The European Commission has launched a proposal on Tuesday to establish a black list of accomplices with people trafficking.
The measure is intended as a reaction to what the twenty-seven considers a “hybrid attack” by Belarus, who has been financed the flights from thousands of asylum plaintiffs for months from places like Iraq, Turkey or the Gulf countries and then push them, to
often with violence, to community borders, especially Lithuania and Poland.
But it can be used in any other case.
“Attempts to destabilize the EU instrumentalizing people will not work. The EU is united and has taken steps to resolve the situation at the EU’s external borders with Belarus. Today we present a new proposal to include in the black list to operators of
Transport involved in traffic or trafficking in persons in the EU. We will never accept the exploitation of human beings for political purposes, “the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen has pointed out.
The proposal, which must be ratified by the Council and the Eurocamera, responds to a very specific challenge and on which no doubt is there. It is more than proven than Alexander Lukashenko, with the support of Moscow, is using desperate people to generate chaos in the EU and destabilize the region. The problem is your reach. The European Union has already had legal mechanisms, and economic responses, to punish entities or accomplices with the trafficking of people towards their territory, but this is different. What is searched is now sanctioning airlines that do routes between third countries, even if the people traveling have the documentation in order. It is indisputable that Belarus was trying to harm its neighbors, but asylum plaintiffs are real and their papers and visas, too. In fact, the Commission, in its communication today, talks about the airlines that “consciously or unconsciously” participate in these operations.
What the Von Der Leyen team proposes is a new legal framework that allows “to adopt specific measures against operators in any mode of transport (terrestrial, air and maritime), which participate or facilitate trafficking or trafficking in the Union
European. The measures would be provided and would be determined on a case-by-case basis. The type of measures could include the limitation of operations in the Union market, the suspension of licenses or authorizations, the suspension of the rights to refuel or perform maintenance within the
EU, and the prohibition of traveling or flying over the EU or stopping or scale in EU ports “.
In recent weeks, most airlines that were on the radar have already reacted, as well as various countries. Vice-Chairperson Margaritis Schinas toured the region, from Iraq to Emirates through Istanbul and achieved that the corresponding governments accede to tightening the necessary nuts to cut this flow. But with the legal framework there can now be reasonably fast sanctions. “Information manipulation is a key tool that is used to deceive people, create false promises and, consequently, instrumentalize them. Several actors have taken advantage of the situation to orchestrate a generalized disinformation campaign to discredit the international reputation of the EU . The European External Action Service adopted measures to counteract the false and misleading information online and through specific communication activities by the EU delegations in the countries of which most people have been attracted to Belarus “, The Commission explains in a statement.
From the hand of the Black List Brussels today approved new funds for affected people.
Thus, the Commission has allocated 700,000 euros in humanitarian aid for vulnerable refugees and migrants who are right now in Belarus, at borders and within the country, of which 200,000 “will be immediately allocated to support the International Federation of Societies of the
Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) As part of the EU’s global contribution to the Emergency Relief Fund in cases of disaster, managed by the International Federation. The departure has 500,000 additional euros “for partner organizations
From the EU execute more humanitarian aid on the ground. ”
The quantity pales against mobilized resources to stop arrivals.
The College of Commissioners has given today seen well, after listening to the requests of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, to mobilize up to 200 million euros more for the management of borders.
There is a deep debate in the Union about whether Community funds owe or can defray the construction of ‘defensive’ walls or fences before the arrival of asylum plaintiffs.
The Commission is reluctant but the Member States seem to decide mostly in favor and the legal services of the Council say that it is something legal.
