The anniversary of Operation Xenios Zeus, on August 4, marks one year of abuses conducted by the Greek police against migrants and asylum seekers in Athens.

Xenios Zeus is an epic-scale sweep operation aiming at cracking down on irregular immigration and crime in Athens. Since the start of the operation, tens of thousands of people presumed to be undocumented migrants have been subjected to abusive stops and searches on the streets, and hours-long detention at police stations. Human Rights Watch documented the use of ethnic profiling and arbitrary deprivation of liberty in the recent report “Unwelcome Guests”.

With its deep economic crisis, and after years of mismanaged migration and asylum policies, anti-migrant sentiment has grown rapidly in Greece. Golden Dawn, a far-right, anti-immigrant party has gained in popularity, making it hard not to see Xenios Zeus as a government effort to win voters back.

Confronted with our report during a BBC interview, Minister of Public Order Dendias rejected and denied our findings, as did other government officials when we met with them in mid-June in Athens.

Officials also insisted that Greece is historically tolerant with a longstanding tradition of hospitality, and that it’s “in the DNA of Greeks not to be racist.”

Our July 2012 report “Hate on the Streets” shows the opposite. Xenophobic violence in Greece has reached alarming proportions, with gangs regularly attacking migrants and asylum seekers in the streets of Athens. Despite some positive steps to improve state response, attackers are rarely arrested and police inaction is the rule.

Xenios Zeus, an operation that stigmatizes migrants and asylum seekers, is a dangerous distraction from the real policing challenges the country faces. The one-year anniversary should be markedby reforms to ensure that all measures to identify irregular migrants fully respect human rights law prohibiting discrimination, including ethnic profiling, and arbitrary deprivation of liberty.

“Unwelcome Guests” Report Link / “Hate of the Streets” Report here.

Around 7,800 of the migrants and asylum-seekers arrived in Italy, while Malta received around 600, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Most of those making the journey departed from North Africa, principally Libya (around 6,700 people). The remaining 1,700 crossed from Greece and Turkey, landing in southern Italy.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are the main places of origin of these migrants and asylum-seekers, particularly Somalia and Eritrea. Other countries of origin include Egypt, Pakistan and Syria. Nationals of Gambia, Mali and Afghanistan also make these crossings, but in smaller numbers, noted UNHCR.

The agency has also recorded some 40 deaths in the first six months of 2013 by people attempting to cross the Mediterranean between North Africa and Italy.

“The Mediterranean is one of the busiest seaways in the world, as well as a dangerous sea frontier for migrants and asylum-seekers en route to southern Europe,” said UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards.

“In view of the perils, UNHCR again calls on all vessels at sea to be on alert for migrants and refugees in need of rescue,” he said at a news conference in Geneva. “We also renew our call to all shipmasters in the Mediterranean to remain vigilant and to carry out their duty of rescuing vessels in distress.

“International and European law also requires States to ensure that people intercepted or rescued at sea who seek asylum can gain access to territory and to an asylum procedure where their international protection needs or claims can be examined,” he added.

UNHCR noted that the peak crossing period for migrants and asylum-seekers runs from May to September.

“At this time of year, when there is an increase in the number of people trying to make this perilous journey, it is essential to ensure that the long-established tradition of rescue at sea is upheld by all and that international maritime law is adhered to,” said Mr. Edwards.

Last year, some 15,000 migrants and asylum-seekers reached Italy and Malta by sea, while almost 500 people were reported dead or missing at sea.

“In most detention facilities visited by the Working Group, the conditions fall far below international human rights standards, including in terms of severe overcrowding,” stressed one of the members of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Vladimir Tochilovsky.

The group, which just finished an 11-day visit to the Mediterranean country, found pre-trial and convicted detainees in the same cell, as well as irregular migrants mixed in with criminal detainees in violation of national and international standards.

“Detainees are being held for months in police holding cells and border guard stations, although these facilities were designed for a maximum stay of 24 hours,” Tochilovsky said. “This situation also affects the rights of pre-trial detainees to properly prepare their judicial defence as there are no adequate facilities for the communication of the detainees with their defence lawyers.”

During the visit, the working group interviewed detainees and found that few of them were aware of their right to legal assistance and, in numerous instances, did not enjoy this right without payment.

They also stressed that the lack of judicial review as well as the excessive length of detention can be considered an arbitrary deprivation of their liberty. “The imprisonment of a migrant or an asylum-seeker for up to 18 months, in conditions that are sometimes found to be even worse than in the regular prisons, could be considered as a punishment imposed on a person who has not committed any crime,” said Tochilovsky.

The group met with Greek authorities from the executive, legislative and judicial branches as well as with legal representatives, civil society organizations and international organizations. It also visited various detention centres in Athens, the Aegean island of Samos, Alexandroupolis, Orestiada, Komotini, Soufli and Thessaloniki.

On a positive note, Tochilovsky welcomed the adoption of legislative reforms on this issue and commended the Government for the creation of the new Asylum Service Department to establish the First Reception Service responsible for screening procedures. The new department will be independent from the police and under the control of civilian and specialized personnel.

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

Every year, tens of thousands of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers from the Middle East, Asia and Africa cross the Greek land and sea border with Turkey in search of shelter, refuge or just a better life within the European Union (EU). Few of them find it in Greece.

“Greece’s failure to respect the rights of migrants and asylum-seekers is taking on the proportions of a humanitarian crisis. Against a backdrop of sustained migratory pressure, profound economic crisis and rising xenophobic sentiment, Greece is proving itself incapable of providing even the most basic requirements of safety and shelter to the thousands of asylum seekers and migrants arriving each year,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Program Director at Amnesty International.

While the burden on Greece is great, there is no excuse for the obstacles asylum-seekers face in registering their asylum claims. A new agency set up by law in 2011 to hear asylum applications is yet to process a single case on account of staffing shortages.

In the meantime, at the Attika Aliens Police Directorate in Athens, only around 20 people succeed in registering their asylum application on the one day a week it opens. The queue forms days in advance and stretches hundreds long down the street. Amnesty International spoke to numerous asylum-seekers who had had to fight their fellows to keep their place.

The majority who do not manage – or give up trying – to register their asylum claims run the risk of arrest in mass sweep operations and of being detained in overcrowded, unhygienic detention facilities for up to a year or more.

“The Greek authorities continue to systematically detain asylum-seekers and irregular migrants including unaccompanied children in breach of international standards and seem to use detention – often in appalling conditions – as a deterrent,” said Dalhuisen.

“The situation of unaccompanied children, who are amongst the most vulnerable, is particularly worrying. We found several children detained among adults in very poor conditions during a recent visit at the Corinth detention center.

“Amnesty International has even received reports of people fleeing conflict and war in countries such as Syria being pushed back to Turkey through the river Evros”  said Dalhuisen.

There has also been a dramatic rise of  in the number of racially motivated attacks throughout 2012. Asylum-seekers, migrants, community centres, shops and mosques have been the target of such attacks which have been reported on an almost daily basis since the summer.

A draft presidential decree creating the specialized police units to curb racist violence is a first step towards the right direction, but falls short of  guaranteeing the effective investigations and prosecutions for crimes where victims are reluctant to approach the police for fear of arrest and detention themselves.

EU asylum policy requires asylum-seekers to return to the first country they entered upon arrival in the EU. However, after the European Court of Human Rights concluded in 2011 that Greece lacked an effective asylum determination system, many EU countries have halted the return of asylum-seekers to Greece.

“Most European countries have taken the right step in stopping the return of asylum seekers to Greece until the country reforms its asylum system. However, they must share responsibility for processing asylum applications and supporting asylum seekers more equally among member states,” said Dalhuisen.

“The current situation in Greece is totally unworthy of the Nobel Peace Prize winning European Union and so far below international human rights standards as to make a mockery of them. Greece needs help but it must also accept its own responsibilities.”

“Crossing a border without the required documentation or overstaying a visa is not per se a crime, but rather at most, an administrative offence,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, François Crépeau, and the Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (CMW), Abdelhamid El Jamri, in a joint statement with other human rights experts.

Adding their voices to the statement were the Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, Felipe Gonzalez, and the Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights of the African Union, Maya Sahli Fadel.

According to UN figures, the total number of international migrants has increased over the last 10 years from an estimated 150 million in 2000 to 214 million persons today – the numbers are such that migrants would constitute the fifth most populous country in the world.

Taking into account the large and increasing number of migrants, in 2000 the UN General Assembly proclaimed 18 December as International Migrants Day. The choice of date marks the day on which the Assembly adopted, in 1990, the treaty known as the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

In their joint statement, the human rights experts said that even though migrants have contributed greatly to societies around the world, millions of them are victims of discrimination, xenophobia and a myriad of violations against their human rights – simply for being migrants.

“It is because of this that today, on International Migrants Day, we reaffirm that human rights are rights for all persons,” they said. “In this sense, a real commitment by States regarding the human rights of migrants requires the full recognition of migrants as rights holders. Human rights are derived from human dignity and not from national origin or migratory status.”

According to the experts, measures that criminalize irregular migration include the enactment of laws that penalize migrants in an irregular situation and persons that assist migrants; the use of excessive and disproportionate force during migration control operations; the detention of migrants in an irregular situation; deportations without procedural guarantees; and also xenophobic statements in which authorities and the media encourage the stigmatization of migrants.

“In addition to being contrary to human rights and increasing the vulnerability of migrants, these measures have not been proven effective in deterring irregular migration,” the experts said.

In relation to their concern over the increasing use by some countries of detention against migrants, the four experts noted that “this situation is of even greater concern” because detention is often applied to children.

“Respect for the right to liberty and security of person implies that liberty is the rule and detention, the exception. States have the obligation to establish a presumption in favour of liberty in domestic law,” they said, adding the automatic, mandatory or punitive use of migrant detention violates migrants’ right to liberty, as well as the human rights of others.

“The exceptionality of administrative detention of migrants also applies to asylum seekers, refugees, stateless persons and other persons in need of international protection,” they said in their joint statement. “We call on States to gradually abolish the administrative detention of migrants and establish alternative measures to detention, applying a human rights-based approach.”

In addition, the four experts called on States to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, as well as other international and regional human rights treaties.

“In parallel to ratifying these instruments, States should guarantee that their policies, laws and practices on migration conform to their international human rights obligations,” they added.

UN independent experts, or special rapporteurs like Crépeau, are appointed by the Geneva-based Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

Headed by El Jamri, the CMW is a body of 14 independent experts that monitors the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families, as laid out in the International Convention. It meets in Geneva and normally holds two sessions per year.

On November 21, 2012, Australia transferred 19 people, including 4 children, to Manus.

The asylum seekers, from Sri Lanka and Iran, were the first transfers to Manus since the Australian government reinstated its offshore processing policy for asylum seekers in August 2012.

Under this policy, asylum seekers are transferred outside Australian jurisdiction to facilities on the islands of Nauru and Manus to await processing of their claims.

“Migrant children are often survivors of traumatic journeys to reach Australia,” said Alice Farmer, children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Australia is callously disregarding their best interests and failing to provide them an opportunity for refuge when it pushes them out of Australian territory.”

Australia’s policy violates its obligations to children under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention requires assessment of “the best interests of the child” in all actions concerning children. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted this to mean a  review of a migrant child’s needs for immigration status and basic services by qualified professionals in a friendly and safe atmosphere. Transfer out of Australia’s territory without such a determination fails this test, Human Rights Watch said.

The Migration Legislation Amendment (Offshore Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2011, passed by the Australian Senate on August 16, and by the House of Representatives the previous day, authorizes the transfer of asylum seekers who arrive by boat to remote Pacific islands, where they will remain indefinitely while their refugee claims are processed. Human Rights Watch considers the legislation to be discriminatory on its face and is almost certain to result in arbitrary detention.

Australia has long maintained a policy of mandatory detention of “irregular maritime arrivals.” The reinstated offshore processing policy returns to the discredited “Pacific Solution” of the early 2000s. Refugee processing was closed at Manus Island in 2004 and at Nauru in 2008 after the Pacific Solution was criticized for being both costly and inhumane.

The facilities at Manus and Nauru are expected ultimately to have a combined capacity of 2,100 people. Migrants, including children, may have to spend up to five years in Nauru or Manus and the government has also stated that unaccompanied migrant children will be among those transferred.

Children’s health is at risk on these isolated islands, according to the Refugee Council of Australia. Manus has one of the highest rates of malaria anywhere in the region, as well as other mosquito-borne diseases and relentless heat.

“In reinstating the offshore processing policy, Australia is putting at risk the lives and health of migrant children arriving on its shores,” Farmer said. “These children have basic needs that can be best met in Australia.”

Children fleeing persecution have the right to seek asylum, and Australia’s offshore policies violate that right, Human Rights Watch said. Australia has ratified the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which prohibits parties to the convention from penalizing refugees on account of their illegal entry.  Asylum seekers who enter Australia illegally, including children, need to be given an opportunity to have their refugee claims heard by a competent body.

The government has stated that it will transfer unaccompanied migrant children to Manus and Nauru without exemption; however, unaccompanied migrant children are entitled under international law to guardianship and legal assistance with their asylum claims. What is more, unaccompanied migrant children often travel for months on risky paths to Australia, and are especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Many are Afghan, Burmese, Sri Lankan, or Somali children orphaned or separated by war, thousands of whom arrive in Southeast Asia each year.

Australia’s new policy is not likely to act as an effective deterrent to boat migration, Human Rights Watch said. People willing to risk their lives in dangerous boat journeys face enormous obstacles in Indonesia and other countries in the region, pushing them to flee to Australia.

“Instead of taking a punitive approach to migrant children who arrive by boat, Australia should ensure that its migration policies protect children’s rights,” Farmer said.

Drawn-out displacement, insecurity, difficulties in helping acutely vulnerable people, funding shortages, and a ‘not in my backyard’ attitude are major current obstacles to quality protection, the Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Erika Feller, of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told the annual meeting of the refugee agency’s governing Executive Committee in Geneva.

“UNHCR still has to make efforts to improve its own response. By the same token political will is not consistently enough behind protection. This is disturbingly evidenced in a prevailing attitude in a number of states to the effect: ‘Yes, we sympathize with your plight, but resolve it please elsewhere,’” she said.

UNHCR’s Executive Committee meets annually to review and approve the agency’s programmes and budget, advise on international protection and discuss a wide range of other issues with UNHCR and its intergovernmental and non-governmental partners.

In her remarks, Feller cited Mali – where Islamic militants have seized control of the north, imposing strict Sharia law and sending 260,000 refuges fleeing into neighbouring countries in a major humanitarian emergency for UNHCR – to highlight the difficulties involved in providing quality protection to individuals among the 700,000 worldwide who have become refugees so far this year.

In countries neighbouring Mali, she said, the proximity of refugees to the insecure border, physical difficulties in accessing and monitoring refugees spread across wide areas, tensions among different displaced groups and shortages of funds are combining to ensure that refugees get nothing more than basic life-saving help.

In such environments, she noted, preventing problems such as military recruitment of children, child labour or sexual exploitation of children is becoming more difficult.

While noting “very positive” efforts under way by states to collaborate on regional strategies to tackle these issues, Ms. Feller cautioned that regional cooperation is not an end in itself. “Its aims must include stronger national asylum systems, not their replacement, and for States to share more equitably the burdens and responsibilities of protecting refugees,” she said.

This year has so far seen mass displacement in areas of Africa and the Middle East, principally from conflicts in Syria, South Sudan and Sudan, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. People newly displaced in these areas are an addition to the 42.5 million refugees, internally displaced people and asylum-seekers globally.

Feller echoed a call made on Monday by the High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, for states to do more to help those countries that host major refugee populations, including by supporting funding arrangements for the local integration of people who are unable to return home, and she cited the need for more resettlement places as a further solution. Globally, demand for resettlement places currently outstrips availability by a factor of 10 persons for each resettlement place available.

The UN official also underlined the need for more concerted action to reduce risks for specific vulnerable groups, including the growing numbers of unaccompanied refugee children worldwide, disabled people and people fleeing persecution because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Displaced children lose access to education or end up being placed in immigration detention, and girls and women often have particular difficulties, she said.

“Situations of forced displacement are not gender neutral; they affect women and girls disproportionately. Exposure to rape, human trafficking, survival sex, in tandem with lack of documentation and exclusion from support and services, is commonplace,” she stressed, adding that UNHCR was working to fight impunity by strengthening its work in preventing sexual- or gender-based violence, and ensuring that justice is more accessible for victims.

In 2011, 365,600 decisions on asylum applications were made in the EU27, of which 237,400 were first instance decisions and 128,200 final decisions on appeal. Decisions made at the first instance resulted in 59,500 persons being granted protection status, while a further 24,600 received protection status on appeal. In total, of the 84,100 persons who were granted protection status in 2011, 42,700 persons were granted refugee status, 29,400 subsidiary protection and 12,000 authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. In addition, the EU27 Member States received 4,100 resettled refugees.

The rate of recognition of asylum applicants, i.e. the share of positive decisions in the total number of decisions, was 25% for first instance decisions, split between refugee and subsidiary protection status (21%) and humanitarian status (4%). For final decisions on appeal the recognition rate was 19%, again split between refugee and subsidiary protection status (17%) and humanitarian status (2%). It should be noted that, while both refugee and subsidiary protection status are defined by EU law, humanitarian status is granted on the basis of national legislation relating to international protection.

In 2011, the highest number of persons granted protection status was registered in the United Kingdom (14,400), followed by Germany (13,000), France (10,700), Sweden (10,600), the Netherlands (8,400) and Italy (7,500). These Member States accounted for more than three quarters of all those granted protection status in the EU27.

Afghans were the single largest group of persons granted protection status in the EU27. Of the 13,300 Afghans granted protection status in the EU27, 3,100 were recorded in Germany, 2,700 in Sweden, 1,800 in Austria, 1,400 in the Netherlands and 1,000 in the United Kingdom. Of the 9,000 Iraqis granted protection, 3,300 were registered in Germany, 1,400 in the Netherlands and 1,200 in Belgium, and of the 8,900 Somalis, 2,600 were in Sweden and 2,400 in the Netherlands.