The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has again denounced in this year’s report, released today, the abuses where they exist the Immigrants and them pushbacks at European bordersespecially in those of the EU.

“Many European countries face very complex immigration problems at their borders, but this does not mean that they can ignore their human rights obligations. These illegal and unacceptable redeployments must stop,” said CPT President Alan Mitchell.

The CPT specifies that it went to police stations, as well as border or coast guard stations, detention centers and transit zones “along the main migration routes to Europe” (the Western Balkan route as well as the Western, Central and Eastern Mediterranean).

The report points out that “foreign nationals are generally beaten at the time of their arrest or at the time of their repatriation – with fists, slaps, hits with globes or other hard objects (…) – by the police or border guards”.

The report also denounces, among other things, “other forms of inhuman or degrading treatment (…), such as shooting close to people lying on the ground, pushing them into rivers (sometimes with their hands tied) (.. .)”.

“Dogs without Muzzles”

“THE using unmuzzled dogs as a threat, even to hunt down foreign nationals, confiscation and destruction of goods and deprivation of food and water for prolonged periods were also frequently highlighted,” the report said, expressing concern about “the prolonged and sometimes informal detention of foreign nationals who they are stopped and arrested in inappropriate conditions before being removed.”

The Council of Europe, which had already denounced these refoulements in its last year’s report, calls on states to guarantee that migrants are “identified and registered on an individual basis, medically examined and assessed as to whether they are vulnerable and offered the possibility to seek asylum”, while reminding that their detention “should only take place as a last resort”.

The Council of Europe, which oversees the observance of human rights on the European continent, unites 46 member countries. Russia was excluded from it after its invasion of Ukraine, but remains a member of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture.

In 2022, around 330,000 irregular arrivals were recorded at the EU’s external borders, 64% more than the previous year, according to Frontex, the European border agency.