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Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Common Standards and Procedures in Member States for Returning Illegally Staying Third-Country Nationals

Document number
1708
Date
2008
Title
Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Common Standards and Procedures in Member States for Returning Illegally Staying Third-Country Nationals
Author/publisher
Council of the European Union, European Parliament, European Union (UN)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
EU law,
Keywords
8812/08, Interinstitutional File: 2005/0167 (COD), Irregular Migration, Feminization of migration, Economic migration, Labour migration, Free movement, Undocumented migrants; Undocumented labour; Migrant rights; Migration management; Comprehensive approach to migration; Migration policy; Restrictive migration measures,
Summary
June 18, 2008, the plenary vote in the European Parliament adopted the EU Return Directive, setting out EU-wide rules and procedures for returning illegally staying third country nationals. Under the legislative text as adopted now, the voluntary departure period limited to between seven and thirty days. The Directive establishes a five-year ban from Europe for all people who are expelled and lays down the detention period of migrants up to 18 months. The text allows the detention and forced expulsion of unaccompanied minors to a third country where they have neither any family nor legal guardian. The controversial Directive was highly debated by NGO’s encouraging MEPs to ensure that maximum duration of detention, re-entry bans and the principle of voluntary return are properly addressed.The UN high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour said last week that she would have preferred that the EU instead ratify the UN convention on rights for migrant workers. Leading human rights NGO Amnesty International has also attacked the law and found worrying the insufficient guarantees for unaccompanied minors within the legislation. Criticism has also come from some of the developing countries' leaders. Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa called the directive "shameful," while his Latin American counterpart, Bolivian president Evo Morales, described the new laws as "draconian." In an open letter to the European Parliament issued last week, the Bolivian attacked what he called "concentration camps" for detainees.
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