LIVE Bloody borders testimonies (17)
The main respondent is a man from Afghanistan, who had been pushed back from Bulgaria to Turkey three times. The third incident is the focus of this testimony, which took place on the 4th September 2024. The respondent was travelling from Turkey to Bulgaria in a group of 16 people, all from Afghanistan.
Around 5km past the Bulgarian/Turkish border, the group was apprehended by authorities. The respondent recalls that the police car and clothes were ‘green like the jungle’, but that he could not recall how many officers there was because the group was constantly told to keep looking down. He recalls that there was two cars, described as green jeeps. The respondent notes that the group never saw the faces of the officers because they demanded that the group did not look up, and only looked down. He informed reporters that the group was threatened and insulted, and that the officers had guns. He recalls that the police told them they would shoot at them if they didn’t run, and also threatened the group with dogs. The group was not able to express their intent to claim asylum because they were immediately taken back to the border.
The respondent informed reporters that each time he had tried to cross, he had experienced a pushback such as this. He states that he was afraid of being deported back to Afghanistan if he did not cross the border fast enough.

legal analysis

The pushback experienced by the respondent could be a violation of the prohibition of collective expulsion. In European law you can find it in Article 4 Protocol no 4 of the European Convention on Human rights and article 19 (1) of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. People can not be expelled as a group or pushed back from a state without an examination of their individual situation. The state has to examine the situation of every person to see whether they risk torture or other inhuman treatment upon return to another country. So a pushback in itself is illegal no matter whether the authorities used violence or not. This pushback may also entail an violation of Article 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) because there was at least one minor involved. This article promotes the principle of the best interests of the child. In every law and in every problematic situation the best interests of the child must have priority.

overview

16 people ,

from Afghanistan,

aged all adults and at least one minor aged 16.