Klikaktiv's statement on EU Action Plan for Western Balkans
Following the EU - Western Balkan Summit held on 6th December in Tirana, the European Commission presented EU Action Plan for the Western Balkans. The plan is set to be put in place as early as 2023 through a series of bilateral and multilateral agreements between EU, Member States and Western Balkan countries who all have been granted the status of candidate for joining the EU.
Klikaktiv believes the action plan will have detrimental effects on human rights of refugees and migrants on the Balkan route. At the same time, none of the points of the plan addresses effective access to asylum, documents nor integration of refugees, but serves a single purpose to further externalize the EU borders in the Balkan region. Based on the trends in the field so far, our field experience and testimonies of people on the move, we can safely assume that the plan will not stop new arrivals to the EU, but will just make refugees and migrants even more dependent on smuggling networks and hence at higher risk of trafficking in human beings and gender-based violence.
Following is a short summary of the action plan points of greatest concern:
Frontex: According to the plan, the strengthening of the border management along the Balkan route will be accomplished with new status agreements between each individual Western Balkans country and Frontex about the deployment of Frontex standing corps in these countries. These new agreements will give Frontex staff more executive powers, such as border checks and registration of people, as stated in the press release of the European Council. The current agreement between Serbia and Frontex is already very controversial, particularly the point which states that Frontex's staff bears no criminal accountability for their actions, meaning they would not be put on trial in Serbia regardless of how serious of an offense they might have committed. At the same time, it is also planned for the EU to increase the financial support to Frontex in the Member States who are at the EU external borders.
Transit reception centers at the EU external borders and returns to “a safe third country”: As part of setting the swift asylum procedures in place, EU has announced “setting up pilot projects in interested Member States for fast asylum procedures in line with the existing acquis, notably by applying the border procedure, the Safe Third Country and Safe Country of Origin concepts”. This indicates the EU is planning to set “transit reception camps” on its EU external borders where people will be able to apply for asylum only to be returned back to the “safe third countries” i.e. Western Balkan countries, most likely Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Similar idea was also announced in the proposed New Pact on Migration and Asylum whose adoption was listed as top priority in the action plan.
Deportations from EU to Serbia and from Serbia to countries of origin: The most worrying part of the action plan is the announced enhancement of readmission cooperation between EU and Western Balkan countries and returns to the countries of origin. Under the EU - Serbia readmission agreement from year 2007 Member States can return third-country nationals who have transited through Serbia back to its territory.
We already know that this is functioning in practice - Klikaktiv has already identified cases of people on the move returned to Serbia from Hungary or Romania, based on the readmission agreement. These individuals did not have access to asylum procedure in Serbia, as they were immediately upon return issued “decision on return” documents by the Serbian police and effectively denied them access to asylum and social protection system. This practice pushes them back to the hands of smugglers through which they hope to re-enter the EU and exposes them to risk of chained push-backs.
It is also planned to “increase EU actions to step up returns from the Western Balkan countries” to the countries or origins. As soon as 2023, the EU will develop a new program which will cover both voluntary and non-voluntary returns from the Western Balkan countries to the countries of origin. Frontex will also provide support in forced returns to the Western Balkan countries.
Serbia has already taken some steps which might facilitate deportations to the countries of origin: in the past two years two new detention centers have been established, and people detained in them are not entitled to free legal aid nor do they have access to any legal assistance. The Serbian government has already announced its plan to sign readmission agreements with almost all countries from which the majority of refugees and migrants flee. Lastly, in 2018 Serbia made adjustments in its Law on Foreigners according to which the deportations can be done in a more swift procedure and with no legal guarantees.
Keeping in mind that throughout 2022, the majority of people on the move in Serbia (more than 70%) came from Afghanistan and Syria, countries with decades long armed conflict and in dire humanitarian situations, one must but be seriously concerned about the risks these people will face going forward with the action plan.
Taking into account the rate of poverty and corruption in some of the countries in the Western Balkans, it is likely the plan will not be implemented as intended. This is set to have unstabilizing consequences on both the migrant and the local population. Even if implemented in fullest, the plan violates basic human rights and will in many ways harm the lives of those who had to flee trying to reach safety. We believe as a country, the region and Europe in general, we can and must do better.
In solidarity,
the Klikaktiv team