EU proposes tougher conditions to send illegal Bangladeshis back

The European Union (EU) has proposed tougher conditions to send back illegal Bangladeshi migrants from Europe.

The EU authorities have said that Dhaka will have to confirm the identities of the arrested illegal migrants within 48 hours of receiving the list of their names. Otherwise, Bangladesh will be forced to take back the arrested persons.

If the Bangladeshi law enforcers can prove that the returned persons were not citizens of Bangladesh, they would then be taken back.

EU officials made the proposal during their eighth Joint Commission meeting with Bangladesh delegation in Brussels on July 12.

A press statement by European External Action Service said, “The European Union and Bangladesh had an in-depth discussion on migration. The Bangladeshi delegation provided at the meeting their amendments to the draft Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on the return of irregular migrants from the European Union, which were submitted to them in June 2016.”

EU wants to finalise the SOP by September this year whereas, Bangladesh, according to the amended draft, has declined to comply with the new condition.

“A lack of progress on these negotiations meant that no agreement could be reached on a timeframe for concluding the negotiations on the SOPs,” the EU statement said, adding that it “will continue to press Bangladesh to conclude the negotiations on the SOPs by the end of July.”

Bangladesh diplomats in Brussels told Prothom Alo on Thursday that the EU had shown a tougher stance on issues of taking irregular migrants back and upholding international labour standards in the country. But, no joint statement was issued due to lack of consensus on these issues.

Besides these two issues, also featuring prominently at the Joint Commission meeting were Bangladesh’s new election commission’s activities, human rights, the foreign donation act, political developments, the role of the rule of law in democracy and governance, trade and investment, development cooperation and Sustainable Development Goals.

Matters of global interest where the EU and Bangladesh can intensify collaboration were also discussed, such as connectivity, climate change, ocean governance and the EU’s upcoming high-level “Our Ocean Conference”, to be held on 5-6 October in Valetta, Malta.

The EU and Bangladesh also exchanged views on key directions for the development cooperation agenda for 2018-2020, notably in the areas of education and skills development, public financial management, and support to social safety nets. In this respect, both sides agreed on the importance of regular sector policy dialogue to accompany long-term reforms and reinforce the EU-Bangladesh partnership for development cooperation in these areas, the statement added.

The Joint Commission, however, didn’t discuss the Section 57 of Bangladesh’s ICT Act, though that had been expected.

A member of the Bangladesh delegation said the EU delegation didn’t handover any list of illegal Bangladeshi migrants on Wednesday. They just mentioned about arresting 8,000 people during entering Europe.

A Bangladeshi diplomat said the issue of returning irregular migrants was also discussed with importance during a meeting between foreign secretary Shahidul Haque and EU’s managing director for Asia Pacific Gunnar Wiegand in Brussels in the February last.

The foreign secretary proposed to handover a list of irregular Bangladeshi migrants to Dhaka mentioning the countries they were staying in when the EU authorities talked about 24,000 migrants. Later, the number of illegal Bangladeshis was mentioned as 2,500 in the same meeting. Again, the EU authorities decreased the number of arrested illegal Bangladeshis to 214 when Dhaka asked them to handover a list.

However, according to Eurostat the number of illegal Bangladeshis arrested from 2008 to 2015 is 93,435.

Regarding labour rights, another Bangladesh ambassador said EU put emphasis on introducing trade unions and other related matters in the EPZs but Bangladesh said they pledged during the latest ILO conference in Geneva to settle those issues by November. A draft work plan will be completed by 31 August, the ambassador added.

EU has been asking Bangladesh authorities to ensure the labour rights including, their right to be united, and issued letters to take actions against oppression of labours at factories.

Former economic affairs adviser of the EU Embassy in Dhaka, Zillul Hye Razi, told Prothom Alo yesterday that the EU doesn’t consider Bangladesh’s pledges to ILO for Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP). “This is a separate thing. Bangladesh needs to act following international labour rights within a timeframe to receive GSP continuously.”

The EU delegation was led by the deputy managing director for Asia and the Pacific, Paola Pampaloni while the Bangladeshi delegation was led by senior secretary to the law justice and parliamentary affairs ministry Mohammad Shahidul Haque.

Source: Prothom Alo