During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs debate on the new agreement with Pakistan on the readmission by that country of individuals illegally living in the EU.

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

EU - Pakistan (T)

MORAES, Claude (S&D, UK)

MALMSTRÖM, Cecilia (ALDE, SE, EC)

SÓGOR, Csaba (EPP, RO)

GRIESBECK, Nathalie (ALDE, FR)

FLAUTRE, Hélène (Greens/EFA, FR)

TAVARES, Rui (Greens/EFA, PT)

Agreement between the EC and Pakistan on readmission: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (Romanian), Csaba S&#211;GOR (EPP, RO), It is now an obligation to readmit people under certain conditions and also technical details had been laid down. This readmission agreement is an important tool to fight illegal immigration to the EU and also to increase security on the territory of the EU.

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), We believe that respect for International Conventions not fully guaranteed in this agreement, and in particular Pakistan is not a signatory of the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, which creates an unstable situation. It seems logical to us and our group that signing basic International Conventions such as these should be a necessary precursor to signing readmission agreements. The EU is currently is signatory to 11 readmission agreements.

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), For our group it is vital that before giving consent to such agreements, the Parliament is in full possession of the facts, however despite this the agreement entered into force in 2004, there is no evidence based on evaluation of the effectiveness of such instruments and the consequences of their implementation. For that reason the S&amp;D group calls on the Commissioner to carry out such an evaluation as soon as possible.

SOUNDBITE (French), H&#233;l&#232;ne FLAUTRE (Greens/EFA, FR), Pakistan is the country that gives refuge to the largest number of refugees in the world and now we are expecting them to take even of them back. Afghans who are coming to Europe fleeing from a war where are waging ourselves. This seems to be improper. And the Council of Europe says that we should only ratify readmission agreements with countries that can guarantee certain level of international protection and International Conventions.

SOUNDBITE (French), H&#233;l&#232;ne FLAUTRE (Greens/EFA, FR), Who is gone to have to prove that they came directly from Pakistan to the EU? What is going to happen after the 30 days deadline if Pakistan does not respond? Is it to be this stranger European 'laisser passer' as the COM is suggested that we are agreeing to here? I haven't had an answer from anybody, neither from the Pakistan Ambassador, all of this is dreamed up in the so called joint readmission Commission. I can 't say that I agree to this because we don't know the impact to have in practise, it all depends on the answers that are devised to these questions.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Rui TAVARES (GUE/NGL, PT), On the readmission agreement on Pakistan are many doubts attached. Firstly it is not readmission agreement for Pakistanis, what it is doing is opening the back door if you like to Afghans, and this in a country that has not signed the Geneva Convention in particular on refugee 1951, it is a difficult situation as we can't have to ways and two measures. Either we fully 100percent respect Human Rights or we under respect them 80 percent what we are currently doing now.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie GRIESBECK (ALDE, FR), We now have 11 agreements and we are involved in the negotiations on 7 others. A yet there has been no evaluation of the existing agreements, before new agreements should be entered into there should be an evaluation of existing ones.

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia MALMSTR&#214;M, Member of the EC in charge of Home Affairs, Concerning agreements with countries not signatories of the Geneva Convention, yes of course we would like to Pakistan to sign this and we are very much involved to try to convince them and to peruse these negotiations. Because the COM is as you all very attached to the values of international instruments on Human Rights and international protection. A proper application of these instruments must be at the core of EU policy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia MALMSTR&#214;M, Member of the EC in charge of Home Affairs, These standards guarantee that no person may be removed or subject to readmission procedures from any MS before the risk that that person concerned when returned will be subject to persecution or torture or inhumane or degrading punishment has been fully evaluated and excluded.