On the eve of ‘World Refugee Day’, Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, appealed from Lampedusa on Monday 19 June to the Member States to stand – “not in words, but in actions” – by their promises to defend European values made in the ‘Reykjavik Declaration’ adopted at the organisation’s last summit in May.
“It’s impossible not to reflect on the situation that persists in the Mediterranean and elsewhere”, she says, denouncing the inadequate capacity and coordination of rescue services, the lack of safe and legal channels, the lack of solidarity and the criminalisation of NGOs that try to intervene.
The Commissioner says she is “struck by the alarming level of tolerance to serious human rights violations against refugees, asylum seekers and migrants that has developed across Europe”.
The collective emphasis on deterrence and on transferring responsibility to third countries creates “a breeding ground” for these repeated violations, insists the Commissioner, who condemns the promotion of laws and policies that progressively deprive populations on the move of protection.
Link to the declaration: https://aeur.eu/f/7l2 (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)