For too long the EU’s migration policies have ignored the priorities of the countries it partners with for the sake of its own border security and domestic priorities. These have permeated the domestic migration and asylum policies of the Maghreb countries it supports, at the cost of people’s interests.

The new Commission proposals on migration and asylum will likely replicate the abhorrent situation we have been witnessing for years in the Greek EU refugee ‘hotspots’, said Oxfam today.

The first case of the new coronavirus in Greece’s biggest refugee camp highlights the need for immediate and radical changes from the Greek government and its EU partners to the reception of people seeking asylum in Europe.

Rather than protecting vulnerable people from the spread of the coronavirus, the Greek government is using the crisis to absolve itself from its obligations under international and EU law, said Oxfam.

As the two-year anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal nears on March 18, 2018, thousands of asylum seekers are trapped on the Aegean islands in deplorable conditions and without access to adequate protection and basic services, nine humans rights and humanitarian organisations including Oxfam said today.The Greek government should act immediately to end the containment policy that traps asylum seekers in these conditions on the islands and move them to safety on the mainland.

 

More than 13,500 refugees and other migrants remain trapped on the Greek islands in deplorable conditions as winter begins, a coalition of 13 NGOs including Oxfam said today. Oxfam calls on the Greek government and its EU partners to transfer immediately at least 5,500 asylum seekers from the squalid island camps to the Greek mainland.

France is unlikely to be able to guarantee safety and human rights for asylum seekers in Libya, Oxfam said in reaction to French plans to set up a processing centre in Libya for asylum seekers in the North-African country.

The Greek government must ensure people on the move are registered and have access to the asylum process, says Oxfam in reaction to the closure of the Idomeni makeshift camp in Northern Greece.

Deportations of refugees and migrants from Greece to Turkey must be halted immediately and people wanting to seek asylum should not be kept in detention, said Oxfam, Norwegian Refugee Council and Solidarity Now today in Greece.