The number of refugees in the whole of Europe was about the same as the number in one camp in Tanzania, the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality and Law Reform has been told.
Mr Dennis McNamara, director of the international protection division of the United Nations Commission for Refugees, told the committee yesterday the "water metaphors" of floods and deluges of refugees had not materialised in Europe. While the numbers had increased due to internal conflicts around the world, they were manageable if a proper system for dealing with them was established in each country.
Ireland was just now devising a system, he said, and he hoped that it would embody "best practice" as established by the UNHCR.
He said "best practice" should include an effective initial application system, based on the rule of law and the upholding of the refugee's rights under the Geneva Convention. There should be the right of appeal, but with a proper system for dealing with initial applications it would not be routinely used.
He said refugees were entitled to the basic necessities of life, and it was important that they should not be discriminated against in terms of entitlement of social welfare and similar rights. "It is inevitable that these will be abused to some extent, and we should work to avoid it. But we should not throw the baby out with the bath-water," he said.
Mr Anne Willem Bijleveld, the director of the European Bureau of the UNHCR, pointed out that "the clock was ticking" towards an integrated EU policy on asylum-seekers under the Treaty of Amsterdam. The UNHCR was anxious to be involved in that debate, and to ensure that such a policy was not reduced to the lowest common denominator in Europe.
"We are worried about `trade offs', where agreement on asylum is traded off against agreement on agriculture, the environment or fisheries," he said. If Ireland developed a system based on "best practice" it could then play an important and constructive role in the debate within Europe on an integrated system.