The Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture has again denounced the mistreatment of migrants and pushbacks at European borders, in particular those of the EU, in its annual report published on Thursday.
“
Many European countries face very complex migration issues at their borders, but that doesn't mean they can ignore their
human rights obligations
.
These illegal and unacceptable dismissals must stop
,” said CPT President Alan Mitchell.
Violent arrests
The CPT states that it visited police and border or coast guard posts, detention centers and transit areas "
along the main migratory routes to Europe
" (the Western Balkan route, the Western, Central and Eastern Mediterranean).
The report notes that "
foreign nationals are usually beaten upon arrest or upon discharge - punches, slaps, beatings with truncheons or other hard or illegal objects (...) - by the police or border guards
.
He denounces "
other forms of inhuman or degrading treatment (...), such as firing bullets near people when they are lying on the ground, pushing them into rivers (sometimes with their hands tied), removing their clothes (...) and, in some cases, send them totally naked across the border
".
Retention as a last resort
"
The use of unmuzzled dogs to threaten or even drive away foreign nationals, the seizure and destruction of property, and the deprivation of food and water for prolonged periods have also been frequently reported," it says,
s worrying about "
the prolonged and sometimes informal detention of foreign nationals intercepted and arrested in inappropriate conditions before their removal
".
The Council of Europe, which had already denounced these pushbacks in its report last year, calls on States to guarantee that migrants "are
individually identified and registered, undergo a medical examination and an assessment of their vulnerability and are offered the possibility of applying for asylum
", and recalls that detention "
should only be used as a last resort
".
Arrivals on the rise
The Council of Europe, watchdog for human rights on the continent, has 46 member countries.
Russia was excluded following the invasion of Ukraine, but remains a party to the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture.
In 2022, some 330,000 irregular arrivals were recorded at the EU's external borders, 64% more than the previous year, according to Frontex, the European border guard agency.
This agency has itself been splashed with accusations of complicity in pushbacks of migrants in the Aegean Sea, which led to the resignation of its director in 2022.
