Migrant rights groups criticize European asylum laws, treatment
Europe's top rights watchdog warned on Wednesday that overcrowding and poor living conditions in migrant camps in Greece need to be urgently improved.
The Council of Europe, which has 47 member countries, said some facilities were "sub-standard" and able to provide no more than the most basic needs – food, hygiene products and blankets. The report echoes warnings by other rights groups and aid agencies, who say Greece has been unable to care properly for the more than 800,000 people who have reached Greek shores in the last year, fleeing wars or poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
The council described dire living conditions in several sites visited on a trip between March 7 to March 11, just before the European Union and Turkey reached a deal that reduced arrivals.
At Greece's Nea Kavala temporary transit camp, people were left burning trash to keep warm and sleeping in mud-soaked tents, according to the report. The Council called for the closure of a makeshift camp in Idomeni, where some 10,000 people have been stranded en route to northern Europe due to the closure of Macedonia's border.
Germany has taken in most of the 1.3 million refugees and migrants who reached Europe across the Mediterranean in the past year, triggering bitter disputes among the 28 EU member states on how to handle the influx.
The rate of arrivals has significantly dropped since March 20, when the EU and Turkey struck an agreement to discourage irregular migration on the Aegean Sea and to develop a mechanism to resettle Syrian refugees from Turkey in the EU.
The agreement includes returning migrants who were refused asylum in Greece to towns in western Turkey, in exchange for resettling Syrian refugees from camps in southeastern Turkey in EU countries such as Germany, Finland and the Netherlands. The deal stipulates 6 billion euros in aid to Ankara for the care of Syrian refugees in the country, who number more than 2.7 million.
Meanwhile, the U.N. human rights chief said he is concerned about Austria's tough new asylum law, which allows a process under which migrants could be turned away at the border within an hour, in an interview published yesterday.
Austria, a country of 8.5 million, has mostly served as a conduit into Germany for refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa, but it has also taken in around 100,000 asylum seekers since last summer. After initially welcoming refugees, the Austrian government capped the number of asylum claims it would accept this year at 37,500, and it has made family reunification harder for migrants.
"We are concerned that people could possibly be turned away on a questionable basis," High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein was quoted as saying in ther Die Presse daily, addressing the law which could be applied as soon as June 1.
Hussein added he was also worried about the law allowing for under-age migrants to be held in detention for up to three days, which he said could represent a breach of children's rights. "Austria was a leading European country for the defense of human rights globally for a long time. There must be conformity between what you say to other countries and what is applied domestically."
Werner Faymann, who has defended the law against critics, stepped down as Austrian chancellor on Monday after his Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) suffered a humiliating electoral defeat to a far right buoyed by Europe's migration crisis.
The SPÖ's conservative junior partners in the ruling coalition have made it a condition for the survival of the coalition that the asylum law be implemented with whomever succeeds Faymann. While Austria's approach has angered other EU states, Vienna says it is necessary to safeguard public order.
Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan also criticized some European governments for not doing enough to tackle the region's big problems, saying Europe is becoming "a bad word" due to the strains of the migrant crisis and the growing inequality among euro zone countries that risk driving the continent apart. "In terms of language, in many cases let's face it, Europe is becoming a bad word and that is very serious."
With the euro zone struggling to shake off debt worries that have nearly split the currency bloc in recent years, Padoan said an even greater threat now came from the possible breakdown of Europe's borderless Schengen region, as some countries introduce emergency controls to stem the movement of migrants.
More than one million migrants entered Europe last year, many fleeing wars in the Middle East. However, Europe has been slammed for lacking a collaborative response to the crisis. Compared to Syria's neighboring countries, the U.N. refugee agency encouraged European countries to do more to share the burden of the international community in the migrant crisis. Turkey currently hosts close to 3 million refugees from Syria, with 145,000 more arrivals in the first three months of 2016.
The Council of Europe, which has 47 member countries, said some facilities were "sub-standard" and able to provide no more than the most basic needs – food, hygiene products and blankets. The report echoes warnings by other rights groups and aid agencies, who say Greece has been unable to care properly for the more than 800,000 people who have reached Greek shores in the last year, fleeing wars or poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
The council described dire living conditions in several sites visited on a trip between March 7 to March 11, just before the European Union and Turkey reached a deal that reduced arrivals.
At Greece's Nea Kavala temporary transit camp, people were left burning trash to keep warm and sleeping in mud-soaked tents, according to the report. The Council called for the closure of a makeshift camp in Idomeni, where some 10,000 people have been stranded en route to northern Europe due to the closure of Macedonia's border.
Germany has taken in most of the 1.3 million refugees and migrants who reached Europe across the Mediterranean in the past year, triggering bitter disputes among the 28 EU member states on how to handle the influx.
The rate of arrivals has significantly dropped since March 20, when the EU and Turkey struck an agreement to discourage irregular migration on the Aegean Sea and to develop a mechanism to resettle Syrian refugees from Turkey in the EU.
The agreement includes returning migrants who were refused asylum in Greece to towns in western Turkey, in exchange for resettling Syrian refugees from camps in southeastern Turkey in EU countries such as Germany, Finland and the Netherlands. The deal stipulates 6 billion euros in aid to Ankara for the care of Syrian refugees in the country, who number more than 2.7 million.
Meanwhile, the U.N. human rights chief said he is concerned about Austria's tough new asylum law, which allows a process under which migrants could be turned away at the border within an hour, in an interview published yesterday.
Austria, a country of 8.5 million, has mostly served as a conduit into Germany for refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa, but it has also taken in around 100,000 asylum seekers since last summer. After initially welcoming refugees, the Austrian government capped the number of asylum claims it would accept this year at 37,500, and it has made family reunification harder for migrants.
"We are concerned that people could possibly be turned away on a questionable basis," High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein was quoted as saying in ther Die Presse daily, addressing the law which could be applied as soon as June 1.
Hussein added he was also worried about the law allowing for under-age migrants to be held in detention for up to three days, which he said could represent a breach of children's rights. "Austria was a leading European country for the defense of human rights globally for a long time. There must be conformity between what you say to other countries and what is applied domestically."
Werner Faymann, who has defended the law against critics, stepped down as Austrian chancellor on Monday after his Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) suffered a humiliating electoral defeat to a far right buoyed by Europe's migration crisis.
The SPÖ's conservative junior partners in the ruling coalition have made it a condition for the survival of the coalition that the asylum law be implemented with whomever succeeds Faymann. While Austria's approach has angered other EU states, Vienna says it is necessary to safeguard public order.
Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan also criticized some European governments for not doing enough to tackle the region's big problems, saying Europe is becoming "a bad word" due to the strains of the migrant crisis and the growing inequality among euro zone countries that risk driving the continent apart. "In terms of language, in many cases let's face it, Europe is becoming a bad word and that is very serious."
With the euro zone struggling to shake off debt worries that have nearly split the currency bloc in recent years, Padoan said an even greater threat now came from the possible breakdown of Europe's borderless Schengen region, as some countries introduce emergency controls to stem the movement of migrants.
More than one million migrants entered Europe last year, many fleeing wars in the Middle East. However, Europe has been slammed for lacking a collaborative response to the crisis. Compared to Syria's neighboring countries, the U.N. refugee agency encouraged European countries to do more to share the burden of the international community in the migrant crisis. Turkey currently hosts close to 3 million refugees from Syria, with 145,000 more arrivals in the first three months of 2016.
Last Update: May 12, 2016 20:57