In its recent reports on Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, the Council of Europe’s Commission on Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) addressed migration-related issues, including the creation of “firewalls” to ensure that irregularly present migrants have access to services in the fields of education, health care, housing, social security and assistance, labour protection and justice. Stated in ECRI´s General Policy Recommendation N°16 on safeguarding irregularly present migrants from discrimination, such firewalls should separate the activities of immigration control and enforcement from the provision of services, so that irregularly present migrants do not refrain from accessing their rights due to fear of deportation.

On 19 March 2020, ECRI published a report on Switzerland, where it noted among others, that there have been numerous improvements since its last report in 2014: victims of racism have access to legal counselling and support in all cantons, the Integration Agenda provides for earlier and intensified integration of refugees and temporarily admitted persons, asylum seekers are allowed to work after three months and the regularisation of well-integrated undocumented migrants living in the canton of Geneva.

ECRI was pleased to note some promising practice regarding firewalls. In the health sector, neither the health insurer nor health care providers may transmit any personal data of undocumented patients to a third party. Moreover, eight medical or social drop-in centres run by non-profit organisations provide health care to irregularly present migrants and do not require any documents of patients. In the field of education, schools and teachers are not allowed to pass on information about undocumented children to the police, thus ensuring access to education for irregularly present migrant children.

On 18 March 2020, ECRI published a report on Belgium, highlighting that Belgium should ensure that no service provider, in particular in the areas of labour protection and justice, is required to report people suspected of being irregularly present in the country to the authorities responsible for immigration control and enforcement, in order to protect their fundamental rights. At the same time, ECRI noted that firewall mechanisms had been set up for access to rights, for instance, to health care and housing or to education for minors. ECRI also recommended that the Belgian authorities make sure that the committee responsible for evaluating federal anti-discrimination laws has enough resources to resume and expand the scope of its work, in consultation with civil society organisations.

On 17 March 2020, in the report on Germany, ECRI noted that while the German authorities are under a general duty to inform the Immigration Office of any suspicion concerning the irregular presence of migrants, a firewall was introduced with regard to education. Since then, educational institutions such as schools, kindergartens and nurseries are exempt from the general reporting duty. As regards health care, the authorities informed ECRI that irregularly present migrants can ask for asylum and that they then have immediately access to medical treatment under the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act. However, while doctors in Germany are in principle not allowed to pass on data on irregularly present migrants, no firewall exists with regards to the services responsible for reimbursing the cost of medical treatment. Because of the threat of being reported by these services and deported, irregularly present persons including pregnant women and people in need of emergency treatment often do not dare to contact doctors or hospitals. In the report, ECRI recommended that the authorities extend the existing firewall against the reporting of irregularly present migrants to the services responsible for the reimbursement of such treatment, fund low-threshold counselling and assistance services throughout the country where migrants without residence permits can explore options to regularise their situation and take measures to raise awareness about the legal framework available for irregularly present migrants, such as firewalls in the fields of health care and education.

Germany has invested many resources in early integration of newcomers, especially after the high number of arrivals of migrants and refugees in 2015, when an Act on the acceleration of the asylum procedure came into force. In the report, ECRI welcomed the authorities’ holistic approach that covers the full process of inclusive integration, which can start even before the arrival in Germany and leads through different stages to full inclusion into society. The main integration instruments are language training and civic orientation, and ECRI is also pleased to note that the plan will cover several new topics including the one of anti-discrimination. However, ECRI recommended that the authorities speed up the updating of the National Action Plan on Integration, define and insert integration indicators into it and include the objective of and measures for increasing the share of children with migration backgrounds that attend pre-school education. The enrolment rate in day care facilities of children aged under three with a migration background only increased to 20%. In primary education children with migration backgrounds lag behind with regard to their reading competences and this gap continues to widen through to the 9th grade; they are more than twice as likely to leave school without a diploma.