EU borders: Stop exposing migrants to danger
The appeal targets Members of the European
Parliament, and challenges them to do their duty as watchdog, by holding
governments and institutions to account for how they treat the migrants,
refugees and asylum-seekers who arrive at EU frontiers.
“Tomorrow we're
putting Europe to shame. Thousands of people throughout Europe have expressed
their alarm at what’s happening almost invisibly along our borders” said Nicolas Beger, Director of Amnesty
International’s European Institutions Office. “Borders are one of the
few areas where EU countries can largely escape scrutiny. Migrants suffer the
impact of being ‘out of sight, out of mind’.”
Every year, thousands
of people set off on perillous journeys in unseaworthy boats, hoping to reach
Europe. Some are fleeing conflict, while others are escaping grinding poverty.
Over the past decade European countries have increasingly focused on preventing
people from even setting foot on EU territory.
Governments often resort to
practices that force migrants to take dangerous routes to Europe, often with
fatal consequences. For example, last month, six Syrians drowned when their
boat foundered in the Aegean. Among them were a pregnant 17-year-old and a
mother with her child.
By staging its
symbolic action in front of the European Parliament, using an emblematic
'refugee' boat, Amnesty International will demand that the EU and the
governments of its 27 members demonstrate far greater transparency and
accountability over how they operate at Europe’s borders.
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