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UN comes out against EC regarding refugee pact...
The United Nations Human Rights Committee speaks of possible conflicts between the Italy-Albania Protocol and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the 1966 treaty that is a direct emanation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This is what it does in the Concluding Observations on the Third Periodic Report of Albania, part of the monitoring activity on the implementation of the UN Convention. In the press release dated 28 March, in the section dedicated to “Treatment of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers”, the Committee “notes the suspension of the implementation of the Protocol between the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Albania and the Government of the Italian Republic on strengthening cooperation on migration matters, concluded in 2023”. And further: “ The Committee is nevertheless concerned about possible conflicts between the Protocol and the Convention, which applies to the extraterritorial management of migration and asylum procedures, such as those relating to the automatic detention of migrants and the risk of prolonged detention, as well as the risk of being subjected to inadequate migration or asylum procedures ”. The reference, it says, is to articles 7, 9, 12 and 13 of the Convention.
“The State party”, the UN Committee recommends to Albania, “ should ensure that all persons seeking international protection have free access to the national territory and to fair and efficient procedures for the individual determination of refugee status or entitlement to international protection, in order to guarantee respect for the principle of non-refoulement; and ensure that its legislation, as well as the Protocol relating to Italy, are fully in line with these requirements ”.
The issue has already been raised in the past by several lawyers and concerns the detention of asylum seekers, who according to the European Reception Conditions Directive (33/2013) can be detained "where necessary and on the basis of a case-by-case assessment", "except where alternative less restrictive measures are effectively implemented", such as "the obligation to report periodically to the authorities". Article 8.
Alternatives that the Directive requires Member States to guarantee through national legislation. And which, apparently, cannot exist in Albania, because the Protocol has categorically excluded applicants from being removed from centers managed by Italy.
Unlike the EU Commission of Ursula von der Leyen, which continues to see no conflict between EU law and what Italy is doing in Albania, the UN Human Rights Committee considers it a problem. According to the report, in fact, Albania “should ensure that the detention of migrants and asylum seekers is used only as a measure of last resort and is reasonable, necessary and proportionate, in line with the Committee’s general comment No. 35 (2014) on liberty and security of the person, and that alternatives to detention are used in practice”. But the agreement between Rome and Tirana does not provide for alternatives to detention. Alternatives that, on the contrary, Italy must provide, as a member of the European Union and as a state party to the Convention on Civil and Political Rights. / Adapted from “ Il fatto Quotidiano ”
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