Brussels, 17/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 17 March, ahead of the European Council focusing on a draft EU-Turkey agreement on migrants, a group of European development and humanitarian aid NGOs underlined that while Europe has the right to control its borders, it also has the important obligation of managing migrants humanely. According to these NGOs, the closure of EU borders is making the humanitarian crisis worse.
In a joint letter to the EU heads of state or government, the Danish Refugee Council, Doctors of the World UK, the Greek Forum of Refugees, the International Rescue Committee UK, Oxfam International and 15 other organisations working directly with refugees and migrants in Europe, call on the EU member states to respect the fundamental rights of refugees and to learn the lessons from last year - in other words, that a containment approach to migration costs human lives. Since 2014, around 7,500 people have died at sea, many of them children.
A humane policy is possible. This would mean, according to the NGOs, that the European leaders agree on new means for providing safe and legal migration routes to people needing protection, including through the issuing of humanitarian visas, enormous resettlement programmes and the application of family reunification policies.
“The refugee crisis cannot be solved by closing borders. We need to stand together to ensure a dignified treatment and protection of refugees in Europe. It is not borders that need protection - it is the refugees”, said Mary Ann Olsen, international director of the Danish Refugee Council. For Oxfam International, the decision to end the Balkans route is proof that “the EU has pandered to domestic politics at the expense of its values” and does not solve the crisis. “The proposed horse-trading between Turkey and the EU uses human beings as bargaining chips”, deplores Sara Tesorieri, an expert on migration policy at Oxfam. She hopes that at the meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on Friday 18 March, the EU heads of state or government and Turkish leaders will put people's rights and safety first.
Vincent Koch, Oxfam's regional European migration response coordinator, underlines that women and children are sleeping outside in freezing, wet and muddy conditions. “Food and water are in short supply, and diseases, such as Hepatitis A, have appeared due to the deplorable conditions. These people are driven by a simple motive: the search for safety and the desire for dignity”, he states. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)