PACE has warned against the gradual erosion of the right to seek asylum, which will eventually lead to “chaos and suffering”, and urged the Council of Europe’s 46 member states to avoid resorting to “policies of deterrence” to dissuade migrants and asylum-seekers from travelling to Europe.
In a resolution adopted on 25 June, based on a report by Stephanie Krisper (Austria, ALDE), PACE expressed its profound concern at what it called the “instrumentalisation and exaggeration” of migration into Europe, which it said was being “orchestrated for political purposes domestically or by certain external regimes as a means of exerting pressure on European countries for other purposes”.
Deterrence policies have “neither demonstrated their efficiency in enhancing domestic security nor strengthened the protection of civil liberties”, the Assembly pointed out.
Recalling that a person is a refugee as soon as she or he fulfils the criteria contained in the Refugee Convention, it urged states to continue to carry out “a fair and effective individual examination of an asylum application” and to ensure they do not expose anyone falling under their jurisdiction to a risk of torture, inhumane or degrading treatment.
Any “accelerated procedures” should also be in full compliance with human rights standards and should not result in a lowering of procedural safeguards.
