Considerations related to balancing efficiency and timeliness with individual safeguards

• Pages: 16-18

Border Procedures for Asylum Applications in EU+ Countries

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3. Considerations related to balancing efficiency and timeliness with

individual safeguards

Border procedures are recognised by Member States as an important tool to process

efficiently and rapidly in particular applications that are clearly fraudulent,

inadmissible or manifestly unfounded. At the same time, a high influx of applicants

may render the application of border procedures more complicated for relevant

authorities, especially in regard to ensuring procedural rights and protection of

vulnerable persons in the specific time and location-bound setup of the border

procedure.

There are certain safeguards that EU+ countries must provide to applicants for international

protection within the border procedure. These include informing applicants of their rights and

obligations in a language that they understand and informing them of the possibility to request the

assistance of an interpreter, a doctor, a lawyer, a counsel or any other person of their choice.

Applicants must not only be informed of these rights, but they m ust also be provided with effective

access to an interpreter, a lawyer or a counsel.

In addition, vulnerable persons, such as minors or victims of psychological, physical or sexual

violence, must have their specific needs assessed and considered through a mechanism set up by the

state in order to decide whether the border procedure is compatible with their situation or whether

they should be exempted from the border procedure and processed according to the applicable

procedures.

Moreover, applicants must be provided with an effective remedy before a court or tribunal against a

decision made through a border procedure. The competent court or tribunal examining the request

àààààààààààáààààáPD Article 46(7), for appeals

àà àà àà àà àà àà

legal assistance and at least one week to prepare the request and submit to the court or tribunal the

arguments in favour of granting him or her the right to remain on the territory pending the outcome

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The feasibility o f a border procedure may be strongly impacted by the availability and quality of

necessary facilities at the border and in transit zones, as well as by a possible mass influx of applicants

which might affect reception capacity or the provision of adequate safeguards throughout the

procedure (e.g. interpretation services, age determination or identification of victims of human

trafficking). While there is no comprehensive data on the availability of technological capabilities and

facilities at borders, it can be noted that any limitations in facilities and technology are bound to

make it more challenging to conduct a fully-fledged and efficient border procedure.

Several additional considerations on the above points have been raised by civil society organisations

during discussions on the 2016 European Commission proposal of the Asylum Procedures Regulation

(APR)10 and by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the European Union

Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) regarding elements necessary to secure the fairness of the

examination provided within border procedures. This section briefly recalls some of those points for

the sake of completeness.

10 Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL establishing a common procedure

for international protection in the Union and repealing Directive 2013/32/EU, COM(2016) 467 final, Brussels, 13 July

2016.