The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has denounced the insufficient guarantees that penalise nationals of non-EU countries sent back in aircraft from Italy and Spain.
Two CPT reports adopted on Thursday 15 December involve two flights supervised by the CPT. One took place on 17 December 2015 to Lagos (Nigeria) from Rome and the other occurred on 18 February 2016 from Madrid to Bogotá (Colombia) and San Domingo
No physical mistreatment was denounced and according to the CPT, the staff escorting the foreign nationals listened to the latter even though the CPT expressed misgivings about the practices adopted by the Italian and Spanish.
One of the shortcomings involves the fact that the individuals involved were not warned about their removal until the day of their departure, which effectively denied them access to a lawyer, in addition to the absence of a medical examination before take-off (an incident did occur on the flight from Madrid in this connection). The CPT also recommends better communication between the courts and the law enforcement agencies in charge of applying the removal procedure because it appears that on the Rome to Lagos flight, a Nigerian citizen had been forced to leave although his appeal against the rejection of his request for asylum was still being treated.
The CPT also raises the issue of the working conditions of the escort personnel and recommends measures to avoid exhaustion at work and the introduction of training with regard to the psychological aspects of the missions carried out.
The two reports also call for the development of harmonised Community standards on containment methods because it has been observed that the methods used by the Italian and Spanish escort personnel differ, including those used during joint removal operations.
The CPT also advocates implementation of an efficient mechanism for processing complaints submitted against the Frontex Agency escort personnel, which, since October 2016, has become the European Border and Coast Guard (see EUROPE 11640). (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)