On Friday 23 April members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) Frontex enquiry group discussed international and maritime law and the rights that should be granted to people who have been subject to so-called ‘pushbacks’, against the backdrop of the March 2016 EU-Turkey agreement, which requires Turkey to curb departures to the EU.
Is an asylum application filed at sea in this context by the migrant valid? MEPs would like more clarification on these aspects.
Several experts were invited, one of them citing the example of Australia, which refuses asylum applications made at sea.
Jorrit Rijpma, professor of European law at Leiden, said he did not know “why a difference should be made between the external land border and the external maritime border”.
There are “safeguards that apply regardless of the zone”, the professor said, referring to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Schengen Code and the Asylum Procedures Directive, which “clearly states that it is possible to lodge an asylum application at the EU’s external border; I don’t see why there should be a difference”. The denial of rights of appeal to these ‘pushed-back’ persons therefore raises issues of legality.
He also deplored the lack of transparency of Frontex in general and the fact that it makes insufficient use of incident reporting mechanisms. There are “reporting obligations, but it's not working”, the professor said, wondering whether the legislator had not gone too fast in entrusting the Agency with new tasks, forgetting the fundamental rights aspect.
A representative of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Andras Lederer, also expressed concern about the lack of transparency, saying it was “shameful” that Frontex was able to “take journalists to court for just asking questions”.
A future hearing will be devoted to journalists who have revealed several cases. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)