JRS calls for human rights protection at EU borders

FRONTEX operations at the border in Greece (copyright FRONTEX)

(9 July 2012) -- A group of five NGOs in Brussels sent a letter to the Civil Liberties committee of the European Parliament calling for human rights concerns to be addressed in a new legislative proposal for a European border surveillance system.

On December 12, 2011, the European Commission presented its project to establish a European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) that would lead to an integrated management system for external borders, in cooperation with Frontex (see COM [2011] 873 final). This proposal raises serious concerns among non-governmental organizations working in the areas of immigration and asylum.

The EUROSUR proposal is presented by the European Commission as a strictly technical tool, when in fact it is a very political issue and has far reaching implications on fundamental rights of migrants and asylum seekers. The legislative proposal, which states as its objective the improvement of the situational awareness and reaction capability of Member States and Frontex when preventing irregular migration and cross border crime at the external land and maritime borders, does not provide sufficient protections for migrants and does not demonstrate a pressing need for such costly surveillance systems in the midst of pan-European austerity.

We are concerned that the proposal:

• Conflates fight against cross border crime and irregular immigration: migrants and asylum seekers are not criminals and should not be seen as a threat to internal security.
• May be ineffective in preventing irregular migration: According to the findings in the CLANDESTINO project report irregular border crossings are the least frequent pathway into irregularity and while external control measures to address irregular migration such as border surveillance have very little effect in discouraging irregular migration, they do contain severe human costs.
• Does not provide for effective safeguards for the fundamental rights of asylum seekers who are entitled to a specific protection and a complete examination of their asylum claim: mixed flows trying to reach the borders include asylum seekers who should have access to all the procedures available at national level. The non refoulement principle that is already enshrined in international customary law allows no exception. Hence it is of utmost importance to develop effective mechanisms that allow for intercepted persons to make an asylum claim and get access to a fair asylum procedure.
• Does not refer to any obligation of search and rescue: it was included in the 2008 Commission Communication but the 2011 proposal, while creating important technical tools for detection, does not give any priority to search and rescue issues. We consider that the Eurosur project should be an opportunity to extend Frontex and Eurosur mandates to search and rescue operations. The proposal does not provide for any clear measures that would foresee employment of the system for mitigating the risk of deaths at sea and for reducing the human cost associated with border control systems.
• Rejects EU’s responsibility to third countries, leading to an externalisation of borders policy: well established principles such as the right to leave a country, the right to claim asylum and the principle of non refoulement will not be guaranteed any more if refugees and migrants are intercepted and sent back to where they came from.
• Does not guarantee sufficient protection of personal data: there is an important risk that personal data will be misused and that the principles of necessity and proportionality will not be respected.
• Relegates the European Parliament to the background: multilateral agreements must not be free of any kind of control and evaluation by the European Parliament.

Based on the above, JRS and its partners hope to use this opportunity to establish a legal basis within the EUROSUR surveillance system proposal to guarantee fundamental rights for all migrants and asylum seekers.

JRS and the other co-signatories aim to hold discussions with MEPs regarding recent proposals in the field of European Union’s border management such as EUROSUR, Eurodac and Smart borders, that aim to turn sea and land borders into zones of heavy surveillance, to the detriment of fundamental rights and have been drafted without proper impact assessment, cost benefit analysis or democratic public debate.

The full letter is available HERE

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