Since February 2003, plans by the British government to deport asylum seekers arriving in the UK to new ‘Regional Processing Areas’ (RPAs) and ‘Transit Processing Centres’ (TPCs) have gradually leaked to the public. While the former are to be located in the source region of the refugee crisis and purport to be a contribution to strengthening reception capacities there, the latter are closer to the external borders of the European Union and represent a deterrent for unwanted migration, and a serious challenge to the institution of asylum as we know it.
It is no exaggeration to state that it could very well mean the end of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Essentially, the British, Danish and other supportive governments, are intentionally and proactively seeking to create a permanent state of exception in the international refugee regime, in which the legal and factual protection of certain classes of individuals are gradually done away with, allowing resettlement to take place at the discretion of states.
While the decision by the EU summit at Thessaloniki in June 2003 not to place proposals for Transit Processing Centres on their agenda is a welcome sign of common sense, the merits of Regional Processing Areas or Protection Zones (PZs) will be explored further. The UK has made it clear that if necessary, it is prepared to pursue its reform agenda on its own, or in cooperation with a few like-minded states, and hopes to launch a Transit Processing Centre as a pilot project in the near future.
