C 15/74
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
12.1.2022
Wednesday 19 May 2021
K. whereas cooperation with third countries is essential to prevent and combat trafficking in human beings; whereas migration routes may be exploited by human trafficking networks; whereas trafficking in human beings has a disproportionate impact on women and girls, who constitute the overwhelming majority of victims of trafficking and suffer violence and exploitation along their migration route; whereas measures taken against human trafficking should not adversely affect the rights of victims of trafficking, migrants, refugees and persons in need of international protection;
L. whereas since 2016 the EU and some individual Member States have multiplied the number of informal agreements and arrangements with third countries, aiming to strengthen their operational capacities in border control and management, and the fight against human trafficking; whereas these agreement and arrangements also cover effective return and readmission with third countries, including Joint Migration Declarations, Memoranda of Understanding, Joint Ways Forward, Standard Operating Procedures and Good Practices as well as police cooperation agreements; whereas, similarly to formal readmission agreements, such informal arrangements affirm states’ commitments to readmitting their nationals (or others) and establish procedures to carry out returns in practice; whereas since 2016, the EU has concluded at least 11 informal agreements but only one new readmission agreement; whereas informal agreements between the EU and third countries do not provide a predictable policy or any stable and coherent statutory framework provisions on irregular migration;
M. whereas in its communication on the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, the Commission reiterated that the internal and external dimensions of migration are inextricably linked, and that tailor-made comprehensive and balanced migration dialogues and partnerships with countries of origin and transit is essential in order to address valuable objectives for both sides, such as the main drivers of migration, combating migrant smuggling, support for refugees residing in third countries and supporting well-managed legal migration; whereas as stated by the Commission communication on the New Pact, engagement at regional and global level is fundamental to complementing such dialogues and partnerships; whereas it emphasised, furthermore, that in the framework of comprehensive partnerships with third countries migration should be built in as a core issue and linked to other policies, such as those relating to development cooperation, security, visas, trade, agriculture, investment and employment, energy, environment and climate change, and education;
N. whereas the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024 commits the EU and its Member States to ‘advocate for the specific protection to which migrants, refugees, and internally displaced and stateless persons are entitled’; whereas this Action Plan promotes ‘non-discriminatory access to social services, including quality and affordable healthcare and education (also online), and build[ing] practitioners’ capacity to respond to the specific needs of (…) migrants [and] refugees’, and ‘support[ing] a human rights-based approach to migration governance and strengthen[ing] the capacity of states, civil society and UN partners to implement this approach’;
O. whereas, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), women account for around 48 % of the refugee population in the world, and for a high proportion of vulnerable asylum seekers; whereas the EU’s Gender Action Plan III commits the EU to ensuring that ‘the human rights of migrant women and girls are fully realised through gender-responsive migration policies, programmes and laws, and gender-responsive migration governance at global, regional and national levels are reinforced’; whereas gender-responsive migration policies would ensure the realisation of the rights of women, girls and LGTBIQ+ persons, and protection against potential violence, harassment, rape and trafficking;
P. whereas the 2015 report of the former UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants notes shortcomings in the EU’s approach to migration due to its lack of transparency and clarity, and to the weak status of many of the agreements reached in this framework, which in his view generally lack monitoring and accountability measures; whereas the Special Rapporteur also concludes that there are few signs that mobility partnerships have resulted in additional human rights or development benefits, while the overall focus on security and the lack of policy coherence within the approach as a whole create a risk that any benefits arising from human rights and development projects could be overshadowed by the secondary effects of more security-focused policies;