EU: Fortress Europe
01 September 1995
Four measures in the pipeline for agreement by the Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers make for tighter entry controls and easier and better-coordinated expulsions of foreigners from EU territory.
Readmission protocol
The first document is on guiding principles to be followed by member states in signing bilateral readmission agreements. These are intended to make expulsion simple, quick and efficacious. People "detected in a border area" should be returned within 48 hours to the neighbouring state, and notification of their return can be by phone or fax or oral. There need not be any record kept of the person's detention and return. The normal procedure, for people found away from a border area, should be by written request and response by the destination country, which should take place within two weeks. The document sets out criteria for proof of nationality and of entry, and says when an escort should be provided for deportees.
Expulsion "concertation"
The second document sets out further ways for member states to cooperate on expelling foreigners, and how to deal with deportees with no travel documents. The latter should if possible be identified by consular employees as their own nationals, either by taking detainees to the consulate concerned or by inviting consular officials to visit the deportee in detention. If travel documents are not forthcoming that way, member states are told to use a standard travel document whose format was adopted in an earlier Joint Action. This proposal could be very dangerous for rejected asylum-seekers, by giving the authorities of the country of return advance notice of their expulsion. The document allows joint expulsion operations by more than one member state, and envisages shared airline space for deportees from several countries for a wide range of reasons, including cost-saving and shortage of places on one state's national airline. For this purpose it proposes that each member state sets up a centralised structure which finds transport for deportation, liaises on seat availability and exchanges information on airlines. The proposal would legitimate actions like the joint deportation by France, Germany and the Netherlands of 44 Zaireans, which caused a furore in March 1995.
Finally, it proposes that those who refuse to embark on deportation should be prosecuted. The UK Home Office objects to this proposal on the ground that it defeats the object of the exercise, which is to get rid of the deportees, not to detain them. The Home Office also opposes systematic coordination of expulsions on a timetable arranged by other member states, although it expresses interest in liaison on a case-by-case basis.
Airline checks
The third and fourth documents concern pre-flight checks and training of airline staff on travel documents, visas and immigration regulations. They propose that CIREFI, the EU's research and information exchange centre on frontiers and immigration, be made responsible for a training programme and for coordinating the postings of member states' immigration officers abroad to check passengers' documentation before they embark. The Home Office objects in each case that CIREFI is not supposed to have an operational role and that these things should best be left to national governments. It points out that it has given extensive training on forged documentation to airline staff and has given on-the-ground assistance at the point of checking in. The British High Commission in New Delhi has an airline liaison officer for these purposes.
Proposal for principles relating to the drafting of a protocol on the implementation of readmission agreements, ASIM 73, Brussels, 11.4.95; Proposal for a joint action on concertation and cooperation regarding the execution of expulsion measures, ASIM 74, Brussels, 3.3.95; Proposal for a draft joint action on the training of airline staff, ASIM 21, Brussels, 1.2.95; Proposal for a joint acti