Fifteen days for chartered flights & Three days for commercial flights, EU agreed to share prior information of Deportees with Interior Ministry

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Ch. Nisar Ali Khan has welcomed and appreciated EU’s understanding of Pakistan’s concerns in the implementation of the EURA agreement. He was reacting to the news that a broad-based understanding has been reached in the Joint Readmission Committee’s meeting held in Brussels.

According to the statement issued by the Spokesman for Ministry of Interior (MoI), the Minister for interior said that illegal immigration is posing problems not only for EU countries but is also a source of embarrassment and concern for Pakistan. Appreciating EU’s understanding of our concerns, he said that this will provide a very good platform for Pakistan and EU to work together with greater coordination in this area.

The meeting of the Joint Readmission Committee (JRC) held in Brussels last week has arrived at an agreement between the two sides on the areas of differences. This meeting of the JRC took place following the decision taken for the same in the meeting between the Minister for Interior Ch. Nisar Ali khan and the EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos in Nov, 2015 where Interior Minister shared Pakistan’s serious concerns over the loopholes in the implementation of EURA, which seriously affected the fundamental rights and in some cases the dignity of Pakistani immigrants/refugees, and stressed the need to immediately resolve the issues in the interest of both Pakistan and EU.

On Pakistan’s concern over the deportees being sent without due verification, EU agreed, during the JRC meeting, to the verification process as proposed by the Ministry of Interior in Pakistan and committed to ensure sending of deportees strictly in line with the Readmission Accord, the immigration laws and the procedures acceptable to Pakistan.

EU also welcomed the SOPs developed by the MoI in Pakistan for the transparent and speedy processing of the verification applications as well as Pakistan’s initiative of developing an electronic platform for the issuance of Emergency Travel Document (ETD) to the verified deportees.

While appreciating the newly developed system of interrogation of the deportees by FIA in Pakistan with a view to take action against the human traffickers and smugglers, the EU side agreed that a 15 days prior information in case of deportees through chartered flights and 03 days prior information in case of deportee(s) through commercial flights will be shared with Pakistan in order to facilitate FIA in making necessary arrangements for the reception and interrogation of the deportees.

In response to Pakistan’s strong demand, EU also acknowledged the need for sharing the evidence beforehand with Pakistan in cases where any deportee is accused of criminal or terrorist activity.

EU’s broader engagement with Pakistan including legal migration and mobility as well as the re-integration of the Pakistani migrants sent back from EU was also discussed during the JRC meeting.

The meeting ended with a commitment from both sides to enhance cooperation in managing current migration and security issues in order to take stronger action together to tackle the migration challenge.