The next European strategy on the return of irregular migrants should learn from current shortcomings in implementing return decisions and focus on what actually works, using a greater number of quality indicators such as voluntary departures, and inviting Member States to rethink the way they count these ‘returns’ at a time when data collection methods are diverging.
These were some of the conclusions drawn on Tuesday 24 September in Brussels by various researchers and NGOs, as well as by the EU Return Coordinator, Mari Juritsch, at an event organised in the European Parliament by the European Parliament rapporteur, Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA, Dutch).
Before the summer, the President-elect of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced a new future European strategy on returns as part of her political guidelines: this could lead to the withdrawal of the Recast Returns Directive, which was tabled in 2018 but never adopted by the European Parliament.
While a number of Member States are now calling for an entirely new instrument that will account for the latest developments and trends, the Dutch MEP warned against purely restrictive solutions and questioned the added value of return policies.
She is also concerned that the new ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ leaves many questions unanswered on this issue, resulting in a potential weakening of procedural safeguards and greater risks in terms of pushbacks.
In particular, she cited the new border procedure created by the Asylum Procedures Regulation, which will also affect children.
The event was fuelled by the GAPs research project (Decentring the Study of Migrant Returns and Return Policies), which analysed practices in five Member States: Germany, Greece, Poland, Sweden and the Netherlands.
The study concluded that there are major differences in practice between these Member States, but that they also face common challenges: legal inconsistencies and uncertainties surrounding the application of the Returns Directive, as well as concerns about legal safeguards and protection against pushback.
In Germany, where the return rate is very low, decentralising these policies has resulted in a very heterogeneous application of return decisions. In the Netherlands, the study highlights the weakness of legal appeals against return decisions, whereas in Poland, the migrants in question are not provided with sufficient opportunity to challenge the decisions. Furthermore, the fully integrated Swedish system does not offer sufficient protection. Finally, Greece has been criticised for its detention practices.
In their policy recommendations, the authors of the study point out that the detention of migrants for the purpose of return must remain a measure of last resort and is “never in the best interests of a child”.
They call on the EU27 to review their methods and carry out genuine cost/benefit analyses to see whether regularising the status of migrants would not be more beneficial to society than proceeding with returns.
This could also solve the problem of people who cannot be sent back to their own countries and instead remain in the EU illegally. This is “a humanitarian issue that could be addressed as part of future EU initiatives”, say the authors.
There is also a need to better define the concept of ‘returns’ and bring the definition closer in line with human rights standards, as well as ensuring greater transparency in the procedures. Additionally, statistics and objectives assigned to the collected data have to be improved and become more transparent with regard to the costs of return operations.
In 2022, according to Frontex, 73,600 non-EU nationals were returned to a non-EU country. This corresponds to 17% of all return decisions taken during the year, compared with 18% in 2021.
According to the Return Coordinator, however, rates are now tending to increase, and quality criteria are starting to be more fully integrated by Member States.
The Coordinator also suggested that common quality indicators could be an avenue for development as part of the next European strategy on returns.
Link to research project: https://aeur.eu/f/djv (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)