European Civil Society responds to the decision to deport refugees

European Civil Society, Catholic organizations and particularly the organizations of the Society of Jesus, are reacting with astonishment and disgust to the European Union’s decision to carry out massive deportation of refugees that are now inside the Union territory to Turkey.
The measure establishes that Syrian people who have entered «illegally» through Greece will be immediately deported to Turkey and for every Syrian deported, a different one will be recognized for «legal» resettlement in one of the States of the European Union.
The great paradox of this decision is that, with this measure, they aim to reintroduce refugees in Europe through a «legal» path, but in order to do so, when deporting refugees that are asylum seekers, the Geneva Convention, the Human Rights Declaration and International Legislation will be bypassed. This decision is, therefore, illegal, immoral and inhuman.
A great number of initiatives, positions and signature collections, of which Jesuit social organizations and other entities have taken part or promoted, are currently being disseminated in every European country with the goal of pressuring the European Council so that the decision will not be validated during their next meeting on March, 17th.
Here you can find some highlights on the social movements promoted by European civil society on the matter:

• Oficial Position of the Social Action entities of the Church in Spain.
• Oficial Position Paper of the Spanish NGOs of Development Coordinator.
• Oficial Position of the European Jesuit Refugee Service.
• Call to march in Puerta del Sol, Madrid.
• Petition against the EU’s agreement with Turkey.

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