Hotel Hara, refugee camp - photo by Frantisek Trampota
The EU needs to provide assistance to migrants affected by Covid-19: our briefing to the European Parliament
The EU urgently needs to step up and provide assistance to protect the health and safety of people trapped in camps on the Greek islands: our briefing to the European Parliament.
Key advocacy points
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The EU urgently needs to step up and provide assistance to protect the health and safety of people trapped in camps on the Greek islands - not just to protect their welfare, but to contain the virus itself as a matter of global public health.
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The current European Commission proposal for funds allocation is insufficient to ensure the safety of refugees, asylum seekers and people on the move. We detail our requests in this briefing to the European Parliament.
Advocacy
Post date
15th April 2020
To the Members of the European Parliament and to the Committee on Budgets of the European Parliament
The EU urgently needs to step up and provide assistance to protect the health and safety of people trapped in camps on the Greek islands - not just to protect their welfare, but to contain the virus itself as a matter of global public health.
However, as we detail in the briefing below, the current European Commission proposal for funds allocation is insufficient to ensure the safety of refugees, asylum seekers and people on the move. Urgent funds are required to respond to the crisis in an adequate way which upholds fundamental rights and addresses the threat posed by Covid-19 in Europe and beyond.
Therefore, we call on the EU to:
- Revise the proposed allocation of funds to ensure the protection of refugees, asylum seekers and people on the move during the pandemic;
- Ensure all expenditure is fully transparent in a publicly-accessible format and that this expenditure is lawful;
- Provide people a safe alternative elsewhere in Greece or other EU member states, or at the very least ensure that existing accommodation takes the shape of open facilities and does not constitute de-facto detention centres. The accommodation facilities must guarantee access to the full asylum procedure as provided under EU and international law, including free legal aid and the right to an effective remedy, while upholding the principle of non-refoulement without exception.
- Ensure that accommodation facilities provide humane and dignified conditions, adequate and timely vulnerability assessments, effective security and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) safeguarding, as well as access to education for children within 3 months. The accommodation must also be verified by independent health experts, or else, asylum seekers and migrants must be provided a safe alternative elsewhere in Greece or other EU member states;
- Ensure ex-ante human rights, gender, social, labour as well as data protection impact assessments are conducted before providing the funds;
- Ensure adequate privacy protections are mainstreamed within programmes promoting human rights, good governance and the upholding of the rule of law;
- Ensure Parliamentary oversight with a sufficient mandate and powers and to obtain relevant information.
- Additionally, given the urgent need for tackling this crisis, law enforcement and immigration authorities should suspend the detention of those who fail to provide adequate documentation until this pandemic is over.
These briefing and requests are endorsed by:
Petra Molnar, Director, International Human Rights Program, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Refugee Rights Europe
Homo Digitalis
If you want to endorse our requests please email [email protected]
