Bari: after yet more episodes of “pushing back” refugees, EveryOne Group is appealing for urgent action to be taken by the UN High Commissioner and the European Commission.
Rome, November 2nd, 2009. Today the border police in Bari discovered and stopped sixty-nine refugees that had just arrived in the city hidden inside a Turkish lorry.
The refugees had fled from countries where serious humanitarian crises are underway: Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Every month hundreds of refugees arrive in Bari, who, (according to the Geneva Convention), are entitled to refugee status and international protection or political asylum. However, along the Adriatic coast, Italy is still continuing its unjust policy of pushing them back to Greece - from where they are deported back to the countries they have fled from without being offered the opportunity to apply for asylum.
In these cases the authorities hold interviews with the refugees (usually without an interpreter present) in which they express ambiguous concepts and never explain to the migrants that they are entitled to refugee status. These interviews are then passed off as offers of protection “refused” by the migrants. It is a deceit that reveals the bad faith of those who are giving the orders to deny them entry.
After opposing the actions of a police chief for one of these “pushing back” episodes, activists from EveryOne were subjected to authentic police persecution (which fortunately ended with the transfer of the police chief after he was reported for abuse of power, and parliamentary questions were held on the episode).
However, episodes of repelling migrants are still talking place along the Adriatic coast, a practice which violates international agreements. EveryOne Group is reporting these serious institutional violations and is appealing to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Commission, to take all the necessary measures to ensure the Geneva Convention is adhered to for all those refugees originating from countries where humanitarian crises are rife.
Picture: Afghan Refugees
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