European governments are increasingly focused on detaining irregular migrants and returning them to their home countries. But PICUM, a Brussels-based NGO, says they are illegal measures that won’t deter asylum seekers. Marion MacGregor reports

European countries have been stepping up efforts to stop asylum seekers from entering or remaining in the territory.

The UK government is continuing to push ahead with its Illegal Migration Bill, which would make it a crime to cross the English Channel by boat and would put everyone arriving via that route in detention. The aim is to stop people from attempting the dangerous journey, the immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, repeated this week, mainly by creating a ‘deterrent effect’.

Italy has taken steps to make it harder for migrants to reach its shores, and to stay there. A law passed last week – the so-called Cutro Decree, named after the February 26 migrant shipwreck – has abolished a residence permit called ‘special protection’ which enabled migrants who did not qualify for asylum in Italy to remain legally in the country, and to convert their stay to a work permit.

“Special protection creates attractive conditions for immigration and we will eliminate it,” said Nicola Molteni, undersecretary at Italy’s interior ministry.

Germany, which received over 101,000 applications in the first four months of this year and which hosts the most asylum-seekers in Europe, has also announced changes this week that would allow more people to be deported, more quickly.

The proposals, announced after a meeting between the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the 16 state leaders, would also mean people due to be removed from Germany could now be detained for four weeks, instead of 10 days.

No evidence for deterrence claim

The measures being taken are in line with the European Union’s overall goal of having an efficient system that will enable more migrants to be sent back to their countries of origin, and which is meant to deter people from coming to Europe.

But not everyone agrees with this approach. According to Marta Gionco from PICUM, a network of migrants rights’ NGOs, there is no evidence to support the claim that returning more migrants to their home countries will deter others from attempting irregular journeys.

“People are very aware of the risks that they may face coming to Europe and they still decide to do so, for many reasons,” Gionco told InfoMigrants.

“Even if it had a deterrent effect, we have to consider the human rights implications – we would be trying to deter people from exercising their rights, from trying to come to Europe for protection for many reasons,” she added.

Gionco is concerned that the deterrence argument is being used to justify increasingly harmful measures, including violating human rights. “We see that there is no limit to how far you can go with the deterrence argument.”

Appeal by videoconference