BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe’s anti-torture monitor said Thursday that police and border guards in some countries are using violence, dogs and the humiliation of stripping migrants of their clothing to drive them back across borders, and routinely deprive people of their right to apply for international protection.
In an annual report for 2022, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture urged European governments to protect foreign nationals who are taken into custody on the basis of immigration laws. It believes that some abuses inflicted on migrants could amount to torture.
“We have come across persons who have been beaten at the time of their apprehension by police,” CPT President Alan Mitchell told reporters in Brussels as he unveiled the report. The Council of Europe is the continent’s main human rights watchdog. It is not part of the European Union.
“We have met with persons who have been stripped naked and made to walk across countries’ borders. We have met with persons who have displayed evidence of recent dog bites; dogs having been let loose on them in order to encourage their expulsion across the border,” he said.