Instead of investigating and stopping border violence, EU leaders manipulate public narratives into so-called ‘crises’. They then criminalise migrants and justify actions that neglect their obligations towards people seeking safety.
These narratives drive the extraordinary measures that have been seized upon by various European member states such as Greece, Poland, Hungary and Lithuania.
Across the EU, leaders are not investing in increasing and improving reception facilities – for example with dignified living conditions. Instead, member states focus on restricting the number of people they allow to enter while outsourcing their international responsibilities to other (often less safe) countries such as Libya.
“Today, people that survive the deadly Mediterranean Sea crossing or the mountains and forests of Europe only do so to be subjected to undignified treatment when they reach EU soil,” says Julien.
“Across Europe, we’ve seen the normalisation of violence at their borders. On top of deaths at sea and violent pushbacks, we’ve heard reports of children locked up in shipping containers and teargassed in Hungary before being pushed back to Serbia. It’s inhumane.”
Through the stories MSF staff hear from their patients, we continue to witness the EU’s complete disregard for international law. This includes the right to seek asylum, the obligation to render assistance at sea to people in danger, and the prohibition of inhumane, cruel and degrading treatment and torture.
“Before my first arrival in Greece, I experienced six pushbacks,” a man from Somalia told MSF teams in Greece.
“The most recent time, we arrived on Lesvos in the morning by boat. When we reached the shore, we split up and ran into the bushes. After many hours hiding, some men wearing balaclavas found me and threw away my jacket and my shoes. They beat us, loaded us on a plastic boat, and pushed us back to sea… back to Turkey.”
