EU spends 3 times more on shielding borders than on refugees

The NGO Amnesty International (AI) has released a report on Wednesday that alleged that some 23,000 people have died trying to reach Europe since 2000. In the 44-page document, “The human cost of Fortress Europe: Human rights violations against migrants and refugees at Europe’s borders”, AI accuses the European Union (EU) and Member States to “endanger the lives and rights of refugees and immigrants” trying to enter EU territory, especially through Bulgaria, Greece and Spain. “To overcome the obstacles, immigrants find alternative much more dangerous routes,” said the organization in a document to ensure that Europe spends three times more on shielding their borders than on refugee. “The effectiveness of systems for preventing irregular migration are, at best, questionable,” says John Dalhuisen, program director for Europe and Central Asia Worldwide.

The EU, the report coordinated by the Turkish researcher Irem Arf Rayfield, spend billions on projects each year to hinder the arrival of refugees with questionable methods to human rights as metal fences, armed patrols guarding the frontiers or surveillance systems of latest technology. “For the EU, the protection of its borders is more important than the protection of people,” said Rayfield, 33, during an interview at the AI office in Madrid. “The detention of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing the armed conflict are a tool of deterrence for those who are thinking about running away to the EU,” says the researcher, who later explained that this measure “not useless” because immigrants seeking ” other much more dangerous alternatives as navigating through the Greek Islands or crossing the Mediterranean.”

Of the two billion euros offered by the EU between 2007 and 2013 to protect its external borders, only 700 million were allocated to improve the situation of asylum seekers and refugees, the report, which was compiled from different sources such as European newspaper, databases of each country and testimony of witnesses and families of victims over the past 14 years. The organization highlights that the estimated 23,000 migrants have died since 2000.

But as the conflicts continue, particularly Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea immigrants continue fleeing. And while the EU reinforces the anti-immigration systems, the flow of immigrants who choose alternative routes, so much more dangerous generally increase. According to Greek police, the number of people using the sea route from the Aegean islands increased from 169 in 2012 to 3265 in 2013. “Many drown in these trips,” says the researcher, who confesses to having heard cases of immigrants suffocate in truck in Turkish borders. The case of the border between Bulgaria and Turkey is more alarming: about 1,700 people who crossed illegally in 2012 that number increased to 11,158 in 2013, according to the same NGO.

Amnesty International emphasizes the illegality of the process of returning immigrants to their country, especially in the case of the border of Greece and Bulgaria with Turkey – and – underscores abuse insults, beatings, say – that refugees receive when rejected, although there are no specific allegations of torture.

17% of the budget for the program of EU Immigration between 2007 and 2013 was intended only to refugees, while 46 % are dedicated to strengthening the borders by increasing the number of controls sensory cameras, fences. 21% was allocated to the remaining integration and the return of asylum seekers, although not to their country of origin, but to the country from which they entered the EU (Turkey, Ukraine, Morocco 16%).

The immigration detention centers, where refugees can not stay longer than 18 months for European Directive, are filled in Greece and Bulgaria. “I know of a specific case in which a person was imprisoned 25 months,” said Rayfield, who explains that there is no reason why they should remain there or be returned to their countries. “Human rights are human rights,” he concludes.

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Posted by Nadeem Bajwa on Jul 10 2014. Filed under Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.