Tribune. At the end of June 2021, in general indifference, Greece returned to Turkey a dozen refugees who had crossed the border illegally. They had been locked up, beaten, and stripped of their clothes: they were naked. Greece is customary due to the fact: already in March 2020, photos of refugees sent back to Turkey in their underwear had toured the world. In December 2020, Greece was also accused of returning to the sea inflatable boats which docked on its coasts, in the middle of the night, with children on board.
Also in June 2020, Denmark passed a law authorizing it to completely relocate its asylum procedure, and negotiated with several African countries so that they could welcome, in exchange for a few million euros, refugees whose Denmark did not. wants more on his floor. It does not matter that Denmark only accepted 1,500 refugees in 2020, it does not matter that its government is fully social democratic: here it is implementing the program of the extreme right – a country without refugees, where the asylum is simply no longer possible, where the most fundamental principles of the right to asylum are violated.
This temptation to outsource the right to asylum is not new. With the Turkey of Erdogan, the Libya of Gaddafi and his successors, with others, the European leaders got lost in disastrous bargaining. We do not want this for Europe or for France. The European Commission is of course upset that the right to asylum has been violated in this way, but this will undoubtedly not go much further.
Asylum and immigration issues not addressed
As shocking and contrary to European values as they may be, the practices of Denmark and Greece are basically in line with the line followed by European asylum policies for several years: close borders, let migrants die at sea, pay money. our obligations and trampling on our honor. Since the start of 2021, nearly 1,000 migrants have already drowned in the Mediterranean, and more than 20,000 since 2014.
The new asylum and migration pact, presented in September 2020 by the European Commission, only reinforces this logic of outsourcing and restricting asylum on European soil. On Friday July 16, 2021, Lithuania declared a state of emergency to deal with the arrival on its territory of migrants from Belarus.
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