Strasbourg, 10/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - In a series of 35 recommendations addressed to 47 European governments on Tuesday 10 May, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) reiterated that the fundamental rights of illegal migrants must take priority over the right of the states to control the entry to and residence in their territory for non-nationals.
This right of control is perfectly legitimate, ECRI stresses, but it comes second to the obligations upon these same states to ensure access to education, housing, social security and assistance as well as protection in the workplace and access to justice for any person within their jurisdiction, including illegal migrants.
ECRI therefore calls for a ban on social service providers reporting the personal data of these illegal migrants to the immigration services. The states must create “clear firewalls” to separate the activities of the sectors in question.
“Cases in which doctors are obliged to report migrants suspected of residing illegally should not lead to migrants being denied the right to health”, stressed Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, by way of example.
In another of its recommendations, ECRI argues against immigration control operations in or near schools, healthcare services, housing centres, legal assistance centres, food banks or religious establishments. These places of help should not become places of risk of arrest or expulsion, according to the abstract based largely on a visit by ECRI to Greece, where such scenarios are commonplace.
It is also worth noting that Christian Ahlund, President of ECRI, stressed the need to “show circumspection in order not to encourage intolerance and racism by incriminating the social and humanitarian assistance provided to illegal migrants”. Essentially, creating a “crime of solidarity” and classifying this as a criminal offence is tantamount to placing an obstacle on the exercise of human rights and cannot be condoned by the Council of Europe, to which the European Court of Human Rights is attached. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)