Ministers must abandon once and for all the Fortress Europe approach. Desperate people will keep coming and a coordinated emergency response coupled with an urgent overhaul of the EU’s approach to asylum can no longer wait.
Picture: On 4th September, the Hungarian police continued to block a train with hundreds of refugees at the town of Bicske. Upon arrival from Budapest number of refugees refused to disembark the train as they didn’t want to be placed into a (overcrowded) camp after having spend days at the Keleti train station in Budapest. Credit: Amnesty International
The proposals published by the Commission today will, as they say, “help to address the refugee crisis”, but they certainly will not solve it – neither in the short-term nor the long-term
The response to the refugee crisis in Europe has been piecemeal and incoherent at a time when the need for clear-sighted leadership and radical reform of Europe’s collapsing asylum system has never been greater
07/09/2015 – On the occasion of your first State of the European Union (EU) address to the European Parliament on 9 September, and as preparations continue for the Commission Work Programme 2016, Amnesty International urges you to include a strong human rights dimension, taking the opportunity to demonstrate the Commission’s commitment to ensuring this founding principle is central to its work.
“Last night’s violent attack once again throws into sharp relief the danger to them and activists who help them. Action must be taken now at all levels to ensure they are protected,”
In the glaring absence of sufficient safe and legal routes to Europe, people are left with little choice but to embark on irregular journeys fraught with risks either in the Mediterranean or now increasingly the western Balkans. It’s time to show the red card to Europe’s response to the refugee crisis and ensure an urgent rethink.
The world is seeing the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War. What Europe’s borders need is not fences but safe entry points for refugees, and facilities to receive them with dignity.
The Frontex report is yet more confirmation, as if any were needed, that Europe’s focus on keeping people out rather than managing an ever-growing global refugee crisis is failing
Whilst assistance measures to Greece, if correctly implemented, may take some pressure off the islands in the short term, what is urgently needed is a broader rethink of EU asylum responses to ensure that those in need of protection can access the wider European territory safely and securely.
Today’s fatal incident emphasizes how European governments must immediately put in place safe and legal routes for those in need of protection to reduce the numbers of people embarking on perilous sea journeys.