AFP reports that the London-based human rights group Amnesty International call Europe’s response to refugees “shameful” in its annual report.
On Wednesday, Amnesty said that Europe’s historic commitment to human rights is being undermined by its response to the refugee crisis and Europe’s efforts to try to counter the risk of attacks.
When a huge influx of migrants and refugees fleeing war-torn areas and persecution in the MENA region sought refuge in the EU, many countries imposed tighter border restrictions.
AFP quoted Amnesty Secretary General Salil Shetty as saying: "That Europe, which is the richest bloc in the world, is not able to take care of the basic rights of some of the most persecuted people in the world, is shameful."
He continued by saying that there should be safe and legal routes for these people to enter Europe and that they should not be collectively punished, but treated on a case by case basis, according to AFP.
Amnesty's Europe director John Dalhuisen added: "The majority of countries, with the honorable exception perhaps of Germany, have simply decided that the protection of their borders is more important than the protection of the rights of refugees.”
New counter-terrorism laws imposed in some EU countries raised Amnesty’s concern, as well, exemplified by the state of emergency imposed in France after jihadist gunmen killed 130 in November in Paris. Amnesty called the state of emergency “rights-sapping” because the interior minister was then allowed to place any person under arrest who is thought to be “a threat to security and public order” and unwarranted search of homes at any time of day or night.
"This is curbing free expression, it is curbing free movement of people," Shetty told AFP.
"Everybody understands that the French government has to respond to this reality. But a government that has historically championed human rights can't take shortcuts."
Amnesty warned that human rights were under threat by the very international system that is supposed to protect them and governments are ignoring, undermining or vetoing the rights of all humans to be protected under laws and charters of the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.
"The Syrian conflict is one horrific example of the catastrophic human consequences of a systemic failure of the U.N. to fulfill its vital role in upholding rights and international law and ensuring accountability," Amnesty said.
Shetty added: "The system that has been very carefully built over 70 years to protect human rights now needs to be protected from a wholesale attack."
He added that Europe should back a new U.N. Secretary General when Ban Ki-Moon’s term is up at the end of 2016 and advised them to provide more support and financial aid for the systems that maintain international law, according to AFP.
