KyriakiKamenou
URBAN TIMES
European Union is spending more money to protect its borders in the Mediterranean sea rather than providing help, security and respect the human rights of the refugees and migrants.
URBAN TIMES
European Union is spending more money to protect its borders in the Mediterranean sea rather than providing help, security and respect the human rights of the refugees and migrants.
Amnesty
International’s latest report states that the EU is investing more money on
surveillance technologies, security forces and detention centres, sending back
refugees who are trying to escape from the nightmare of poverty and war in
their countries. This is a failure to fulfil its obligation to protect their
human rights or at least the most fundamental and basic such as the right to
life. According to AI between 2007 and 2013 the EU spent nearly 2 billion euros
to protect its external borders, but only 700 million euros to improve the
situation for asylum-seekers and refugees.
Most of the
refugees are coming from Syria
Since the
civil war started in 2011 more than 2.8 million Syrians left their homes. By
the end of April almost 1 million of them had reached Europe and sought asylum.
Other high numbers of refugees who are reaching European borders, are coming
from Eritrea, Afghanistan and Somalia.
According
to the UN Refugee Agency there are more displaced people today than at any time
since the end of the Second World War. Shockingly, the European Union’s
response to this humanitarian crisis has been to add to it…Almost half of those
trying to enter the EU irregularly flee from conflict or persecution in
countries like Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Somalia. Refugees must be
provided with more ways to enter the EU safely and legally so that they are not
forced to embark on perilous journeys in the first place.
John
Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.
The
“push-back” method
Bulgaria,
Greece and Spain are using the most unlawful practices to avoid the migration
and refugee flow. Such is the push-back method that Bulgaria and Greece are
exercising with guards watching their borders which unavoidably entails the use
of violence and endangers the lives of the people. Last February the Spanish
Civil Guard opened fire with rubber projectiles, blanks and tear gas against
about 250 migrants and refugees swimming from Morocco trying to reach the
Spanish coasts. Fourteen people lost their lives and twenty-three people who
managed to reach the coast, were immediately returned back without any formal
asylum procedure…
Such
practices are illegal and unlawful and deny people the right to seek asylum.
Italy on
the other hand…
As the
country which shouldered much of the burden to save refugees from the sea and
faced the worst tragedy in 2013 when more than 400 people lost their lives in
the island of Lampedusa, is asking for cooperation from the rest of the
European countries. Lately Italy called on the EU’s border protection agency
Frontex to take over the Italian naval mission Mare Nostrum (Our Sea), which
patrols in the Mediterranean sea for refugee boats and costs around 9 million
euros per month.
The EU’s
Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said Frontex was too small to
completely take over Mare Nostrum, but said “we must open legal routes to allow
refugees to come to the European Union, otherwise they resort to illegal
immigration channels.”
And finally…
It seems
that European countries are not eager to help and share the responsibility… Not
even to follow their obligations. Some of the countries such as Germany which
hosts refugees, feel they do their duty, claiming that it is Italy’s job to
pass the refugees on to another EU nation. However, according to AI’s report,
at the end of 2013 the countries that hosted the largest numbers of refugees
were Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Kenya, Chad, Ethiopia, China and
the USA.
RIGHTS AT
RISK AT EU BORDERS INCLUDE:
Right to
life
Right to
liberty and security of the person (prohibition on arbitrary detention)
Prohibition
of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Right to
leave any country, including one’s own
Right to
seek and to enjoy asylum from persecution
Right to
effective remedy
Prohibition
of collective expulsion
No one may
be expelled, extradited or otherwise forcibly removed to a State where there is
a real risk that he or she would be subjected to the death penalty, torture or
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (non-refoulement
principle).
The
Contracting States shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal
entry or presence
In all
actions concerning children […] the best interests of the child shall be a
primary consideration
DOCUMENT –
FORTRESS EUROPE: FACTS AND FIGURES Amnesty International Public Statement 9
July 2014
10 July 2014
