Amnesty on EU refugee crisis: Where there are fences, there are rights abuses

Amnesty International says border fences and other controls by European countries are only expanding a range of human rights abuses against refugees seeking protection in Europe.

“The expanding fences along Europe’s borders have only entrenched rights violations and exacerbating the challenges of managing refugee flows in a humane and orderly manner,” John Dalhuisen, Amnesty’s director for Europe and Central Asia, said on Tuesday.

In its latest report, Fear and Fences: Europe’s approach to keeping refugees at bay, Amnesty said border controls by EU countries have denied refugees access to asylum, exposed them to ill-treatment and forced migrants to look for dangerous alternative routes.

According to Amnesty, push-backs at borders are often accompanied by violence and jeopardize the lives of people.

“Where there are fences, there are human rights abuses. Illegal push-backs of asylum-seekers have become an intrinsic feature of any EU external border located on major migration routes and no one is doing much to stop them,” Dalhuisen said.

Amnesty also called on the EU countries to avoid further sealing off their external borders. It said that refugees who tried to enter Greece, Bulgaria and Spain said they were pushed back by border authorities without a chance to appeal their return, in direct violation of international law.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), over 600,000 people fleeing foreign-backed wars, terrorism, and unrest in the Middle East and North Africa have landed on European shores this year after making dangerous sea journeys from Turkey to Greece and across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. More than 3,000 have died or gone missing trying to reach Europe.

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