In recent months we have gone from compassion provoked by the most sensationalist photographs of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean to seeing the Macedonian Police firing teargas on the refugees on the border with Greece; paintings on the houses that were occupied by asylum seekers in Middlesbrough, Great Britain, that encourage such xenophobic attacks; the collection and confiscation of property in Germany, Switzerland and Denmark; the disappearance of at least 10,000 minors in Europe at the hands of trafficking networks and gender-based violence against women and girls, while the European Union has done nothing to prevent or remedy such situations; the closure of borders and the erection of barriers in Austria and Hungary, etc.
On 7 March, the European Union, with the support of most of the governments of its Member States, signed a preliminary agreement with the Turkish government that presupposes a breach of the UN Convention of the Rights of Refugees, adopted in Geneva in 1951, and Protocol 167 of the United Nations (ratified by all European states). This draft agreement also violates Article 18 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, which recognizes the right of asylum, and implies a head-on attack on Article 19.1 of the Charter, which prohibits collective expulsions. With such actions, Europe is moving away from its core values and is losing any credibility in the defence of Human Rights.
We believe that this agreement has no legitimacy and we count on its rejection by a large part of the citizens. We join with them in offering our support for the demonstrations on 16 March.
For this reason, the organizations state that the building of an EU totally committed to the defence of Human Rights continues to be a priority, and therefore we are opposed to the draft agreement with Turkey.
We echo the words spoken by the Pope on 7 February when he called on the international community "with generous solidarity to give the aid necessary to ensure the survival and dignity" of tens of thousands of people fleeing from the horror of war. Accordingly we appeal to the Salesian Family to join in the demonstrations of 16 March and to engage actively in the building of European Union solidarity.
