Switzerland’s tough stance on migrants criticized by Amnesty International

TheLocal.ch ^ | 22 February 2018 10:23 CET+01:00

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Switzerland has been taken to task by the human rights group Amnesty International for its tough treatment of asylum seekers and migrants.

The country was violating international legal principles by returning migrants and asylum seekers with rejected asylum claims to countries where they are in danger of persecution, Amnesty said in its annual report published on Thursday.

The human rights group cited the examples “of people with failed asylum claims or undocumented migrants” being sent back to countries including Sri Lanka, Turkey and Sudan where they were at risk of “serious human rights” violations.

In its report into the state of human rights in 159 countries around the world, Amnesty also said concerns remained “regarding the use of disproportionate force during the deportation of migrants” while several asylum seekers had been returned to other Schengen countries under the Dublin regulation “without duly taking into account their family ties in Switzerland”.

According to EU rules enshrined in the Dublin Convention, their applications for asylum should therefore be processed in the first EU country in which they arrive.

Amnesty International also expressed concerns over a highly-controversial initiative put forward for referendum by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which calls for Swiss law to be given primacy over international law and would see Switzerland renegotiating or even renouncing international treaties, including those on human rights, if necessary. …

[Redleg Duke]

Amnesty International...BITE ME!

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Their very name is an insult to civilized people, since it calls for worldwide pardon of those who are basically traitors, rather than clemency for those imprisoned on trumped-up charges by tyrants.