Germany’s ruling conservative CDU/CSU parties are trying to push the EU to provide asylum for tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees–including many Christians and members of other religious minorities–who fled religious persecution in their homeland and are now stranded in neighboring countries such as Syria and Jordan. This Thursday, all 27 EU interior ministers are scheduled to meet in Luxembourg, where German CDU minister Wolfgang Schaeuble will make the case for why Europe can and should do more to help the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees (which refers primarily to Iraqi Christians as well as Yazidis and Sabian Mandaeans). At an EU meeting in mid-April, the interior minister of Slovenia–which holds the rotating EU presidency during the first half of 2008–had rejected the Schaeuble initiative because of its alleged pro-Christian bias. In fact, Slovenia’s press release announcing the upcoming June 5 ministerial meeting does not even make a reference to the Iraqi refugee crisis (in contrast, it highlights virtually all the other topics that will be on the agenda). For conservative Berlin insiders the situation is quite clear. Slovenia, the first of the recently admitted member states to assume the EU presidency, is trying to play it safe by staying clear of a politically sensitive and controversial issue like the Iraq refugees. Germany now hopes that an EU-wide solution will be found after France takes over the EU presidency in July. Just a few days ago, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner announced that France will provide asylum to about 500 Iraqi refugees, primarily Chaldean Catholics. Admitting several hundred persecuted Iraqis is an important step in the right direction. But more needs to be done. It is encouraging that French President Sarkozy has made immigration and border security issues a top priority of France’s EU presidency. In particular, Sarkozy wants the 27 EU members to agree on a joint “European immigration pact” that would strengthen the bloc’s external border controls and make it easier to expel those illegal aliens (i.e., economic refugees) already inside the Union. At the same time, though, Paris has demonstrated that it wants to keep the door open for those refugees that are really persecuted for religious or political reasons (like the Iraqi Christians). One can only hope that Berlin and Paris can convince their fellow EU members to do their fair share in alleviating the suffering of Iraq’s refugees (Sweden is a notable exception in this regard). Last Wednesday, Erika Steinbach, the CDU/CSU Bundestag group’s spokeswoman on human rights, declared that Germany would go ahead on its own and admit thousands of Iraqi refugees if the EU fails to agree on common approach by the time of a key EU ministerial meeting in Paris in September.
