At many places along the Central Mediterranean and Western Balkan routes, at EU’s external borders as well as at EU’s internal borders, the illegal practice of pushbacks is being used as a systematic deterrence measure and as a de facto tool for border management.
DRC and partners are present in many European countries where pushbacks take place. We carry out several different activities: we collect data on pushbacks; we gather documentation and evidence of rights violations; we provide medical relief and legal support to migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers; and we are present in Brussels where we advocate for the respect of human rights obligations under European and international law.
On these pages you’ll be able to find more information about our work and positions on pushbacks and border management.
Throughout 2021 DRC and six protection and legal aid civil society organizations from six European countries have joined forces in the Protecting Rights at Borders (PRAB) initiative.
From January to November 2021, DRC and six civil society organizations across Europe documented close to 12,000 incidents of men, women and children being pushed back by border police, law enforcement officials or other authorities from EU Member States.
The tragic and preventable drownings in the French Channel on Wednesday November 24, and the similarly avoidable humanitarian crisis at the EU’s border with Belarus are being used politically to promote and advance an increasingly securitized approach to border management. But criminalising mobility, securitizing borders, and preventing access to territory will not result in safer mobility.
As European civil society and professional organisations working on asylum, migration, humanitarian assistance and human rights, we are shocked by the continuing humanitarian crisis at the borders between the EU and Belarus which causes immense suffering and has led to the deaths of at least ten people.
Croatia’s recently announced border monitoring mechanism, meant to provide for independent human rights monitoring of border operations, appears to fall short of the standards needed to ensure its effectiveness and success, 8 human rights and humanitarian aid organizations said today.
New DRC-MMC position paper offers evidence-based recommendations towards a protection-sensitive approach to actions against human smuggling.
22 April 2021 saw yet another preventable tragedy at sea with more than 100 people perishing in a single incident. DRC repeats its plea for the EU to commit to search and rescue in the Mediterranean and for expanding safe pathways to protection to avoid desperate crossings and countless deaths at sea.
Five years after the EU-Turkey Statement, European Civil Society Demands an End to Containment and Deterrence at the EU’s External Borders
The undersigned humanitarian organizations call for an immediate solution for at least 900 migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers who have been kept in dire humanitarian conditions and uncertainty at the Lipa location for more than 24 hours.
With the recent heavy snowfalls and temperatures below freezing, up to 500 people currently stranded at the location of the former Lipa are at immediate safety, health and protection risk.
The EU has presented a positive step forward to end impunity for rights violations at borders within and around the Union, but it risks becoming a fig leaf. Along with seven other organisations, DRC presents four key recommendations.
The serious violations committed at European borders with impunity must end. It is now up to Members of the European Parliament and Member States to ensure that violations of rights at EU borders are recorded, that those responsible are held to account and that justice for individuals affected is guaranteed.
EU should not confuse hard borders with an effective asylum system. The EU’s priority should be to protect people not borders.
Urgent call to action: The undersigned organisations reiterate their call on the governments of EU Member States, with support from the European Commission to urgently relocate displaced individuals from Greece.
The EU's new Pact on Migration and Asylum is an opportunity to take a different approach. To take a breath, to remember the values that the European project was founded upon, and to dust off the good old fundamental rights and put them to use.
The EU’s upcoming Pact on Migration and Asylum provides an opportunity to choose another direction for EU asylum and migration policy.