Council of Europe

In a resolution adopted on the 25th of April, Frontex, the EU’s border agency, was called to order regarding failures to comply with human rights standards. Approving a report by Mikael Cederbratt (Sweden, EPP), the Assembly “called upon the EU member States to ... ensure that in their own participation in the Agency’s activities they comply fully with all their human rights responsibilities”.

FIDH welcomes this latest resolution adopted by PACE which sets out in detail the standards that must be upheld by the EU’s border agency and calls for more transparency and accountability, including through increased supervision by the European Parliament, the establishment of an independent monitoring system and an effective complaints mechanism.

FIDH notes in particular reference to the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Hirsi. The Assembly underlined that,: “when intercepting boats, both in and outside EU territorial waters, Member States and Frontex must ensure, inter alia, that those intercepted do not face collective expulsion or ill-treatment, that they have the right to an effective remedy and the possibility of claiming asylum, and that they are disembarked to a safe harbour”. […]

A Roma community in Poland are being threatened with imminent eviction and homelessness in a blatant violation of international human rights law, Amnesty International said today. In a rare move for Poland, the city of Wroclaw in the west of the country is planning to force around 60 Romanian Roma from an informal settlement on municipal land, while offering no alternative homes for them.

“Forcibly evicting up to 60 people is utterly unacceptable behaviour by a government with very clear obligations to uphold human rights”, said Marek Marczyński, Deputy Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International. […]

Over 200 people, mostly Romanian Roma, were forcibly evicted this morning from an informal settlement in greater Paris in a move Amnesty International has labelled shameful and callous. Police evicted around 230 people at 7:00 am from their huts and caravans in Ris-Orangis on the outskirts of Paris, citing public health and safety concerns. It is the latest in a resumed wave of forced evictions of Roma across France over the past few weeks.

This survey, based on 1 218 interviews in 11 countries - Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom, bears witness to living conditions, state of health and access to health care of the poorest and most discriminated against people: the undocumented migrants.

Among the results, the survey shows that Access to health care is unequal between European countries, but it is also very restrictive in all of them. The medical care of undocumented migrants is largely inadequate. 72% of their health problems are poorly or not at all treated. […]

Médecins du Monde (MdM) has been since its creation particularly sensitive to the issue of migrants , who are some of the most vulnerable groups throughout the world, especially in terms of the right to health and of effective access to health care. In this respect, Europe is no exception. Even though the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights reaffirms the right of everyone to access to preventive health care and the right to benefit from medical treatment (article 35), it is limited by the conditions established by national laws and practices. There is therefore a wide gap between the general principle of access to health care and its application in each country.

As a result, in most European Union (EU) countries, foreigners (especially undocumented migrants’) access to health care is much more restricted than it is for nationals. In some countries, they have access only to vital emergency health care; in others, even if access to health care is in the law, its effectiveness is limited by complex procedures. […]