On Wednesday, 26 November, European Network Against Racism (ENAR) Interim Chair Sandra Alloush, herself a Syrian refugee, announced that she had filed a formal complaint about the humiliating controls she suffered at the Franco-German border with the German courts—this coming at a time when Germany has tightened its land border controls in order to combat irregular immigration.
“I was arrested, beaten, and stripped naked”, she reported during a press conference at the European Parliament, denouncing the fact that she had been treated like a criminal “simply because she is a racialised person”. She added, “Never would I have believed that I could be treated in Europe as I was in Syria”.
For Mélissa Camara (Greens/EFA, French), Sandra Alloush’s case illustrates “the harmful effects of potential misconduct from re-establishing controls” at the Schengen area’s internal borders. “Racial profiling is something that hundreds of thousands of people across the European Union experience on a daily basis”, she noted, calling on the European Commission to “take steps” to put an end to these controls.
On behalf of the German NGO GFF—which is supporting Ms Alloush in her case—Laura Kuttler pointed out that a Bavarian court had not considered the continuation of border controls in Germany to be justified by new threats.
Mentioning the work underway at the European level on the proposal for a regulation to expedite the return of individuals residing in the EU without authorisation (see EUROPE 13760/12), Ms Camara noted that discussions were taking place on “how to detect” these individuals. She felt that it was necessary to put pressure [on Germany] so as to say, “We do not accept these policies.” (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)