A/HRC/47/30 investigate Frontex’s compliance with and respect for human rights, and its adherence to its own transparency and accountability standards.91 77. Frontex’s limited accountability mechanisms have come under criticism for failing to provide prompt, transparent and thorough investigations into allegations of human rights violations in the context of the agency’s operations.92 6. Denial of access to territory and/or access to asylum 78. In Greece, authorities suspended the admission of asylum seekers entering the country irregularly in the Evros land border region for 30 days in March 2020, on the grounds of addressing unprecedented migratory pressure, derogating from binding procedures in national law and from international obligations. 93 In this regard, the Special Rapporteur emphasized in a public statement that such suspension had no legal basis in international human rights law, stressing that the right to an individual assessment cannot be put on hold. 94 79. In France, numerous unaccompanied child migrants are reportedly subjected to entry refusal and removal at the land borders with Italy and Spain, without due respect for the child rights protections in national law or for international obligations to consider best interests.95 80. In Hungary, pushbacks have been legalized under the 2016 amendments to the Act on State Borders. 96 They prescribe that migrants apprehended within a zone 8 km from the border fence at the border with Serbia or Croatia are to be removed to two transit zones established on the southern border with Serbia. 97 Since 2017, such pushbacks have been enabled from the entire territory of Hungary, following the declaration of a so-called “crisis situation caused by mass immigration”, resulting in practice in the application of derogations in the guise of general rules.98 Under those provisions, Hungary fails to ensure that return decisions are individual and to provide safeguards against refoulement. Since 2016, the Hungarian authorities have forcibly removed more than 71,000 people. 99 81. Chile, Ecuador and Peru have turned to militarization of border governance in response to large movements of Venezuelans outside of their country. Reports of those States expelling migrants without due evaluation of their vulnerability or protection needs are worrying.100 Trinidad and Tobago returned hundreds of migrants to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on several occasions in 2020, including children, without assessing the risks to them, including of refoulement. Boats carrying migrants have been intercepted and escorted back to Venezuelan waters.101 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 European Parliament, Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, “Respect of fundamental rights by Frontex: European Parliament inquiry launched”, 23 February 2021, available at www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20210223IPR98504/respect-of-fundamental-rightsby-frontex-european-parliament-inquiry-launched. Submission by Human Rights Watch. Submission by Greece. See also GRC 1/2020, available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25116, and the response by Greece, available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=35244. The Special Rapporteur’s statement is available at www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25736&LangID=E. See the submission by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, of France, and the submission by UNICEF. Submission by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. The Court of Justice of the European Union has held that such escorts to a strip of land devoid of any infrastructure are equivalent to removal. See European Commission v. Hungary, case C-808/18, judgment of 17 December 2020. Ibid. UNHCR, “UNHCR concerned by Hungary’s latest measures affecting access to asylum”, 10 March 2021, available at www.unhcr.org/news/press/2021/3/6048976e4/unhcr-concerned-hungarys-latestmeasures-affecting-access-asylum.html. See the statement by the High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Human Rights Council at its forty-sixth session, available at www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?LangID=E&NewsID=26806. Submission by the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights. 15