WRITTEN QUESTION P-4068/00

by Karla Peijs (PPE-DE) to the Council

(20 December 2000)

Subject: Illegal emigration from the Schengen area to Britain

1. Is the Council aware that there is substantial illegal emigration from the Schengen area to Britain?

2. Is the Council aware that checks at the external frontiers in Calais, Zeebrugge and Hook of Holland in particular leave much to be desired since spot checks on lorry drivers have found hundreds of stowaways trying to leave the Schengen area, and many of these people have taken the opportunity of illegally entering the Schengen area?

3. Is the Council aware that with spot checks and, recently, checks on all freight at the Schengen external frontier, border checks are in fact being carried out by private firms and not by the competent authorities?

4. Is the Council aware that stowaways stopped by private firms and handed over to the competent authorities are released by those authorities so that they can go underground again and make a fresh attempt to cross to Britain?

5. Does the Council agree that frontier checks should be carried out by the competent authorities and not by private individuals?

6. What action does the Council intend to take to put an end to this situation?

7. What action does the Council intend to take to compensate lorry drivers who, for no fault of their own, fall victim to the UK's highly inflexible Immigration and Asylum Act (of 3 April 2000) and the unworkable Code of Conduct which is part of that act?

Reply

(8 March 2001)

1. Illegal immigration towards the European Union is one of the main issues the Council is dealing with, as shown by the conclusions of the European Councils in Tampere, Santa Maria da Feira and Nice. As the Honourable Member will be aware of, the European Council committed the European Union to intensified cooperation to defeat trafficking in human beings, following the tragic events of Dover last year. The Council is aware that illegal emigration takes place also from one Member State to another Member State. However, the Council has no information or statistics about the size of illegal emigration taking place from the Schengen area towards the United Kingdom.

2. The Council has no information about the quality or effectiveness of border controls carried out in Calais, Zeebrugge and Hoek van Holland. Standards and procedures to be followed by Member States in carrying out border control are defined in the Schengen acquis which, since the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty, has been integrated in Community law under Title IV TEC. It therefore belongs to the Commission, as guardian of the Treaties, to verify whether Member States comply with their obligations in respect of such issues.

3. and 5. Controls at borders are carried out only by officers of the border police forces or of Member States' services responsible in accordance with national law for border police duties. Controls which are carried out by carriers or other private firms at Schengen external borders are not to be considered as border controls. These controls are carried out by carriers in order to comply with the provisions of Article 26 of the Schengen Implementing Convention. In accordance with this article, carriers are obliged to take all the necessary measures to ensure that an alien carried by air or sea is in possession of the travel documents required for entry into the territories of the Contracting Parties. Penalties can be imposed on carriers who transport aliens who do not possess the necessary travel documents.

4. The Council has no information regarding these practices.

6. Following the conclusions of the Tampere and Santa Maria da Feira European Councils, underlining the importance of the control of migration flows, the Council has discussed both operational and prescriptive measures to combat trafficking in human beings. In this respect, the Council adopted on 30 November 2000, conclusions including some operational measures to combat illegal immigration i.e. the exchange of information on observed flows, the optimisation of the early warning system for the transmission of information on illegal immigration and facilitator networks and the coordination of the networks of Member States' liaison officers in the countries which are sources of illegal immigration.

With regard to prescriptive measures, the Council's bodies are discussing a draft Council Directive, based on an initiative from France, concerning the harmonisation of penalties imposed on carriers transporting into the territory of the Member States third country nationals lacking the documents necessary for admission. The initiative was published in the Official Journal(1). On 6 September 2000 the Council forwarded the initiative to the European Parliament for Opinion.

Furthermore, the Council's bodies are discussing a draft Directive defining the facilitation of unauthorised entry, movement and residence as well as a draft Framework Decision on the strengthening of the penal framework to prevent the facilitation of unauthorised entry and residence also based on initiatives from France. Both initiatives have been published in the Official Journal(2). The Council asked the European Parliament to deliver an Opinion on the two initiatives by 17 November 2000.

Regarding these texts, the European Council in Nice called for the last remaining problems concerning the texts aimed at combating the traffic in human beings and illegal immigration be settled as soon as possible in accordance with the explicit request made at Feira.

7. It is not for the Council to express any views on the United Kingdom's Immigration and Asylum Act.

(1) OJ C 269, 20.9.2000, p. 8.

(2) OJ C 253, 4.9.2000, pp. 1 and 6.