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EU/Central America: Central American states reject EU Returns Directive

01 July 2008

Full-text of statement (pdf)

In Guatemala City on 30 June 2008, PARLACEN (Central American parliament, the regional body representing the governments of central America and the Dominican Republic) issued a declaration to "forcefully reject" the "returns directive" recently approved by the European Parliament as a measure that "undermines migrants human and labour rights". While PARLACEN exhorts its member states to accept their role as countries of origin and to take action to guarantee their citizens' human right to both freedom of movement and to remain in their own countries, it notes that the returns directive "contains articles that criminalise and penalise the migrant population". The declaration describes the measure as "criminalising, discriminatory and xenophobic, which undermines human and labour rights, especially those of boys, girls, adolescents and the norms of civilised co-existence between peoples, and that violates the historical progress made by humanity".

It goes on to challenge the emphasis on security in these measures, the references to people as "illegals", the vision of humans in merely economic terms; reaffirms the right to free movement for humans, calls on regional associations from Latin America and the Caribbean to form a united front against the directive in negotiations with the EU and on the parliaments of EU countries not to adopt the directive.