“The warm and welcoming response to Ukrainians stands in sharp contrast to the widespread human rights violations committed against refugees, asylum seekers and migrants coming from other parts of the world in many Council of Europe member states over several years, especially by subjecting them to pushbacks”, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights said in a recommendation published on Thursday 7 April.
Faced with this phenomenon, which has become a “systematic pan-European problem”, Dunja Mijatović points in particular to Croatia, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Bulgaria, as well as France and Spain, which send migrants who try to enter their territory back to neighbouring countries.
Increasingly frequent and visible, these pushbacks risk being perpetuated “in the midst of general indifference”, as “all attention is focussed on the consequences of the war in Ukraine”, warns the Commissioner, who also denounces the “serious and systematic” violence used in certain Member States, which are sometimes tempted to adopt laws legalising these pushback measures.
As underlined by Ms Mijatović, human rights protect us all equally.
She therefore calls on Member States to put an end to these pushbacks and to respect their legal obligations which impose both an individualised procedure and the right to an effective remedy.
The Commissioner recommends that clear and binding rules of conduct and standardised procedures be put in place by border control authorities, and calls for refugees to be “treated in accordance with human rights”. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)