ASAP Transnational Partnership
ASAP (Asylum Seekers Active Partnership) is a partnership of six countries working together to find common routes to assist the integration of asylum seekers in Europe. We came together in Round 2 of EQUAL finding common cause in what we were trying to achieve in our national DPs and what we could achieve together transnationally.
We are :
• Austria (InPower)
• Finland (Becoming More Visible)
• Italy (Integra 2004)
• Lithuania ( In Corpore)
• Poland (MUR)
• Scotland (ATLAS)
Our aim is to optimise the integration of asylum seekers in our countries. We identified five major areas where we felt development needed to happen and these areas became our core workgroups. They are :
• Positive Images Workgroup : to promote the positive portrayal of asylum seekers in our countries and focus on the enriching contribution that asylum seekers make, through sharing good practice activities
• Qualifications Workgroup : to produce guidelines for developing qualifications to build the capacity of those working with asylum seekers across the EU
• Website workgroup: to share information and best practices in working with asylum seekers across the six countries in the partnership
• Empowerment workgroup : to produce materials to support the empowerment of asylum seekers
• Legal and policy workgroup : to collate information on the legal aspects of the asylum system across the six EU countries in the partnership
We also produced on-going information materials which act as progress reports and help to showcase our national as well as our transnational work. Transnational staff exchanges have been a major feature of our partnership, where staff working with asylum seekers in each of the six countries have been encouraged and assisted to visit different countries to observe and learn from the work taking place.
As a large partnership it took us some time to establish ways and procedures to enable us to work productively together but we feel now that we have established a true ‘active partnership’. Our collaboration has produced some innovative results which will be valuable for asylum seekers, those working with them and those making policy. We hope that the products we have created together sharing knowledge, ideas and best practice, will be incorporated into mainstream policies and help the integration of asylum seekers in all member states.
‘This product has been part funded by the ESF under the Equal Community Initiative Programme. The contents do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the European Commission’.
