Illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers at the EU’s eastern external borders

The report “Pushed back at the door” descri­bes the rising num­ber of ille­gal push­backs at Europe’s exter­nal bor­ders in Bul­ga­ria, the Czech Repu­blic (at Pra­gue Air­port), Hun­ga­ry and Pol­and, also giving an over­view of worry­ing deve­lo­p­ments in Slove­ni­an poli­ci­es and legislation.

Bulgaria

Over the cour­se of 2016, the Bul­ga­ri­an Hel­sin­ki Com­mit­tee (BHC) recei­ved incre­asing num­bers of reports of vio­lent push­backs at the Bul­ga­ri­an-Tur­ki­sh bor­der. The­se reports not only descri­be events at the bor­der its­elf, but also at the bor­de­ring regi­ons within Bulgaria.

Apart from the push­backs, the reports also talk of thefts (of money, valu­ables and even food) car­ri­ed out by the Bul­ga­ri­an poli­ce as well as poli­ce tac­tics of inti­mi­da­ti­on, such as firing war­ning shots and the deploy­ment of dogs.

The Czech Republic

The Czech Republic’s only EU-exter­nal bor­der is loca­ted in the tran­sit area of Pra­gue Air­port. While the law pro­vi­des for a kind of air­port pro­ce­du­re, in rea­li­ty asyl­um see­kers hard­ly have access – neither to the asyl­um pro­ce­du­re its­elf, nor to the accom­mo­da­ti­on pro­vi­ded at the air­port for this pur­po­se. In 2015 and 2016, a maxi­mum of two peo­p­le per month were able to gain access to this pro­ce­du­re, while bet­ween 30 and 40 decis­i­ons refu­sing ent­ry were issued each month, among them for peo­p­le from count­ries such as Sri Lan­ka, Iraq and the Demo­cra­tic Repu­blic of Congo.

The Orga­niza­ti­on for Aid to Refu­gees (OPU) has recei­ved many indi­ca­ti­ons that some of the­se peo­p­le had wan­ted to app­ly for asyl­um, and that in some cases even per­sons with valid ent­ry visas were rejec­ted and sent back.

Hungary

Hun­ga­ry has erec­ted a fence along its bor­ders to Ser­bia and Croa­tia. The­re are two tran­sit zones (at Röszke and Tom­pa), whe­re bet­ween 20 and 30 asyl­um see­kers are allo­wed to enter the coun­try every day. Through a law pas­sed in the sum­mer of 2016, push­backs were all but lega­li­sed in Hun­ga­ry: Under this law, any per­son who is loca­ted at the bor­der or up to eight kilo­me­t­res insi­de the coun­try can be taken back across the bor­der. In this way, 13,869 peo­p­le were refu­sed ent­ry bet­ween July 5^th and Octo­ber 30^th, 2016.

Addi­tio­nal­ly, the­re are num­e­rous reports of mistre­at­ments of migrants and deploy­ments of dogs. Accor­ding to its own reports, the orga­ni­sa­ti­on Méde­cins sans Fron­tiè­res (MSF) Ser­bia tre­ats inju­ries to refu­gees and migrants cau­sed by the Hun­ga­ri­an bor­der forces on a dai­ly basis.

Poland

Accor­ding to Polish law, asyl­um appli­ca­ti­ons made to bor­der forces have to be regis­tered and pas­sed on to the head of the for­eig­ners’ regis­tra­ti­on office within 48 hours. Over the past months the­re have been an incre­asing num­ber of reports accor­ding to which many peo­p­le were refu­sed ent­ry as well as the oppor­tu­ni­ty to make an asyl­um request. The­se reports con­cern the bor­der to Bela­rus (bor­der sta­ti­on Brest-Terespol).

It is main­ly asyl­um see­kers from Chech­nya who want to app­ly for asyl­um in the EU via Bela­rus. The bor­der forces have been deny­ing access to the pro­cee­dings at the bor­der to NGOs and the UNHCR. 72,372 peo­p­le were refu­sed ent­ry (among them 61,267 peo­p­le from Rus­sia) bet­ween Janu­ary and Sep­tem­ber 2016, while during the enti­re pre­vious year (2015) the num­ber of refu­sals was still only 17,376.

Slovenia

Slove­nia does not have an EU-exter­nal bor­der. While the­re is no evi­dence of any sys­te­ma­tic push­backs, the­re are worry­ing poli­cy ten­den­ci­es: An amend­ment bill which would extend parliament’s powers – »if it beco­mes neces­sa­ry due to a thre­at to public order and secu­ri­ty cau­sed by migra­ti­on« – to shut the bor­ders, stop con­side­ring asyl­um appli­ca­ti­ons and to push back asyl­um see­kers at the bor­ders is to be voted on as ear­ly as Janu­ary 2017.