1. The Obligation to Undress and the Destruction of Personal Property: Related Violations
1.1. Evidence of Confiscation and Destruction of Migrants’ Personal Belongings Denounced by International Organisations, Bodies, and Non-Governmental Organisations
The requirements for migrants to undress and the destruction of their personal belongings—including documents and mobile phones—by border guards and Frontex [the European Border and Coast Guard Agency] agents, at both internal and external borders of the EU, has been a subject of reporting and condemnation by various international organisations and institutions for several years.
The Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union (FRA), in its 2020 report on the external borders of the EU, exposed severe violations of migrants’ human rights, including the confiscation and arbitrary destruction of personal effects. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has also repeatedly condemned the seizure and destruction of personal belongings of individuals forcibly returned from Greece to Turkey.[1]
The report titled ‘Beaten, Punished, and Pushed Back’ by the Protecting Rights at Borders (PRAB) network, published in January 2023, reveals that the people fleeing persecution or serious harm and in search of protection, attempting to enter the EU via the Bosnian-Croatian border over the past years, have faced denial of access to asylum procedures, arbitrary arrest or detention, physical abuse or mistreatment, and theft or destruction of property.[2] In a testimony of July 2022 provided by two individuals from Bangladesh, it was stated: