That’s the message from the group of eight consultants, together with Ashwini Okay.P., the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, who urged Greece on Wednesday to research alleged violations towards asylum-seekers.
They stated that they have been “notably involved” by the failure of the nation’s safety personnel and coast guard to supply “immediate and efficient” help to migrants in misery and guarantee secure disembarkation and ample reception.
Rounded up
Earlier this month, the unbiased consultants requested detailed data from the Greek Authorities on a case involving 12 asylum seekers from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, together with a six-month-old toddler, who had reached Greek territory solely to be rounded up by masked males, stripped of their belongings and forcibly taken to the port of Mytilene in Lesbos on 11 April.
“The violence, which was captured on video – verified, and reported by the media – uncovered the racist exclusion and cruelty of Europe’s border safety practices,” the consultants declared.
“The previous 12 months have been among the many deadliest for asylum seekers, refugees and migrants of African descent and others on their journeys, notably alongside sea and land routes within the Center East and North Africa area, and in perilous Sahara and Mediterranean crossings,” they famous.
‘Deliberate and coordinated coverage’
“Whereas the investigation is ongoing, there’s rising proof of a deliberate and coordinated coverage of forcible return and different dehumanising border management practices by Greece “going far past deterrence and in contravention of its worldwide obligations”.
“The function of racism and systemic racism within the remedy of asylum-seekers have to be confronted inside any significant overview of those practices,” the consultants stated.
States have obligations below worldwide human rights and refugee legislation to handle the hazards and dangers confronted by migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in host and transit international locations.
An absence of standard migration pathways, coupled with restrictive migration insurance policies, xenophobic rhetoric and plenty of different push elements, function to worsen risks and dangers moderately than mitigate them, the consultants added.
Collective expulsions
They discovered the alleged illegal, arbitrary, and collective expulsion of the asylum-seekers to be of specific concern, because it immediately contravenes due course of and the protections supplied by the 1951 Refugee Convention and the European Conference on Human Rights.
The stated it was vital not solely to safeguard the lives of individuals of African descent on the transfer, “however to make sure that their human rights, safety and dignity are additionally preserved with particular safety measures for these – together with girls and kids – who’re at most danger,” the consultants stated.
Particular Rapporteurs and consultants who serve on Working Teams usually are not UN workers and are unbiased from any authorities or organisation. They serve of their particular person capability and obtain no wage for his or her work.
