In May 2011 the European Commission presented its new European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and its communication A Dialogue for Migration, Mobility, and Security with the Southern Mediterranean Countries. It is in this context that the European Union (EU) launched, in October 2011, negotiations on mobility partnerships with both Tunisia and Morocco.
The cooperation the EU seeks to foster with third countries of the Mediterranean is based on the principle of “more for more”, “the most rewarding aspects of the Union’s policy, in particular economic integration (…), the mobility of individuals (mobility partnerships) and greater financial support from the EU” is conditional on the progress made on democratic reform and human rights by the countries involved.
The mobility partnerships proposed, however, would require Tunisia and Morocco to fully commit themselves to the integrated management of external borders, the control of migratory flows and the readmission of irregular migrants present in the EU, in order that they might benefit from any possible relaxing of visa procedures for short stays and labour migration opportunities based on the needs of EU member states.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Francois Crépeau, confirmed at the end of his first visit to Tunisia in the framework of his study on the management of the EU’s external borders that, “a large majority of regional migration initiatives coming from the EU continue to be focused on issues of border controls.” He subsequently called upon the EU to “move beyond security and border control discourse, and further develop the migration and mobility partnership currently being negotiated with Tunisia by concentrating on the respect, protection, and promotion of the rights of migrants.”
It is in this context that the EMHRN calls upon the European Union and its member states, as well as Morocco and Tunisia, to establish as a precondition to mobility partnerships the full guarantee of the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and, in particular, to refrain from signing any readmission agreement if these rights are not effectively respected.