Protecting immigrants in Europe, an impossible mission for their lawyers?

2023-05-22 09:09:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Protecting immigrants in Europe, an impossible mission for their lawyers?

Illustrative photo

A few years ago, at the end of an interview about the Pact on Immigration and Asylum, presented by the European Commission, the Italian lawyer Ana Brambila made a proposal: "Let them establish an international mutual aid group for frustrated lawyers."

The idea of ??Brambila, member of the Association for Legal Studies on Immigration in Italy (ASGI), was born from an observation: in a European context increasingly hostile to immigrants, and in the face of an increasingly rapid dismantling of the right to asylum from of foreigners, when protecting the rights of immigrants had become an almost impossible mission, a profession discredited by governments that spoke increasingly harshly against "activist human rights lawyers".

Since 2020, the situation has worsened, strengthening the feeling of powerlessness among lawyers working alongside asylum seekers and other people trying to legalize their presence on the territory of the European Union. From left to right, European governments are trying to limit the rights of non-European people by changing or ignoring laws, thereby violating their basic rights.

No practice is more emblematic than that of evictions. Although international law prohibits the return of asylum seekers to territories where their life or freedom may be threatened, this type of operation is already common in many member states, such as at the external borders of the union (Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain, Greece, Hungary. .. the list is long) as well as within the EU (as is currently happening on the Franco-Italian border).

Lithuania was the last in line to pass a law legalizing this practice. But most countries that carry out deportations do so by deliberately breaking the law. On Lesvos, a Greek island a few kilometers off the coast of Turkey, such deportations occur almost daily, in some cases several times a day, even though the authorities systematically deny them, says Ozan Balpetek, head of communications and advocacy at the Lesbos Legal Center ( LCL), a non-profit organization registered in Greece, which provides free legal assistance to immigrants.

In Poland, lawyer Aleksandra Pulçcni, a member of the Association for Legal Intervention in Warsaw, describes a similar situation: "Since August 2021, people coming from Belarus have been transferred by Polish border guards to the Bialowieza forest. Deportations still continue today, because despite the construction of the wall, immigrants still manage to enter Polish territory. Even if there were decisions against it by some courts, the border authorities continue the deportations".

In order to strengthen the legal and humanitarian assistance for people who arrive at the border, the association has created with other partners, the "Grupa Granica" network. At the European level, the association has joined the PRAB project, which brings together various organizations dedicated to countering opposition. "Joining forces with others is very essential" - says Pulçni.

Balpetek agrees, but underlines how important it is to build alliances that go beyond the borders of the EU, as happened on the occasion of the 7th anniversary of the cooperation agreement between the EU and Turkey, denounced by LCL and 73 partners of her.

"The fact that people continue to die in international waters should push lawyers working in the EU to cooperate with their colleagues in neighboring countries," he emphasizes.

Balpetek cites cooperation in the case of Barish Byjyksu, a Turkish national who died on October 22, 2022, minutes after being found in a dinghy near the Turkish city of Bodrum. According to some witnesses, he had arrived on the Greek island of Kos, where he was allegedly detained and tortured by Greek authorities before being turned back with 14 other people. The autopsy report, recently released in Turkey, confirms the allegations of torture.

"The more deportations happen, the more we feel the need to cooperate with our colleagues in Turkey. Because mainland Greece is 500 kilometers away from here, and now as I'm talking to you I can see Turkey from my window. Europe does not end in Greece or Bulgaria" - he emphasizes.

All three associations focus on strategic litigation, bringing emblematic cases before national or international courts, with the aim of achieving broader legal and social change. "This work can be useful. But there is also the opposite side of the coin. Because even when he wins, power reorganizes to undo that result. We must not be discouraged. But it is probably necessary to re-examine the approach, anticipating what the possible response of the state authorities could be" - she emphasizes.

Pulcni gives an example. After several decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, which condemned Poland for the administrative detention of minors, some Polish courts had changed their stance.

"The state is sorry to submit to the law" - says Belgian lawyer Selma Benkhelifa, member of the Progress Lawyers Network. "When I started practicing as a lawyer in 2001, judges and lawyers agreed on basic principles: the existence of human rights, the fact that a white person and a black person are equal.

But they told us: Your client is lying, and we had to prove that he is not lying. But for several years, even when we show that the person could die if he were to return to his country of origin, the judge responds with a cynical word "Patience!" - she says.

Despite 8,000-plus court convictions and multiple orders from the European Court of Human Rights, the Belgian authorities continue to break the law by leaving thousands of asylum seekers on the streets, even though they have the right to shelter.

Benkhelifa says that the refusal to respect the judicial decisions marks a turning point: "I often say that foreigners are a testing ground for liberticidal policies. The erosion of fundamental rights starts with them, because nobody cares. This is a very dangerous precedent."

Brambilla talks about the need to change course and perspective, not to think exclusively in terms of asylum, but to return to an original reflection on rights, freedom of movement and emigration./ Adapted from CNA.al