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Very few national court proceedings lead to convictions. A sense of impunity prevails.
Victims who did not obtain justice in domestic courts are increasingly seeking redress before the ECtHR. Currently, over 30 cases entailing alleged ill-treatment at the EU’s external borders are pending adjudication with the ECtHR.
The handful of cases that the ECtHR has adjudicated so far point to systemic gaps in national investigations. Examples include insufficient efforts to locate and hear victims and witnesses; hindering lawyers in their work; not having access to key evidence, such as footage from border surveillance, GPS locations and internal police communication; and, more generally, giving more weight to officers’ statements than to those of victims and witnesses.
Ineffective judicial protection against widespread rights violations at borders poses a risk to the respect of the rule of law as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union. When implementing EU law rules on integrated border management and regulating the treatment of people apprehended in connection with their irregular crossing of the EU’s external border, the EU and Member States should pay utmost attention to ensuring that all substantiated rights violations are promptly and effectively investigated. The Schengen evaluation and monitoring mechanism constitutes an important oversight tool in this regard.
Prompt and effective investigations would help counter the growing perception that what happens at borders undermines the supremacy of the rule of law. The 10 points published with this report are suggestions for concrete steps to help overcome some of the systemic gaps and practical challenges that render such investigations more difficult.
Finally, border management authorities need to take preventive action. This includes training on fundamental rights, clear instructions on zero tolerance of abusive behaviour, the wearing of name or number tags to identify individual officers on patrol as well as enhanced fundamental rights monitoring of activities at borders.