Buffeted in the Borderland – the treatment of asylum seekers and migrants in Ukraine, a report of the Human Rights Watch
Kiev, 16 December 2010. The latest report of the Human Rights Watch is based on interviews with 161 refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers in Ukraine, Slovakia, and Hungary. It shows that although some conditions in migration detention facilities have improved, Ukraine subjects many migrants to inhuman and degrading treatment and has been unable or unwilling to provide effective protection for refugees and asylum seekers.
The report also criticizes that despite their international obligations both Slovak and Hungarian authorities regularly expel asylum seekers to Ukraine at the external Schengen border of the European Union.
“This report has shown that Slovakia and Hungary have violated the principle of non-refoulement in both refugee and human rights law, as well as their obligation under EU law to provide access to asyum.”
The report is available here.
Also, the online version of the Hungarian daily Népszabadság published the author’s article on this issue.