Ahead of today’s European Commissioner hearings, Amnesty International is calling on Commissioner-designates for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Šuica, and for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, to urgently reject calls to offshore asylum and returns and firmly uphold a rights-based asylum and migration policy in Europe.
“As the EU’s disregard for human rights in its migration partnerships continues to escalate, this is an urgent call on the commissioner-designates to bring the EU back from the brink,” said Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.
“In the past, the European Commission rejected offshoring schemes presented by member states. It is disturbing that now it seems intent on advancing its own proposals that are incompatible with human rights and international law.
“Commissioner-designates should not be distracted by inhumane, unworkable and unsustainable proposals. They should put their efforts into improving the recently agreed reforms, investing in sustainable and well-functioning asylum systems, and ensuring states’ compliance with EU law.”
Background
On 17 October, the European Council discussed ‘new ways to prevent and counter irregular migration’. EU leaders endorsed a series of ill-conceived proposals to externalize or offshore the EU’s asylum and return procedures to outside its territory.
While ‘return hubs’, ‘offshore asylum processing’ and other attempts to send or detain people outside of the EU are now being presented by the European Commission as ‘innovative’, they often involve a rehashing of previously discarded or tried-and-failed proposals. A global body of research shows that every time such schemes have been attempted, they have resulted in arbitrary detention, refoulement, and other rights violations.
EU member states and the European Commission should uphold their legal obligations, invest in sustainable, humane and well-functioning asylum systems, and prioritize a human rights compliant implementation of the Pact on Migration and Asylum.