For this episode of LM Talks we moved to Strasbourg where we interviewed the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Migration and Refugees of the Council of Europe, Drahoslav Štefánek. It was a real honour for Large Movements to discuss the New pact on Migration and Asylum, presented by the European Commission on the last 29th September, with such a high level guest and immigration expert.
In order to better understand this last European proposal, Large Movements reviewed the main steps which marked the European negotiations on the migration policy. Together with Mr. Štefánek we talked about the Dublin Regulation, recalling the reasons why it was created, its objectives and we focused on one of the key principles and protagonist of the political debate: the so-called first entry country principle. According to it, the responsibility of managing migratory pressure (and therefore of dealing with the reception of migrants and the examination of their asylum applications) falls solely on the countries of entry, thus eliminating the collaboration between all the Member States. This policy has further aggravated the migration crisis of 2015-16.
With this interview, we aimed to understand the perspective of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Migration and Refugees of the Council of Europe regarding a possible overcoming of the critical issues emerged since the first European regulations. Mr. Štefánek recognised that, since the 2015 crisis, the numbers of arrivals of migrants in Europe have certainly decreased, but he thinks that the system is still too inefficient and not adequately coordinated. The divergent positions of the so-called frugal countries – Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland – are a first signal of the lack of European coordination. Mr Štefánek explains that these countries are often reluctant to accept the proposals of the European Union because of this lack of a consolidated management of migration flows. Despite the principle of non-refoulement (Art. 33 of the Geneva Convention, 1951), which prohibits states from rejecting refugees in countries where their life or freedom could be endangered, the national policies of some states are still often directed towards nationalism and extra-border management of migrants’ arrivals.
The management of migration flows is one of the priorities of the Council of Europe which, working with the European Court of Human Rights and its advisory bodies, monitors the respect of fundamental rights in its 47 Member States. Hence, we discussed with Mr. Štefánek about the New pact on Immigration and Asylum, investigating the point of view of the Council of Europe on this new text. The latter furthers tightening of the fundamental rights standards, as enshrined in the Convention of Fundamental Rights.
We welcomed the position of a representative of a European institution which, in the case of Mr. Štefánek, has also an outstanding experience in the legal field. In this regard, Mr. Štefánek concluded by pointing out the importance of the European legislation which, even in exceptional times such as those we are experiencing since last March, does not allow exceptions to the respect of fundamental rights of the asylum seekers. Indeed, we discussed how COVID-19 has often been used as an “alibi” by some countries or political parties, using the derogation clause to reject asylum seekers and refugees’ requests.
The derogation clause allows Member States to derogate from certain human rights, only under certain circumstances and within certain limits. In the specific case of the principle of non-refoulement, being the fundamental pivot of Article 3, no derogation can be applied, even during an exceptional situation such as COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the political instrumentalisation of the health emergency cannot be a justification to increase immigration control mechanisms. However, this attitude has been widespread around Europe with the progress consensus for nationalist and populist political parties . The Special Representative of the Secretary General for Migration and Refugees concludes by clarifying that border control procedures are regardless essential but the respect for fundamental rights remains imperative.
The discussions on the New pact on Immigration and Asylum will continue to be the object of future LM talks, with the aim to propose to our readers different points of view on the European immigration policy.
