asylum

Today, Egala and Oxfam published a new report, “Brutal Barriers”, detailing the frightening and sometimes deadly journey of people trying to reach safety in Europe. Survivors’ testimonies reveal the violence inflicted by both Polish and Belarusian authorities on people seeking asylum as well as the treacherous conditions people face in crossing the swamplands of the primeval Białowieża forest.

This report collects extensive existing evidence, testimonies, and the voices of people seeking protection, in order to document the human consequences of restrictive, illegal and inhumane policies at this border.

In the forest at the Poland-Belarus border, thousands of people on the move are caught in a dire situation, facing violence from authorities on both sides in an area marked by a human rights crisis.

Today, EU migration ministers meet to discuss the Commission’s proposal to activate the temporary protection directive for people fleeing the crisis in Ukraine. If activated, the directive would allow those fleeing from Ukraine, access to a residence permit for up to three years along with access to education and employment in any EU country.

Today, European heads of state and government met in Brussels to discuss migration policy and EU-Turkey relations. They called for the intensification of ‘mutually beneficial partnerships and cooperation with countries of origin and transit’ while also condemning and rejecting ‘any attempts by third countries to instrumentalise migrants for political purposes’. 

For too long the EU’s migration policies have ignored the priorities of the countries it partners with for the sake of its own border security and domestic priorities. These have permeated the domestic migration and asylum policies of the Maghreb countries it supports, at the cost of people’s interests.

The new Commission proposals on migration and asylum will likely replicate the abhorrent situation we have been witnessing for years in the Greek EU refugee ‘hotspots’, said Oxfam today.

The first case of the new coronavirus in Greece’s biggest refugee camp highlights the need for immediate and radical changes from the Greek government and its EU partners to the reception of people seeking asylum in Europe.

Rather than protecting vulnerable people from the spread of the coronavirus, the Greek government is using the crisis to absolve itself from its obligations under international and EU law, said Oxfam.

As the two-year anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal nears on March 18, 2018, thousands of asylum seekers are trapped on the Aegean islands in deplorable conditions and without access to adequate protection and basic services, nine humans rights and humanitarian organisations including Oxfam said today.The Greek government should act immediately to end the containment policy that traps asylum seekers in these conditions on the islands and move them to safety on the mainland.