Andrej Hunko vor einer Friedensfahne

Andrej Hunko

At an interparliamentary meeting of the European Parliament and national parliaments on internal security (1) Andrej Hunko demanded a radical change of the European migration policies. He is a member of the Bundestag and of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Hunko confronted Frontex executive director Laitinen with the inhuman treatment of migrants by Frontex RABIT Units in Greece documented in a new study by human rights watch (2). Even after the European Court of Human Rights passed the judgment that migrant detention in Greece generally constitutes “inhuman and degrading treatment”, the EU agency kept on transferring migrants into Greek prisons.

When Hunko wondered about the alleged tank ditch between Greece and Turkey in the Evros region the Greek deputy Vasiliki Tsonoglou-Vyllioti confirmed that the moat was build to combat migration by allowing a faster deployment of Response Force against illegal Migrants. That is remarkable as before Greek representatives claimed the ditch would serve to protect against Turkish tank attacks although the Evros region is a focal point for the European combat against migration.

Hunko declares:

The European Union has to stop ignoring human rights in the fight against migrants. Forcing migrants to take new routes with higher risks for their lives is just as scorning as their treatment once they are discovered in the EU. In the debate migrants are almost always depicted as criminals, but most of them a people in misery that need our solidarity. Therefore the moat between Greece and Turkey should be transparently examined and stopped.

(1) “Democratic Accountability of the Internal Security Strategy and the Role of Europol, Eurojust and Frontex” http://www.europarl.europa.eu/webnp/cms/lang/de/pid/1664;jsessionid=B8D8B08E0ACD811A5558BCFC7579D861

(2) "The EU dirty hands"; http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/greece0911webwcover_0.pdf

(3) Video of the meeting (Andrejs questions @10:11, Greek deputy @10:31, discussion about the moat @10:34)

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/wps-europarl-internet/frd/vod/player?eventCode=20111006-0900-COMMITTEE-LIBE&language=de&byLeftMenu=researchcommittee&category=COMMITTEE&format=wmv#anchor1

Andrej Hunko vor einer Friedensfahne

Andrej Hunko