Jorge Fernández Díaz proposes European Return Programme to tackle people trafficking networks

Migratory pressure in the Mediterranean is currently one of the main challenges being faced by the European Union and requires a long-term, structured effort. In this regard, Jorge Fernández Díaz said that Spain believes any EU migration policy should be balanced and should implement all the measures contained in the European Council Declaration of 23 April and other documents since approved by the Council. He underlined the importance given by Spain to the European Commission Statement on a European Agenda on Migration as it represents another step towards building a Common EU Migration Policy.

While speaking to his European partners, the Spanish Home Affairs Minister highlighted that the focus should be placed on combating illegal immigration, controlling borders and implementing preventive actions through cooperation with the countries of origin and transit because they are the most effective mechanisms for avoiding the waves of illegal immigrants arriving by sea and land.

In his speech, Jorge Fernández Díaz insisted on the need to carefully study the consequences of creating a relocation system in order to avoid producing another pull factor. "By implementing that proposal, all we will do is share the problem between various Member States and not actually solve the problem", said the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, adding that "we fear such an initiative could produce a pull factor and therefore not only fail to help solve the problem but rather worsen the situation as the criminal mafia gangs engaged in people trafficking will not cease what they are engaged in if they see that the immigrants who do indeed reach Europe will be distributed between various Member States".

Jorge Fernández Díaz defended the principles of solidarity and shared responsibility in the European Union regarding the humanitarian drama taking place in the central Mediterranean, saying that Spain is showing solidarity on a daily basis through its responsible control of migratory flows and the external border of the European Union. "This has led to a switch from the boat people crisis of years ago - with thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants reaching the coasts of Spain, as well as the humanitarian drama of those who died in the Atlantic while trying to make the crossing - to a situation in which not a single boat reaches the Canary Islands from the African coast", said the Spanish Home Affairs Minister.

Hence, Jorge Fernández Díaz pointed out that Spain does not agree with imposing distribution criteria that fail to consider the efforts made by certain Member States in the fight against illegal immigration and control of the EU external border in the best interests of all other Member States. In this regard, he explained that any decision adopted on this matter "must be voluntary, extraordinary and temporary in nature", as established by the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union regarding emergency situations.

The Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, suggested to the other EU ministers that a European Return Programme should be approved as an effective measure to tackle people trafficking and the humanitarian drama in the Mediterranean based on a specific and significant budget to be actioned by FRONTEX and the Member States.

Jorge Fernández Díaz stressed that the funds allocated to this European Return Programme should be used to develop various specific actions, such as the enforcement of returns, the organisation of identification missions, the development of voluntary assisted return programmes and the development of technical solutions by the governments of non-EU countries of origin to facilitate the identification of their citizens.

Furthermore, Jorge Fernández Díaz explained that such a European Return Programme would provide a measure that would not generate a pull factor but would actually discourage the use of illegal immigration routes.

Follow-up on the Conclusions from the European Council of 23 April

Of the 17 measures contained in the Conclusions from the European Council of 23 April, the Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, said that Spain is most interested in those with a direct impact on the migration problem without producing a pull factor and highlighted the importance of those that identify returns and readmission as "a fundamental line of action that must be enhanced" within the European Union.

In this regard, Jorge Fernández Díaz outlined the measures on disbanding the people trafficking networks, the use of EUROPOL to investigate and remove the websites used by people traffickers, support for such countries as Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Mali and Niger, as well as the Rabat and Khartoum Processes, the improvement of capabilities of regional partners to manage their own maritime borders, the encouragement of readmissions by non-EU countries while linking the migration policy with the EU foreign affairs and cooperation for development policy and the creation of a European Return Programme in collaboration with FRONTEX as an essential measure.

Furthermore, as regards the matter of cooperation with non-EU countries, Jorge Fernández Díaz stressed that action is required to avoid the departure of boats from Africa. To do so, the Spanish Home Affairs Minister wanted to clearly highlight the need to establish Joint Investigation Teams in Niger to control illegal immigration and the fight against people trafficking made up of officers from Niger and the Member States of the European Union. Jorge Fernández Díaz said that "we should achieve complete geographical deployment of the Mediterranean Seahorse project, which has seen some very good results in the Atlantic and could also do so in the Mediterranean".

The fight against terrorism: the Schengen Area

Jorge Fernández Díaz said that, to tackle the threat posed by Jihadi combatants, "it is now necessary to implement the measures already identified by the European Union" and underlined the importance of setting prioritised schedules in the fight against terrorism and involving European institutions and agencies for their immediate application.

In his speech, Jorge Fernández Díaz supported the creation of a benchmark European unit within EUROPOL to "clean the Internet of radical or terrorist content" and therefore prevent the radicalisation and training of terrorists. He announced that Spain will participate in this action.

Jorge Fernández Díaz proposed greater institutional dialogue with Internet providers to establish codes of best practice and common approaches to the removal of extremist content from the Internet. Also in this regard, the Spanish minister believes collaboration with the United States to be fundamental as many of the Internet service providers and servers are located in the US.

At the meeting, the EU Home Affairs Ministers also discussed the implementation of the European PNR. In this regard, Jorge Fernández Díaz told his European colleagues that Spain considers implementation of the European PNR to be of maximum importance to the fight against terrorism and said that "we cannot allow all our institutions to stop working together on approving the PNR Directive because such a move would jeopardise the security of our citizens, which is a great responsibility for us all, including the European Parliament".

As regards the control of documents and people at the external borders of the European Union, Jorge Fernández Díaz recalled that Spain supports this action within the framework of the current Borders Code without it affecting the flows that cross internal borders nor the principle of free movement. Such controls on both documents and people would be applied according to criteria established by the European Commission in agreement with the Member States and always within the framework of the rules governing the implementation of the Schengen borders code.