Equal Rights Beyond Borders is a charitable organisation, founded in 2016, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and Athens, Greece, with additional offices on the Greek islands Chios and Kos.[1][2] It offers free legal support to refugees and asylum seekers, particularly towards the reunion of families and helping with visa procedures. Beyond this, it also offers assistance in cases of detention, and where there is need for access to social rights, and its lawyers take on cases of severe human rights violations.[3][4] With these aims it both represents specific clients and also takes on certain strategic cases where litigation may help draw attention to more general issues.[5] Therefore it operates in Greek and German and European courts.
In 2023 it started a project supporting survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), in the asylum procedure, in criminal proceedings and matters of family law.[6]
Equal Rights Beyond Borders partnering where appropriate with other organisations in Greece, Germany and at European Union (EU) level.[7][8][9] In 2022 they published a joint report with HIAS Greece, addressing the Border Procedures on the Greek island.[10]
Among the Equal Rights Beyond Borders co-founders was the lawyer, human rights activist and current Bundestag member Clara Bünger, who established the organisations first office on the greek island of Chios.[11]
It is in receipt of grant funding from a number of humanitarian organisations, including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.[12]
Publications
- "Still detained and forgotten" – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos“ [1], Equal Rights Beyond Borders (Hg.), March 2024
- Report on Conference – Immigration Detention in the EU, Kos, 08.-10.06.2023 [2], Equal Rights Beyond Borders (Hg.), September 2023
- "Still detained and forgotten" – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2022/2023“ [3], Equal Rights Beyond Borders (Hg.), February 2023
- "Extraordinary Measures" - How Greece used the COVID-19 pandemic as a Pretext for the Unlawful Detention of Asylum Seekers on Chios [4], Equal Rights Beyond Borders (Hg.), February 2023
- The State of the Border Procedure on the Greek Islands [5], Equal Rights Beyond Borders/HIAS Greece/Refugee Support Aegean (Hg.), October 2022
- Detained and Forgotten at the Gates of the EU - Detention of Migrants on the Island of Kos [6], Equal Rights Beyond Borders, November 2021