Click:comparer les tailles
By erecting fences, sealing off external borders, and withholding aid in the wake of Friday’s massacre in Paris, the European Union would be embracing death—or the threat of such a fate—as a deterrent to those seeking refuge, rights organizations are warning.
“Giving in to fear in the wake of the atrocious attacks on Paris will not protect anyone,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia director at Amnesty International, in a statement accompanying a report released Tuesday by the humanitarian organization.
“The numbers fleeing persecution and conflict have not gone away, nor has their entitlement to protection,” Dalhuisen continued. “In the wake of this tragedy, the failure to extend solidarity to people seeking shelter in Europe, often after fleeing the very same kind of violence, would be a cowardly abdication of responsibility and a tragic victory for terror over humanity.
The report comes as European heads of state threaten to impose further restrictions on their borders, and far right political parties across the continent ratchet up their Islamophobic and racist rhetoric, in response to the worst crisis of global displacement since World War II.
Even before the massacre last Friday in Paris, “Fortress Europe” was cracking down on people from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, and elsewhere fleeing poverty and wars fueled, in part, by the West.
Amnesty found that member states have collectively spent more than €175 million ($186 million) to construct over 146 miles of fences at the European Union’s external borders—from the Hungary-Serbia border to the one between Greece and Turkey.
In the wake of the Paris attacks, European heads of state appear to be ratcheting up xenophobic and racist rhetoric. “Giving in to fear in the wake of the atrocious attacks on Paris will not protect anyone,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia director at Amnesty International, in a statement accompanying the report.
“The numbers fleeing persecution and conflict have not gone away, nor has their entitlement to protection,” Dalhuisen continued. “In the wake of this tragedy, the failure to extend solidarity to people seeking shelter in Europe, often after fleeing the very same kind of violence, would be a cowardly abdication of responsibility and a tragic victory for terror over humanity.”
Newly-erected fences and “tougher” border restrictions, Amnesty finds, are not stopping people from seeking safety, but rather forcing them over other land routes or even more dangerous sea journeys. This point has been made by many refugees and immigrants, including Somali-British poet Warsan Shire, who wrote in 2013 that “no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land… no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.”
At least 792,883 people reached the EU by sea in November, compared to 280,000 recorded arrivals by land and sea in 2014.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT