Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is leading calls for a change in EU law to make it easier to deport criminal foreign nationals.
The Council of Europe’s secretary-general, Alain Berset, has rejected calls from EU leaders to make the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) more flexible on immigration.
The Council of Europe was established in 1949 to promote democracy, protect human rights, and uphold the rule of law in Europe. It also monitors member states’ progress in adhering to its human rights standards.
Its best-known convention is the ECHR. The European Court of Human Rights oversees how it is implemented.
Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania also signed the letter requesting “a new and open minded conversation about the interpretation” of the ECHR.
The letter said the scope has extended “too far as compared with the original intentions behind the Convention, thus shifting the balance between the interests which should be protected.”
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Berset dismissed the letter and said that “debate is healthy, but politicizing the Court is not.”
“Institutions that protect fundamental rights cannot bend to political cycles,” he said. “If they do, we risk eroding the very stability they were built to ensure. The Court must not be weaponized—neither against governments, nor by them.”
Illegal immigrants are entering the EU primarily via Mediterranean sea crossings from North Africa and by overland routes through Poland and the Balkans, according to data from Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency.
Illegal crossings are usually arranged by organized criminal networks and smugglers.
Under the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum, member states are looking to strike agreements with non-EU states to handle asylum claims extraterritorially, potentially setting up processing centers in North Africa or beyond.
In April, Italy became the first EU state to successfully send illegal immigrants beyond the bloc’s borders, after its first three attempts were blocked by national and European courts.
By adding Albania to its own safe third-country list and rebranding detention centers as “repatriation hubs,” Italy bypassed a European Court of Justice ban.
On April 14, Italy sent 40 illegal immigrants to the Italian-run centers in Albania.
