AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Trading the return of people who reached the EU to seek asylum to one of a country that is still clearly unstable, for vitally needed humanitarian and development aid is sordid and immoral.

It would be inadmissible that any agreement forged in Brussels makes financial assistance for Afghanistan conditional on the Afghan government’s cooperation to accept the readmission and return of asylum seekers

We run from war, we run from pain. So why do people at the border treat us like animals

The continued failure of the EU to seriously address the silencing of dissent by members of the GCC suggests an alarming willingness to sacrifice human rights in favour of military and trade alliances.

27/06/2016 – On 7 June 2016, the European Commission published a Communication, calling for the establishment of migration “compacts” between the EU and a range of countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The document is a striking example of precisely what has precipitated the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War.

An Afghan migrant in Istanbul, Turkey. At least 20,000 Afghans are lured in Turkish cities by a promise of good wages that are never paid, and smugglers who tell them it is an easy launching point for a better life in Europe. © Amnesty International

Egyptians mourn over a body wrapped in shrouds at a mosque in Cairo on August 15, 2013, following a crackdown on the protest camps of supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi the previous day. ©MAHMOUD KHALED/AFP/Getty Images

People take part in a demonstration denouncing Iran’s use of the death penalty on January 28, 2016 in Paris. ©DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images

Refugees and migrants massed onto an inflatable boat reach Mytilene, northern island of Lesbos, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on February 17, 2016. ©ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images

Refugees arriving by boat to Lesvos, Greece, from Turkey. ©Amnesty International