Refugees face new risks at Europe’s borders

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Building fences, push-backs and outsourcing border controls have become a key tool in Europe’s response to the worst refugee crisis seen since the Second World War, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

Based on in-depth analysis and data of European border practices, Fear and Fences: Europe’s Approach to Keep Refugees at Bay, claims that EU leaders have attempted to block refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from entering the richest bloc of countries in the world by “erecting fences at land borders, deploying ever-increasing numbers of border guards, spending on surveillance technology….” while enlisting neighbouring high-volume host countries “as gatekeepers”.

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

“The EU and its frontline member states urgently need to rethink how they ensure safe and legal access to the EU both at its external land borders and in countries of origin and transit. This can be accomplished through the increased use of resettlement, family reunification and humanitarian visas.”

Amnesty focuses on several hotspot routes around the Mediterranean, including Morocco to Spain and Turkey to Greece.

The measures described include everything from bilateral cooperation deals, such as the EU’s Action Plan with Turkey that is currently under negotiation; or more face-to-face border control — midnight push-backs across borders, fences erected, doors closed in people’s faces.

TJ, a 22-year-old Syrian refugee, described his experience of a push-back from Bulgaria to Turkey in the report.

“They put us in a jeep and took us near the international border crossing by jeep. They slapped our necks and said: ‘Walk, goodbye,’ showing Turkey. We began walking towards Turkey,” TJ said. “When we turned back to look at them, they showed us their guns…I was too scared.”

“After three years of war in Syria, I am scared of guns. Escaping from Syria, and then dying in Bulgaria would have been unacceptable.”

 

Externalise borders

At the same time, Europe is engaging in high-level negotiations with states around the Mediterranean to better manage — or reduce — migration flows headed towards Europe.

However, there are now fears that by outsourcing migration management to third-party countries around the Mediterranean, Europe may be externalising its borders without due care for the rights and wellbeing of irregular migrants hoping to reach Europe.

Under the Khartoum Process, a multilateral dialogue and migration management initiative involving dozens of European and African states, African law enforcement officers could receive training in border security at the Egyptian Police Academy in Cairo. The plan is detailed in a document, seen by Equal Times, for the Steering Committee of the Khartoum Process, which met in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in April.

Human Rights Watch has expressed concerns about what kind of training would be provided by “a country whose security forces have pervasive impunity for abuses, including enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial executions.”

Last Monday, Egyptian border guards reportedly shot dead 15 Sudanese nationals and injured eight others as they attempted to cross the border with Israel. While reports suggest the Sudanese were caught in the crossfire between security forces and Bedouin smugglers, the latest border deaths in Egypt reflect the immense dangers faced by refugees, asylum seekers and migrants migrating irregularly on the peripheries of Europe.

While The Independent newspaper reported last Sunday that the incident marked the “end of a lull in attempted border crossings…mostly due to an increase in military operations,” the North Africa Mixed Migration Hub (MHub) monitoring group noted two months ago that 29 people successfully crossed into Israel on 23 September 2015 — “the largest [group]…in the last year and a half,” bringing the annual total to 141.

Officials warned that “the number is rising due to lack of effective legal measures,” MHub added.

Hard as it might be to imagine, vulnerable people are willing to go to extreme lengths to reach safety and stability — whether that means crossing the Mediterranean by boat, or facing the thousands of security forces, jihadists and Bedouin traffickers that call North Sinai home.

Unless European leaders change course, an increasingly remote possibility after the Islamic State’s attacks on Paris, fears will only grow that European responses to the refugee crisis will be accompanied by more and more rights abuses, in Europe and beyond.