The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) made an appeal this Thursday to European heads of state to back down on their intentions to close borders and change asylum rules, asking them to seek to “make Europe human again”.
In an open letter published by the various JRS national services, including the Portuguese one, on the occasion of the European Council, the subscribers consider that the EU “still has time to change course and unequivocally choose to act in accordance with its fundamental values”, seeking “innovative ways to ensure safe and legal pathways for people fleeing violence and persecution.”
In the document, the SJR calls on European leaders to choose to “actively search for and rescue people at sea and work together to bring them to the nearest safe haven in Europe” and “refuse to resort to administrative detention as a necessary evil”, opting for “meaningful partnerships with third countries that aim to truly strengthen their protection systems and support their development, and not make them satellite executors of inhumane policies”.
The JRS reaffirmed its opposition to the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum, an agreement that “chooses the detention and segregation of people seeking protection” and that “promotes the externalization of responsibility for protecting people to countries outside the EU”.
Nowadays, consider the subscribers, member states “announce changes to national legislation and policies that depart from common EU legislation”, such as the decision of the Netherlands to intend to “abandon the Common European Asylum System”, Germany’s option to “introduce controls at internal borders” or Poland’s suspension of asylum at the borders of Belarus, among other issues.
On the other hand, “governments continue to look for ways to keep migrants away, or to make them return even before they get here”, the document reads.
Despite this, none of these protectionist initiatives “really have any effect on stopping people from migrating to Europe”, accuse the subscribers.
The European Council began today and its main theme is the refugee and migrant crisis, with countries divided in relation to the implementation of the Pact on Migration and Asylum.
Source: rr.sapo.pt
