Brussels, 06/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The tendency of the European Union countries and of the EU itself to delegate to the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean the control of illegal migrant flows runs counter to human rights, says the Council of Europe.
On Tuesday, Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, said during a presentation of a study on the “right to leave” that the EU's externalisation of its external border control policies has a damaging effect on human rights - including on the right to leave a country, which is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of other rights (including the right to request asylum).
The right to leave one's territory is written into most big instruments on human rights and aims to bring about the free movement of persons, without unjustified obstacles, Muiznieks says.
Muiznieks challenges practices such as ethnic profiling, sanctions imposed against airlines that do not carry out police activities, confiscation of travel documents, readmission agreements, and the illegal and very problematic practice of refoulement - which consists of intercepting people at sea or at a land border and sending them back to where they came from. The consequences of these measures are especially evident in the Western Balkans, where countries are strongly urged to reduce the number of their nationals who request asylum in the EU, Muiznieks states. (FB/transl.fl)