[ad_1]
Thousands of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants – including children – making dangerous journeys across the Balkans are victims of violent abuse and extortion by authorities and criminal gangs and are shamefully abandoned by a failing European Union (EU) asylum and migration system. system that leaves them trapped without protection in Serbia and Macedonia, Amnesty International said in a statement. new report.
Serbia and Macedonia have become a sink for an influx of refugees and migrants that no one in the EU seems willing to accommodate.
Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International
Europe’s borders: violations against migrants and refugees in Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary, notes that a growing number of vulnerable people find themselves stuck in a legal limbo in the Balkans. The situation is exacerbated by pushbacks or expulsions at every border, restricted access to asylum en route and the absence of safe and legal routes to the EU.
“Refugees fleeing war and persecution cross the Balkans hoping to find safety in Europe, only to find themselves victims of abuse and exploitation and at the mercy of failing asylum systems,” Gauri said van Gulik, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Europe. and in Central Asia.
“Serbia and Macedonia have become a sink for an excessive influx of refugees and migrants that no one in the EU seems willing to accommodate. »
The report is based on four research missions to Serbia, Hungary, Greece and Macedonia between July 2014 and March 2015 and interviews with more than 100 refugees and migrants. Their testimonies reveal the shocking conditions faced by those using the Western Balkans route – which has overtaken the Mediterranean route to become the busiest irregular passage to the EU. The number of people apprehended crossing the Serbian-Hungarian border alone has increased by more than 2,500% since 2010 (from 2,370 to 60,602).
The route that carries refugees and migrants by sea from Turkey to Greece, then by land through Macedonia to Serbia and Hungary, is less deadly than the sea crossing from Libya, but it remains strewn pitfalls and dangers. Since January 2014, 123 refugees, asylum seekers and migrants have drowned while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Greece and 24 have been killed on the railways.
“We go from death to death”
Arrivals to the Greek islands – including children – face appalling reception conditions and most travel to Athens before attempting to cross through Macedonia on their way to other EU countries.
On the Macedonian-Greece border and the Serbia-Macedonian border, refugees and migrants are regularly pushed back illegally and mistreated by border police. Many are forced to pay bribes. A witness told Amnesty International that Serbian border police near the Hungarian border threatened to send his group back to Serbia if they refused to pay 100 euros each.
An Afghan refugee told Amnesty International that he was part of a group pushed back to Greece by Macedonian police. “I saw men severely beaten. They beat my 13 year old son. They beat me too,” he said.
Some of those interviewed by Amnesty International have been pushed back more than ten times, in operations that often take place well inside the Macedonian border.
Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers have reported being pushed, slapped, kicked and beaten by Serbian police near the border with Hungary, and an Afghan refugee told Amnesty International that “ a five-month pregnant woman had been beaten.”
Refugees and migrants are also vulnerable to financial exploitation by smugglers and attacks by criminal groups. Two Nigerians told Amnesty International how they were held in Macedonia: “Nine men attacked us with knives. We went to the police to ask for help… but they arrested us.”
“If you die here, no one will come and ask you”
Many refugees and migrants are arbitrarily detained by the authorities. Hundreds of people, including families, pregnant women and unaccompanied children, are detained for prolonged periods at Macedonia’s reception center for foreigners – known as Gazi Baba – without any legal guarantees or opportunity to petition. asylum. Many are illegally detained for months in inhumane and degrading conditions so that they can serve as witnesses in Macedonian prosecutions in criminal proceedings against smugglers.
“In Gazi Baba, there were around 400 to 450 people when we entered… People were even sleeping on the stairs, the overcrowding was terrible. There were mattresses on the floor and in the corridor,” a Syrian refugee told Amnesty International.
Former detainees told Amnesty International that they were beaten or witnessed beatings by police officers at Gazi Baba. One described how, when some Syrians threatened to go on hunger strike, a police officer told them: “If you die here, no one will come.” and ask for your news. We will throw away your corpse.
Failing asylum systems
People trying to seek asylum in Serbia or Macedonia face serious obstacles. In 2014, only 10 asylum seekers were granted refugee status in Macedonia and only one was granted asylum in Serbia. Discouraged by the slow processing of asylum applications, most asylum seekers continue their journey to Hungary, where they face further violations of their rights.
People detected entering Hungary irregularly are regularly detained, often in overcrowded and degrading conditions, or mistreated by police officers. In 2014, Hungary granted asylum to 240 people, a small minority of the total number of applications.
While the majority of detained asylum seekers are subsequently released into open reception centers, those considered at risk of fleeing remain in detention centers. Those who do not wish to seek asylum in Hungary, many of whom hope to seek asylum in other EU countries, are usually deported to Serbia and, in some cases, Macedonia. Here they find themselves without legal status, protection or support and are vulnerable to further human rights violations.
Serbia and Macedonia must do much more to respect the rights of migrants and refugees. But it is impossible to separate human rights violations from the wider pressures brought about by the flow of migrants and refugees into and through the EU, and the failure of the European migration system.
Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International
Faulty European migration policies
The ever-increasing number of migrants and refugees using the Balkan route is a consequence of a broader failure of European migration and asylum policy, over which Serbia and Macedonia have no control. Placing primary responsibility for processing asylum applications on the first country of entry into the EU and limiting safe and legal entry routes has placed unsustainable pressure on the EU’s outer fringes and neighboring states.
Rather than prioritizing improving the asylum systems of countries along the Balkan route, the EU has invested heavily in efforts to strengthen their “border management” systems.
“Serbia and Macedonia must do much more to respect the rights of migrants and refugees. But it is impossible to separate the human rights violations in this country from the wider pressures exerted by the flow of migrants and refugees to and through the EU, and from the failure of the European migration system. says Gauri van Gulik.
“As growing numbers of vulnerable refugees, asylum seekers and migrants find themselves trapped in a Balkan no-man’s land, pressures on Serbia and Macedonia are mounting. These tensions, like those over Italy and Greece, can only be resolved through a much broader overhaul of European migration and asylum policies.”
Learn more:
Europe’s border areas: violations against refugees and migrants in Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary (Report, July 7, 2015)
Click on here for a map of the Balkan route.
REMARKS:
Figures compiled by Amnesty International reveal that between January 1 and June 22, 2015, 61,256 migrants, asylum seekers and refugees arrived in Italy, while 61,474 arrived in Greece.
Of the more than 21,000 refugees and migrants who took the Western Balkan route in 2014, more than half were from Syria and others came from Afghanistan, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Nigeria , Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia.
Since March 2015, Hungary’s prime minister and foreign minister have intensified their anti-immigration rhetoric, including threatening legislation allowing the immediate detention and return of any irregular migrants and erecting a border barrier to prevent refugees , asylum seekers and migrants to cross the border. Hungary of Serbia. On June 30, the Hungarian Parliament gave the government the green light to draw up a list of “safe” transit states where it said refugees could have applied for asylum before reaching Hungary. The list will likely include Serbia, where access to asylum is not guaranteed and they face deportation.
Amnesty International’s report makes recommendations aimed at reducing pressures on states resulting from the EU’s failure to develop migration policies that reflect the need for greater global solidarity, in response to the ongoing crisis. increasing number of refugees, and greater internal solidarity between EU Member States. States which currently share responsibility for receiving asylum seekers unequally.
[ad_2]
Source link
