In recent months there have been increasing reports, from humanitarian organizations and migrants themselves, about the mistreatment of migrants and refugees in Bosnia and Croatia. Now organizations like CARE International are calling on the international community to act.
Two migrant-aid organizations are accusing authorities in northeastern Italy of illegally returning asylum seekers to Slovenia. They also claim that readmission procedures between Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia prevent people from asking for asylum in the EU.
The Caritas charity in Ventimiglia denounced that the passage of migrants has resumed in the border area between Italy and France, as well as pushbacks of foreigners by French authorities.
New findings suggest Greek authorities are illegally deporting refugees across the Turkish border. As part of an international research team, DW identified and met some of the victims who were forced back.
A Balkans-based network of human rights organizations says that the number of migrants pushed back from Greece into Turkey has spiked in recent weeks. The migrants allegedly reported beatings and violent collective expulsions from inland detention spaces to Turkey on boats across the Evros River.
Malta has rescued 57 migrants who had been stranded in a dinghy. The migrants were picked up in Malta's search and rescue zone by a fishing boat and taken to a tourist ferry on Thursday evening, according to local media reports. Malta has called for European support.
A group of at least 60 people remains stranded in Malta's search and rescue zone, according to the emergency rescue hotline, Alarm Phone. At the same time a Maltese official has admitted to coordinating the illegal pushback of 51 migrants to Libya earlier this month.
A group of organizations in Italy has lodged a complaint with the EU's financial watchdog, the European Court of Auditors. They say European financing of a program to stop migrants from leaving Libya violates EU and international laws.
The Italian interior ministry has said that pushbacks of migrants at the French border have been "in sharp decline in recent days." This comes after the mayor of an Italian border town claimed that French officers were bringing migrants back to the Italian border, despite the coronavirus emergency.
Over 400 migrants have been picked up by the Libyan coast guard and returned to Libya over the weekend. That’s according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which called the action “unacceptable.”
An aid worker with a Turkish humanitarian organization says violent push-backs by authorities on the border between Greece and Turkey are putting migrants’ lives in danger. Volkan Pirincci has described the situation as “the worst he has ever seen.”
Ankara says Greek forces were "hitting" and "bullying" refugees attempting to make the crossing. President Erdogan is set to travel to Brussels to discuss the crisis at the Turkish-Greek border.