Following the vote, Souhayr Belhassen, President of the FIDH, denounced a text "that lands a blow to the universality of Human Rights in this, the year of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By adopting this text, the European legislator lets us understand that migrants are not human beings like any other, provided with rights and to whom the States owe obligations. They are dehumanised."
The adopted text thus enables to:
· Detain illegal migrants, including children, for up to 18 months prior to expulsion, notably for administrative purposes;
· Expel immigrants to third countries where the available reports show that they are the objects of greater repression;
· Expel, alone, unaccompanied minors to reception facilities in third countries;
· Impose a quasi-automatic re-entry ban to the European territory for 5 years, a counter-productive measure, disproportionate and potentially violating numerous migrants’ rights.
For further information:
· « Returns » Directive: Last resort, the European Parliament can still conform the text with human rights norms, 13/06/2008, http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article5629
· Communiqué and judicial analysis of the compromise text: Returns Directive, The FIDH calls for the suspension of the text’s adoption until it conforms to Member States international human rights obligations. http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article5624
· EU « Returns » Directive: 10 recommendations for a protective harmonization in line with Human Rights, February 2008, http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article5486
· And the position papers from our partner organisations, http://www.aedh.eu