Amnesty International has launched a damning attack on Europe’s leaders over their apathy towards the suffering of refugees from war-torn Syria. 

Together with a briefing published today, An international failure: The Syrian refugee crisis (pdf), the group released a scathing youtube video mocking the indifference of European leaders to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of refugees on its doorstep, called The Apathetics.

In the video David Cameron and Francois Hollande come under particular criticism. In a press release Amnesty International notes that France has offered to accept only 500 Syrian refugees, whereas the UK has offered no places at all, saying only that Syrian refugees can apply for asylum on a case by case basis.

“The EU has miserably failed to play its part in providing a safe haven to the refugees who have lost all but their lives. The number of those it’s prepared to resettle is truly pitiful. Across the board European leaders should hang their heads in shame,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

In total the 28 member states of the European Union have only offered to accept 12,340 refugees, with Germany by far the most generous having offered to accept 10,000. Spain only offered to accept 30 refugees while a total of 18 European states offered no places whatsoever.

According to reporting by the BBC the bloc says its priority is providing help to Syria's internally displaced people, now thought to number 6.5 million, and those hosted in other countries through financial aid that has reached 1.3bn euros to date.

Fortress Europe

The lack of a legal route for Syrian refugees into the EU has driven many of them to attempt risky sea crossings into the EU namely through Italy and Greece. This has often led to tragedy with hundred of refugees losing their lives in the Mediterranean.

Greek border authorities were singled out for criticism by Amnesty which gave the following account of ‘illegal pushback’ operations by members of the Greek coastguard in Samos:

“Refugees have told Amnesty International how Greek police or coastguards, wielding guns and wearing full face hoods, ill-treat them, strip them of their belongings and eventually push them back to Turkey. 

A 32-year-old man from Syria described how he and his mother were confronted by the Greek coastguard near the island of Samos in October. They were part of a group of 35 people including women and young children pushed back to Turkey. 

“They put all the men lying on the boat; they stepped on us and hit us with their weapons for three hours. Then at around 10 in the morning, after removing the motor, they put us back to our plastic boat and drove us back to the Turkish waters and left us in the middle of the sea.’’ 

The number of unlawful push-back operations from Greece is not known; however, Amnesty International believes hundreds have been affected. 

In the last two years the European Commission has provided €228 million to bolster border controls. 

In comparison, for the same time period, just €12 million was allocated to Greece under the European Refugee Fund, which supports efforts in receiving refugees.”

The human rights organisation also condemned Bulgarian authorities for the detention of 5,000 Syrian refugees in ‘squalid’ conditions without access to adequate medical care food or bedding.

Amnesty Demands
In total only 55,000 Syrian refugees (2.4 per cent of the total number of people who have fled Syria) have managed to get through border controls and claim asylum in the EU. 

Amnesty International is now, calling on European member states to: 

  • “Significantly increase the number of resettlement and humanitarian admission places for refugees from Syria;
  • Strengthen search and rescue capacity in the Mediterranean to identify boats in distress and assist those on board;
  • Ensure that those rescued are treated with dignity and have access to asylum procedures;
  • Ensure that unlawful push-back operations are ended;
  • Provide legal safe passage for Syrian asylum seekers wishing to travel to European member states.

The EU, its member states, and the international community should continue to provide support to countries hosting the largest numbers of refugees, particularly Jordan and Lebanon.”

However these demands are likely to meet resistance from the bloc which is wary of opening its borders to refugees from the conflict in Syria, strongly preferring providing 'assistance' rather than resettlement.

Reported by Pavlos Zafiropoulos and Christina Vasilaki; writing by Pavlos Zafiropoulos

 

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