugees, who have
found asylum on the premises of the UN Commission for Refugees in Beijing, confirm the picture of
disaster-stricken country which has already emerged from all reports devoted to the situation in North
Korea, not least that produced by the Committee for Refugees of the US Congress. More than 10 % of the
population are said to have been killed by the famine, which has lasted since the mid-nineties, and the
number is constantly growing. One of the refugees in Beijing, referring to the humanitarian aid given to
the regime of Kim Yong Il, said that the products are certainly not distributed to the population. It
therefore emerges both from first-hand accounts and from other sources that there is not the slightest sign
of any change of direction on the part of Kim Yong Il’s regime in the last year, during which various
Member States of the Union have launched a policy of ‘normalisation’ towards the Pyongyang government,
endorsed by the EU with the visit by the Troika (Persson, Solana and Patten).

Are there any independent sources that the Commission can ask to ascertain what happens to the aid
provided by the Union? If it emerges that the aid is systematically diverted by the regime of Kim Yong Il,
will the Commission renegotiate the conditions for humanitarian aid granted to North Korea, making it