Protecting Rights at Borders (PRAB)
Welcoming at one border, rejecting at another - PRAB Initiative partners recorded 1911 pushback incidents during the first three months of 2022.
From January to March 2022, DRC and nine civil society organizations across Europe documented over 1900 incidents of men, women and children being pushed back by border police, law enforcement officials or other authorities from EU Member States.
Since the start of war in Ukraine, several million people have sought protection in Europe, with an unprecedented show of solidarity from the EU. Pushback reports collected by PRAB Initiative partners, however, show that protection in the EU remains mostly out of reach for non-Ukrainian nationals, even for those fleeing Ukraine.
The most recent report by Protecting Rights At Borders (PRAB) initiative, includes data gathered by partners across EU’s external and internal borders during the first three months of 2022. The report shows that across the EU and its borders, little has changed when it comes to the treatment of persons from Asia, Africa and the Middle East who try to seek protection. Half of all persons reporting experiencing pushback came from Afghanistan, while 1 in every 10 pushbacks recorded involved children.
The two faces of EU Member States approach to ensuring protection remains visible at the EU external borders with Belarus, where while people fleeing Ukraine are warmly welcomed, for those crossing into EU via Belarus it is impossible to apply for international protection or even to access basic assistance.
Download the latest report
Pushbacks at EU’s Borders
Pushbacks are expulsions without legal justification and procedure, usually employed by border police, law enforcement officials or other authorities. It is being used to push foreigners such as migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from a state’s territory to the territory of another state without regard for the individual’s circumstances and right to seek asylum.
PARTNER ORGANISATIONS
ASGI
Associazione per gli Studi Giuridici sull'Immigrazione
DV
Diaconia Valdese
DDG
Diversity Development Group
GCR
Greek Council for Refugees
HCIT
Humanitarian Center for Integration and Tolerance
HC
Human Constanta
HHC
Hungarian Helsinki Committee
MYLA
Macedonian Young Lawyers Association
SIP
Association for Legal Intervention Poland
All reports
PRAB Report January to March 2022
PRAB Report January to March 2022
May 2022
1.4 mb
PRAB Overview 2021
PRAB Overview 2021
January 2022
2 mb
PRAB III: Human dignity lost at the EU’s borders
PRAB III: Human dignity lost at the EU’s borders
December 2021
2 mb
PRAB II: Doors Wide Shut
PRAB II: Doors Wide Shut
July 2021
1.7 mb
PRAB I: Pushing Back Responsibility
PRAB I: Pushing Back Responsibility
April 2021
865.7 kb
PRAB Policy note II: When the ends seems to ‘justify’ the means
December 2021
444.9 kb
PRAB Policy note I: Destruction of property or evidence as tactic
December 2021
418.3 kb
12,000 pushbacks in 2021 reflects worrying normalization of illegal practice
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.
Using family separation as deterrent – new report documents alarming illegal push-back methods
A new report, Doors Wide Shut, documents how parents are being separated from their children by border authorities and pushed back across the border at different places without means of finding each other again. And this is only one of the illegal push-back practices registered as part of the Protecting Rights at Borders (PRAB) Initiative.
Push back of responsibility: Human Rights Violations as a Welcome Treatment at Europe’s Borders
In a new report, DRC in partnership with six civil society organisations across six countries, have collected records of thousands of illegal pushbacks of migrants and refugees trying to cross Europe’s borders. Testimonies also reveal unofficial cooperation between authorities in different countries to transfer vulnerable people across borders to avoid responsibility.