New report states EU countries informally cooperate to deny asylum rights to refugees

A report by nine human rights organisations initiated by Protecting Rights at Boarders includes testimonies of 2162 cases of pushbacks against asylum seekers at different borders in Italy, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia-and-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Hungary. The report states that over a third of the testimonies include human rights violations from national border police and law enforcement such as denial of access to asylum procedure, physical abuse and assault, theft, extortion and destruction of property. More than a third of interviewed Croatia’s pushed back asylum seekers reported being physically abused, while 62% reported theft, extortion or destruction of their personal belongings. Denial of access to asylum was reported by 23%. The report suggests that the pushbacks are carried out on the basis of bilateral agreements between countries, who thus neglect their responsibilities under international law. This report follows several others, such as a report by the Guardian which revealed EU member states illegally pushing back at least 40,000 asylum seekers from Europe’s borders during the pandemic, which is linked to the death of more than 2,000 people.