WRITTEN QUESTION E-3367/01 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Tearing-up of passports and robbery and assault on travellers from third countries at the external borders of the EU.
Date: 2001-12-05
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Albania, Greece, cruel and degrading treatment, customs, external border of the EU, foreign national, illegal migration, moonlighting

C 277 E/4

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

14.11.2002

(2002/C 277 E/003)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3367/01

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(5 December 2001)

Subject: Tearing-up of passports and robbery and assault on travellers from third countries at the external

borders of the EU

1.
Can the Commission confirm that, in addition to residents of Albania, residents of regions where
industrial enterprises have closed down in Romania (an applicant country) are also increasingly seeking
employment in Greece (a Member State), where they work legally or illegally in agriculture, industry, the
hotel and catering trade or prostitution?

Can the Commission also confirm that, if caught crossing the border illegally or if they have been
2.
dismissed by an employer, the persons concerned are not only deported from Greece but also assaulted,
and that their passports are torn up and their money taken from them?

Does the Commission agree that

3.
taking their money and destroying their passports makes it
extremely difficult for Romanians, who need to pass through Bulgaria or Macedonia and Serbia in order to
return home from Greece, to continue their journeys and that this treatment therefore does nothing to
facilitate the victims’ intended return to their country of origin?

Is it not a fact that passports belong to the State of the holder and may not be destroyed, and that all
4.
citizens who are at any time within the territory of an EU Member State have a right to protection by the
responsible authorities against assault and robbery?

5. What will
the
destruction of passports and instances of assault and robbery on citizens of third countries at the EU’s
external borders?

the Commission do to permanently prevent a continuation or recurrence of

Source: The Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’, 19 November 2001

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(13 February 2002)

The Commission is not aware of the acts denounced by the Honourable Member and does not normally
comment on press articles. In the absence of further details, the Commission would request that the
Honourable Member inform it of anything which provides confirmation of the acts denounced and
supplies more precise information about them, so that it can investigate the issue, if appropriate, as far as
its remit allows.

While it is unable to confirm or deny that the actions referred to actually took place, the Commission
condemns any acts of which proof is provided occurring at the external borders of a Member State, such
as the destruction of passports, brutality, theft and the confiscation of money belonging to third-country
nationals, even if their presence on the national territory is regarded as illegal. However, it is legitimate and
necessary to confiscate passports which are genuine but are being used by persons other than the
legitimate owner, or which are falsified or forged.

(2002/C 277 E/004)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3398/01

by Miquel Mayol i Raynal (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(12 December 2001)

Subject: Gibraltar

Under the ‘Brussels’ process, the UK Foreign Secretary and the Spanish Foreign Minister have undertaken
to reach an overall agreement on Gibraltar by next summer (2002). However, the elected representatives of
the population of the territory refused to take part in these talks as they demand the prior recognition of