Dramatic day for people seeking protection - Refugees Welcome

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 20 - The EU's new Pact on Migration and Asylum is a "political compromise" at the expense of migrants and refugees that continues to treat migration as an issue of security and will only cause more suffering, Refugees Welcome Italia said on Wednesday.
    "Today is a dramatic day for those seeking protection in Europe.
    The pact is a political compromise made at the expense of people that does not address the root of the unresolved issues, but perpetuates a securitarian and dangerous logic that will cause even more suffering," said director Fabiana Musicco.
    "Any reform of the asylum system should put people's rights at the centre, which is why the agreement betrays the founding values of the European Union," she added. The agreement reached is not a "historic moment", as some politicians have claimed in recent hours, "but (rather it) represents a dark page in the history of the EU", said the association that promotes a culture of solidarity and integration for refugees and asylum seekers in Italy.
    "In fact, the pact provides for the mandatory use of border procedures, which will result in situations of prolonged detention with limited access to legal assistance, the increase of push-backs at the border that have led to serious violence and human rights violations over the years, the strengthening of externalisation policies with the involvement of third countries in the management of migration flows, the expansion of the notion of 'safe third countries' that will allow for the forced repatriation of people to countries that are not safe, the normalisation of the arbitrary use of detention for migrants, and the use of racial profiling," it added. (ANSA).