Ane Barcos
The Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, described the measures in the returns regulation agreed upon this Monday as “disproportionate” on Thursday, referring to the creation of return centers in third countries and detention periods of up to 24 months, warning that they could violate both European Union principles and international law.
Speaking upon his arrival at the meeting of European Union interior ministers being held this Thursday in Luxembourg, the Spanish minister indicated that, while the Migration Pact “has been a step forward” in European migration policy, the new returns regulation agreed upon this week is “quite the opposite.”
Negotiators from the Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on Monday to expedite the deportation of non-EU nationals and to allow their expulsion to return centers in third countries.
Regarding these centers, Marlaska emphasized that “families with minors could be sent there even if they have no connection to these third countries,” indicating that this could violate “not only the values of the European Union, but also international law, such as the essential and basic principle of international protection: non-refoulement without justification and without putting people at risk.”
The Spanish minister also rejected the detention periods stipulated in the agreement. Individuals can be detained for up to 24 months after an individual assessment if they do not cooperate, pose a flight risk, or are considered a security risk—a measure the Spanish minister labeled “disproportionate.”
“This could mean that a person in this situation of seeking international protection could be subjected to a longer period of deprivation of liberty than they would be if they were charged with a crime, even a serious one,” he noted.
Marlaska considered the regulations as a whole to be “disproportionate” and indicated that, for this reason, Spain, “He who was so involved in the European Pact on Migration and Asylum” cannot support it. “We already said so when the general approach was debated, and we say it again now that it has been approved,” he concluded.