Human rights commissioner cautions that such policies may expose people to torture, mistreatment or even death.

On Thursday, the Council of Europe (CE) warned the governments of its 46 member states that practice policies of expelling migrants to third countries to carefully assess them, as they may pose risks of torture, mistreatment or even death for those affected.

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“External cooperation on asylum and migration must be designed and implemented with the utmost care so as not to endanger human rights,” CE Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty said.

“Governments developing outsourcing policies must carefully evaluate their potential negative impact on human rights, since such policies may expose women, men and children to significant risks of serious harm and prolonged suffering,” he added.

O’Flaherty made his remarks on the occasion of the publication of a CE report on outsourcing policies already implemented or under negotiation across Europe, including in countries such as Italy, which has established repatriation centers in Albania.

In the absence of adequate safeguards, “outsourcing policies could subject people to torture or other ill-treatment, collective expulsions and arbitrary detention, or could endanger their lives,” O’Flaherty stressed, noting that such policies could also hinder effective access to asylum and deprive people of legal remedies.

The report, “Externalised Asylum and Migration Policies and Human Rights Law,” provides an overview of the challenges posed by transferring asylum, return and border control functions to other countries.

The CE document identifies three areas where risks are particularly severe: external processing of asylum applications; external return procedures, including so-called “return centers”; and outsourcing border control to other countries, some of which have a documented record of serious human rights violations against people in transit.

In response to these challenges, O’Flaherty recommended that CE states adopt a precautionary approach, including thorough human rights risk assessments, the development of appropriate risk mitigation strategies before engaging in external cooperation, and the review of ongoing activities to determine their human rights impact.

He also called on governments to establish “clear and non-negotiable” principles that exclude any cooperation that could put people at risk of human rights violations, and to ensure that children and other vulnerable individuals are never subjected to outsourced procedures.

Another recommendation in the CE report is to guarantee that no one is transferred to a partner country without a rigorous individual assessment and to limit the use of return centers to specific, clearly defined situations.

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: EFE – Council of Europe

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