EU Ministers of Interior convene in Stockholm: Barrot expects more solidarity from the North

PRO ASYL calls for a sus­pen­si­on of returns and a spee­dy dis­tri­bu­ti­on of pro­tec­tion seekers

The situa­ti­on of pro­tec­tion see­kers in Greece escala­tes dra­ma­ti­cal­ly. To the EU Minis­ters of Inte­ri­or who are mee­ting in Stock­holm the Vice-Pre­si­dent of the EU Com­mis­si­on, Jac­ques Bar­rot, will pro­po­se a redis­tri­bu­ti­on of pro­tec­tion see­kers from Greece within Euro­pe. PRO ASYL wel­co­mes this initiative.

“Sta­tes like Ger­ma­ny can not stand by any lon­ger. The situa­ti­on in Greece is get­ting total­ly out of con­trol,” says Karl Kopp, direc­tor of Euro­pean Affairs with PRO ASYL. “An unbu­reau­cra­tic and fast dis­tri­bu­ti­on of pro­tec­tion see­kers stran­ded in Greece is a mat­ter of huma­nism and solidarity.”

In brief: detenti­on cen­tres for refu­gees in Greece are burs­t­ing. New­ly arri­ving refu­gees face a hig­her maxi­mum detenti­on peri­od of up to six months, doubling the pre­vious three months.

More and more fami­lies end up being per­ma­nent­ly home­l­ess. In Athens, radi­cal right­wing militi­as dri­ve refu­gees and migrants from public spaces. Poli­ce bru­ta­li­ty is an ever­y­day rea­li­ty, asyl­um see­kers are detai­ned arbi­tra­ri­ly and the num­ber of docu­men­ted cases of ille­gal push­backs to Tur­key increa­ses. Thou­sands of unac­com­pa­nied minors are roa­ming the coun­try, wit­hout shel­ter, wit­hout mate­ri­al means and wit­hout any pro­tec­tion. End of June the govern­ment of Prime minis­ter Kara­man­lis has abo­lished the second ins­tance of the asyl­um procedure.

EU mem­ber sta­tes from the north have signi­fi­cant­ly con­tri­bu­ted to the dire situa­ti­on of refu­gees in Greece. For years, they have negle­c­ted their respon­si­bi­li­ty for the pro­tec­tion of refu­gees, out­sour­cing it to the sta­tes at the exter­nal bor­ders of the Euro­pean Uni­on. That the­se gate­kee­pers intro­du­ce hars­her and hars­her and more ruthl­ess mea­su­res against refu­gees is being wat­ched in silence.

Euro­pe has a moral respon­si­bi­li­ty to pro­tect over 2000 refu­gee child­ren from Afgha­ni­stan who are on their own in Greece. If the Greek sta­te is not able or wil­ling to pro­vi­de pro­tec­tion, the EU needs to step in. The EU Minis­ters of inte­ri­or urgen­tly need to deci­de upon a redis­tri­bu­ti­on mecha­nism and to dis­tri­bu­te par­ti­cu­lar­ly vul­nerable per­sons within Euro­pe accor­ding to huma­ni­ta­ri­an criteria.

Karl Kopp

Direc­tor of Euro­pean Affairs with PRO ASYL

Board mem­ber of ECRE

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