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UNDER
fire for a stricter immigration policy seen as being
unduly harsh on foreign workers despite having benefited
from their skills, the European Union is justifying that
policy as one meant not just to secure the EU border
against possible terrorist threats, but one that, in
fact, encourages legal migration in order to fill up its
continuously declining work force.
The new
policy directive to deport undocumented foreign workers,
including more than 100,000 illegal Filipinos, was
discussed at length by Ambassador Alistair MacDonald of
the Delegation of the European Commission to the
Philippines, as nongovernment support groups for
migrants, as well as Senate Minority Leader Aquilino
Pimentel Jr., assailed the policy, embodied in
legislation by the EU Parliament.
MacDonald said the draft directive on return of illegal
migrants is now undergoing “linguistic verification”
before it is formally adopted by the EU Council between
September and October this year.
Once
formally adopted, the directive will then apply in all
EU member- states except Denmark, Ireland and the United
Kingdom. The directive will also apply in other non-EU
Schengen members like Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and
Switzerland, according to MacDonald.
The new
directive on the return of illegal migrants was blasted
by Philippine officials and civil-society groups,
worried that at least 112,990 undocumented Filipino
workers and their children in Europe now face mass
detention and harsh deportation.
Ambassador MacDonald explained that the new EU directive
on return of illegal migrants is based on the three main
areas of focus: prosperity in migration, solidarity and
security in migration.
“It [EU
directive] aims to ensure solidarity with the sending
countries and prosperity for the EU member- states who
both benefit in bringing skilled workers to Europe and
its positive impact [to host EU countries],” MacDonald
explained in a press briefing on Friday at the
delegation office in RCBC Building in Makati.
He
stressed that the directive “also tries to ensure
security of borders from threats of terrorist attacks.”
In the
last three years, the EU has detained more than 1,000
undocumented workers from the Philippines, of whom 655
have already been expelled, said Macdonald.
The EU
member-states are allowed to transpose the directive
into their national legislation within two years, and
the implementation remains in the hands of
member-states.
Pimentel, in assailing the tough stance, said current EU
efforts to seek a liberalization in services and goods
as part of ongoing trade negotiations between Europe and
its Asian partners run against the EU thrust on
deportation of migrants.
“Your
goods for our services,” was how Pimentel summarized the
tradeoff.
MacDonald, meanwhile, said the EU member-states cannot
impose harsher measures on their respective undocumented
foreign workers beyond those set out in the directive.
French
Ambassador to Manila Gerard Chesnel, who represents the
EU presidency this year, said his government, which has
the highest number of undocumented Filipino migrant
workers, provides several options for illegal workers.
If the
undocumented foreign worker decides to voluntarily leave
France by shouldering his return airfare, the worker
still has a chance to seek employment there.
“The
French government also provides a budget to shoulder the
airfare of illegal workers to go back to their home
country, but France will have to impose a five-year ban
on these workers who avail themselves of the program,”
said Chesnel at the EU press briefing.
Based on
the data from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas
(CFO), there are 953,519 Filipino workers in Europe, of
whom 112,990 are undocumented.
CFO
figures showed that there are 284,987 permanent Filipino
workers and 555,542 temporary Filipino workers in
Europe.
MacDonald said while EU member-states can apply milder
rules on the illegal foreign workers, they cannot defy
the EU directive to implement the policy on their return
to their respective home countries.
“It’s an
obligation of the EU member-states to implement [on
their national legislation] the directive for the return
of illegal migrants, [otherwise] the EU will have to
take the member-state to the court of justice if it
refuses to implement the measure,” he explained.
Still,
he maintained that Filipino workers are well loved in
Europe because “they work hard, are well-trained and
speak good English.”
Filipino
workers in Europe, however, only represent 5 percent of
the total 18.5 million population of third-country
nationals, said MacDonald. |
