30
July
2024

Guidance on investigating alleged ill-treatment at borders

Fundamental rights violations on the EU’s land and sea borders often go unreported. Investigations into these violations need to be more effective. This report gathers examples of alleged rights violations of migrants and refugees between 2020 and 2023. It sets out 10 steps to promote prompt and effective national investigations into incidents of ill-treatment at borders.

This report is based on desk research and on the following data collection:

  • With the support of its national liaison officers, FRA requested from courts and/or public prosecutors overviews of pending and closed judicial cases. Cases concerned allegations of border management authorities committing criminal offences against migrants, asylum applicants and refugees.
  • FRA requested from the responsible ministries and/or law enforcement bodies overviews of disciplinary investigations on the same matter.
  • In 14 Member States, FRA’s multidisciplinary research network Franet consulted national human rights bodies, organisations providing support or legal aid to refugees and migrants, and lawyers.

The Franet field research covered Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Spain and Slovakia. Information from courts, prosecutors and national authorities was also sought from Estonia and Finland.