On 14 April 2022, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović published a statement regarding United Kingdom government‘s intention to offshore asylum processing to Rwanda. “Today’s announcement by the UK government of its intention to offshore asylum processing to Rwanda sends a worrying signal”, she said. “Not only does such externalisation raise questions about the protection of the human rights of the people involved. It also indicates that the UK intends to shift the responsibility for what is in fact a very small proportion of people seeking protection worldwide from its territory to that of another country. Such a shift in responsibility runs the risk of seriously undermining the global system of international protection.”

On 7 April 2022, the Commissioner released the Recommendation “Pushed beyond the limits. Urgent action needed to stop pushbacks at Europe’s borders” to member states’ governments and parliamentarians outlining the widespread occurrence of pushbacks and related human rights violations at land and sea borders across Europe. “The scale and normalisation of pushbacks at Europe’s borders requires urgent and concerted action by governments and parliamentarians”, said today Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.

On 12 May 2022, the Commissioner published a report following her visit to Austria, with recommendations on improving the reception and integration of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants and on strengthening women’s rights and gender equality. To address shortcomings in reception conditions, the authorities should “adopt harmonised standards regarding reception centres and cooperate with the provinces in order to ensure that reception conditions do not vary between facilities and to avoid overcrowding and lengthy stays in certain federal structures”, the Commissioner said. “Particular attention should be paid to the specific needs of vulnerable people, especially unaccompanied children; and to ensuring that asylum seekers have effective access to education and employment”, she added while also emphasising the importance of strengthening independent and quality legal counselling by legally safeguarding the structural and functional independence of the competent federal agency. Read the comments of the authorities of Austria / Watch the report in a nutshell (video).

On 23 May 2022, the Commissioner addressed a letter to the President of the Estonian Parliament calling for the Parliament to ensure that the bill amending the State Borders Act complies with human rights obligations. She called on parliamentarians to amend a bill which would, among other things, allow pushbacks in situations of emergency with a mass influx of migrants, and to ensure that it fully complies with Estonia’s human rights obligations. Recalling her recent Recommendation on putting an end to pushbacks in Europe, the Commissioner stressed that carrying out individual assessments remains a crucial tool for securing effective protection against refoulement, as well as for upholding other rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. The Commissioner also stressed that designating certain border crossings as the only ones where asylum applications can be filed should not lead to violations of member states’ obligations under human rights instruments. Other concerns about the bill include the lack of suspensive effect of appeals against a decision to immediately return.

Read the reply by the Chair of the Constitutional Committee of the Estonian Parliament