by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Council and Commission
(19 February 2004)
|
Subject: Decision by the Dutch parliament to expel thousands of immigrants |
| Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the
Commission (13 April 2004) |
The Commission was not sent the Government Bill adopted by the Dutch Parliament on 17 February 2004.
As far as the Commission is aware, the national measures at stake concern only rejected asylum seekers. The Dutch Aliens law provides for a general possibility of review by Courts of negative decisions. Courts are competent to decide, on a case by case basis, whether the removals would be in accordance with obligations under international law, in particular under the 1951 Geneva Convention on the status of refugees and article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Commission would like to underline that, in general, the possibility of return of rejected asylum seekers could be the logical consequence where the outcome of an asylum procedure is negative for the applicant, when the procedure was fair and allowed for all needs for international protection to be examined. A final negative decision implies that the person at stake was not found to be in need of international protection. If there are no other grounds for legal stay, return can be implemented.