PRESS STATEMENT FOR THE JOINT AMNESTY/PROASYL PRESS CONFERENCE TO MARK GERMANY'S NATIONAL REFUGEE DAY 2014

Ladies and Gentlemen,

These past few months, refugees have been making newspaper headlines. Many articles concern themselves only with the situation of refugees in Germany. Others talk about the situation of boat refugees in the Mediterranean. Most of them fail to place the various images and figures in a broader international context.

This, however, is exactly what we need to do: Around the world today, more than 51 million people have had to flee their homes – more than at any other time since World War II. Most of them are seeking refuge within their own country. About 18 million people end up leaving their home country.

Most refugees don’t come to Germany or even to Europe. Instead, they settle in a neighbouring country. The so-called developing countries are now taking in 86% of all refugees – and counting. In other words: Though countries like Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon and Kenya dispose of fewer resources than Germany, they offer invaluable humanitarian support. Turkey has also made an enormous contribution by taking in one million refugees from Syria.

Europe, on the other hand, only receives a very small proportion of refugees. Last year, less than half a million people applied for asylum in Europe. Despite the shocking refugee crisis caused by the conflict in Syria. Despite the continuously tense situation in Afghanistan. Despite the military dictatorship in Eritrea. Despite the political upheavals in Somalia.

But what does the European Union do? In light of the large number of flash points around the world, and faced with an increasing number of refugees, does it do the decent thing and willingly take in refugees?

On the contrary. With the help of a reinforced budget and the latest technology, Europe is battening down the hatches. It is willing to risk selling human rights down the river and turning the Mediterranean into a mass grave.

Here are some figures to highlight the priorities of the so-called common European refugee policy: From 2007 to 2013, the EU spent nearly two billion euros on border fences, state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, border patrols and the EU Border Agency Frontex. Only 700 million euros were allocated to improving the situation of asylum-seekers.

I would like to point to Bulgaria as an example of the EU's "Fortress Europe" policy: Last fall, when an increased number of Syrian refugees were arriving in Bulgaria, 1,500 additional police officers were deployed at the border to Turkey and a 30 kilometre fence was erected. As a result, border crossings into Bulgaria fell from an average of 1,700 to 100 per month. The new and costly European Border Surveillance System EUROSUR is already in operation there. Surveillance cameras are positioned in such a way as to detect every single moving object within a 15-kilometre radius around and beyond the border with Turkey. This means that people can be prevented from even reaching the Bulgarian border and trying to exercise their right to seek asylum there.

The Greek coastguard also systematically and forcefully pushes boat refugees back into Turkey. One Syrian refugee describes his experience as follows:

"At first, we thought they weren’t live bullets. But then I heard someone scream that one of the girls was covered in blood. This is when I realised that they were shooting at us with real guns. We all feared for our lives. It was as if we had never left the war in Syria at all."

Those responsible have not been held to account. One would expect the EU member states to be outraged – but there was no outcry.

The Lampedusa boat disaster on October 3rd of last year was not the first of its kind. Since 2000, more than 23,000 refugees and migrants are thought to have perished in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe. But it wasn’t until hundreds of people died right off the coast of Lampedusa, and off the coast of Malta the following week, that the European public sat up and took notice. These images could no longer be ignored.

There was a brief flicker of hope that, at last, something would be done. However, all that the hastily established "Task Force for the Mediterranean" has achieved so far is to produce a mountain of red tape and to further pursue the isolationist path.
But Italy could neither forget nor ignore the white children’s coffins of Lampedusa. In October 2013 and entirely on its own initiative, it launched "Mare Nostrum", a comprehensive sea rescue operation which has since rescued more than 100,000 people from distress in the Mediterranean Sea. These efforts notwithstanding, close to 2,500 people have died this year while trying to reach Europe’s shores.

Today, I will be travelling to Lampedusa and Sicily along with Amnesty representatives from Italy and France in order to get a first-hand impression of these commendable humanitarian efforts and to express our solidarity. Solidarity with Italy, but most importantly, solidarity with the refugees.

There is no question that Italy cannot continue to run a sea rescue operation for the whole of the Mediterranean all by itself. But as long as there is no viable alternative operation in place, Mare Nostrum must be continued. Following our visit to Italy, Amnesty International will publish a comprehensive report containing specific calls for action regarding sea rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

Our petition to Chancellor Merkel "S.O.S. Europe: People before borders" includes an appeal for all EU member states to contribute to the funding of sea rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

Current plans for "Frontex Plus" or "Triton" as a successor to Mare Nostrum already lead one to fear the worst. If this means that we are looking at a simple merger of two Frontex operations ["Hermes" and "Aeneas"], there is cause for concern that the operation’s real priority will be the control of irregular migration flows rather than sea rescue. In addition, its area of operation would be much closer to Italy's territorial waters and would not include Libya’s coastal waters, which is where most boat accidents happen. It is also highly likely that the EU member states will spend significantly less on these new Frontex operations than Italy does on Mare Nostrum, which costs about 9 million euros per month.

In conjunction with other EU member states (France, Spain, Great Britain and Poland), the German Interior Minister has now presented a policy package which describes the "migration problem in the Mediterranean" as "getting out of hand". This package is to be adopted at a Brussels summit in October and lacks all the elements necessary for an improved refugee policy:

There is no commitment to a take collective responsibility for sea rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

There is still no mention of creating safe routes for refugees to reach Europe. It is unacceptable that the only way for Syrian or Eritrean refugees to apply for asylum in Europe is to undertake a hazardous voyage across the Mediterranean in boats which are shockingly unsuitable! Resettlement and humanitarian admission programmes for refugees need to be strengthened and expanded in all member states. Family reunification should be facilitated to enable refugees who have family members living in the EU to travel to Europe in safety.

Instead, the German Interior Minister demands even tighter controls of the EU’s external borders, a crackdown on human trafficking and better cooperation with countries of transit and origin. Surely funnelling EU funds into combating networks of human traffickers does not tackle the reasons why people flee their country of origin in the first place!

Amnesty International calls on all EU states not to task countries like Libya with preventing refugees from reaching Europe’s borders. Especially in cases of countries with dubious human rights records which do not offer protection to refugees.

Since the German government proclaims to take refugee protection seriously, we expect them to speak out against these migration control deals instead of canvassing support for them. We expect them to denounce illegal push-back operations instead of turning a blind eye. Germany is a very vocal player on the European stage when it comes to issues like competition law or the economy. We are calling on the German government to be just as vociferous when it comes to defending human rights in the EU.

In short: The German government must not prioritise rescuing the Euro over rescuing people in the Mediterranean!

Thank you for your attention.

Selmin Çalışkan (Amnesty International) and Günter Burkhardt (PRO ASYL)