Photo credit: Human Rights watch
The European Commission’s proposal for a new “Returns Regulation” for undocumented migrants, announced on March 11, is both cruel and unrealistic, according to Human Rights Watch.
It would mean longer detention, harsher treatment, and fewer rights for people, without any meaningful promise of more repatriations. It also signals the European Union’s deepening obsession with off-loading its migration responsibilities, no matter the cost to human beings or the EU’s stated values.
The draft regulation would allow for the detention of unaccompanied children and families with children, as well as single adults, for as long as two years while awaiting deportation. Some adults could be held even longer. The list of reasons for detention is so broad that it could justify massive incarceration. Indeed, the draft allows member states to deviate from basic guarantees around detention if systems face a vaguely defined “unforeseen heavy burden”.
There is lip service to alternatives to detention, but measures proposed such as electronic tagging are invasive and do not take into account established good practices that ensure compliance while respecting rights.
Also, after someone receives a removal order, it would become easier for governments to deny free legal aid and make it harder to suspend litigation during appeal.
Then there’s the much-discussed “return hubs.” The proposed regulation greenlights sending people to countries they have absolutely no connection with, presumably to be detained there instead of on EU territory, for an unspecified period and in uncertain conditions. It would move people out of sight without creating conditions for safe and sustainable returns.
The European Commission’s proposal is based on the flawed [remise that the EU doesn’t repatriate enough people because migrants are uncooperative when in reality a principal obstacle is uncooperative countries of origin. Locking people up for years, in the EU or elsewhere, will not resolve that.
The European Parliament should oppose this proposal and the commission’s and member states’ attempt to dilute and subvert EU standards.
Source: Human Rights Watch
