EU sets 18-month detention cap for illegal migrants

LUXEMBOURG - European Union interior ministers agreed on Thursday that illegal migrants can be detained for up to 18 months and face a 5-year ban in a move which rights groups say will undermine human rights.
The law is due to be voted on by the European Parliament next week. The assembly is divided, and lawmakers say the vote will be tight. Conservatives and many liberals support it, while socialists, greens and a communist-led group want changes, one EU official said.
The 18-month limit is higher than the maximum detention in two-thirds of the 27 EU states. Although EU states can keep a lower limit if they want, rights groups say it will encourage authorities to lock up more illegal migrants.
The European Commission estimates there are up to 8 million illegal migrants in the bloc. More than 200,000 illegal migrants were arrested in the EU in the first half of 2007, and less than 90,000 were expelled.
The new law also allows children to be detained while saying that should be for the shortest appropriate period of time.
Currently, illegal migrants cannot be detained for more than 40 days in Spain and a year in Hungary, according to European Commission data.
Germany already has an 18-month detention cap, while eight EU countries, who have higher caps or none at all would need to introduce the new EU limit.
Socialists in the European Parliament want the cap to be set at a maximum of six months, EU lawmaker Martine Roure said.
‘The vote will be very tight ... no one can say what the issue will be,’ she told Reuters.
‘Accepting the proposed directive as it stands will seriously undermine the fundamental rights of the individuals concerned,’ rights group Amnesty International and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) said in a joint statement.
‘Amnesty International and ECRE consider entry bans prohibiting deportees from returning to Europe for up to five years to be a blunt and inappropriate instrument,’ they said.