Restrictions on NGOs involved in migration ‘problematic’, says CoE human rights commissioner

Planned legislation dubbed “Stop Soros” which would introduce restrictions on NGOs involved with migrants is “problematic”, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks said on Saturday.

The package of laws would impose arbitrary restrictions on NGOs, especially those working with migrants, Muiznieks told public news channel M1. He said this was problematic primarily because

the government’s migration policy foments intolerance and xenophobia in the public and the law would discourage NGOs from helping migrants.

Muiznieks said he did not consider it illegal to cross a border and seek protection, and instead of using the expression illegal migration he preferred uncontrolled migration.

The key issue regarding migration is whether people have the right to individually submit requests, get them assessed in a credible way and receive asylum or protected status if it is justified, Muiznieks said.

Every country has the right to protect its borders but every member of the CoE has signed the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees which states that every request must be separately assessed and migrants must not be locked up, especially not if they are children and they are seeking help. In most cases, such people had been subjected to traumas and they must not be handled as criminals, he added.