B4-0677/95

Resolution on the expulsion of Vietnamese immigrants from the EU

The European Parliament,

A.whereas on 6 January 1995, Germany and Vietnam reached a basic understanding on the transfer of approximately 40 000 Vietnamese immigrants back to Vietnam over the next five years, in exchange for DM 100 million in development aid,

B.whereas German-Vietnamese negotiations were broken off on 16 February 1995 because of disagreement over the use of 20% of the aid intended for measures to reintegrate the immigrants,

C.whereas negotiations have been conducted without any consultation with the immigrants concerned; whereas the joint declaration signed on 6 March explicitly states that extradition will not be dependent on the consent of those concerned, although imprisonment and punishment for staying abroad illegally are not excluded according to Articles 85 and 89 of the Vietnamese Penal Law,

D.whereas about 15 000 of the 40 000 immigrants described as 'illegal' by the German Government are contract workers employed by the former German Democratic Republic,

E.whereas in the past all attempts by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany to encourage the return of immigrant workers to their countries of origin took place in the framework of a reintegration agreement, on the basis of free choice, and in connection with incentives directly offered to those concerned,

F.recalling that the action programme for 1994 adopted at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in November 1993 and approved by the European Council intends to link EU association and cooperation agreements with third countries to possible reintegration measures,

1.Condemns any attempt by EU Member States to make the exchange of people for money a condition of a cooperation agreement with a developing country;

2.Calls for equal treatment of immigrant contract workers in West and East Germany;

3.Considers that development cooperation or financial aid cannot be used as commodities to be exchanged for the forced repatriation of persons to their country of origin;

4.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the governments of the Member States, the Government of Vietnam and the UNHCR.