European countries' shameful response to the migrant crisis and their counter-terrorism policies risk undermining their historic commitment to human rights, Amnesty International warned on Wednesday. They used their annual report to take some of the world's oldest democracies to task. Several countries in the EU passport-free Schengen area have re-imposed border controls in response to refugees fleeing war and persecution. ‘That Europe, the richest bloc in the world, is not able to take care of the basic rights of the most persecuted people in the world is shameful’, said Amnesty. It called for safe, legal routes for people to reach Europe and said they should be treated on a case by case basis, not subjected to ‘collective punishment’. Amnesty was alarmed by the counter-terrorism laws being introduced across Europe, in particular the state of emergency implemented in France. ‘The system that has been built over seventy years to protect human rights now needs to be protected from a wholesale attack.’