Gianluca Esposito, Director General of Human Rights and the Rule of Law at the Council of Europe, will take part in the round tables on organised crime and migration, held as part of the “Border Security Summit” to be held in London (Lancaster House) on Monday 31 March.
Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister, will open the event, which will be attended by a number of European and non-European ministers as well as the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner.
“Organised by the British government, this event is an opportunity for the Council of Europe to make its voice heard on the issue of the illegal trafficking of migrants”, points out Gianluca Esposito, distinguishing between the two “sides of the coin”: the fight against the networks of traffickers and the defence of the rights of migrants covered by the European Convention on Human Rights.
With regard to the fight against criminal activities, Gianluca Esposito will present a series of concrete tools already implemented by the Council of Europe.
It places particular emphasis on the network of prosecutors from the 46 member states of the Council of Europe who specialise in the fight against this type of trafficking, the ‘Convention on Cybercrime’ (known as the ‘Budapest Convention’ - 76 European and non-European states parties) and its protocol on ‘cloud’ computing, which law enforcement agencies can use as a basis for prosecutions and to gather computer evidence.
These instruments will be supplemented “in the coming months” by a new ‘Recommendation’ from the Committee of Ministers on combating the illegal trafficking of migrants.
“It will be based on the Palermo Protocol drawn up by the United Nations, but will go further”, says Gianluca Esposito.
He announced “a reinforcement of the definition of the crime”, an important element because, for two countries to collaborate, they must agree on this definition and “a reinforcement of the sanctions which must be dissuasive and proportionate”.
Another key point is “the importance of international cooperation”, because it is impossible for any one country to “fight alone” against organised crime.
With regard to the second focus of the Council of Europe’s work, namely the defence of migrants’ rights, Gianluca Esposito emphasised the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, which protects all persons on the territory of a member state, whether or not they are nationals of that state.
In addition, he points out, “we have adopted an action plan on migration focusing on vulnerable people. Launched in 2021, this plan will come to an end this year and we are thinking about the next one. The fight against trafficking and the instrumentalisation of migrants at borders are among the issues we intend to focus on”.
“The aim of the Council of Europe is to deal with the real issues”, he concludes.
For him, the fact that the organisation has 46 Member States offers an advantage of scale.
“The problems we are talking about do not stop at the EU’s borders. Our texts, such as the Convention on Cybercrime, have a broader scope and are also open to third countries, enabling us to broaden international cooperation”. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)