The European Commission briefed members of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) on Tuesday 27 October on agreements on the readmission and reintegration of illegal immigrants in third countries of origin and transit.
The Commission, as announced in the Pact on Asylum and Migration, will in 2021 present a strategy on the return and reintegration of migrants to their countries of origin, and has stressed to MEPs the importance of encouraging voluntary return and respect for the rights of those concerned.
In the end, the Commission presented a mixed picture, with return rates remaining low (less than 40%) and no negotiations on new readmission agreements having been possible this year with Tunisia, Morocco, China and Algeria because of the pandemic. However, Commissioner Ylva Johansson has plans to visit Morocco soon.
In 2020, very few returns could be made because of Covid-19, with the exception of a few operations to Georgia or Albania.
Monique Pariat, Director General of DG HOME, spoke of progress and even successes with Afghanistan, which has had a common mechanism on returns and readmission for a few years now, extended until the end of 2020. The Commission expects this scheme to be renewed in 2021.
The same applies to Pakistan, which currently has a pilot project with a few Member States that “will be extended to all Member States” and soon will be the case for Bangladesh, with which the Commission will shortly set up a mutual electronic system that organises these returns and readmissions as it does with Pakistan.
In total, the EU has around 20 such agreements or arrangements and the new regulation on asylum and migration management now provides for easier use of the visa policy lever to make these agreements and return policies work, the Commission representative said.
On the European Parliament side, this is obviously another observation made by some of the groups, concerned about the latest revelations regarding the Frontex agency, which is of concern to them on the matter of respect for migrants' rights.
Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA, Netherlands), who is responsible for the report on the Returns directive, which sets out legal safeguards for return operations, wondered why the amended 2018 directive allows for forced returns in all cases “when the Commission tells us that it wants to favour voluntary returns”.
Irish GUE/NGL MEP Clare Daly expressed concern that the Commission wants to maintain ‘return rates’ whereas it is necessary to do this on a case-by-case basis, especially when it comes to returns to countries with human rights problems. She also requested that the Commission take seriously the allegations made against Frontex. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)