Brussels, 14/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Monday 14 March, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein criticised the European Union's reputation-damaging message of sending to Turkey any immigrant who has arrived without papers in Greece in exchange for resettling in Europe people who can claim international protection.
“Europe really can solve this problem. Not beyond its capacity,” said Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on his first visit to Brussels since his appointment in September 2014, talking about the mass influx of refugees, saying it was a question of values against the interests of a narrow agenda. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein met EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz.
The Jordanian prince criticised the barbed wire closures of national borders along the Balkans migration route which are supposed to restore order but “what we see from pictures rather is a humanitarian crisis. The EU has no message other than 'Go away!'”
In a statement adopted at the end of the last EU-Turkey Summit, European leaders said on Monday 7 March that irregular flows of immigrants along the Western Balkans route had now ended (see EUROPE 11506). “Don't come to Europe. Don't believe traffickers. Don't risk your lives and your money,” said the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, two days beforehand in Athens during a tour of capitals along the Balkans route.
Under the draft agreement reached by the EU with Turkey, the EU would pledge to increase its financing for Turkey to deal with the refugee crisis and would promise to resettle in Europe one Syrian refugee from Turkey for each refugee sent to Turkey from Greece, on a one-for-one basis.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the cases of asylum-seekers had to be considered on an individual basis. “We certainly don't want to see blanket returns,” he added, pointing out that 90% of the refugees requesting asylum had fled war in their country, and 40% of them were girls.
Asked about the fact that Turkey has partially ratified the Geneva Convention on the status of refugees by giving geographical limits to its application, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recognised that this was clearly “At odds with EU law,” namely Directive 2013/32 on common procedures for the granting and withdrawing of international protection, which would authorise the sending of refugees from Greece to Turkey without a full assessment of their asylum request if Turkey is considered a safe third country, which would be possible if it fully ratified the Geneva Convention.
A European Court of Justice advocate general issued an opinion in early March on a slightly similar case on which the Court will issue its formal ruling on Thursday, the day of a new European Summit on the refugee crisis (see related article).
Poland. Alongside severe criticisms of Hungary's attitude to refugees, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein agreed with the recent opinion from the Council of Europe's 'Venice Commission' that the Polish law restricting the powers of the country's constitutional court jeopardises the rule of law in Poland (see EUROPE 11510). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)