Central and Eastern Europe: a no-go area for refugees, says report

The Helsinki Foundation and non-governmental organisations from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia has written a report entitled “Pushed Back at the Door: Denial of Access to Asylum in Eastern EU Member States”. The document is based on on-site observations of access to asylum procedure at border crossings and stations in the EU member states located in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, which took place over the last year.

The report presents an extremely worrying picture of the region that responds to the biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War by closing down the borders. Increased border control, refusals of entry, brutal “push-backs” of refugees and the construction of physical barriers and legislative obstacles restricting access to protection for people fleeing persecution have become a part of the national policy of countries whose nationals have been known for seeking asylum abroad in the not-so-distant past.

The report contains sections describing the situation in individual countries and recommendations. It was prepared by Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (Bulgaria), Organization for Aid to Refugees (Czech Republic), Hungarian Helsinki Committee (Hungary), Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Poland), Legal-informational centre for NGOs (Slovenia).

The section on Poland contains a reference to the monitoring visit at the border crossing station Brest-Terespol conducted by experts of the HFHR. An account of the visit can be read here.

The report may be viewed here.