The EU’s interior ministers met in Brussels on Thursday 5 March for a ‘Justice and Home Affairs’ Council dominated by migration issues, under the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU. While the final preparations for the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ are well underway, the strategy for the return of irregular migrants is still struggling to take shape.
Returns. The 11th Schengen barometer focuses on increasing the return of irregular migrants. With the rate of return enforcement levelling off at around 20%, impatience is growing among the EU27.
This is reflected in the growing number of initiatives concerning ‘return centres’ outside the EU, which are also the subject of tense negotiations in the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13821/7). In January, Germany announced that it had formed a working group with the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Greece to make progress on these solutions they called “innovative” (see EUROPE 13792/16). On his arrival at the EU Council on Thursday, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner confirmed that the group would meet the same day to discuss a timetable.
The lack of more concrete announcements suggests that the project will make little headway, especially as some adjustments have already been made behind the scenes.
According to a diplomatic source, the Netherlands recently suspended negotiations with Uganda on the centres due to concerns about human rights violations in the country, particularly towards the LGBTI+ community. Despite this setback, the Dutch government remains determined to enter into external agreements to set up return centres, although no other country has yet been considered.
While voluntary returns remain the EU’s priority, Sweden’s Minister for Integration and Migration, Johan Forssell, believes that the material incentives put forward by certain countries are already “very generous” and deplores the “lack of consequences” for those who choose not to leave the Schengen area.
At the EU Council, Sweden put forward an initiative aimed at clarifying the 1951 Convention on Refugees and making sexual crimes grounds for expulsion. Mr Forssell condemned a number of court rulings blocking removals on the grounds that the crimes were not considered serious enough despite rape convictions, a situation he described as “outrageous”.
Pact on Migration and Asylum. With three months to go before it comes into force, the implementation of the Pact on Migration and Asylum is also a priority. The formal adoption by the EU Council on 23 February of the texts on ‘safe countries of origin’ and ‘safe third countries’ (see EUROPE 13814/34) also strengthened the foundations of this legislation. In this context, Magnus Brunner, Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs, stressed the importance of the full deployment of Eurodac and the ‘entry-exit’ system (EES), the operational cornerstones of the Pact.
A few weeks after the Commission presented its first comprehensive strategy on visas (see EUROPE 13797/10), which aims to strengthen European “migration diplomacy” by using visas as a lever for cooperation, the ministers also agreed on the need to establish partnerships with Lebanon and Libya on migration issues, once reforms have been put in place to ensure the stability of their territories. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)