For some time now, Re-ACT Lab has been warning about the serious issues surrounding the externalisation of migration and border control policies. This practice, which involves outsourcing asylum and migration functions to third countries, poses significant risks to human rights and international law.

A new report from the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, now echoes these same concerns. The report, titled “Externalised asylum and migration policies and human rights law,” provides an overview of challenges that come with this approach. It states that without adequate preconditions and safeguards, externalisation policies can lead to people being subjected to torture, ill-treatment, collective expulsions, and arbitrary detention, or may put their lives in danger. The document identifies three areas of particularly acute risks: external asylum procedures, external return procedures, and the externalisation of border management.

These issues are precisely what we have highlighted in our analysis of concrete examples. Our research on the Italy-Albania migration deal revealed the potential for human rights violations in a model that transfers asylum seekers to processing centers in Albania. Similarly, our explainer on the Kosovo-Denmark agreement, which allows for the transfer of up to 300 convicted prisoners, detailed concerns about the outsourcing of responsibilities to a less developed country and the lack of human rights safeguards. 

As these two documents show, the need for transparency, accountability, and a human-rights-first approach is more urgent than ever. 

For a deeper understanding of this critical issue, read the full report and our publications. 

You can find the Commissioner's Report: Externalised asylum and migration policies and human rights law in this link. You can read Re-ACT Lab's work on this topic by following the links below. 

Re-ACT Lab promotes research and innovation as a means to advance governmental and policy-making reforms in Kosovo and regionally.