Brussels, 01/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - EU member states must overcome their security fears and take in innocent detainees still being held in the US Guantanamo Prison Camp, in the south-east of Cuba, Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg has said. “Those 'cleared' detainees who cannot be repatriated and have no wish to stay in the US should be offered an alternative. This is where European governments could make a very important contribution - which might be crucial to facilitating the final closing of the Guantanamo camp,” Hammarberg told EUROPE. At the start of June, following his visit to Washington, the commissioner had sent a letter to all Council of Europe member states calling upon them to follow the example already provided by certain member states and welcome former detainees who have been cleared for release but who need international protection. He told EUROPE that Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland had already announced their willingness to take in former detainees. Alternatives had to be offered to those who could not be repatriated and who did not want to remain in the US. Possible family ties had to be taken seriously into account in this regard. He noted that “Portugal has said it was prepared to accept two or three persons, but that eight wanted to go there, and that, similarly, two Uyghurs want to go to Sweden”. He also made it plain that “the countries that had helped the Bush administration, and in particular those which had backed the war in Iraq, had a specific responsibility”. He concluded on this issue by saying that “we have to accept that there
are security concerns, but there is another side to all of this, and that is human rights. These are traumatised, poor, uneducated people. They are innocent, they have suffered a great deal and, so, have a right to protection”.
Turning then to European immigration policy, Hammarberg pointed out that “the recent decision by Italy to send back boat loads of migrants to Libya is an indication that European immigration policy has broken down”. “We know that, among those pushed back to Libya, there were some people who had a genuine right to asylum. What happened is unacceptable,” he added, stating that “everyone should have the right to submit an asylum request”. Although believing that the countries of the south of Europe should receive greater support, Hammarberg believes that it is more important to encourage them to develop good asylum procedures: this is particularly the case in Greece, he says, where conditions for asylum seekers are very poor. “Migrants will continue to come. We cannot avoid that. So we have to have another approach, one that is not based solely on security, but one that is built more on harmonising procedures”. A happy medium had to be found to respond to those who want to come to Europe and Europe's need for labour. (B.C./transl.rt)