Border Violence Monitoring Network

Last updated
Border Violence Monitoring Network
Founded2016;8 years ago (2016)
Type Non-profit NGO
Focus Human rights, Activism
Area served
Europe and the Western Balkans
FieldsHuman Rights Monitoring, Legal and Political Advocacy, Campaigns, Research
Website www.borderviolence.eu

The Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) is a coalition of over 14 organizations founded in 2016 whose stated goal is "documenting illegal pushbacks & police violence by EU [European Union] member state authorities in the Western Balkans and Greece ". [1] [2] [3] The organization was founded in 2016 and is regarded as an authoritative source on pushbacks and refugee protection.

Contents

In 2018, BVMN recorded video footage of pushbacks along the Croatian–Bosnian border, which was widely circulated online. [4] In 2019, it reported 3,251 pushbacks either from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina or from Greece to Turkey. [5] To date, BVMN has documented over 1281 pushbacks from 16 countries. [6]

Key Publications

Black Book of Pushbacks

In December 2020, it published the Black Book of Pushbacks, a two-volume work that documents the experiences of 12,654 migrants who suffered from human rights violations while traveling on the Balkan route in the previous four years, in collaboration with the United Left group in the European Parliament. [7] [8] At the book launch, German MEP Cornelia Ernst called the incidents described in the book "reminiscent of brutal dictatorships" and said that she hopes the book "will contribute to bringing an end to these crimes and holding the governments that are responsible accountable". [8]

Torture Report

In 2020, BVMN released a 51-page report into the use of torture or other inhuman treatment during pushbacks. This report was based upon 286 statements from migrants and refugee. [1] Among the BVMN's findings is that in 2020, 90% of pushed-back migrants interviewed experienced "some form of degrading treatment or torture" from border guards. [9] [10] According to the BVMN's report, the most common form of violence during pushbacks is beating or kicking migrants, including the use of dogs or attempted lynching. Use of electric weapons has been reported against 362 people. Thirty-seven percent of migrants reported being forced to undress, which almost doubled compared to 2019. In some cases, the migrants' clothes were burned so that they were forced back across the border while naked, or they were detained while naked. Twenty-three percent of cases involved threats with firearms. [1]

Monthly Report

Every month the Border Violence Monitoring Network publishes a report summarizing recent trends in pushbacks and other important developments. [11] The report focuses on the situation in Greece and countries on the Balkan Route - analysing events all the way from Evros to the Slovenian-Italian border.

Structure

Partner Organizations

BVMN works via a horizontal network of member groups. The members are NGOs, coo-ops, collectives and grassroots initiatives spread across the Western Balkans, Greece and Turkey. [12] Members sit on an open assembly, and each contribute to various different working groups within BVMN. The following organization are named partners within the Border Violence Monitoring Network, but some partners choose to remain anonymous.

  1. Are You Syrious? [13]
  2. Centre For Peace Studies
  3. Collective Aid
  4. Disinfaux Collective
  5. Fresh Response
  6. Infokolpa
  7. Josoor
  8. Mare Liberum
  9. Mobile Info Team
  10. No Name Kitchen
  11. [RE:]ports SARAJEVO
  12. Rigardu eV

Funding and Finances

The finances of the Border Violence Monitoring Network are based on:

Currently BVMN receives support from the following foundations:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balkans</span> Region of southeastern Europe

The Balkans, corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south, the Turkish straits in the east, and the Black Sea in the northeast. The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined. The highest point of the Balkans is Musala, 2,925 metres (9,596 ft), in the Rila mountain range, Bulgaria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frontex</span> Agency of the European Union tasked with external border control

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, commonly known as Frontex, is an agency of the European Union headquartered in Warsaw, Poland. In coordination with the border and coast guards of member states, it exercises border control of the European Schengen Area, a task within the area of freedom, security and justice domain. Formally, the Agency's remit is to "support Member States on the ground in their efforts to protect the external borders"; it does not have authority to act otherwise unless "external border control" [by a member state] "is rendered ineffective to such an extent that it risks jeopardising the functioning of the Schengen area".

Human rights in Croatia are defined by the Constitution of Croatia, chapter three, sections 14 through 69.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accession of Albania to the European Union</span> Ongoing accession process of Albania to the EU

Albania is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the European Union (EU). It applied for EU membership on 28 April 2009, and has since June 2014 been an official candidate for accession. The Council of the European Union decided in March 2020 to open accession negotiations with Albania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Law enforcement in Croatia</span> Croatian Police force

Law enforcement in Croatia is the responsibility of the Croatian Police, which is the national police force of the country subordinated by the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia, carrying out certain tasks, the so-called, police activities, laid down by law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bosnia and Herzegovina–Croatia relations</span> Bilateral relations

The foreign relations between Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Croatia are bound together by shared history, language, neighboring geography and cultural commonalties. They established diplomatic relations in 1992, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia and independence of Croatia. The two countries share a 932-kilometer (579 mi) border – the second longest external land border in the European Union (EU). Modern relations between the two states are functional but remain tense after ineffective 21st-century attempts at détente.

Refugees of the Syrian civil war are citizens and permanent residents of Syria who have fled the country throughout the Syrian civil war. The pre-war population of the Syrian Arab Republic was estimated at 22 million (2017), including permanent residents. Of that number, the United Nations (UN) identified 13.5 million (2016) as displaced persons, requiring humanitarian assistance. Of these, since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011 more than six million (2016) were internally displaced, and around five million (2016) had crossed into other countries, seeking asylum or placed in Syrian refugee camps worldwide. It is often described as one of the largest refugee crises in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 European migrant crisis</span> 2010s migrant crisis in the European Union

During 2015, there was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe. 1.3 million people came to the continent to request asylum, the most in a single year since World War II. They were mostly Syrians, but also included significant numbers from Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Eritrea, and the Balkans. The increase in asylum seekers has been attributed to factors such as the escalation of various wars in the Middle East and ISIL's territorial and military dominance in the region due to the Arab Winter, as well as Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt ceasing to accept Syrian asylum seekers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slovenian border barrier</span>

The Slovenian border barrier was a border barrier constructed by Slovenia in 2015–2016 on its border with Croatia as a response to the European migrant crisis. Both Slovenia and Croatia are European Union members, therefore the barrier was located on an internal EU border; but previously only Slovenia was a member of the free travel Schengen Area, with Croatia joining the area in 2023. In March 2016, Slovenia announced that only migrants who apply for asylum in Slovenia and those with clear humanitarian needs will be allowed to enter Slovenian territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the 2015 European migrant crisis</span>

This is a timeline of the European migrant crisis of 2015 and 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fabrice Leggeri</span> Former Director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency

Fabrice Joël Roger Leggeri is a French senior civil servant who was Director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) from 2015 to 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libyan Coast Guard</span> Military unit

The Libyan Coast Guard is the coast guard of Libya. Organizationally part of the Libyan Navy, it operates as a proxy force of the European Union (EU) in order to prevent migrants from endangering their lives during attempts to cross Mediterranean sea by illegal means of entry the EU Schengen territory. As of 2015, the Libyan Coast Guard consists of over 1,000 personnel. Since 2015, it has received $455 million in funding from the EU. The Libyan Coast Guard is being accused of being involved in human trafficking, enslavement, torture, and other human rights violations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greece–Turkey border</span> International border

The Greece–Turkey border is around 200 kilometres (120 mi) long, and separates Western Thrace in Greece from East Thrace in Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turkish migrant crisis</span> Migrant crisis experienced by the Republic of Turkey in the 2010s

The Turkish migrant crisis, sometimes referred to as the Turkish refugee crisis, was a period during the 2010s characterised by a high number of people migrating to Turkey. Turkey received the highest number of registered refugees of any country or territory each year from 2014 to 2019, and had the world's largest refugee population according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The majority were refugees of the Syrian Civil War, numbering 3.6 million as of June 2020. In 2018, the UNHCR reported that Turkey hosted 63.4% of all "registered Syrian refugees."

The migration and asylum policy of the European Union is within the area of freedom, security and justice, established to develop and harmonise principles and measures used by member countries of the European Union to regulate migration processes and to manage issues concerning asylum and refugee status in the European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aegean Boat Report</span> Norwegian NGO

Aegean Boat Report (ABR) is a Norwegian NGO that monitors and shares data about the movement of people in the Aegean Sea. As well as sharing data with aid organisations working directly with men, women and children seeking safety, Aegean Boat Report works to ensure the safety and security of those people, and shares regular updates with the public, to ensure the widest possible group of people are aware of what is happening to people attempting to reach safety from war, terrorism, violence and other oppression. ABR uses its data to lead on advocacy and legal challenges to promote and safeguard international law, and to protect the lives of men, women and children crossing to the EU.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarus–European Union border crisis</span> 2021 migrant crisis on the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia with Belarus

The Belarus–European Union border crisis was a migrant crisis in 2021 consisting of an influx of coordinated groups of immigrants, mostly from the Middle East and North Africa, to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia via those countries' borders with Belarus. The crisis was artificially caused by Belarus in response to the severe deterioration in Belarus–European Union relations, following the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests, the Ryanair Flight 4978 hijacking and subsequent sanctions on Belarus, as well as the attempted forced repatriation of Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya from Tokyo, Japan.

Pushback is a term that refers to "a set of state measures by which refugees and migrants are forced back over a border – generally immediately after they crossed it – without consideration of their individual circumstances and without any possibility to apply for asylum". Pushbacks violate the prohibition of collective expulsion of asylum seekers in Protocol 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights and often violate the international law prohibition on non-refoulement.

Since at least 2008, Greece has pushed back tens of thousands of migrants, especially at the Evros border with Turkey and in the Aegean Sea. On land, the pushbacks involve taking people who have arrived at the Greek side of the border and transferring them to the Turkish side; most cases involve some form of abuse. Maritime pushbacks typically involve taking migrants who have either entered Greek territorial waters or landed on Greek islands and depositing them in Turkish territorial waters on craft without any means of propulsion. The number of pushbacks has increased following the European migrant crisis and breakdown in EU–Turkey relations in 2020. This incident occurred as a result of Turkey ceasing to prevent migrants from leaving for the European Union in February 2020, and in some instances actively encouraging them.

The European Union response to the 2015 migrant crisis focused on how the countries organized the efforts in response to the 2015 European migrant crisis at the EU level. The European Commission in May 2015 proposed distributing the incoming refugees based on GDP and population. This proposal was divisive with Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic refusing any refugees. Some nation states then called on the EU to reduce funding for member countries who did not want to share burdens and didn't share "values...need to start asking themselves questions about their place in the European Union". This attempt to coalition build failed, the European Commission proceeded to strengthen existing systems such as the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), reforming the Dublin Regulation and centralizing the asylum process. There was also challenges to the European borders which came from the Mediterranean Sea; as a response the European Border and Coast Guard Agency engaged in a new operation called Operation Triton.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Müller, Tobias (4 May 2021). "Folter an den EU-Außengrenzen: Pushbacks mit brutaler Gewalt". Die Tageszeitung: Taz. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  2. ↑ "About us - Who we are – Border Violence Monitoring Network" . Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  3. ↑ "BVMN twitter profile". Twitter. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  4. ↑ James Ellison and Travis van Isacker. "Visual methods for militant research: counter-evidencing and counter-mapping in anti-border movements" (PDF). Interface. 13 (1): 349–374.
  5. ↑ Guarch-Rubio, Marta; Byrne, Steven; Manzanero, Antonio L. (10 February 2021). "Violence and torture against migrants and refugees attempting to reach the European Union through Western Balkans". Torture. 30 (3): 67–83. doi: 10.7146/torture.v30i3.120232 . ISSN   1997-3322 . Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  6. ↑ "Reports Archive – Border Violence Monitoring Network". Archived from the original on 2020-12-28. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  7. ↑ "NGO report unveils 'merciless' violence against migrants at Europe's borders". The Brussels Times. 19 December 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  8. 1 2 "'Black book' of thousands of illegal migrant pushbacks presented to EU". the Guardian. 23 December 2020. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  9. ↑ Zocchi, Benedetta (September 13, 2021). "I've been talking to Afghans stuck on the Bosnian border – their predicament is horrifying". The Conversation. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  10. ↑ "Vast majority of pushbacks in southeast Europe involve torture, rights watchdogs say". InfoMigrants (in French). 2021-05-05. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  11. ↑ "Monthly Report Archives – Border Violence Monitoring Network" . Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  12. ↑ "Structure of the network – Border Violence Monitoring Network". 2020-06-17. Archived from the original on 2021-11-12. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  13. ↑ "Are You Syrious?". Medium. Retrieved 2021-11-12.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.