SOS Europe News

Shirin, an Afghan journalist, was once shot at by the Taliban. After fleeing near-fatal attacks in her country in the hope of finding safety in Europe, she now lives in constant fear in a transit refugee camp in Greece. She is, in fact, just one of many women who have fled harm and persecution, only to face new fears of sexual harassment and violence in the camps on the Greek islands.

The European Union (EU) must immediately halt plans to return asylum-seekers to Turkey on the false pretence that it is a “safe country” for refugees, said Amnesty International in a briefing published today.

A Syrian national who arrived on the Greek island of Lesvos has won an appeal against a decision that would have led to his forcible return to Turkey, underscoring the fundamental flaws in the migration deal agreed in March between the European Union and Turkey, Amnesty International said today.

DUBLIN, 7 April 2016 - Thousands of refugees and migrants are being held arbitrarily in appalling conditions amid growing uncertainty, fear and despair over their fate under the new EU-Turkey refugee deal, Amnesty International said, after obtaining access to two highly restricted detention centres on the Greek islands of Lesvos and Chios.

“Turkey is not a safe country for Syrian refugees and is getting less safe by the day” Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland.

DUBLIN, 31 March 2016 - Large-scale forced returns of refugees from Turkey to war-ravaged Syria expose the fatal flaws in a refugee deal signed between Turkey and the European Union earlier this month, Amnesty International revealed today. In one case, three young children were forced back into Syria without their parents. A woman who was eight months pregnant was also forced to return.

European leaders’ attempts to use Turkey as their border guard to stop refugees and asylum-seekers heading to the EU is a dangerous and deliberate ploy to shirk their responsibilities to people fleeing war and persecution, warns Amnesty International ahead of the EU and Turkish leaders’ meeting today in Brussels.

EU efforts to address the refugee crisis have focused on ensuring that refugees and asylum-seekers remain in Turkey, instead of sharing the responsibility for their protection and assistance.

DUBLIN, 2 February 2016 - Shortfalls in international assistance and discriminatory policies imposed by the Lebanese authorities are creating conditions that facilitate the exploitation and abuse of women refugees in Lebanon, said Amnesty International in a new report published ahead of the Syria Donors Conference in London on 4 February.

John Dalhuisen (Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme Director) spoke following the drowning of dozens of people in the Aegean sea today.

Proposed changes to Denmark’s refugee law would have a devastating impact on vulnerable people who, in addition to having assets seized, would be forced to wait years for the chance to reunite with their family members trapped in warzones and refugee camps, said Amnesty International today.

The Danish Parliament is set to vote on Thursday on proposed amendments to the Aliens Act, including one that would make “war refugees” wait for three years before being eligible to apply for family reunification. The process itself could then still take years.