By Julia Guerin, ICMPD and Antonella Patteri, INP PAN
The FAiR project recently organised an interactive dissemination workshop to present findings and exchange with key stakeholders on current practices and main gaps in human rights monitoring in return.
Titled “Human Rights Monitoring: Key Lessons for a Rights-Based Approach to Return”, the workshop brought together researchers and practitioners – including international and national fundamental rights monitoring bodies – to discuss the main findings of the FAiR project in human rights monitoring in the area of return. The event was jointly organised by the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (INP PAN), the Foundation for Access to Rights (FAR), and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
FAiR has compiled robust evidence on the effectiveness of return monitoring systems in the EU, drawing attention to the necessity of maximising human rights monitoring throughout the return process – including in forced returns and so-called voluntary return (AVR) and post-return phase. Based on short presentations of the main research findings, participants were invited to reflect and share their views and experiences on three key questions:
- Why does monitoring matter in return?
- How can we strengthen existing practices in monitoring forced return?
- Which other return areas require the establishment of human rights monitoring?
Despite progress, participants acknowledged that significant gaps remain in the independence, mandate, and financial autonomy of monitoring bodies and highlighted different areas for further development. Accessing returnees’ files and documents, including return decisions, was deemed as key to evaluating returns’ fundamental rights compliance. Participants also recognised the need to build transparent and constructive relationships between monitors and national authorities involved in enforcing returns. Enhanced cooperation with countries of destination was also an important question to monitor post-return realities as the absence of systematic post-return monitoring is a blindspot: there is only very little oversight to assess the safety and potential rights violations faced by returnees after their arrival. Additionally, returns categorised as “voluntary” are not subject to mandatory monitoring mechanisms either, raising serious concerns about the potential for coercion, lack of informed consent, and the absence of accountability in assessing such returns.
Addressing these challenges is crucial to strengthening the effectiveness and credibility of human rights monitoring in return processes throughout the entire return phases.