14 Common policy on illegal immigration
| (24603)
10289/03
COM(03) 323
| Commission Communication in view of the Thessaloniki European Council on the development of a common policy on illegal immigration, smuggling and trafficking of human beings, external borders and the return of illegal residents.
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| Legal base | — |
| Department | Home Office |
| Basis of consideration | Minister's letter of 21 October 2003
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| Previous Committee Report | HC 63-xxxii (2002-03), paragraph 16 (17 September 2003)
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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The document
14.1 The Tampere European Council (October 1999) concluded that
the essential elements for a comprehensive and effective immigration
policy were management of migration flows, cooperation with countries
of origin and the integration of legal immigrants; and it set
the objective of establishing a common asylum policy. The Seville
European Council (June 2002) launched specific initiatives to
combat illegal immigration. At the beginning of June 2003, in
view of the European Council to be held later that month in Thessaloniki,
the Commission sent a Communication to the Council and the European
Parliament about the development of common policies on illegal
immigration, smuggling and trafficking in human beings, external
borders and the return of illegal immigrants.
14.2 The Communication evaluates progress so far,
and makes suggestions for further action, on:
- visa policy;
- border control policy (development of a common
and integrated policy for the management of the external borders);
- the return of illegal immigrants;
- key flanking measures (such as short-term residence
permits for victims of smuggling and trafficking; "undeclared
work"; and carriers' liability);
- operational cooperation and the exchange of information;
- partnership with third countries; and
- financial resources and burden sharing.
14.3 When we considered the document on 17 September
2003,[25] we noted that
the Minister's Explanatory Memorandum did not contain an assessment
of the impact on immigration to the UK of the developments discussed
in the Commission's Communication. We asked the Minister for her
assessment of that impact and decided to hold the document under
scrutiny pending her reply.
The Minister's letter
14.4 In her reply of 21 October 2003, the Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office (Caroline Flint) tells
us that the proposed Visa Information System is still at
the planning stage. She comments that it is, potentially, an extremely
powerful tool for information purposes. The Government will continue
to press for a comprehensive system, including biometric data
on immigrants.
14.5 The Minister says that joint operational activities
between Member States, under the strategic oversight of the
Common Unit for Frontier Practitioners, have demonstrated
the benefits of a collaborative approach to the interception and
deterrence of illegal immigration, data collection and analysis,
and the sharing of information and best practice. She comments
that:
"It is not easy to assess the direct impact
on immigration into the UK of the various operational projects
conducted by Member States over the last 12 months. Many projects
are ongoing and have yet to be evaluated, nor are they all intended
to produce immediate results. A far better measure of success
would be the vastly improved operational cooperation between
the various border control agencies, not just on practical front-line
operations ,… but also in relation to the exchange of information
and ideas".
14.6 The Minister tells us that the Government is
keen to explore forms of operational cooperation for the return
of people who no longer have a right to remain in the UK.
She agrees with the Commission that it is too early to assess
the full impact of the pilot return programme to Afghanistan.
She adds that:
"There can be added value in Member States cooperating
to build capacity in the country of destination and therefore
encourage sustainable and thus permanent returns. Implementation
of the programme has, however, been slow and accordingly we remain
of the view that Member States need to retain the flexibility
to put into place their own arrangements".
14.7 The Minister says that the Commission's "Action
plan for the collection and analysis of Community statistics in
the field of migration" will lead towards improvements
in the way in which statistics are collated and held, promote
decision making and ensure the production of user friendly statistical
outputs by the Commission. She comments that the impact is not
easy to quantify, but that the benefit of timely, harmonized statistical
data is essential to inform decision making .
14.8 As for the Immigration Liaison Office (ILO)
Network, the Minister tells us that:
"The impact of our ILO strategy recognises the
importance that effective upstream disruption closer to source
and transit countries has on illegal migration, and this work
contributes to the UK's aim to drive down asylum intake. Our ILO
network is currently involved in over 20 operational initiatives
targeting organised immigration crime. This includes initiatives
with local law enforcement agencies, in addition to supporting
UK-led overseas operations. Recent experience has been encouraging,
in that six operational intelligence packages have come from the
network to IND's Intelligence Service in the last two months,
and are currently being developed with a view to an appropriate
enforcement response overseas.
"Prior to the creation of our ILO network the
UK had an unacceptably limited ability to engage with local law
enforcement agencies. Recently, the relevant ILO has been able
to disseminate intelligence to several local law enforcement agencies
in respect of a current operation targeting facilitators through
the Balkan region. If we did not have the network, such dissemination
would not happen".
14.9 In November 2002, the Seville European Council
identified nine countries[26]
with which cooperation on the management of migration flows
would need to be intensified. The Minister says that the conclusion
of EC readmission agreements with key third countries should facilitate
UK removals efforts. But none of the agreements is yet in force.
It is, therefore, to soon to assess their impact.
Conclusion
14.10 We are grateful to the Minister for her
prompt and helpful reply. We recognise that some of the developments
on which the Commission reported in its Communication are not
yet at a stage at which they could have an impact on immigration
to the UK. We also recognise the difficulties of quantifying impacts.
But we regard such assessments, difficult as they may be to make,
as important to our scrutiny work.
14.11 Accordingly, in clearing this document,
we ask the Minister, when providing Explanatory Memoranda on future
documents about the implementation of Community initiatives, to
include comments on the initiatives' impact on the UK.
25 See headnote. Back
26
Albania, China, Serbia and Montenegro, Morocco, Russia, Tunisia,
Ukraine, Libya and Turkey. Back
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