EUROPEAN LEADERS MUST END THE HUMANITARIAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS AT EUROPE'S BORDERS

Letter to European leaders

We, the 25 undersigned humanitarian, human rights and volunteer organizations call on you, in the run up to the third anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal, to take immediate and sustained action to end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy which is preventing asylum seekers from leaving the Greek islands. We also call on you to urgently reach a common responsibility-sharing agreement for hosting asylum seekers across EU Member States.

The policy that traps people on the Greek islands and prevents them from reaching the European mainland has caused a recurrent and endless cycle of overcrowding, substandard living conditions and extremely poor access to services: the European “hotspots” continue to provide accommodation and basic services, such as food and medical assistance, well below minimum standards. The European response in Greece has proven to have disastrous consequences on refugees’ rights, including their health and safety. This has been exhaustively documented and brought to your attention through countless reports over the last three years.

As many as 20,000 asylum seekers were stranded in unsafe, unhygienic and degrading conditions on the Greek islands in 2018. Currently, around 12,000 people are still forced to live in inadequate reception and identification centres built for a maximum capacity of half this population: sleeping in unheated tents or overcrowded containers with limited access to running water and electricity, and often exposed to ongoing violence, harassment and exploitation, amid high tensions, lack of security and minimal protection.

While the number of asylum applications across Europe has dropped over the last three years, the number of asylum applications filed in Greece has increased exponentially. In Lesvos alone, for instance, the number of asylum applications more than tripled between 2016 (5,000 applications) and 2018 (17,270 applications). At the same time, organizations providing medical and legal assistance are stretched beyond capacity. By preventing most asylum seekers from leaving the islands and being transferred to the European mainland, European governments are putting undue pressure on the islands’ residents, local community resources, local authorities, and on Greece, while reception conditions, including the protection mechanisms for asylum seekers are still substandard.

The expectation that most newcomers could be returned to Turkey under the EU-Turkey deal has proved to be dangerously unrealistic. According to Greek Asylum Service representatives in Lesvos, only up to 6% of the asylum-seekers arriving to Lesvos would be eligible for return to Turkey.

It is shameful that, despite this sobering reality, some European governments have been holding hostage any real responsibility sharing mechanism until returns are sped up and increased, focusing instead on deterrence policies and border controls at the expense of basic rights and safeguards. The current situation at the borders of Europe is the direct result of those short-sighted and unsustainable policies implemented following the EU-Turkey deal and the lack of aptitude and political will across Europe to find common ground on key aspects of a common European asylum system.

As civil society organizations from across the European continent, we are convinced that the EU has sufficient resources and capacity to respond humanely to the needs of all those seeking asylum in its territory. Taking immediate measures to improve the conditions of people seeking asylum in Europe and finding a solution to the current humanitarian and human rights crisis at Europe’s border is your responsibility and duty. We therefore call on you to live up to Europe’s human rights foundation and values. To that end, we, the undersigned organizations, call on you to:

• urgently agree on fair and sustainable arrangements for sharing responsibility for asylum seekers arriving in Europe, that will ensure member states’ ability to provide decent and dignified conditions for people in need of protection. In this context, we welcome the recent announcement of an agreement between the governments of Portugal and Greece, to gradually relocate 1,000 refugees out of the camps.

• urge the Greek Government to suspend immediately the restriction of movement that unnecessarily contains asylum seekers in the Greek islands, imposing squalid and dangerous living conditions on them and putting unfair pressure on Greece and the residents of the Aegean islands. To facilitate the transfer of asylum seekers off the islands increased capacity on the sites in the mainland through an improved and more effective shelter allocation is therefore needed. 

Yours sincerely,                                                               

ActionAid Hellas

Amnesty International

Avocats Sans Frontières France

Boat Refugee Foundation

Caritas Hellas

CEAR - Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado

Danish Refugee Council

DIOTIMA - Center for Research on Women’s Issues

Equal Rights Beyond Borders

Greek Council for Refugees

Greek Helsinki Monitor

Human Rights Watch

International Rescue Committee

JRS Europe

JRS Hellas

Legal Center Lesbos

Mare Liberum

Médecins du monde - Greece

Oxfam

Praksis

Refugee Legal Support

Refugee Rights Europe

Solidar

Solidarity Now

Terre des hommes Hellas