On the road to Europe, migrant women are particularly vulnerable
A Syrian woman and a child, migrants, arrive in Greece on the island of Lesbos aboard a Turkish boat, October 1, 2015. AP - Muhammed Muheisen
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
On Wednesday 18 May, representatives of feminist activists from all over Europe came to formally submit a petition to the European Parliament.
They ask MEPs that the violence suffered by women, girls and LGBTQIA+ people on the way to migration to Europe be recognized specifically for their asylum applications.
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With our correspondent in Brussels,
Pierre Benazet
The path of all migrants to Europe is strewn with pitfalls, violence and even death, the dramatic situation of migrants is known but
the situation of women
is even worse, for example to arrive in Greece, the country of the activist Sonia Mitralia:
“
When they cross the Mediterranean, they are not seated in the boats like the men.
And since they are already poorer, the smugglers very often ask them for sexual services.
Very often they drown because they cannot swim.
»
► To read also: Women in the Mediterranean: faces and migration routes
Swedish MEP Malin Björk believes that the entire asylum and migration system in the Schengen area needs to be overhauled, including the coast guard and border guard agency:
“
Either we abolish Frontex, or it becomes an agency that keeps human beings at the borders of Europe.
Because if it is complicit and continues to be so and to flout human beings at the borders of Europe, then this agency does not have to exist.
»
The petition which asks the European Union to recognize, when filing asylum applications, the violence specifically suffered by women, has been signed in more than 18 countries by 39,000 people.
►Also read
: Illegal crossings of the EU's external borders at their highest since 2016
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