Human Cargo. Arbitrary readmissions from the Italian sea ports to Greece

Juli 2013

Every year, thou­sands of refu­gees and migrants hide in pas­sen­ger ships, tra­ve­ling in high-speed inflata­ble boats or in any other mari­ti­me trans­port, in an attempt, to cross the Adria­tic Sea. The­se cross­bor­der move­ments on this inter­nal EU-bor­der, in most of the cases, con­cern peo­p­le in need of inter­na­tio­nal protection.

The­se peo­p­le are try­ing to escape from Greece, their first Euro­pean coun­try of ent­ry, which has been con­dem­ned by the Euro­pean Court of Human rights (ECHtR) in the case of MSS v Bel­gi­um and Greece as not being safe for peo­p­le in need of inter­na­tio­nal protection.

Appar­ent­ly, the rese­arch fin­dings cle­ar­ly indi­ca­te that in the majo­ri­ty, peo­p­le in need of inter­na­tio­nal pro­tec­tion and unac­com­pa­nied minors who are detec­ted and appre­hen­ded in the Ita­li­an ports and in the sou­thern coasts of Ita­ly, are eit­her refu­sed ent­ry to the Ita­li­an ter­ri­to­ry or are read­mit­ted back to Greece, wit­hout being gran­ted any access to inter­na­tio­nal pro­tec­tion, to any sort of regis­tra­ti­on of their cla­im, iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on and indi­vi­du­al eva­lua­ti­on of their case and/or vulnerability.

Edi­tors: PRO ASYL Foun­da­ti­on and Fri­ends of PRO ASYL in co-ope­ra­ti­on with the Greek Coun­cil for Refugees