A European rights watchdog yesterday said that the EU was contravening international law with its increasingly restrictive stance on migration and should step up sea rescues — an element that is not part of the bloc’s new five-year action plan.
The EU has become tougher on immigration since a 2015 spike in Mediterranean arrivals caught it by surprise, stretching social and security resources and feeding support for right-wing and eurosceptic forces across the bloc.
The EU has since tightened its external borders and asylum laws, and given aid to non-EU states on the eastern and southern rim of the Mediterranean to help them contain migration to Europe.
The bloc’s 28 national leaders plan to restate their commitment to these policies in a new “Strategic Agenda for 2019-2024,” a document they are due to endorse at a summit in Brussels tomorrow and on Friday and a draft of which was seen by reporters.
“Effective control of the external borders is an absolute prerequisite for guaranteeing security, upholding law and order, and ensuring properly functioning EU policies,” it says.
UN data shows irregular sea arrivals from the Middle East and North Africa dropped from more than 1 million in 2015 to about 141,500 people last year.
Fewer than 23,000 refugees and migrants have made it across the sea to Europe so far this year.
The data also shows that nearly 15,000 people are estimated to have died or gone missing in the perilous sea voyage since 2015, including more than 500 so far this year.
The Council of Europe, the continent’s leading rights organization, which includes EU states and others as members, said that the bloc had failed in its duty to save lives and prevent returning people to where they are at risk.
“[EU member states] have adopted laws, policies and practices which have often been contrary to their legal obligations to ensure effective search and rescue operations, the prompt and safe disembarkation and treatment of rescued people, and the prevention of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment,” the rights watchdog said in a report yesterday.
The report outlines 35 recommendations for the EU to “reframe their response according to human rights standards,” including by reversing the scaling back of its sea rescue operations and ending pressure on aid groups who do it.
“Outsourcing” border controls to third countries came at a “terrible human cost,” it said. “Not only do migrants continue to die at sea, but in some cases they are intercepted and brought to countries — such as Libya — where they are often subjected to torture, rape, slavery, exploitation or indefinite and unlawful detention.”
Another practice that has raised alarm with rights advocates are repeated instances of EU states barring rescue boats from their ports, keeping them floating for days to avoid taking responsibility for the people on board.
The council said its was the EU’s obligation under international humanitarian law to run effective sea rescue missions, guarantee entry for those picked up and provide legal migration avenues to Europe.
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