EU Told to Avoid 'war' on Asylum Seekers

European Union leaders were warned yesterday to step back from declaring "all out war" on illegal immigration and to reaffirm their commitment to asylum and human rights.

With immigration propelled to the top of the European agenda, Amnesty International said it was vital to avoid pandering to populist prejudices as governments respond to rising support for rightwing parties.

Tony Blair and the Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, have pledged that next week's Seville summit will provide concrete solutions to illegal immigration.

EU interior ministers, including Britain's home secretary, David Blunkett, meet in Luxembourg today to seek agreement on tighter border controls.

Plans are being considered for new Europe-wide policies which it is hoped will overcome difficulties such as those between Britain and France, who are at loggerheads over the Sangatte camp.

But Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, was last night blocking adoption of a new convention which could mean thousands of asylum seekers elsewhere in the EU being returned to Italy, an easy and popular entry point into western Europe.

"Talk of sending warships into the Mediterranean and threats of cutting aid to countries found uncooperative in taking people back, unrealistic or unlawful as such moves may be, set a climate in which people's fears are confirmed," Amnesty said. "Any sense of balancing objectives of security and immigration control with human rights and protection obligations appears to have been lost altogether."

Romano Prodi, president of the European commission, also sounded a note of caution, telling governments to take care not to undermine democratic principles and retreat into nationalism.

"Recent political signals we have received are very clear," he told the European parliament. "We cannot allow the question of security to take a back seat. Nor can we go back and retrench on nationalistic positions. This is not going to help us rise to transnational challenges."

Chris Patten, the EU's external relations commissioner, was said to be concerned about plans to make aid to third countries conditional on cooperation with migrant returns when financial assis tance was needed to help stem emigration.

Sarah Ludford, the Liberal Democrat MEP, warned: "Far from promoting the greater security Europe needs, the illiberal Blair-Aznar-Berlusconi trio risks creating greater threats for European citizens with their hysterical, populist and macho responses to challenges such as immigration and asylum."

Britain and Spain are expected to take the lead at today's talks, focusing on joint border patrols, training programmes for border guards and better information-sharing on people traffickers.

But member states are split over how far to go in joint reinforcement of the EU's external borders, an issue linked closely to national sovereignty and on which Britain has an opt-out.

Illustrating the human issues at stake, Spanish police yesterday began rounding up immigrants in Seville in advance of the summit.

Immigrant support groups reported that 50 people alleged not to be carrying the correct documents had been picked up and placed in "cramped" police cells - some as they were preparing to join a sit-in at the city's Pablo de Olavide University.

Mr Aznar has called on fellow EU leaders to "drop the mask of hypocrisy" concerning illegal immigration.

"Those who don't have a job should go home," Spain's secretary of state for immigration, Enrique Fernandez-Miranda, said when asked about the unemployed immigrants in Seville.

The demand for tough restrictions is seen as a response to strong electoral showings for anti-immigration candidates in France, the Netherlands and Denmark. The parties likely to form the next Dutch government were reported yesterday to be planning a crackdown when they enter office

Net immigration into the EU - whose total population is 375 million - in 2000, the most recent year for figures available, was 680,000 people. But the number of refugees seeking asylum dropped to 384,530 in 2001 from 675,460 in 1992.

"In the current climate of fear and suspicion, the balance seems to be swinging even further to the point where human rights and in particular the right to asylum may be sacrificed for the sake of the further fortification of Europe," Amnesty said.