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Balkan Region Report – March 2020

Date 14 April, 2020
Category Monthly Report
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The Border Violence Monitoring Network is releasing its latest report covering updates from the Western Balkans and Greece. In March, illegal pushbacks at multiple borders continued unabated, placing transit groups at physical risk and violating their fundamental rights to asylum and due process. Two simultaneous crises also amplified  and brought into sharp relief the breakdown of legal and humanitarian protections along the route. The movement of thousands of people in Turkey towards the Greek border drew the issue of collective expulsion across the Evros river into view. Meanwhile, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe was used as justification for  new and concerning policy at several points along the route, such as detention and militerisation.

This report analyses among other things:

  • Chain pushbacks on rail routes
  • Proposed militarisation of Slovenian border
  • Maritime removals from Italy to Greece
  • COVID-19 lockdowns in camps
  • Detention in Turkey

Read the full report to find out more on these issues and more, such as; right wing border patrols in Serbia, internal violence in Bosnia-Herzegovina, fining of homeless refugees in Greece and the latest updates on arrivals in Trieste, Italy.

 

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