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UNHCR calls on European states to end refugee pushbacks at borders

Migrants sit in a rubber dinghy after Proactiva Open Arms, a Spanish NGO, spotted and rescued them in the Alboran Sea, about 64 kilometers from the Spanish coast, on October 11, 2018. (Photo by AP)

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed alarm over the increasingly frequent repulsion and expulsion of refugees at Europe’s borders, urging European countries to halt these practices and protect the right to seek asylum.

“UNHCR has received a continuous stream of reports of some European states restricting access to asylum, returning people after they have reached territory or territorial waters, and using violence against them at borders,” UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Gillian Triggs said on Thursday.

“The pushbacks are carried out in a violent and apparently systematic way. Boats carrying refugees are being towed back. People are being rounded up after they land and then pushed back to sea. Many have reported violence and abuse by state forces,” she added.

Triggs further said people arriving by land have been informally detained and forcibly returned to neighboring countries “without any consideration of their international protection needs.”

She pointed out that the 1951 Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights and European Union law, requires states to protect people's right to seek asylum as well as refoulement, even if they enter a country illegally.

Authorities cannot automatically deny entry to or return people without undertaking an individual assessment of those in need of protection, she stressed.   

“Respecting human lives and refugee rights is not a choice, it’s a legal and moral obligation,” Triggs said.

“While countries have the legitimate right to manage their borders in accordance with international law, they must also respect human rights. Pushbacks are simply illegal,” she added.

The UNHCR further called on countries to create national independent monitoring mechanisms to ensure access to asylum and to prevent rights violations, warning that the very idea of asylum is under attack at Europe’s borders.

The UN agency also said it had made its concerns clear to European countries and had called for "urgent inquiries into alleged violations and mistreatment.”

The agency further pointed out that the number of arrivals in Europe had been decreasing each year.

In 2020, some 95,000 arrived by sea and land, down 23 by percent from 2019 (123,700 individuals), and down 33 percent from 2018 (141,500), it noted.

“With so few arrivals to Europe, this should be a manageable situation. It is regrettable that the issue of asylum remains politicized and divisive despite such declining numbers,” the UN agency said.

The UNHCR further said it realized that some European countries carry a disproportionate responsibility in taking in new arrivals and called on other states to demonstrate solidarity by supporting them.

It also urged European countries to uphold their existing commitments to refugee protection by admitting asylum-seekers at their borders, rescuing those stranded at sea, allowing them to promptly disembark and register, and support new asylum seekers.

The UNHCR stands ready to assist countries in meeting these international asylum obligations.

The agency has repeatedly slammed countries which close their doors to desperate refugees, in particular European nations that have left migrants stranded at sea for long periods of time.

From January 2015 to March 2016, more than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe.

The top three nationalities among them according to the UNHCR were Syrian, Afghan, and Iraqi, from countries grappling with war for years. 

Critics of United States and EU foreign policy claim the West should be doing a lot more to help refugees given their devastating role in destabilizing those countries and bringing misery to so many millions. 


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