Malta joins EU states’ bid to speed up migrant deportations

Malta has joined a call backed by 17 member states for quicker ways to deport people from their countries, with a reformed framewotrk for the Returns Directive.

The proposal floated by Austria and the Netherlands, and backed by 15 other Schengen-area countries, sets out objectives to assist the Commission in preparing a “re-revised” legislative proposal.

Chiefly, it makes a case for a more ‘punishing’ angle on deportations by insisting that people without the right to stay are held accountable, by sanctioning non-cooperation by those who are obliged to leave the country. The countries have called this “a paradigm shift”.

They are asking for further digitisation and simplifying procedures that will make deportations faster and easier.

They also want that such deportations of illegally-staying migrants do not get hampered by “extensive interpretation” from the Court of Justice if the EU – that is, when these returns are carried out in full respect of fundamental rights.

“There is a consensus among member states on the need to facilitate and speed up returns through a new legal framework, based on a new proposal from the Commission,” the states said in their non-paper to Brussels.

The proposal is backed by Switzerland (a Schengen country), Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Finland, France, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Sweden and Slovakia

The current Return Directive, presented in 2005 and adopted in 2008, was originally aimed to establish minimum guarantees, standards and procedures for returns.

“As a result, the current legal framework does not sufficiently reflect the needs of the member states to ensure effective removals,” they said, referring to the Asylum Pact;s requirements to improve deportations.

While in 2018 a reacst Return Directive did not make to the European Parliament due to political opposition, now that the European Parliament is more right-leaning, some leaders believe a new directive could pass a vote in the chamber.

“The legislative proposal for a recast of the Return Directive was presented by the Commission in 2018. Since then, several discussions with the MS/SAC on legislative reforms have taken place,” they said.