ga ette

24 Jan/Feb 2017
COMMENT | VIEWPOINT
Law Society Gazette | gazette.ie
MIGRATION – A TEST FOR THE
FUTURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS LAW
The EU has played a crucial role in developing the human rights framework
governing refugees and other migrants. Now it needs to ensure these rights are
upheld, urges Michael O’Flaherty
MICHAEL O’FLAHERTY IS DIRECTOR OF THE EU AGENCY FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS
The figures paint a sorry picture.
Some 362,000 people crossed the
Mediterranean in perilous conditions
in 2016, searching for protection or
simply a better life. According to figures from
the International Organisation for Migration,
5,079 people perished in the attempt to reach
Europe’s shores, up from 3,777 in 2015.
Since the beginning of 2016, there have
been 1.2 million applications for international
protection across the EU, Switzerland and
Norway. For much of the year, the largest
single group of those requesting protection was
from Syria.
Such data help us to understand the volume,
but it is only part of the story. Each one of those
1.2 million individuals has rights – the rights
laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights
of the EU – to life, to dignity, and to equality
before the law.
Are these rights being respected? To what
extent? In which countries? Where they are
being violated, what remedies that are both
practical and feasible could be suggested?
The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights
(FRA), which I have had the privilege of
heading since December 2015, has immersed
itself over the past year in finding answers to
just these questions. We have been publishing
monthly overviews of the human rights
situation of the newcomers arriving in the
EU, covering issues such as new legal and
policy measures, criminal proceedings initiated
against migrants, reception conditions, child
protection, and hate crime.
These reports make depressing reading. We
have found persistent problems with reception
facilities, where incidents of abuse and sexual
assault have been reported. At the same time,
we have observed that inadequate first reception
facilities often result in unaccompanied children
TOP 10 NATIONALITIES OF MEDITERRANEAN SEA ARRIVALS
SOURCE: UNHCR