‘Our member organisations have documented over 1,600 testimonies of pushbacks at European borders’

As the world celebrates 75th Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Border Violence Monitoring Network says its member organizations have since 2017 documented over 1,600 testimonies of pushbacks at European borders.

Border Violence Monitoring Network is a network of grassroots organizations documenting illegal pushbacks and police violence by EU member state authorities in the Western Balkans and Greece.

Reacting to European Union statement on the Human Rights celebration, the organization said: “A reminder of what respect for the treaties actually looks like in the EU⤵️
Since 2017 our member organisations have documented over 1,600 testimonies of pushbacks at European borders impacting more than 26,000 individuals.

“Time and again we have brought evidence to the attention of EU institutions. Of excessive beatings, of destroyed personal belongings, of dog attacks, of the use of electric discharge weapons, of people who have been thrown into seas and rivers and left to die.

“Again in the last weeks @LHreports have confirmed what we have been reporting for years – that people on the move are dying at Europe’s borders, that thousands of families are searching for their loved ones who were lost in transit.
And yet on 18 Dec, @EU_Commission @Europarl_EN and @eu2023es are set to agree on a package of reforms that will legalise ongoing brutal and illegal behaviours at Europe’s borders, that will legitimate pushbacks, and detention en masse.”