Brussels, 05/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - After three years of difficult negotiation, the home affairs ministers of he 27 member states of the European Union, meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday 5 June, backed a much challenged draft directive setting common rules for returning illegal immigrants to their countries of origin. The draft still has to be approved, on 18 June, by the European Parliament for it to be definitively adopted. On Wednesday 4 June, the representatives of the member states reached agreement on the proposed directive, thereby making easier the task of ministers, who merely had a general discussion on the text (see EUROPE 9675). The new arrangements will form part of the “pact for immigration” prepared by France, which will assume the rotating Presidency of the EU on 1 July. The European Commission estimates that there are eight million illegal immigrants in the EU, many of whom came in on a tourist visa and decided not to leave. Over 200,000 illegal immigrants were arrested in the EU in the first half of 2007, but fewer than 90,000 were expelled.
The aim of these new coercive measures is to encourage illegal immigrants to return home voluntarily and discourage new arrivals, said Slovenian Home Affairs Minister Dragutin Mate at a press conference. The EU has decided, then, on a maximum term of six months' detention for illegal immigrants before they are returned to their home countries. Under certain circumstances, this could be extended by 12 months, e.g. if the immigrant's country of origin does not cooperate and he/she refuses to agree to be repatriated or refuses to board the aeroplane taking him/her back to his/her country. Member states will be able to keep terms of detention of less than 18 months. France, for example, will be able to keep its maximum detention period at 32 days. Only the eight countries where the term of detention is more than 18 months or which do not have any set rules will have to amend their legislation. NGOs believe, however, that the directive could encourage member states to settle on the maximum term provided for under the terms of the agreement.
The text also forbids illegal immigrants who have been returned to their home countries from re-entering the EU within five years, and allows for children to be detained, though for as short a time as possible. Children are also affected by these measures and European Immigration Commissioner Jacques Barrot has called on member states to be very attentive to children's rights. During the informal negotiations that preceded the agreement, MEPs won the right for those facing expulsion to be granted free legal assistance and to be able to appeal against the expulsion decision. Germany and several other member states wanted to make this assistance optional. Once the directive has been published in the Official Journal, states will have 24 months to fall into line with its arrangements; the directive, then, could come into force in 2010. States will have a further year to comply with arrangements on free legal aid. The Commission also reiterated its commitment to provide, through the European returns fund, financial assistance to member states which would have difficulty in bearing the costs attached to legal aid for illegal immigrants.
The ball is now very much in the MEPs' court. Human rights organisations have already called on the Parliament to reject the proposal at its plenary session in Strasbourg on 16-19 June. The EPP-ED Group, along with the ALDE and UEN Groups, support the proposal. The PES Group, however, which has tabled a number of amendments, the Ecologists and the Communists are currently opposed to the present version of the text. The Parliament civil liberties committee will meet on Monday 9 June to debate and vote on the text. On the initiative of the rapporteur Manfred Weber (EPP-ED, Germany), the competent committee will be called on to recommend to the European Parliament that it should vote on the text as a whole, in order to avoid fragmentation of the compromise. Any alteration to the proposal by MEPS would mean further negotiations among member states, possibly lasting several months. “That would be a disaster. We would have to begin again from scratch and it could take three years” to reach agreement once again, warned Mate. “I believe the Parliament will vote in favour of this acceptable compromise on first reading,” he added. Barrot felt that the directive must not be “caricatured”, because it provided a “definite step forward” insofar as it provides a better framework for detention. He also announced that he would visit detention centres personally to see how member states intended to discharge the new measures. (B.C.)