Berlin/Osnabrück, 02.05.2024-The children's rights organization Terre des Hommes warns of the consequences of the Agreement announced by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with the Lebanon: from the effects of deals that are supposed to stay away from the EU boundaries, especially children and adolescents suffer.
»In Lebanon, children, adolescents and their families are not certain: Syrian refugees are increasingly turned into scapegoats for tightening the political and economic crisis in the country. Access to legal residence documents is systematically difficult, they are exposed to repression and are constantly being threatened by detention, torture and deportation. Since mid-October 2022, the Lebanese government systematically conducts so-called ›voluntary returns', which are in fact illegal deportations,« said Nina Violetta Schwarz, Middle East speaker at Terre des Hommes. »The lack of perspective and the fear of being delivered to the Assad regime are driving many Syrians and their families to Europe for a dangerous crossing in sea-unsuccessful boats via Cyprus. If the EU now pays around one billion euros to the Lebanese state so that it keeps people from fleeing to Europe, it is cynical. «
Terre des Hommes had repeatedly criticized the EU's migration policy and the action of the member states to ensure that people have to suffer on the way to Europe: »In the past few months, we have repeatedly been reported to our partner organizations that protection seekers in Booten are left alone and the responsible coast guards refuse to rescue. So -called pushbacks on the Lebanese mainland occur again and again. Children experience violence against them or their families, have to endure hunger and thirst, carry traumas away or even lose their lives. Our partners on site do their best to stand by the person concerned legally, «continued Schwarz.
Terre des Hommes looks at the development that the EU has already concluded similar agreements with Tunisia and Egypt in recent months. Schwarz: »So far, migration agreements have meant that the EU is blackmailed by autocratic regimes - but never to improve the situation of children and adolescents seeking protection. With a view to the upcoming European elections, we also demand that the EU finally take its responsibility for human and children's rights seriously instead of supposed to buy themselves with billion-offs. «