In a letter published on Monday 17 June, but sent on 11 June to the President of the Finnish Parliament and several committee chairs, Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, calls for “the draft Act [...] to Combat Instrumentalised Migration” not to be adopted.
Introduced on 21 May, this draft act provides for temporary measures that would allow migrants to be summarily expelled when the authorities believe that the flows are being instrumentalised by a foreign state.
According to the Finnish government, the aim is to counter the pressure exerted on Finland by migration orchestrated from Moscow.
For his part, the Commissioner warns that this text is incompatible with the prohibition of refoulement, which is absolute, and collective expulsion.
He also raises the issue of access to effective remedies.
“It is a fallacy to assume that the relationship between human rights and national security is a zero-sum game”, he insists and says it is necessary, “to ensure that the Finnish authorities do not violate their human rights obligations”.
Michael O’Flaherty is also concerned that this draft act, if passed, would set an important precedent for other countries and for the global asylum system.
Link to the letter from the Commissioner for Human Rights: https://aeur.eu/f/co9 (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)