Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1398811
15 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 4 AUGUST 2021 EUROPE This article is part of a content series called Ewropej. This is a multi-newsroom initiative part-funded by the European Parliament to bring the work of the EP closer to the citizens of Malta and keep them informed about matters that affect their daily lives. These articles reflect only the authors' view. The European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. IN the first few months of 2021, 2,000 people have been illegally prevented from seeking pro- tection along Europe's borders, a new report says. Humanitar- ian groups say the real number is likely to be even higher. Over three months from Jan- uary to April this year, at least 2,162 people were stopped at the borders of European coun- tries and illegally turned or "pushed" back, according to a new report. From border crossings in Ita- ly, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia-Her- zegovina, North Macedonia and Hungary, records of push- backs of migrants collected by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and 10 other civil soci- ety organizations in six coun- tries are documented in the Protecting Rights at Borders (PRAB) report: "Pushing Back Responsibility". "Along the Central Mediter- ranean and Western Balkan routes, as well as at the EU's internal borders, pushbacks are no exception," the PRAB report says. More than a third of the push- backs reported by migrants in- volved human rights violations, including being denied access to asylum procedures, physical abuse and assault, theft, extor- tion and destruction of property. Those responsible for the abuses were national border police and other law enforce- ment officials. Denied water, bitten by dogs, and forced to kneel in the snow At the coastal border between France and Italy, migrants at- tempting to cross reported be- ing intercepted by French bor- der police and then detained overnight at the French police border station. "[The migrants] are denied their right to apply for asylum, receive insufficient food, water and blankets, and are not provided with interpre- tation or medical assistance. The next day they are returned to Italy," the report says. Migrants who were pushed back to Serbia from Hunga- ry and Romania said they had been subjected to different kinds of mistreatment and abuse. In two cases, migrants said that they had been bit- ten by dogs unleashed by bor- der guards. Others reported having been slapped, kicked, beaten with police batons, and punched on their backs, hands and legs. Most people interviewed said that they had been forced to sit or kneel on the ground regardless of rain or snow and that their mobile phones had been destroyed and not returned. "It is extremely worrying to see that so many people expe- rience pushbacks and border violence. It goes without saying that states must stop the vio- lence and these illegal practic- es, and perpetrators must be held accountable," said Char- lotte Slente, Secretary General of the DRC. Actual number of pushbacks higher The report also reveals, through testimonies, that au- thorities in different countries cooperated in more than 175 cases in so-called "chain push- backs" in which people were transferred across several bor- ders until they were outside the EU. This could be from Italy or Austria through countries like Slovenia and Croatia to a third country such as Bosnia-Herze- govina, the report says. A large majority (1,216) of pushbacks documented in the report happened between Cro- atia and Bosnia. There were 331 cases reported from Ro- mania to Serbia and 285 from Hungary to Serbia. The report suggests that the actual num- bers are likely to be much high- er, as there are so many chal- lenges to documenting these practices: for example, NGOs are banned from the Evros ar- ea on the Greece-Turkey land border. Some migrants are also reluctant to report pushbacks because they are worried that it will affect their status or their possibilities for onward move- ment. Others think reporting will make no real difference. Border management must be 'rights compliant' The PRAB report recom- mends that an independent border monitoring mechanism is set up to ensure that rights violations are properly mon- itored and that evidence of pushbacks submitted by NGOs is investigated in future. "Good faith is not enough to ensure that border management is hu- man-rights compliant," it says. The DRC and other civil soci- ety organizations that contrib- uted to the report, including the Hungarian Helsinki Com- mittee, the Greek Council for Refugees and the Italian refu- gee law and policy organiza- tion ASGI, say that while states have the right to control move- ment across their borders, this has to happen in line with their international legal obligations. Countries are bound by hu- man rights law to ensure that people can seek asylum, and turning people back as a means to protect states' borders is ille- gal. Investigations are continuing into the alleged involvement of Frontex, the European border agency, in pushback incidents, the report points out. In April new claims emerged that Fron- tex has played a key role in en- suring that migrants are inter- cepted by Libya's coast guard. The PRAB report claims that a lack of transparency sur- rounding Frontex's role makes it difficult to hold the agen- cy accountable. In March, a Frontex investigation into the allegations of pushbacks in the Aegean Sea concluded that it was not possible to resolve the incidents "beyond any reasona- ble doubt." Over 2,000 illegal pushbacks 'the tip of the iceberg', report claims