Hamdi Firat Buyuk – Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee says in latest report that inhuman treatment of migrants continues on Europe’s borders, violating European laws and conventions.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, CPT, of the Council of Europe, said in its latest report that physical ill-treatment of foreign nationals continues on European borders including on the so-called Balkan Route.
“The CPT has identified … clear patterns of physical ill-treatment deployed against foreign nationals in the context of pushback operations across Council of Europe member states’ borders. These consist primarily of foreign nationals being beaten upon their apprehension or at the time of their pushback – punches, slaps, blows with truncheons, other hard objects or non-standard items (such as barrels of automatic weapons, wooden sticks or the branches of trees) – by police or border guards, members of the coast guard, or other law enforcement officials,” the report wrote.
The CPT report is based on official visits to Council of Europe member countries and interviews.
The CPT added that it has examined pushback practices along all the main migratory routes towards Europe, namely the so-called Western Balkan route, Western Mediterranean, Central Mediterranean and Eastern Mediterranean routes as well as, more recently, the Eastern Borders route.
Foreign nationals experiencing pushbacks faced numerous forms of inhuman and degrading treatment according to the CPT.
They include firing bullets close to the persons’ bodies while they lay on the ground, pushing them into rivers (sometimes with their hands still tied), removal of their clothes and shoes and forcing them to walk barefoot and/or in their underwear and, in some cases, even fully naked across the border.
“The use of unmuzzled dogs to threaten or even chase foreign nationals, seizure and destruction of property, and deprivation of food and water for prolonged periods were frequently reported. These and other actions were generally perceived by the persons concerned as being a threat to their physical integrity and/or demeaning and intended to humiliate them,” the report added.
The CPT report underlined that these incidents violate European rights conventions and laws.
“Under the Convention, collective expulsions – which concern the forced removal of individuals as a group, regardless of their legal situation and without an objective examination of each individual case – are prohibited,” the report said.
The CPT advised putting effective procedures in place to ensure that “foreign nationals intercepted or apprehended at the border and/or entering the country are individually identified and registered, undergo health screening and a vulnerability assessment, and are offered the opportunity to apply for asylum”.
“In the CPT’s view, there must be effective procedures in place to ensure that foreign nationals intercepted or apprehended at the border and/or entering the country are individually identified and registered, undergo health screening and a vulnerability assessment, and are offered the opportunity to apply for asylum,” the report concluded.
According to European Union Agency for Asylum, EUAA, nearly 1 million applications for asylum were logged in the EU+ countries in 2022.
This is up more than 50 per cent from 2021 and the highest number since 2016. The largest applicant groups were Syrians, Afghans and Turks but applications were also high from a range of other nationalities. The caseload of applications pending decisions hit its highest level since 2017.
Most migrants who try to reach the EU countries continue to use the Mediterranean, the Balkan Route and most recently Eastern European route via Belarus, and often face violent pushbacks.