We join the “Stop the Inhumanity at Europe’s Borders!” campaign to call on EU governments to end human rights violations at borders

 

Razor-wire fences and naval blockades. Pushbacks on land and at sea. Physical punishment by border guards, militia forces and vigilante groups. Detention without trial and confinement to squalid camps. Criminalization of aid workers. Deportation deals with rights-abusing states.

These are just some of the undignified, inhumane and illegal methods that European states are employing to obstruct and deter the arrival of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from other parts of the world. In response to this unacceptable situation, we have joined forces with more than 75 NGOs and civil society organizations to launch the campaign “Stop the Inhumanity at Europe’s Borders!”.

 

“Migrants at the borders are asking for a peaceful future and to rebuild their lives,” said Cesare Fermi, INTERSOS Europe Region Director, “Because of the fear of losing our privileges, we are losing what our society was based on and grew up on: respect for and protection of human rights.”

 

“In the last years following the so-called ‘’refugee crisis’’ we have been seeing the impact of fences, push backs, containment and correlations of living conditions on the health and mental health of children, women and men seeking protection at the European borders. It is sad in Europe to treat medical conditions that are created or exacerbated due to inhuman policies implemented. Governments must put people’s lives before politics and borders. The ‘migration crisis’ is not about them but about us.” Comments Apostolos Veizis, Executive Director of INTERSOS HELLAS.

 

The 7 points of the campaign

The campaign identifies 7 actions through which European states and the European Union could ensure that people reaching the continent are treated fairly, justly and humanely.

  1. Stop Pushbacks. European states must immediately desist from pushbacks and expulsions on land and at sea and halt the practice of detaining people in punitive conditions.
  2. End ‘deterrence by death’. All activities aimed at preventing rescue at sea must cease. Mediterranean states must agree to facilitate initiatives that prevent loss of life at sea.
  3. Humane Borders. Where border control agreements between European and other states cause refugees and other migrants to be treated in a manner that violates their human rights, such agreements must be terminated.
  4. Justice and Compensation. When refugees and other migrants lose their lives, are criminalized, injured, or suffer other forms of grievous harm at the hands of European states, such episodes must be investigated by an independent judicial authority. The government ministers and officials responsible for such abuses must be held to account. Justice and compensation must be provided for the victims of such harms.
  5. Safe Routes. Cooperating closely with relevant international organizations, European states should explore the potential for refugees to reach and establish productive lives in Europe by safe and regular means, including state and community sponsored resettlement programmes, family reunion and labour mobility initiatives.
  6. No Externalization. It is unacceptable for refugees and asylum seekers to be treated as commodities and deported to countries where there are inadequate human rights safeguards, which do not have adequate refugee status determination procedures, and where livelihood opportunities are scarce.
  7. Reform Frontex. The EU’s border agency, Frontex, must be held fully accountable and be transparent in its activities and reporting methods. The agency must operate in a manner that enables member states to up.

These demands will be communicated to leaders of all European states, senior EU officials and relevant international organizations. Full details of the campaign are available here.