22/11/2013 Standing Committee
Europe urgently needs to draw up common standards for treating the estimated 300,000 irregular migrants and failed asylum seekers who are forced to return to their home countries every year by land, sea or air, according to PACE’s Standing Committee.
Approving a report by Anne-Mari Virolainen (Finland, EPP/CD) today in Vienna, the committee said these should cover appropriate training for escorting staff, including on medical matters and restraint or coercive techniques, as well as standardised information provided to those being returned.
Member states should also co-operate with the EU’s border agency Frontex to monitor such returns, the committee said.