Protection of migrants nytimes today9/17/2023 ![]() ![]() It is time to finally protect the lives and the rights of people seeking safety in Europe. ![]() We urge the EU and Member States to set up proactive, state-led search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea.įor too many years, we have heard empty words from the European Commission and EU Member States, being “concerned”, “saddened” and “appalled” by the loss of life without taking action. It would allow rapid deportation of anyone who had failed to request protection. The EU should abandon the narrative of blaming shipwrecks on smugglers and stop seeing solutions solely in the dismantling of criminal networks. A tough new immigration measure could disqualify the vast majority of migrants. We call for a European asylum system that guarantees people the right to seek protection in full respect of their rights. We urge the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, to finally take a clear stand on the open graveyard at Europe’s land and sea borders, and to hold Member States accountable. We urge a full investigation into these deaths, specifically into the role of EU Member States as well as the involvement of Frontex. Meanwhile, EU Member States continue to rely on untransparent deals worth billions with third countries, in an attempt to rid themselves of their asylum responsibilities. This will only push people fleeing war and violence into even more dangerous routes and cause more unnecessary deaths. Instead, some EU states have drastically reduced search and rescue (SAR) capacity at sea, and restricted civil society SAR operations, which means that prompt and effective assistance cannot be provided to migrants in distress, in blatant disregard of international SAR obligations.įurther, last week Member States agreed on a reform of the European asylum and migration system, which is built on deterrence and systematic detention at EU borders, that will most probably incentivise more pushbacks, and deaths at sea, while the border monitoring mechanisms established so far are neither independent nor effective. Organisations have advocated relentlessly with the European Commission, Member States and European policy makers to adopt measures to end human rights abuses and senseless deaths at EU borders. Hundreds of reports and evidence submissions have been published, including those based directly on witness and survivor testimonies. Human rights watchdogs, civil society organisations, the United Nations and countless investigative journalists as well as major media outlets have documented the human rights violations, pushbacks and systematic failures to engage in search and rescue that have now become the EU’s de facto migration management policy. The first quarter of this year marked the deadliest in the central Mediterranean in six years. according to recently published data from U.S. According to Customs and Border Protection, 34 percent of all the migrants encountered in June had tried at least one more time to enter the country in the. Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World. These human tragedies are playing out at Europe’s land and sea borders on a daily basis. Border Patrol reported more than 1.6 million encounters with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2021 fiscal year. ![]() Joint NGO statement The EU must not be complicit 16 June ![]()
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