PRESS RELEASE – INVITATION TO PRESS
CONFERENCE
Athens, 16
February 2016
The
organizations participating in the network group “Campaign for the Access to
Asylum”, would like to express our deepest concern about the harrowing
developments in the political and social context, which lead to the dismantling
of the legal acquis concerning the refugee and human rights protection, both in
Greece and Europe.
Greece
is about to implement policies in full and termless compliance with the
european imperatives, subverting the up to date existing protection of
refugees, as guaranteed by the International, European and National Law:
By
sealing of Greek-Turkish border, which results to the refoulement of the
refugees, the latter get excluded from their legally established right of
protection.
By
authorizing the involvement of the NATO forces, the refugee issue is being
militarized. This revives distressing memories of the past, by stigmatizing the
beneficiary of international protection as a potential enemy.
• The prospect of transferring the
asylum applications examination and status recognition processes in third
countries outside the European Union (externalization) leaves refugees exposed
to countries’ legal orders that do not offer effective protection. However, the
shifting of the "burden" does not absolve the EU Member States of
their obligations under International and EU Law.
• The suggestion for the designation
of Turkey -which massively violates human rights- as a safe third country,
constitutes a mockery and mimicry of the framework for international protection
of refugees as we know it until today.
Our
organizations point out that the new policies mark the collapse of the rule of
law and the end of the asylum acquis communautaire, as endorsed in the
aftermath of World War II by the International Convention on the Status of
Refugees, the European Law and the case law of the European Court of Human
Rights, leading to new unnecessary human sacrifices at the borders of Europe.
Our
organizations, believing that in the current critical times, more than ever,
the protection of refugees and the defense of our values is, despite all the
difficulties, not only necessary but possible, call to a press conference on Tuesday, February 23, 2016 at 5 pm at the
Athens Bar Association hall.
THE
ORGANIZATIONS (in alphabetical order):
