A/HRC/23/46
91.
Ensure that the human rights of all migrants concerned is the primary
consideration in the negotiation of any migration cooperation agreements with nonEuropean Union countries, including readmission agreements, technical cooperation
with coastguards, or mobility partnerships. This should include, but not be limited to,
technical and financial support for :
• Access to justice by migrants
• Support for migrants rights civil society organizations.
• Training for all cooperation partners on human rights law.
92.
Promote viable alternatives to detention, and not insist on further entrenching
detention as a migration control mechanism through support for expanded networks
of detention centres. Detention should always be a measure of last resort, and children
should never be detained.
93.
Ensure the full implementation of the Return Directive in all member States in
order to improve the procedural safeguards and minimum standards and conditions
of detention, in accordance with international human rights standards. In addition,
ensure effective access to justice for all migrants in detention, including:
• Access to competent lawyers
• Access to competent interpreters and translators
• Timely and effective access to justice, i.e. courts, tribunals, national human
rights institutions, etc.
• Access to legal aid and judicial assistance programmes
• Access to NGOs
• Access to consular authorities
• Access to asylum procedures
• Effective and independent external monitoring of all migrant detention
facilities.
94.
Ensure access to justice for all migrants. In particular, ensure that complaint
mechanisms for irregular migrants as set out the Employer Sanctions Directive are
properly implemented to enable their effective use and do not in practice penalize
complainants on account of their administrative status.
95.
Establish durable solutions for migrants who, due to the situation in their
country of origin or non-cooperation of consular authorities, cannot be returned. This
should include providing them with an appropriate status.
Specific recommendation to European Union institutions:
To the Council of Ministers:
96.
Reconsider the terminology used, and apply the term “irregular” rather than
“illegal” migrants.
97.
Consider issuing negotiation directives for readmission agreements only with
countries of origin, as recommended by the Commission in its Communication on the
Evaluation of EU Readmission Agreements.
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