At its meeting in Paris on 11 March, the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) welcomed the creation of the Division on Migration and Refugees (DMR) at the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law (DG1). Continuing the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Migration and Refugees, the DMR works to consolidate and intensify the Organisation’s efforts in addressing urgent issues related to migration and asylum. The PACE Committee invited member States to make full use of the DMR work.
During the meeting, the Committee expressed concern over the growing disparity between international law and member States’ practices regarding the collective expulsion of foreigners. It recalled that such expulsions are “formally prohibited under Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 to the European Convention on Human Rights.”
The draft resolution, adopted on the basis of a report by Pierre-Alain Fridez (Switzerland, SOC), underscores the importance of “an individual examination of each person’s situation” to prevent collective expulsions. It further recalls that, according to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, all expulsion procedures must provide sufficient safeguards to demonstrate that the personal circumstances of each individual have been genuinely considered.
The Committee also voiced concern over the increasing use of the “legal fiction of non-entry,” under which certain individuals are deemed not to have entered European territory. It stressed that efforts to safeguard national security and ensure strict border control must not come at the expense of asylum and human rights standards, including the principle of non-refoulement and the absolute prohibition of torture.
To ensure an individual assessment of each migrant’s situation and to put an end to collective expulsions, the adopted text recommends a series of measures for member States. These include the development of national action plans for implementing the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum—aligned with the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and other relevant international human rights standards—as well as the allocation of adequate resources for their implementation.
Finally, the committee urged member States that have been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights to “promptly and fully execute the judgments concerning collective expulsions.” Recognising that the primary responsibility for migrant reception and integration often falls on the countries of first arrival, the Assembly called for “a co-ordinated and coherent European approach to the reception of migrants,” both in law and in practice.
