The European Commission on Tuesday 27 April called on Frontex to carry out more so-called ‘voluntary’ return operations and to train its staff more for this purpose, in a new ‘Strategy on the voluntary return and reintegration of irregular migrants’.
This is the first ‘strategy’ on the ‘voluntary’ aspects of returns, which only relies, besides Frontex, on the networks of return counsellors (to persuade migrants who cannot stay in the EU) and on better use of existing EU funds, e.g. for support for returns to third countries and for specific programmes.
The Commission also reiterates in its 20-page communication that it will soon appoint a returns coordinator within DG HOME who will have the task of assisting Member States when, on average, only 1/3 of return decisions are enforced and, within this third, another third represents voluntary departures.
Admitting that “the EU is not doing very well” in enforcing return decisions, even when forced, Vice-President Margarítis Schinás and Commissioner Ylva Johansson recalled that return policy was a fundamental component of the new ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ and that improving return rates in the EU would depend largely on the success of some of its texts, such as those on pre-arrival checks, or on new asylum procedures at the border, which more quickly connect the rejection of the asylum application and the return decision.
Dialogue and cooperation with third countries is another component.
Frontex, which has already been called upon to provide more assistance to the Member States in various tasks at the external borders and in forced return flights, will now also have to develop support for voluntary return as part of its mandate.
It is therefore expected to urgently appoint a deputy director for return operations and to be able, by mid-2022, to take over the tasks previously carried out by the European Return and Reintegration Network.
The Commission will set up a joint training programme with Frontex for return counsellors, which will include teaching components on all aspects of return policy and practice. “Frontex will support Member States by deploying return experts who have been trained in return counselling as part of the permanent contingent”, the Commission explains.
Greater use will also be made of the online Reintegration Assistance Tool (RIAT), which allows return counsellors to transmit individual cases to service providers in partner countries and to exchange useful information on return and reintegration (reintegration needs and plans).
With Frontex’s support, the Commission will also promote the interoperability of tools such as RIAT and the Return and Reintegration Assistance Inventory with national return case management systems.
A quality framework for reintegration service providers will also be developed to harmonise the quality of follow-up.
The Commission also wants to continue and strengthen the action to support voluntary returns to third countries, with Ylva Johansson saying that the EU has already helped thousands of people to leave Libya and return to their country of origin. The EU, together with IOM and UNHCR, has helped a total of 100,000 people in Libya, Niger and other African countries to return voluntarily to their countries of origin.
This communication was presented in a context of dissatisfaction with the Frontex agency, which is under investigation by the European Parliament and OLAF. But as these investigations are ongoing, Frontex “does not have to suspend its activities” and will soon be strengthened in terms of fundamental rights with new officials in charge of these issues, the commissioner said.
Link to the communication: https://bit.ly/3eDC7dQ (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)