(Brussels 24 September) Next Tuesday, on 30 September, Amnesty International will launch a new report, Lives adrift: Refugees and migrants in peril in the central Mediterranean, in Brussels. The report will examine the plight of migrants and refugees who risk their lives making the journey from North Africa across the Mediterranean to the European Union (EU) in search of safety and sanctuary. It will explore the causes and consequences of these horrific journeys on un-seaworthy vessels. And EU and member states’ responsibilities and responses regarding international maritime law, and human rights and refugee law obligations. The report comes as Europe prepares to mark the one year anniversaries of the 3 and11 October 2013 shipwrecks off the Italian island of Lampedusa, which collectively took the lives of over 500 people. 

The latest influx of refugees has undoubtedly placed even further strain on Turkey’s already stretched resources, but this cannot be used as an excuse for denying safe sanctuary to anyone who is fleeing the horrors of war.

By Conor Fortune, News Writer at Amnesty International, who recently returned from St Petersburg

18/09/2014 – Torture and other ill-treatment by police and military are pervasive, routine and common throughout Nigeria. Released today, Amnesty International’s report “Welcome to hell fire: Torture and other ill-treatment in Nigeria” documents how hundreds of women, men and children in police and military custody across the country are being subjected to a range of physical and psychological torture and other ill-treatment.

With hundreds of thousands fleeing war and poverty across the Middle East and Africa, the priority must be to protect lives rather than creating an impenetrable fortress.

10/09/2014 – On 8 September around a dozen police officers raided the offices of two NGOs, Ökotárs and Demnet, and confiscated files and computer servers. The raids come after a string of recent government statements and actions which have sought to discredit the work of civil society organizations in Hungary.

The Ukrainian authorities must not replicate the lawlessness and abuses that have prevailed in areas previously held by separatists.

By Nicolas Beger, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office

01/09/2014 – Amnesty International, FIDH (the International Federation for Human Rights), and its member organization, the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN-Burma) today call on the European Union (EU) and its member states to ensure continued international engagement on the human rights situation in Myanmar by again introducing a resolution on the country at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in October 2014.