By examining the implementation dynamics of EU Readmission Agreements (EURAs), this book addresses the practical reasons why irregular immigrants cannot be expelled. EURAs are one of the vital legal instruments framing EU external migration law with regard to the expulsion of irregular immigrants, yet their implementation has met with various obstacles. Above all, the process of determining an individual’s legal identity has proven to be one of the most controversial aspects in the implementation of EURAs. The analysis shows that the process of identifying who is whose national in the context of readmission creates two existential dilemmas: first from the perspective of the sovereignty of third countries of origin and the legal standards laid out in international instruments as regards states’ powers in determining nationality, and second regarding the agency of the individual as a holder of fundamental human rights. How do the EURAs deal with or aim at alleviating these identity determination dilemmas? The book provides a comparative analysis of the administrative procedures and rules envisaged by EURAs aimed at proving or presuming the nationality of the persons to be readmitted to their country of origin. It focuses on the ways in which nationality is to be determined or presumed in the scope of the 2010 EURA with Pakistan, and compares it with those foreseen in the EURAs with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cape Verde, Georgia, and Turkey. As such, the book provides a unique and up-to-date study of EURAs and their implementation challenges in the broader context of EU external migration law and policy.

By examining the implementation dynamics of EU Readmission Agreements (EURAs), this book addresses the practical reasons why irregular immigrants cannot be expelled. EURAs are one of the vital legal instruments framing EU external migration law with regard to the expulsion of irregular immigrants, yet their implementation has met with various obstacles. Above all, the process of determining an individual's legal identity has proven to be one of the most controversial aspects in the implementation of EURAs.The analysis shows that the process of identifying who is whose national in the context of readmission creates two existential dilemmas: first from the perspective of the sovereignty of third countries of origin and the legal standards laid out in international instruments as regards states' powers in determining nationality, and second regarding the agency of the individual as a holder of fundamental human rights.How do the EURAs deal with or aim at alleviating these identity determination dilemmas? The book provides a comparative analysis of the administrative procedures and rules envisaged by EURAs aimed at proving or presuming the nationality of the persons to be readmitted to their country of origin. It focuses on the ways in which nationality is to be determined or presumed in the scope of the 2010 EURA with Pakistan, and compares it with those foreseen in the EURAs with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cape Verde, Georgia, and Turkey. As such, the book provides a unique and up-to-date study of EURAs and their implementation challenges in the broader context of EU external migration law and policy. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

Offering the first comprehensive analysis of readmission agreements, this book examines the intersection of immigration and human rights law and the complex interplay between evolving international, regional and national norms. Expanding the current academic and policy discourse on readmission agreements through detailed consideration of the negotiation processes carried out by the European Community, it renders a nuanced review of the underlying strategic objectives and regional effects of these treaties. The book makes a robust challenge to prevailing perspectives in legal scholarship and policy on readmission and refugee protection. The self-contained focus on EC readmission agreements throws light on broader questions of EU migration policy and reveals a detailed and insightful picture of a specific field of EU policy and action.

This collective volume draws on the themes of intersectionality and overlapping policy universes to examine and evaluate the shifting functions, frames and multiple actors and instruments of an ongoing and revitalized cooperation in EU external migration and asylum policies with third states. The contributions are based on problem-driven research and seek to develop bottom-up, policy-oriented solutions, while taking into account global, EU-based and local perspectives, and the shifting universes of EU migration, border and asylum policies. In 15 chapters, we explore the multifaceted dimensions of the EU external migration policy and its evolution in the post-crisis, geopolitical environment of the Global Compacts.

Abstract: With the Eastern Enlargement successfully completed, the EU is searching for a proper balance between internal security and external stabilisation that is acceplable to all sides. This paper focuses on an EU foreign policy instrument that is a case in point for this struggle: EC visa facilitation and readmission agreements. By looking at the EU's strategy on visa facilitation and readmission, this paper aims to offer a first systematic analysis of the objectives, substance and political implications of these agreements as a means to implement a new EU security approach in the neighbourhood. In offering more relaxed travel conditions in exchange for the signing of an EC readmission agreement and reforming domestic justice and home affairs, the EU has found a new way to press for reforms in neighbouring countries while addressing a major source of discontent in these countries. The analysis concluded with the broader implications of these agreements and argues that even if the facili

The book undertakes a thorough human rights assessment of the EU Returns Directive. The overarching human rights framework, which circumscribes states prerogatives in the context of expulsion, builds upon obligations derived from the principle of non-refoulement; the right to life, respect for family and private life, effective remedy, basic social rights; the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment; and protection against arbitrary detention and collective expulsion. Based on this assessment, Majcher explores several protection gaps in the EU return policy which may result in violations of migrants’ rights and highlights how the provisions of the Directive should be implemented in line with member states’ human rights obligations. Informed by this assessment, the book discusses amendments to the Directive, proposed by the European Commission in September 2018. “By examining the European Union (EU) Returns Directive in the light of international and European human rights law, Izabella Majcher thoroughly explores and analyses the requirements the EU member states’ authorities must guarantee migrants in an irregular situation when they adopt and implement return decisions, entry bans, pre-removal detention, and removal.” Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche, Professor of public international law, University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Honorary member of the Institut universitaire de France