What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Removed:D. whereas the model status agreement referred to in Article 76(1) of Regulation 2019/1896 is to serve as the basis for the Commission’s negotiations with Senegal;

Added:E. whereas Senegal is a priority country for the EU and its Member States, according to the joint EU-Senegal strategy; whereas a Talent Partnership with Senegal is envisaged as one of the key components of reinforced cooperation between the EU and Senegal on migration management;

Removed:E. whereas Senegal is a country of emigration, transit and immigration; whereas Senegal has been one of the main destination countries in West Africa for a long time; whereas, according to the International Organization for Migration, in 2018, 200000 nationals from other countries were living in Senegal; whereas 2023 has seen an increase in the number of boats departing from Senegal to the Canary Islands; whereas the majority of people on the boats in 2023 have been Senegalese nationals; whereas the Atlantic ‘route’ is one of the deadliest in the world, due in large part to the length of the overseas journey and the lack of dedicated search-and-rescue capacity; whereas the International Organization for Migration has reported that at least 3 519 persons have died or gone missing at sea on the Atlantic route since 2014;

Added:F. whereas according Regulation (EU) 2019/1896, in situations where the Commission recommends that the Council authorise it to negotiate a status agreement with a third country, the Commission should assess the fundamental rights situation relevant to the areas covered by the status agreement in that third country; whereas such an assessment has not been performed yet; whereas in its report of 21 May 2019, the Frontex Consultative Forum called on Frontex to carry out an effective fundamental rights impact assessment prior to engaging with a third country;

Removed:F. whereas concerns have been raised by human rights non-governmental organisations about a worsening trend as regards violations of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and the excessive use of force by defence and security forces; whereas the president’s main opponent, several members of opposition parties, activists and journalists have been arrested and detained ‘under a committal order for calls to insurrection and acts or operations likely to compromise public security’; whereas on 31 July 2023, the Senegalese authorities ordered the dissolution of a political party; whereas access to social media and mobile internet connections have been restricted;

Added:G. whereas according to Article 218(11) TFEU, a Member State, the European Parliament, the Council or the Commission may obtain the opinion of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) as to whether an envisaged agreement is compatible with the Treaties; whereas when the opinion of the CJEU is negative, the envisaged agreement may not enter into force unless it is amended or until the Treaties are revised;

Removed:G. whereas Senegal has been receiving EU and bilateral support for border management, including border surveillance, notably through the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa and its bilateral cooperation with the Spanish Guardia Civil since 2006;

Added:H. whereas, once concluded, nothing precludes a Member State, the European Parliament, the Council or the Commission from considering it appropriate to obtain this opinion on the compatibility of the negotiated status agreement with the Treaties;

Added:I. whereas Article 218(10) TFEU obliges the Commission to immediately and fully inform Parliament during all stages of the conclusion procedure for a status agreement;

Added:J. whereas the model status agreement referred to in Article 76(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 is to serve as the basis for the Commission’s negotiations with Senegal; whereas it establishes a framework for cooperation between Frontex and its teams on the one hand and the competent authorities of the third country concerned on the other, setting out, among other things, the scope of operation, criminal and civil liability, the tasks and powers of members of the team and practical measures related to the respect of fundamental rights; whereas Frontex must ensure that fundamental rights are fully respected during those operations and provide for a complaints mechanism;

Added:K. whereas, according to the Model Status Agreement referred to in Article 76(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1896:

Added:– Frontex’s team members may, in general, only perform tasks and exercise powers in the territory of the third country under instructions from and in the presence of the border management authorities of that country, and must comply with the laws and regulations of the third country as well as applicable Union and international law; the third country’s authorities must only issue instructions that are in compliance with the operational plan to the team members; this is the only operational framework where EU personnel operate under third-state command;

Added:– Frontex’s team members enjoy immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of the third country under all circumstances, and must not be subject to any form of arrest or detention in the third country or by its authorities; the waiver of immunity is at the discretion of the Executive Director or the home Member State, depending on the status of the team member;

Added:L. whereas Senegal is a country of emigration, transit and immigration; whereas migration and mobility are positively perceived in Senegal; whereas the right to mobility is enshrined in the Senegalese constitution and inter-communal cross-border mobility is normal; whereas Senegal has been one of the main destination countries in West Africa for a long time; whereas, according to the International Organization for Migration, in 2018, 200 000 nationals from other countries were living in Senegal; whereas 2023 saw an increase in the number of boats departing from Senegal to the Canary Islands; whereas the majority of people on the boats in 2023 were Senegalese nationals; whereas the Atlantic ‘route’ is one of the deadliest in the world, due in large part to the length of the overseas journey and the lack of dedicated search-and-rescue capacity; whereas the International Organization for Migration has reported that at least 3 519 persons have died or gone missing at sea on the Atlantic route since 2014; whereas there have been reports of repeated pushbacks of migrants and refugees from the Mauritanian and Malian borders to Senegal;

Added:M. whereas concerns have been raised by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and human rights non-governmental organisations (NGOs)regarding violations of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and the excessive use of force by defence and security forces; whereas access to social media and mobile internet connections have been restricted in Senegal;N. whereas people and NGOs are being criminalised for denouncing the negative effects of migration cooperation between Senegal and the EU; whereas concerns have also been raised by human rights NGOs regarding a series of acts of repression towards persons attempting to leave Senegal irregularly;

Added:O. whereas Senegal’s current legal framework does not allow for effective protection of children, trafficking victims or LGBTIQ+ persons; whereas same-sex activity is deemed an offence under criminal law, punishable by imprisonment;

Added:P. whereas Senegal is a signatory state to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol; whereas Senegal included the main aspects of the convention in a 1968 domestic law on asylum, which was updated in April 2022 to include statelessness and appeals procedures; whereas Senegal has not ratified the Organisation of the African Union Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa;

Added:Q. whereas as of February 2022, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported the presence of 14 533 refugees and 2 058 asylum seekers in Senegal; whereas the UNHCR multi-country office based in Dakar reported that, as of February 2022, there were 6 017 Senegalese refugees and asylum seekers in the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Togo and Sierra Leone;

Added:R. whereas since September 2003, Senegal has been a party to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its additional protocols; whereas in December 2020, the government created the Inter-ministerial Committee Fighting Clandestine Migration by decree; whereas the committee worked on a national strategy for the fight against irregular migration that was adopted on 27 July 2023 and will be implemented until 2032; whereas the Senegalese legal framework on smuggling is not in line with the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which outlines that migrants should not be criminalised after interception;

Added:S. whereas Senegal has been receiving EU and bilateral support for border management, including border surveillance, notably through the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa and its bilateral cooperation with the Spanish Guardia Civil since 2003; whereas since 2018, Senegal has established at least nine border posts and four regional branches of the National Division for the Fight against Migrant Smuggling, with the aim of fighting trafficking and other associated practices, whereas EU funding has supplied Senegal with advanced surveillance technologies, including phone extraction devices, biometric fingerprinting, drones and night-vision goggles; whereas the aim is to create an African integrated border management system that would connect Senegal’s and other African countries’ databases with data from international police agencies;

Added:T. whereas Frontex, under Operation HERA, also carried out occasional joint operations between 2006 and 2018 in Senegal; whereas this cooperation has not been evaluated on its impact on the protection of and respect for the human rights of the people who were intercepted;

Added:U. whereas there are several drivers for irregular migration in Senegal, namely the lack of safe and legal migration pathways, including obstacles to accessing Schengen visas; poverty, insecurity and unemployment, in particular in the fishing community; whereas the fishing community is overrepresented in the groups of people attempting to reach the Canary Islands;

Added:V. whereas Regulation (EC) 1049/2001 codifies EU lawful residents’ right of public access to documents, and also provides for the possibility of granting document access to individuals residing outside the EU; whereas Frontex restricts access to its documents to EU or Schengen country nationals or residents, including legal persons residing or having a registered office in these countries, even though it is increasingly active, in some cases with executive powers and a mandate to use force, in non-EU territory; whereas it is almost exclusively non-EU citizens or residents who are affected by Frontex’s actions in third countries; whereas civil society organisations in Senegal face difficulties in accessing information on the possible status agreement;W. whereas there have been repeated reports of migrants and refugees being subject to refoulement following their arrest and detention, whereby they are pushed back across the Mauritanian and Malian borders to Senegal, as well as of Senegalese nationals being intercepted in Dakhla and returned by bus to Senegal via Mauritanian territory;

Removed:3. Is concerned about the impact of a status agreement on the freedom of movement of individuals in West Africa, as guaranteed under the Economic Community of West African States Treaty, in particular its protocol on free movement in neighbouring countries, as well as about the impact on the right to leave and the right to asylum;

Added:2. Acknowledges, despite the country’s difficult human rights situation, the efforts by the Senegalese Government to uphold or improve human rights, through its active membership of the UN Human Rights Council between 2018 and 2023; expresses its concern about the increasing reports of human rights violations in Senegal, specifically those concerning the use of force or abuse of migrants during border control checks and the increased criminalisation of civil society; highlights and condemns the repeated pushbacks of migrants and refugees from the Mauritanian and Mali borders to Senegal; reiterates and underlines that Frontex should not take part in any form of pushbacks; considers that the possible conclusion of a status agreement between the EU and Senegal providing for the exercise of executive powers by Frontex in the country would entail a high risk for Frontex of becoming complicit in direct and indirect violations of fundamental rights or international protection obligations; believes that these risks are of a serious nature and are likely to persist;

Removed:4. Considers that the model status agreement falls significantly short of addressing the abovementioned serious concerns and could lead to severe accountability gaps in the event of fundamental rights violations;

Added:3. Is concerned about the potential impact of a status agreement on the freedom of movement of individuals in West Africa, as guaranteed under the Economic Community of West African States Treaty, which provides for the long-term establishment of a free-movement zone for goods, capital and people, as well as about the impact on the right to leave and the right to asylum;

Removed:5. Regrets that the Commission decided to interpret recital 88 of Regulation 2019/1896 in a restrictive way, whereby the fundamental rights situation in a given third country is only assessed after the conclusion of the status agreement; stresses that this prevents the relevant actors from taking into account the fundamental rights situation during the negotiations of and the decision to conclude a status agreement, as well as for the European Parliament during the consent procedure;

Added:4. Is concerned about the lack of access by Senegalese nationals, civil society organisations and the media to information about EU and bilateral support to Senegalese authorities for border surveillance; calls, in this regard, on Frontex to make use of the option to provide access to individuals residing outside the EU, as well as to legal entities based in or having a registered office in third countries, in line with Regulation (EC) 1049/2001;

Removed:6. Considers that the possible conclusion of a status agreement between the EU and Senegal is part of the EU’s general push to externalise border controls and responsibility for asylum seekers; does not, therefore, support the conclusion of a status agreement, taking into account the abovementioned concerns, and recommends therefore that negotiations not be opened;

Added:5. Considers that that the provisions in the model status agreement must be improved in order to address the abovementioned serious concerns, which could lead to severe accountability gaps in the event of fundamental rights violations and should be properly addressed;

Removed:7. Strongly urges the Commission and Frontex to adopt the following measures without delay, irrespective of the developments in the negotiations of the agreement with Senegal and taking into account the fact that Frontex has been increasingly operating in third countries:

Added:6. Calls on the Commission to perform an ex ante fundamental rights impact assessments that are relevant to the areas linked to the potential Frontex deployment before engaging in negotiations with third countries on the conclusion of status agreements in order to be able to fully consider the impact of the potential cooperation and to negotiate on the necessary safeguards, in accordance with recital 88 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1896; calls on the Commission to make this impact assessment, which Parliament regrets has not yet been performed, publicly available or at least share it with the co-legislators;

Added:7. Is of the opinion that any deployment of Frontex personnel to Senegal and the conducting of operational activities with local and regional security forces can only take place where adequate human rights protection can be guaranteed for migrants and asylum seekers throughout the entire process of their application or return;

Added:8. Acknowledges the fact that the Senegalese Government has expressed its unwillingness to pursue this kind of cooperation; expresses its reservations regarding the possible conclusion of a status agreement, taking into account the abovementioned concerns;

Added:9. Strongly urges the Commission and Frontex to adopt the following measures without further delay, taking into account the fact that Frontex has been increasingly operating in third countries, should negotiations for a status agreement between Frontex and Senegal be opened: