European Parliament gives the green light to Deportation Regulation: what’s at stake in the final stages of negotiations
On Monday 9th of March, the LIBE Committee in the European Parliament voted on a far-right compromise on the Return Regulation, or – better said – the Deportation Regulation, green lighting the Parliament’s mandate to enter inter-institutional negotiations with the Council. As ActionAid, together with over 200 civil society organizations we have called since the beginning for a total rejection of this proposal, which puts forwards extremely coercive, rights-violating and racist measures. Now this call is more urgent than ever, as negotiations are hastily approaching the final stages.
Violations and abuse as the new norm
The compromise text agreed upon by the European Parliament, reflecting a majority of right wing and far right groups in the LIBE Committee, includes alarming provisions, and worsening the already concerning proposal by the European Commission. The article on return hubs is maintained and expanded to allow for the EU, not just Member States, to sign agreements or arrangements with third countries, while diluting the extremely limited safeguards present in the Commission proposal and allowing the deportation of families with minors to return hubs. The expansion of the definition of ‘countries of return’ is maintained, opening for the possibility to deport people to countries they have zero ties with and have never been before. No amounts of safeguards could make these models safe as they aim at governing migrant bodies through detention, exclusion and the use of grey legal spaces, outside the jurisdiction of the EU and hence without any democratic scrutiny and accountability. Other models like the offshore centers in Albania, albeit presenting some differences, have already shown their true nature: systematic violations of rights, radical opacity, generalised detention, and frequent acts of self-harm and extreme vulnerability of those detained.
“The relocation of reception centres to Albania constitutes a system of structural violence, marked by multiple and systematic violations of fundamental rights. After a year and a half of operation, the available evidence clearly shows that this model must be abandoned. Replicating and further entrenching its logic, as envisaged through the return hubs, is incompatible with the respect of minimum human rights standards” says Francesco Ferri, Programme Expert with ActionAid Italy after a recent visit to the centre in Gjader.
Other key concerning elements include a significant expansion of the grounds and duration of detention, unrealistic requirements for cooperation coupled with harsh sanctions for non-cooperation, and lifelong entry bans.
A false sense of urgency
Since the very inception of the discussions on this file, a key narrative underpinning the proposal has been that of rush. Using the argument that return rates are too low, Member States have accompanied the negotiations with an extreme sense of urgency. Beyond the fact that the accuracy of return rate calculations is in itself questionable, this sense of urgency is contradicted by the compromise text that the Council agreed upon in December, which foresees a transition period of two years before the Regulation enters into application. Two years, except for the articles on return hubs and on the expansion of the definition of ‘country of return’ which would apply immediately after adoption. While the urgency rhetoric is discredited by the Council position itself, the latter also brings to light the real rush on this file: the political pressure to further offshore the return process, offloading the responsibility to third countries, further away from fundamental rights, further away from the possibility of legal scrutiny.
“In these last stages of the negotiations, it’s crucial to take a firm stand and reject this proposal. The text includes too many inhumane provisions – from return hubs to a massive expansion of detention – that would extremely increase a climate of hate, discrimination and fear for migrants, asylum seekers and racialized communities” says Eva Baluganti, EU Advocacy Advisor with ActionAid International.