Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights: Lecture entitled ‘Refugee Protection, Migration and Human Rights in Europe’

Date: 
Wednesday, March 12, 2014

During a speech this week, Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, urged EU Member States to do more for refugees, especially those fleeing Syria, and live up to their obligations under international law.

The Commissioner stated that a big challenge faced by those who reach Europe is the prospect of a Dublin transfer to Member States whose asylum system is dysfunctional. Muižnieks urged Member States to refrain from using the Dublin regulation to return Syrian refugees to countries such as Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Malta, where the asylum systems are overstretched or highly dysfunctional.

The Commissioner also stressed that there have been credible reports that border guards and other law enforcement officers in some countries have been mistreating Syrian refugees, robbing them, and pushing them back to countries with high numbers of refugees from Syria.

Read the Commissioner’s lecture.


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Keywords: 
Dublin Transfer
Tags: 
Council of Europe
Commissioner for Human Rights
Syria
Bulgaria
Greece
Italy
Malta