Feb 6, 2021
AYS Daily Digest 05/02/2021—Frontex’s Cosy Corporate Ties, Exposed
Over a thousand people attempt to cross central Med//Racist protests shut down school in Greece//& more
FEATURE
Frontex’s close ties to security industry lobbyists finally exposed
Researchers have published an extensive account of the European border agency’s close ties with lobbyists and corporate leaders from the security industry. The agency has no transparency mechanisms governing its relationships with the lobbyists that supply spying and weapons technologies, despite frequent special events targeted at these industries.
Researchers Luisa Izuzquiza, Margarida Silva and Myriam Douo have obtained over 130 documents detailing Frontex’s meetings with companies from the security sector, during which new technologies were discussed, but their effect on people’s rights was not discussed at all. The documents can be accessed here on the site of ZDF Magazin Royale or here on the servers of FragDenStaat. These meetings are a crucial part of the procurement process, as Frontex would go on to award contracts to many of these companies, but information about these meetings was not shared with the Consultative Forum or other oversight mechanisms. The agency has resisted several requests by the European Parliament to implement a lobbying transparency system.
Frontex organized multiple gatherings, sometimes called ‘Industry Days,” with industry lobbyists, representatives of EU member states, and representatives of countries often involved in the externalization of EU borders. Human rights organizations were never in the room. In fact, concerns for human rights were often trampled on by those in the room. In presentation documents obtained by the researchers, people on the move were referred to with incredibly dehumanizing rhetoric and portrayed as threats. Controversial surveillance technologies, such as biometric technology which is technically under a moratorium by the European Parliament, were discussed with no consideration of privacy rights.
Frontex’s official response? “Frontex does not meet with lobbyists…Frontex does not attract the interest of lobbyists.”
You can read the researchers’ report on the NGO Corporate Europe Observatory’s website here.
The agency is already under fire for its complicity in pushbacks and a fraudulent, abusive work environment where even staff faced frequent harassment. This detailed report from Der Spiegel summarizes the series of scandals and investigations that have rocked Frontex over the past few months. Despite Leggeri’s claims on Europe 1 that Frontex “does not prevent people from seeking asylum,” the evidence mounting against the agency is overwhelming.
However, the cruelties of the EU border policy cannot be laid at Leggeri’s doorstep alone. Other examples of lack of transparency around border control technology include the EU’s funding of iBorderCtrl, which among other things is looking to produce a video lie detector. The MEP Patrick Breyer is currently campaigning to get the release of documents around this project. EU member states including Germany are currently working on developing a drone for reconnaissance, although it is unclear what kind of “reconnaissance” it would be used for. Even when borders are not involved, the EU’s commitment to transparency is easily shaken. The European Parliament refused to collaborate with Transparency International on a study on transparency and ethics. And finally, we cannot forget the European Union’s repeated collaboration with regimes it condemns one day and builds border fences with the next, such as this reception centre in Belarus.
SYRIA
Winter storms hit Idlib, flood camps for displaced people
Tens of thousands of people on the move are living in camps in Idlib that have been hit hard by flooding, cold weather, and fires.
LEBANON
Syrian people in Lebanon struggling amid crises
Over the past year and a half, Lebanon has been rocked by a financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and then the blast in the Beirut port in August. While all residents of the country have been heavily affected, Syrian people especially are suffering from poverty and food shortages.
SEA
Over a thousand attempted to cross central Med in past day
Over 1,000 people attempted to leave Libya in the past 24 hours alone, although some observers have said the number is as high as 2,000. Unfortunately, most of them were pulled back to torturous conditions in Libya. For years, people on the move and organizations such as Medicins Sans Frontieres have said that Libya is not a safe place for people, who are subject to torture and detention. In fact, DW recently made a documentary on the hellish conditions in Libya.
There is a strong possibility that Frontex is complicit in the return of many of these people to Libya. They tweeted that they spotted 900 people at sea in the Central Mediterranean and “alerted the national rescue centers in the area.” That number roughly corresponds to the number of people forcibly returned to Libya. The Moonbird has previously caught Frontex in action cooperating in illegal pushbacks with the so-called Libyan Coast Guard, so it is highly possible that they repeated their collaboration today and bragged about it on Twitter.
There have been many distress cases in the Mediterranean in the past day as well. The Proactive Open Arms ship “Astral” rescued 45 people in Maltese SAR waters and the people were eventually transferred to Lampedusa. Further west, there were 39 people in distress on the Canary route. AlarmPhone was contacted by a boat carrying 74 people fleeing Libya, another group of 130, and a third group of 30 people in distress. Unfortunately, they lost contact with all of them. The Ocean Viking rescued 180 people in two operations this morning.
For a summary of the rescue operations, check out this post from the Civil Fleet.
GREECE
Racist protest in Ippios shuts down school
Parents (and some students) closed the Ippios high school in Mytilene on the island of Lesvos after an announcement that the school would have an Educational Priority Zone, or SPA class, to educate eight children on the move. Yesterday, a group of students refused to attend school in protest. Today, a group of parents locked students and teachers out of the school by occupying the road and blocking the children’s school bus from coming. They spread racist lies about the eight students, claiming that they were not really minors and that they were planning to “Islamize” the school.
The North Aegean Regional Governor, K. Moutzouris, came and supported the parents, saying that it made no sense to bring the kids to school if they were supposed to be leaving Mytilene by Easter (even though children deserve an education at all times).
Although many of the people in the crowd were parents of students at the school, they were not the driving force behind the “protest.” Activists pointed out that this was similar to other far-right mobilizations, from its inception on LesvosPost onwards, and that many present in the crowd were not parents at all but members of a local far right group, the “Free Citizens.” Thus, the framing of concerned parents versus people on the move doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
The exclusion of children on the move from education is a widespread problem in Greece. Just yesterday, the Municipality of Chalkida voted to exclude those children from public education under the excuse of coronavirus measures, despite the widespread outcry from rights groups, teachers, and concerned local citizens. None of the 860 children in the camp of Ritsona located in the municipality have set foot in a classroom for a whole year.
Lockdown in Diavata Camp
Diavata Camp in northern Greece was placed under lockdown after 30 cases of coronavirus were discovered. The camp houses over 1,700 people. The centre was surrounded by police and residents were locked down without access to basic resources.
Updates from Lesvos
The Moria Corona Awareness Team, Stand By Me Lesvos, and The Hope Project are working together to coordinate a more efficient way of distributing aid, where what the people actually need will be prioritized.
The staff of MSF in Lesvos are on strike against continued dismissals and inadequate protection for staff against COVID-19.
There is unrest on the island after the Municipal Council approved the creation of a new camp. However, the Chairman did not allow the Presidents of the Local Communities to vote and shut down discussion to prevent the opposition from being heard.
SERBIA
Minister of Internal Affairs says people on the move must be confined to camps
During a visit to police officers conducting a raid looking for people on the move in Belgrade, Internal Affairs minister Vulin said that people on the move must be in camps. However, camps in Serbia are overcrowded and people are kept there in poor conditions. Although Vulin warned citizens not to take matters into their own hands, this rhetoric is dangerous when there is a strong presence of xenophobic vigilantes in the country.
HUNGARY
As many as 4,000 complaints of inhumane treatment on hold
MALTA
Reports of torture in detention facilities
People detained in Maltese facilities have spoken out about the physical torture they survived, including beatings and electrocutions. They have also survived medical torture and discrimination. For example the official Maltese Union of Midwives and Nurses has stated that people on the move should not be allowed into mental hospitals because they are faking their distress. These reports were brought to the EASO.
The US Embassy in Malta issued a call for NGOs to submit project ideas. More information can be found here.
ITALY
Over 140,000 people waiting for asylum decisions
Over 140,000 people are waiting for their asylum decisions in Italy, thanks to a backlog in court dates, especially for appeals.
The People’s Medical Clinic in Milan offers free medical care to all who need it, regardless of immigration status. They have been hard at work since 1994. Read more about their work here.
GERMANY
Inhumane deportation policy in Germany
Despite the ongoing conflict and displacement in Tigray, Germany has continued to deport people to Ethiopia. The deportations have been criticized by activists, but the German government has not changed its stance and insists that they are following all legal procedures. Right now, they are preparing to deport a young woman who was born in Germany and has never even been to Ethiopia.
A court has stopped Germany’s deportation of Afghan asylum seekers, especially single men, due to the ongoing economic crisis in the country which would prevent returnees from providing for their basic needs. However, the country can still reject the person’s application for asylum, trapping them in indefinite legal limbo.
Germany also often rejects cases for family reunification from Greek camps, even though those rejections are usually overturned in court. Equal Rights Beyond Borders won one such case this week, their 50th.
In Frankfurt, Stitch by Stitch works with women on the move to provide them with vocational training, language education and an opportunity to practice their textile craft. Read more about their work here.
UK
Home Office under fire for dehumanizing conditions, language
Senior witnesses, including a doctor, testified in front of the Home Affairs Committee about the inhumane conditions in Napier Barracks. Dr. Jill O’Leary condemned the crowded conditions in the barracks, saying that:
From a public health perspective, we would say that the practise of placing people in barracks during a pandemic is unacceptable.
The Home Office has attempted to suppress word of conditions inside the barracks. Last month, police arrested and seized the equipment of photographer Andy Aitchison after he photographed a demonstration outside the barracks. The case against Aitchison has since been dropped, but the targeting of Aitchison has taken a significant toll on his mental health and his business. This blatant obstruction of press freedom is concerning.
Indirectly proving that the Napier Barracks are not an anomaly, but part of a concerted, dehumanizing policy, the Home Secretary called people crossing the Channel “a plague” yesterday. This racist rhetoric was widely condemned by human rights groups.
WORTH READING
Officials across Europe have touted the decline of migration due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This article, focusing on the UK, looks at the decline in data collection due to the pandemic and the way headlines have exaggerated the decline.
This article summarizes how Brexit will affect people on the move.
This report on “data responsibility in humanitarian action.”
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