ECRAN Weekly Update 21-12-2006

German Presidency

European Parliament

European Commission

Council of the EU

Miscellaneous

Informal JHA on 14-16 January to discuss "illegal immigration"
The informal meeting of Justice and Home Affairs ministers under the German EU Presidency will be held in Dresden from 14 to 16 January 2007. In a press release, the German Presidency states that "the informal meeting in Dresden is intended for a comprehensive discussion on important topics and for developing long-term ideas". The meeting will be chaired by the Federal Minister of Justice, Brigitte Zypries, and the Federal Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble. "The fight against terrorism and crime is a major priority in shaping and strengthening our common area of freedom, security and justice", said Schäuble. "Our aim is to further improve practical cooperation between police and judicial authorities and institutions", added Zypries.

The discussions in Dresden will mainly focus on strengthening cross-border police cooperation by transposing the Prüm Treaty into EU law, the common European strategy to tackle irregular migration by strengthening border police cooperation and initiating a dialogue with the countries of origin as equal partners, according to the press statement.

Source:
German Presidency press release: Informal Meeting of EU Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs in Dresden from 14 to 16 January 2007

For more information:
Information on the German Presidency, including a useful calendar and subscriptions to newsletters and news-alerts can be found at: www.eu2007.de

Germany's work programme for its EU presidency is available in English, French and German, (the programme for the JHA area is reported in the ECRAN Weekly update of 1 December)

Council conclusions on migration put too much accent on security says MEP
In its last 2006 mini-plenary session held in Brussels on Monday, the European Parliament discussed the soon-to-be-ended Finnish Presidency and the outcomes of last week's European Council summit in the presence of Finnish Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, and the Commission's President, José Manuel Barroso. While most MEPs expressed appreciation of the results of the Finnish Presidency, opinions on last week's summit were mixed with MEPs most at the absence of a consensus on decision making procedures in the area of justice and home affairs.

British MEP Graham Watson, President of the ALDE Group, said the EU's migration policy put "too much accent on security and too little on the humanitarian issues". He welcomed the new emphasis on development, saying it was "not enough to have a rapid enhancement of Frontex". Commission President Barroso welcomed the decision to hold another EU-Africa summit in 2007 but regretted that the EU should have to witness so many human tragedies before taking action. Speaking on behalf of the UEN group, Irish Member Brian Crowley stressed the need to "look at the core reasons why people are running away" from their countries citing the genocide in Darfur as an example of "a failure by the international community to react". Hans-Gert Pöttering, the outgoing EPP-ED President from Germany, stressed that the EU "cannot accept death and poverty at our doors". A key part of the solution, he added, was to ensure "that people have a future in their own countries". Italian MEP Monica Frassoni, co-President of the Greens/EFA Group saw "nothing particularly new and nothing particularly concrete" in the Council conclusions. German MEP Martin Schulz, President of the Socialist Group, on he other hand considered the results on migration policy as a "very positive signal" and Simon Busuttil (EPP-ED, Malta) welcomed the conclusions as bringing relief to the EU's southern countries who had born the burden of fighting irregular migration.

Source:
Agence Europe: Most MEPs satisfied with "unspectacular" Summit and more so with six months of Finnish Presidency
EP Press Release: MEPs debate the Finnish Presidency and European Council with PM Vanhanen

Mali and Senegal likely to be pilot countries for EU job centres
The EP's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) also discussed the European Council's conclusions on Tuesday in the presence of Franco Frattini, Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security. On a future common European migration policy, Frattini advanced the idea that Member States could report national immigration quotas to the Commission which the Commission could then combine and use as a negotiation tool in EU-African talks on migration. French MEP Martine Roure (PES) stressed that development aid should not be linked to the willingness of third countries to co-operate in migration issues. The Commissioner agreed in principle but underlined that increased development aid had to be targeted to stabilise institutions in the country concerned. He added that Mali and Senegal would very likely be pilot countries where the EU would establish ‘job centres'. In these centres, would-be migrants would receive training and help in seeking jobs within the EU.

Giusto Catania (Greens, Italy) asked the Commissioner to implement measures in order to decriminalise rescue operations at sea and to prevent human rights violations in temporary detention centres in new Member States which were built with financial support from the EU. In response, the Commissioner offered to ask the Italian government for a legal explanation if Mr Catania could provide any names of person facing charges as a result of a rescue at sea. As to temporary detention centres, Mr Frattini stressed that the Parliament had access to the centres and that it could draft reports on human rights violations committed in these centres if it wished to do so.

Source:
ECRE staff

Agreement on RABITs expected by end-February 2007
The Committee also held a debate on the draft report on the Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABIT). These teams will be part of FRONTEX and the major aim of the draft legislation is to provide a legal basis in order to allow border control staff of other Member States to perform pre-border checks in the requesting Member States. The main task of RABITs will be to prevent persons from "illegally crossing" the requesting Member States borders. Members of the LIBE Committee pointed in earlier discussions (see ECRAN Weekly update 10 November) to the need to ensure that RABIT teams would respect fundamental rights and the principle of non-discrimination. The Parliament's draft report will propose amendments to the Commission's proposal in order to include references to respect for fundamental rights and to compliance with the Schengen Border Code. Rapporteur Gérard Deprez (ALDE, Belgium) will meet representatives of the German Presidency in January and expects to reach an agreement with the Council by the end of February.

Source:
ECRE staff

For more information:
Read the draft EP legislative resolution on RABIT

Read the Commission's proposal on RABIT

Read the Regulation No. 562/2006 establishing a Community Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code)

European Agency for Fundamental Rights to be launched on 1 March 2007
Speaking to the LIBE committee on Tuesday, Commissioner Frattini outlined the next steps towards the creation of a European Agency for Fundamental Rights for which the European Council gave final approval last week. An interim management board and an interim director would be appointed in order to allow the agency to assume its tasks on 1 March 2007. The Commission would submit proposals for the agency's multi-annual strategy (five years) and its decision making body in May. Mr Frattini expects the proposals to be adopted by August at the latest. Kinga Gal (Hungary, EPP-ED), the Committee's rapporteur on the regulation establishing the agency, expressed disappointment with the final form of the agency since it was less ambitious than that envisaged by the EP. Frattini admitted that the agency did not match his vision either.

Source:
ECRE staff

EPP urges Member States to consult others before regularising "illegal immigrants"
Ahead of last week's European Council, leaders of the European People's Party (EPP) called for a common framework on illegal immigration in the EU. Nine EU Prime Ministers - amongst them the incoming EU President Angela Merkel -and the Commission President José Manuel Barroso supported the adoption of the resolution on immigration. The resolution states that "plans for the regularisation of illegal immigrants must be previously discussed as they massively affect also other Member States". The EPP also called "for solidarity and cooperation among the Member States especially by reinforcing the capacities of FRONTEX and by a coordination of sea border controls", and supported "the creation of a uniform and automated system of border monitoring in the EU by using the means of biometrical technology in visa procedures and identity documents". The EPP resolution urged EU Member States to sign agreements with countries of origin "which should facilitate the readmission of illegal immigrants".

Source:
EPP News release: EPP calls for a European Common policy on illegal immigration

Death sentences an "obstacle" to EU-Libya co-operation, say Frattini and Pro Asyl
The European Commission and the Finnish Presidency condemned Tuesday's verdict of the Criminal Court in Libya, convicting and sentencing to death five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor who have already spent seven years in prison. The health workers are charged with deliberately injecting 400 children with the AIDS virus at the Benghazi hospital in 1999. The Council and the Commission reiterated "serious concerns with regard to the basis on which the accused persons were prosecuted, their treatment while in custody and the lengthy delays in the process".

Commission Vice-President, Franco Frattini, described this verdict as an "obstacle" to cooperation between the EU and Libya. In recent months, the EU hoped to intensify cooperation with Libya in migration issues in order to prevent irregular migrants from reaching Europe via Libya. According to Amnesty International, EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers granted a 3m Euros aid package to the Libyan authorities in order to help them tackle immigrant influxes at their southern border.
Reaction to news of the death sentences, German NGO Pro Asyl called on the incoming German Presidency to completely suspend cooperation with Libya on asylum and migration in the face of obvious human rights violations not only in this court verdict but also towards refugees and migrants in Libyan. Libya is of particular concern to the UN refugee agency, as the country is not a signatory to the Geneva Refugee Convention and has no asylum law or procedure. Human Rights Watch published a 135-pages report in September listing Libyan authorities human rights violations of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. The EU could not ignore these developments and sacrifice human rights in order to flatter Libya as the "bouncer of fortress Europe", Pro Asyl argued.

The Libyan government this week issued a communiqué stating that between 27 November and 6 December, Libyan coastguards and "specialised security services", arrested 416 people of different nationalities on their way to Europe. Moreover, security forces have repatriated 512 people believed to be irregular migrants.

Source:
Agence Europe: EU Condemns Death Sentence on Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor

Finnish Presidency: Statment on the Criminal Court in Libya sentencing to death five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor

Commissioner Frattini (in French only): Statement after the decision of the Libyan Court to confirm the 2004 death sentence

Pro Asyl press release (in German only): Todesurteile in Tripolis

Afrol News: Libya intercepts over 400 illegal emigrants

Amnesty International: Letter to the President of the JHA Council - addressing irregular migration with full respect of human rights

Human Rights Watch: Stemming the flow - abuses against asylum-seekers, migrants and refugees

3,500 migrants prevented from entering Europe during HERA operation
In a press release issued this week, FRONTEX, the European Agency for the Management of the EU's External Borders expressed satisfaction with its HERA operation off the Canary Islands which officially ended on 15 December. With a total budget of 3.5 million Euros the operation involved seven Member States and Schengen associated countries as well as Senegal and Mauritania. In a first phase of the operation, HERA I, experts helped Spanish authorities to identify migrants who had arrived to the Canary Islands and establish their countries of origin. FRONTEX believes that this contributed to the successful return of 6,076 irregular migrants between June and October. During the course of the second phase from August to December, vessels and planes patrolled the coastal areas of Senegal, Mauritania, Cape Verde and the Canary Islands. The flow of irregular migration had decreased drastically and more than 3 500 migrants were stopped from reaching Europe, FRONTEX claimed. At present the area continues to be patrolled by Spanish means with the active participation of Senegalese and Mauritanian authorities.
Richard Williams, ECRE's EU representative, expressed concern that people may have been returned in violation of a person's right to leave any country and possibly in breach of the right to non-refoulement. The EU was increasing its efforts to prevent people from reaching its shores, while failing to provide channels for people seeking protection to reach Europe.

For more information:
Read FRONTEX press release: Longest FRONTEX coordinated operation - HERA, the Canary Islands

Green lights for visa facilitation and readmission negotiations with Moldova
The General Affairs and External Affairs Council adopted on Monday mandates authorising the Commission to negotiate visas facilitation and readmission agreements between the EU and the Republic of Moldova. Moldova shares borders with the new EU Member State Romania, the Ukraine and the Russian Federation, two countries with which the EU has already initialled respective agreements. This mandate follow adopted in November for Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania. The negotiation process with Moldova will start as soon as possible with the aim of ensuring a simultaneous entry into force of the two agreements before 1 January 2008.

The Commission welcomed the Council's decision as it came only 20 days after the Commission issued a draft proposal on 30 November. Vice-President Franco Frattini, Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security, stated that "visa facilitation should encourage the Republic of Moldova to implement relevant reforms and reinforce their cooperation at regional level and with the EU in areas such as (...) increasing their administrative capacity in border control and security of documents by introducing biometric data." Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, responsible for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, said she believed that this was "an important step in establishing closer people-to-people contacts between the citizens of Moldova and the European Union but at the same time to ensure the return of illegal migrants."

The visa facilitation agreement will streamline and simplify the procedure of processing visa applications. The readmission agreement will set out clear obligations and procedures for the authorities of both the Republic of Moldova and EU Member States as to when and how to take back people who are illegally residing in their territories.

Source:
EC Press Release: Commission welcomes the adoption of mandates for visa facilitation and readmission agreements with Moldova

A record 648 undocumented migrants reach Sicily
Late Monday night 648 immigrants landed in Sicily after travelling from Africa to Italy on board an old leaky 30-meter fishing boat. The group - most of the 620 men, 21 women and seven children are thought to be Egyptian - is the largest ever to reach Italy. An Italian Coast Guard ship towed the boat to the port of Licata after spotting it about 32 km off the coast apparently having trouble.
The migrants, who were reported to be in reasonably good health, have been transferred to Sicilian immigrant holding centres for identification.

The right-wing anti-immigration Northern League blamed the centre-left governing coalition's "irresponsible policies" for encouraging irregular immigrants to travel to Italy. Romano Prodi's government is currently planning to introduce a new immigration law that would cut the waiting period for residency permits, streamline the asylum process and set up a points system for would-be immigrants.

Source:
ANSA: Sicily sees record migrant landing

United Press International: 648 immigrants arrive in Italy on boat

100 Africans feared dead in Senegal boat accident
At least 80 Africans died in a boat accident off Senegal's coast thought to be on the way to Spain's Canary Islands, Ass Seck, a Spanish Red Cross official, said. The figure was preliminary and could be revised upward as interviews with survivors continued. The boat, a small wooden fishing craft, set out from Djiffer (320 km south from St. Louis) on 4 December with 124 people on board and ran aground in bad weather. Fishermen rescued about two dozen dehydrated and malnourished survivors on Saturday near St. Louis, Senegalese Security authorities said on Sunday. Health officials said the boat capsized at least twice, spilling many passengers into the sea, and then drifted for ten days. Adding to the survivors' misery, three of the rescuers have been accused of stealing money from the men they saved, as well as the outboard motors of the vessel. Charged with theft, extortion and failure to help people in danger, the three fishermen face jail terms of between five and 20 years and fines if convicted.

The accident happened only a few days after the visit to Dakar by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose country agreed with Senegal to reinforce sea patrols which try to prevent irregular immigrants from reaching Europe by this route. These stricter controls, combined with the bad weather at this time of the year, are believed to be the main cause of the tragedies. Only last week, a migrant boat sank near Senegal's capital, Dakar, and close to 30 people were rescued. One person died at sea and three people later died in the hospital, a Senegalese official said.

Source:
USA Today: Red Cross - At least 80 African migrants dead in Senegal boat wreck

BBC News: Dozens feared drowned off Senegal

Reuters: Senegal fishermen accused of robbing rescued migrants

747 people en route to Europe detained in Libya, Algeria, Croatia and Turkey
In addition to the 416 people detained in Libya (see above: "Death sentences an "obstacle" to EU-Libya co-operation, Frattini and NGO say"), press articles published at the beginning of this week report detentions of more people en route to Europe. Algerian coastguards saved 49 people from drowning in Mediterranean waters after they set out for Spain aboard unseaworthy boats, an Algerian newspaper reported on Tuesday. The passengers, all Algerians aged between 20 to 55, were arrested and jailed after being picked up off the coast near Mostaganem, 300 kilometres west of the capital Algiers.

On the EU's eastern borders, Croatian police stopped 28 Albanians at the beginning of this week, including 12 children, trying to cross the border into Slovenia. They were detained by police in the western Croatian town of Buzet. Police in the Turkish resort of Alanya arrested another 254 people, 188 men, 34 women and 32 children, who were trying to gain passage to Italy en route for Germany, Anadolu news agency reported Sunday. Almost 50 were Turkish nationals, but most of them came from Middle Eastern and African countries. Turkey does not officially accept non-European refugees following a ‘geographical reservation' declared on the 1951 Geneva Convention. However, Turkish authorities have begun "accepting the applications and trying to secure re-settlement in countries outside Turkey for accepted non-European cases," according to a report prepared for the OECD by Koç University migration researcher Ahmet İçduygu.

Source:
Reuters: Algerian coastguard saves 49 migrants from drowning

Afrol News: Libya intercepts over 400 illegal emigrants

United Press International: Croatia stops 28 illegal migrants

Europe News: 254 illegal migrants detained in Turkey

Turkish Daily News: Migration matters in globalized Turkey

Muslims in Europe experience increasing discrimination, report says
Approximately 13m Muslims in the EU - the equivalent of 3.5 per cent of the EU's total population - experience various forms of discrimination which tends to alienate them from society, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) has found in a new study published on Monday. Manifestations of islamophobia range from verbal threats through to physical attacks on people and property. The available data on victims of discrimination show that European Muslims are often disproportionately represented in areas with poorer housing conditions, while their educational achievement falls below average and their unemployment rates are higher than average. Muslims are often employed in jobs that require lower qualifications and they are over-represented in low-paying sectors of the economy. The EUMC stresses, however, that discrimination against Muslims can be driven by islamophobic attitudes but also by racist and xenophobic resentment towards migrants and minorities, as these elements are often intertwined.

The EUMC lists a number of initiatives and proposals for policy action by EU Member State governments and the European institutions to improve the reporting of incidents and to foster integration. These include promoting integration measures but also effectively implementing existing legislations such as the anti-discrimination directives (the Race Equality Directive 2000/43/EC and the Employment Equality Directive 2000/78/EC).

The largest part of the Muslim population in the EU arrived as migrant workers during the economic boom in the 1960s, later joined by their families, and a smaller number as asylum seekers in the 1990s. Colonial ties also played an important role in Muslims' migration to Europe.

Source:
EU Observer: European Muslims pushed into alienation, study says

EUMC report (pdf format): Muslims in the European Union - Discrimination and Islamophobia

Read the highlights of the report (pdf format)

Read the Race Equality Directive 2000/43/EC and the Employment Equality Directive 2000/78/EC

How to make your voice heard in the EU, a lobby-guide for NGOs
The Civil Society Contact Group (CSCG) has published a training handbook titled "Making your voice heard in the EU - A guide for NGOs". It is specifically designed for NGOs and activists that are in the process of establishing a European strategy. The handbook provides information on EU institutions, the way European NGOs work, as well as lobbying "tips", illustrated by examples of EU level campaigns. It also includes more specific links and contacts depending specific areas of activity.

The CSGC brings together seven of the largest European NGO platforms. Its aim is to represent the views and interests of rights and value based civil society organisations across the European Union on major issues and to encourage and promote a transparent and structured civil dialogue that is accessible, properly facilitated, inclusive, fair and respectful of the autonomy of NGOs.

The handbook can be downloaded in English, French, German, Hungarian and Slovene (Latvian, Polish and Portuguese will be available in January, check CSCG's web page )