AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE

16/01/2014 – Ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday 20 January, Amnesty International calls on you to ensure that human rights remain at the centre of European Union (EU) external policy and action in all countries on the agenda, including Central African Republic (CAR), Syria, Egypt, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Russia.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Not only do we have fears that Ablyazov would not get a fair trial in Russia or Ukraine, there is the real danger that he will eventually end up in Kazakhstan, where he will be at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. The French authorities must not send Ablyazov to any country where he will face serious human rights violations or be forced back to Kazakhstan.

Asylum seekers in Bulgaria, including many fleeing from war-torn Syria, are being held in appalling conditions, sometimes for months on end. They lack access to food, sanitation or basic medical care. They are also at risk of arbitrary detention and face lengthy delays in registration and are routinely deprived of access to fair and effective asylum procedures.

Today’s announcement is yet another effort by the UK to shirk its responsibility to get at the full truth

If accurate, the deeply shocking statements attributed today to the Greek Chief of Police would expose a willful disregard for the rights and welfare of refugees and migrants seeking shelter and opportunity in the European Union.

The European Union urgently needs to change its mindset and approach to migration control. No matter how high member states try to build their walls, no matter how often they shift responsibility to neighbouring countries, and no matter how often they try to turn a blind eye, people will still be compelled to leave their country. And so, more lives will be lost off Europe’s shores

The European Union member states are failing to play their fair part in providing a safe haven to the refugees who have lost all but their lives. The number of those they’re prepared to resettle is truly shameful

12/12/2013 – In the space of 12 months, 1.8 million people fled the armed conflict in Syria. By September 2013 the terrible milestone of two million refugees had been reached as men, women and children continued to pour out of the country.

10/12/2013 – Today, Amnesty International formally requested access to information from the European Commission on the process and state of play of the so called pre-infringement procedures against Italy, following its discriminatory treatment of Roma and the specific failure of the national government to ensure equal access to adequate housing for all.

29/11/2013 – An informal settlement in Saint Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis), reported by media as one of the largest Roma camps in France with an estimated 800 people living in it at one point, was forcibly evicted on the morning of 27 November 2013. Media reports estimated that of the approximately 250 people evicted on 27 November, about 70 were children. The vast majority of evicted inhabitants were reportedly left homeless, with nowhere to live, as temperatures dropped to 7 C at the onset of winter.