On Tuesday 31 August, the EU Ministers of Home Affairs and Schengen associated countries will try to combine humanitarian obligations for Afghans fleeing their country with security requirements at the EU’s external borders and within the EU.
The latest draft declaration, dated 30 August and discussed the same day by the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU, thus continued to prioritise assistance to Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries, particularly in receiving people fleeing the country and seeking asylum.
It also referred to offers of resettlement to the EU that the bloc could eventually make to refugees sheltered in countries in the region, but did not include quantified reception commitments. The resettlement of Afghan refugees in the EU is one of the sensitive subjects of this declaration, as a number of countries do not wish to commit themselves at this stage with quantified promises when no major migratory flows have yet been observed.
On 30 August, the Commission, for its part, recalled that the budget of 300 million euros that the EU has available over the years 2021-2022 for 30,000 resettlement places was not specifically for Afghanistan, but corresponded to the global commitments made by the EU to receive refugees sheltered in various regions of the world.
The text thus remains rather timid on the issue of asylum, with the EU Council only recognising “the need to support and provide adequate protection to those in need, in accordance with EU law and our international obligations” and to bring closer Member States’ practices in the reception and processing of Afghan asylum seekers. This work could be requested from the European Asylum Support Office, a source suggested on 27 August.
The declaration submitted to the ministers, however, recalls the need for the EU and its agencies, such as Frontex, to remain vigilant on irregular arrivals and on the checks on people coming to the EU, which must be properly verified in the European databases.
While the priority for the EU remains to help the countries in the region and the people on the ground, Member States also want to be prepared for all scenarios, such as irregular arrivals, similar to the movements in 2015. However, the latest version no longer mentions these events of 2015, but refers to “lessons learned”.
“Based on lessons learned, the EU and its Member States stand determined to act jointly to prevent the recurrence of uncontrolled large-scale illegal migration movements faced in the past, by preparing a coordinated and orderly response. Incentives to illegal immigration must be avoided”, underlines the latest version seen by EUROPE.
“Targeted information campaigns should be launched to combat the narratives used by smugglers, including in the on-line environment, which encourage people to embark on dangerous and illegal journeys towards Europe”, the text adds.
The statement also focuses on the security threat. “The EU and its Member States will do their utmost to ensure that the situation in Afghanistan does not lead to new threats for EU citizens”, the draft states, adding that Member States will be able to make use of the readmission agreements they have concluded with transit countries through which Afghans may arrive.
The text also refers to the instrumentalisation of migration, as is the case with Belarus. “The EU will respond to attempts to instrumentalise illegal migration for political purposes, including by developing new tools”.
Link to the project: https://bit.ly/2WuKG5Z
Call by Ms Mijatović not to erode the system of protection system in Europe
In a statement issued on Monday, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, called on the 47 member countries of the international organisation - many of which “were active in Afghanistan over the last twenty years” - to welcome Afghans seeking protection in accordance with recognised and established human rights standards and not to seize this as “an opportunity to further erode the system of protection in Europe”.
“This would only exacerbate the true crisis that Europe is currently facing in relation to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants: a human rights crisis”, Ms Mijatović added. States have the capacity to host refugees “individually and collectively” she added.
See the statement: https://bit.ly/2XZCdrC (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Véronique Leblanc)