EU agency finds 'widespread rights violations' at borders
A new report has found that European governments are doing little to investigate claims of abuse by border forces. Fear and intimidation also prevent refugees from reporting mistreatment.
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) issued a scathing report on Tuesday decrying the situation on the bloc’s borders.
The report found that migrants and refugees were often subject to degrading treatment by member states’ border security forces. It also revealed that national governments rarely investigated such violations.
The study focused on border countries in the Balkans and the Mediterranean, saying that Greece, Hungary, and Croatia, in particular, did “not effectively investigate incidents of ill-treatment and loss of life during border management.”
FRA said that these countries, despite “credible allegations” of mistreatment, made “insufficient efforts to locate and hear victims and witnesses, hindering lawyers in their work and not having access to key evidence [such as footage from border surveillance].”
