The UN’s refugee commissioner has lambasted what he said were “horrific practices” and human rights abuses becoming commonplace at European borders.
Filippo Grandi said evidence was mounting of migrants being violently pushed back from EU land and sea borders and refugees being deported to countries where they were at risk.
He accused European politicians of turning a blind eye to such practices and instead prompting a “Fortress Europe” policy by building walls and fences to keep more migrants out.
Those policies have been driven by a series of migration headaches that politicians have faced in recent months, with flashpoints in Belarus, the English Channel and the Mediterranean Sea.
French President Emmanuel Macron is hoping to use his country’s six-month presidency of the EU to push forward long-stalled reforms on migration.
But Mr Grandi said people fleeing war and persecution were unlikely to be deterred from trying to reach Europe by walls and fences and would only suffer more as a result of them.
“What is happening at European borders is legally and morally unacceptable and must stop,” he said in a 700-word intervention on the website of the UN refugee agency.
“We fear these deplorable practices now risk becoming normalised and policy based. They reinforce a harmful and unnecessary ‘fortress Europe’ narrative.
“The reality is that the majority of the world’s refugees are hosted by low- and middle-income countries with far fewer resources, often bordering countries of origin in crisis.”
Charities and watchdogs estimate that about 2,000 people died or went missing in the Mediterranean last year while 4,000 people died on the way to Spain.
Mr Grandi said the UNHCR had interviewed thousands of migrants who reported a pattern of “threats, intimidation, violence and humiliation” when they were pushed back.
He raised particular concern over Greece, a hotspot for migration into Europe, where authorities have denied pushing people back in land and sea patrols.
UN monitoring has uncovered more than 500 of these “disturbing incidents” since the start of 2020, Mr Grandi said.
