By Bruno Waterfield - 28th August 2005
Deportations from EU countries should respect human rights, the European Commission will insist on Thursday.
Brussels is to discuss a package of European asylum and immigration policy at the EU executive’s first meeting after the summer break.
Included in a wide-ranging raft of proposals from European Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini will be minimum EU standards for the ‘return’ of failed refugees.
The issue has hit the headlines following UK and French calls for the deportation of extremist Muslim clerics – often individuals who have sought asylum.
July terror attacks on London have prompted calls in some European capitals for tough action to be taken against those who justify terrorism, including the expulsion of refugees.
But human rights campaigners have raised concerns that extremist deportees could face execution or torture in their countries of origin.
Frattini is reminding Europe’s interior ministers that all European countries are signed up to the 1951 Convention on Refugees and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
“It is the obvious stance of [Frattini] that any policy in the area of immigration and asylum needs to respect international law, notably the refugee convention and [ECHR], which all 25 member states are a party to,” said a commission spokesman.
“It is very obvious that anything that the commission will propose will need to be, by definition, in conformity with international law.”
“In this particular framework, what we propose will be in conformity with the 1951 Convention on Refugees and its 1967 protocol as well as the ECHR.”
The ECHR stipulates that no one can be deported to a country where they could face execution, torture or degrading treatment.
Last week, UN human rights watchdogs criticised a “tendency in Europe to circumvent the international obligation not to deport anybody if there is a serious risk that he or she might be subjected to torture”.
As well as proposals on ‘returns’, Frattini will unveil a commission document on integration policy, a paper on migration and development and pilot regional protection programmes.
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