On Thursday 13 November, the Danish Presidency of the EU Council will continue the discussions it began in July at the informal ministerial meeting on Home Affairs on “places of safety” in third countries for migrants rescued at sea (see EUROPE 13685/1).
While this idea was already raised in 2018 via a project disembarkation platform project in North African countries in particular, the Presidency wants to relaunch “innovative” solutions to combat irregular migration.
The “places of safety” arrangements would be based on close cooperation with key third countries, and could already begin to take shape via “pilot projects”, according to a note.
This approach would also prevent the loss of human life, as 32,872 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea since 2014.
Maritime operations. “This solution entails maritime operations to detect, intercept or in cases of distress, rescue refugees and migrants in sea areas under the legitimate control of a coastal state outside the EU, in line with international maritime law. To the extent possible, irregular migrants and refugees would be brought to a predetermined place of safety in a port of a coastal state outside the EU”.
As in the past, “a mechanism would have to be established for the temporary reception and screening of the persons disembarked in the coastal state”.
In order to “reduce the burden on the coastal state and limit the stay of the disembarked migrants after disembarkation, the model could also entail that another partner country outside the EU could process the asylum seekers or migrant’s case further after receiving them. Likewise, the coastal State could carry out returns for those who do not apply for asylum, either to their country of origin or to third countries with which it has agreements”.
In all cases, the system should comply with the applicable legal standards, in particular the principle of non-refoulement, like any agreement between third countries.
However, Copenhagen also recognises that the implementation of the ‘place of safety’ mechanism, as well as other new and innovative solutions, “relies heavily on the willingness of key third countries to engage in such approaches and, when this is the case, on their cooperation and partnerships”.
Developing global partnerships. New global partnerships could therefore take into account the capacity requirements for operationalising such models. “Key third countries can reasonably be expected to require financial burden sharing. Cooperation on complementary pathways to the EU, such as labour mobility for citizens of the partner country and resettlement for other groups of refugees staying in the partner country, could also be considered”.
Copenhagen is also thinking about the reputation of EU countries and considers it “necessary to ensure the right communication strategy (...), in particular in order to prevent anti-European sentiments, of which there have been recent examples in relation to third countries’ migration cooperation with the EU”.
International organisations such as the UNHCR and the IOM should play an essential role in all cases. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)