Proposed Returns Regulation risks criminalising people facing homelessness and the NGOs supporting them
On the 11th of March, the European Commission published the proposal for a Regulation ‘establishing a common system for the return of third-country nationals staying illegally in the Union’.[1] If approved, this Regulation would repeal Directive 2008/115/EC and would be directly enforceable, since Regulations do not need transposition by Member States (MS) to enter into force. This proposed Regulation follows the failure to recast Directive 2008/115 under a proposal put forward by the Commission in September 2018.
FEANTSA is concerned by the increasingly restrictive migration policies being adopted and proposed in the EU, such as this Regulation, as they will only lead to more precariousness among destitute migrants, in this case among migrants with irregular status. Undocumented migrants are becoming a bigger part of the homeless population in the EU, due to policies restricting their rights and access to services. Proposals such as this Regulation will only accelerate this trend. Migration policies should not lead to homelessness.