Migrant crisis: Pakistan may review EU deportation accord suspension

EU ambassador assures Chaudhry Nisar that Pakistan’s concerns will be addressed

ISLAMABAD:

As the European Union looks to step up relocation of immigrants from migrant-stressed countries like Greece and Italy, the 27-member bloc requested Pakistan on Monday to review its decision to suspend re-admission agreements.

The request to restore the deportation agreements was made in a meeting between Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and the EU Ambassador Jean Francois Cautain in Islamabad.

“We may review our decision [of suspending the accord with the EU on the re-entry of migrants],” an interior ministry official familiar with the outcome of the meeting told The Express Tribune. “Top EU officials have promised to address Pakistan’s concern [on the humiliation of Pakistani migrants in Europe].”



The official added that concerned officers from the ministries of interior and foreign affairs will hold a key meeting with their European counterparts in the coming weeks to discuss this issue. However, a final decision on the subject will be taken after consultations with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in an upcoming cabinet meeting.

Last week, Nisar had suspended the 2010 agreement after accusing EU countries of opting to label illegal migrants as terrorists to fast-track their deportations. “The re-admission agreements have been frozen for the time being after some countries were found violating the treaty,” Nisar told the media last week.

Under the agreements, Pakistanis travelling illegally to any Western country are to be deported only after proper verification. However, most of the countries were deporting the migrants without due confirmation with the local authorities. Last year alone, around 90,000 people were sent back to Pakistan.

“Over the past several months, another dangerous trend has emerged under which Pakistanis travelling abroad without documents are deported on charges of terrorism… without even verifying whether or not they actually are Pakistanis,” the interior minister  had claimed.

Monday’s meeting comes as EU’s Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos urged member states to act quickly on pledges to tighten external borders, relocate refugees from overstretched Italy and Greece, and set up reception centres along the main Balkans route.



“It is now time for them (the member states) to accelerate the work to make these promises a reality on the ground,” the commissioner said.

Avramopoulos has been leading efforts to relocate the nearly 800,000 migrants who have turned up on European shores this year. Two per cent of those migrants are Pakistanis. Last week, he said he would visit Pakistan soon to discuss plans to send back Pakistani migrants who have made their way to Europe.

“We need to see more relocations from Greece and Italy as a matter of urgency,” said Avramopoulos.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2015.