AYS Daily Digest 11/2/2021—What is Europe Doing to Children?
Evidence of Government Attacks Against Civilians in Tigray // Mare Liberum Report: 9,000 People Pushed Back in Aegean in 2020 // Hate Crime in Bihać
FEATURE
Europe Has a Responsibility Towards Children on the Move. It Has Abandoned Them.
Events across the continent have emphasized the cruel, discriminatory way that European governments treat even children on the move. Kids are forced to live in awful conditions that impact their physical and mental health, denied access to education, and excluded from society in ways that will irrevocably impact their futures.
Greece
In Greece, there is a mental health epidemic among kids living in camps. Not only do these children have to live with uncertainty about their futures, they have suffered severe trauma in the homes that they left, on their way to Greece, and in the camps as well. Many children are suffering from panic attacks, depression, and even psychogenic seizures due to the traumatic events they have witnessed, such as the Moria fire and the heavy police presence that impacts their everyday lives.
In Vial camp, a seven-year-old attempted suicide. Seven. While the child was rescued by his father and a few others, the impact will probably live with him for the rest of his life. How can those of us fortunate enough never to know life in the camps, life with such trauma, understand the despair that pushed a child so small to try to take his own life?
The awful living conditions in the camps have only exacerbated the mental and physical health problems for many children. Just to go to the toilet, they have to pass through muddy, flooded areas and dangerous conditions. Some children refuse to go to the bathroom at night out of fear.
Children on the move are also denied the right to be children, to learn and to grow. Just last week, the Municipality of Chalkida denied children the ability to attend schools. There are also currently 932 houseless children on the move in Greece. All children deserve safe homes, an education, and the freedom to play, regardless of their citizenship.
Spain
The Greek government is by no means alone in its disregard for minors. In Spain, 27 minors are on hunger strike in Tenerife, on the Canary Islands, because they have not been allowed to contact their lawyers and the state has not recognized their status as minors.
The NGO Save the Children and the regional government of the Canary Islands have asked the Spanish government and the European Union to accept more responsibility for the treatment of children in the crowded conditions on the archipelago.
Bulgaria
A child born to a lesbian couple is currently stateless because Bulgaria will not recognize that children can have two mothers. The child, born in Spain, cannot get Spanish citizenship either because neither of their mothers are Spanish citizens; they cannot get British citizenship even though their other mother is British. While this is a somewhat unique case, it highlights the way children are denied citizenship, even from the countries they have grown up in, and how this affects their whole lives.
Nobody deserves to live in cramped, dangerous conditions like these, trapped in legal limbo, excluded from society. It is especially cruel to force innocent children into these circumstances during a formative period for their development, solely because of where they were born. While this treatment of children has been the norm for years now, it should never be normalized.
ETHIOPIA
Ethiopian Government Attacked Civilians in Tigray
In November of last year, government forces shelled urban areas where many civilians lived, killing at least 83 people. That same month, the president claimed that federal forces had killed no civilians.
Now, these incidents from November are just coming to light. They paint a harrowing story for civilians, who are suffering from violence and malnourishment. Exact details about the situation in the region are still unknown.
SEA
Over 200 People Pulled Back to Libya
Over 200 people were intercepted at sea and pulled back to Libya. Sea-Watch’s Seabird documented two pullbacks, including the involvement of European forces.
AlarmPhone was contacted by a group of 90 people at risk off the coast of Libya, but it is unclear what has happened to them.
GREECE
9,000 People Pushed Back in 2020
Mare Liberum released their report on pushbacks in the Aegean. They documented that between March and December of 2020, over 9,000 people were pushed back into Turkey. You can read the full report here.
“These pushbacks are not isolated or extreme instances of European deterrence, but rather the current and everyday “modus operandi” at the EU’s external border.
Winter Weather Conditions Exacerbate Bad Living Conditions
Greece is bracing itself for a winter storm in the next few days, including snow, wind, and a sharp drop in temperatures. This will hit people on the move especially hard, as conditions in the camps are still bad. Although the UNHCR publicized their winterization efforts, much of the camp is still flooded. There is often no electricity.
However, the weather has not stopped work on the Evros fence. People on the move live in awful conditions winter after winter because there is no money (or political will) to give people dignified housing. And yet, the bord er stops for no one.
Javed Aslam, the President of the Pakistani Community in Greece and an activist against racism, was finally granted refugee status in Greece—after 26 years in the country.
One Family-No Borders is looking for help with their project giving people access to dental care. You can learn more, including how to donate, here.
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
Brutal Attack on People on the Move
On February 8th, a group of people in Bihać attacked three people on the move, seriously injuring them. The government has only identified one of the attackers so far and is charging him with assault. However, evidence shows that this was motivated by hate and that the people were attacked in retaliation for a fight that happened between people on the move and locals the day before. Local groups are urging for the government to classify this as a hate crime; otherwise, attacks will continue with even more impunity.
Croatian police are continuing their brutal pushbacks. No Name Kitchen met with a man who was hit on the head so hard during a pushback he experienced memory loss.
CROATIA
Government Breaks Promise to Create Border-Monitoring Scheme
The Croatian Interior Ministry still hasn’t fulfilled its obligation to submit plans for an independent border-monitoring mechanism to the European Commission. This mechanism was first supposed to be created in 2018. Activists are not surprised: expecting the Croatian government to monitor itself was always an absurd plan.
HUNGARY
Despite Court Ruling, Pushbacks Continue
Hungarian authorities are ignoring the European Court of Justice’s December ruling that their actions at the border are illegal. Hungary pushed 3,000 people back to Serbia in January alone. In fact, the Hungarian police publicizes their pushback statistics directly on their website, blatantly flouting human rights and European authority. They justify their actions with the claim that they don’t push people back into Serbia, but into the no-man’s-land between the two borders — where people have no choice but to go back into Serbia.
ITALY
Labor Exploitation of People on the Move
Authorities arrested three people in Tuscany for exploiting their workers, who were all people on the move desperate for work. The defendants stand accused of forcing these people on the move to work with no breaks, and in inhumane conditions.
There are countless others forced into exploitative labor conditions, especially now that the pandemic has narrowed their few other options. This story follows Badu, a young man who lost his livelihood due to the pandemic and now has to work in the harsh conditions of the vegetable fields.
SPAIN
Canary Islands Camps “Temporary,” But Government Lagging on Permanent Solutions
The government of the Canary Islands repeated that the camp in Las Raices, denounced for its bad conditions, is a temporary solution. The regional Executive has been asking the central government for a more organized plan for a long time now, but it has not yet manifested.
Unidos-Podemos also requested that the Minister of the Interior transfer all vulnerable people on the move to the mainland, especially amidst the escalation of xenophobia. This request has been repeated for months, but the government’s official policy is to limit transfers from the Canary Islands, claiming that they would be a “pull factor.”
Salvamento Maritimo saved 34 people near Fuerteventura.
Another rescue story with an unexpected, tearjerking twist happened two weeks ago in Motril. Salvamento Maritimo rescued 59 people, including a ten-year-old girl and her pet cat, whom she’d refused to leave behind. The cat is currently at an animal rescue center in treatment for some health conditions, but will soon be reunited with its young owner.
FRANCE
French Government Violating Human Rights in Calais and Grand-Synthe
The French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights denounced the government’s violation of fundamental rights in Calais and Grand-Synthe. They especially criticized the nearly daily evictions and deteriorating living conditions for people trapped in the country’s north.
Many people, including families and the elderly, are still braving the dangerous Alpine crossing from Italy into France. This article covers their journeys, as well as the volunteers providing them with safe houses.
GERMANY
Deportations to Afghanistan Criticized
Germany restarted deportations to Afghanistan in December of 2020. It has already deported several people in the first month and change of 2021, even though Afghanistan is suffering from the pandemic and was recently classified the most dangerous country in the world. 96 organizations condemned the deportations.
The cruel nuances of Germany’s asylum laws have been wielded against people on the move, including Afghans. In Baden-Wurttemberg, the authorities rejected two Afghan men’s claim to subsidiary protection because the casualties in the armed conflict in their region have not exceeded the arbitrary threshold for the number of victims. This practice has been criticized by the Advocate General in the ECJ.
The fact that deportations are cruel and often sweep up innocent people is proven by Panorama’s feature on five Afghan people who were deported in 2018 but are back in Germany—because Germany needs their labor. Of course, they still had to pay their deportation costs of 5,000 euros themselves.
FRONTEX
Lack of Transparency Around Frontex
The EU Ombudsman decided that Frontex has a right to refuse requests for documents to non-EU citizens, in a blow to transparency and journalistic integrity. As Statewatch has argued, this makes no sense because “it is non-EU nationals who are most significantly affected by Frontex’s work.”
EU
Questionable Data Practices, Questionable Partners
The EU is planning to expand Eurodac, the database of fingerprints. Previously, Eurodac mostly contained fingerprints from asylum seekers and was mostly used to enforce the Dublin regulation. New proposals are planning to expand the database further to “wider immigration purposes.”
Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer is currently suing the EU Commission for transparency around its funding of iBorderCtrl, which if successful could be part of the ETIAS pre-screening system. Activists have criticized iBorderCtrl, which is essentially a video lie detector, for its breach of privacy. Another Commission-funded project is TRESPASS, a targeted profiling system to “prevent smuggling.”
The European Union helped train police units in Myanmar that have been at the forefront of crackdowns against pro-democracy protesters. Although the scheme was suspended last week, the military-controlled police in Myanmar have been involved in the genocide of the Rohingya for years, and activists argued that there never should have been cooperation in the first place.
This essay unpacks the problems with the “New” Pact on Migration and Asylum.
GENERAL
Vaccination Policies and More: the Impact of the Pandemic on People on the Move
The various pandemic measures across the globe have often cracked down hardest on people on the move. The latest report from Last Rights, called “Every Body Counts” talks about these impacts, including on dignity for the deceased. You can access the report here. The UNHCR also released a report on the impact of the pandemic on people on the move.
The unequal treatment of people on the move has increased with the arrival of vaccines. Although some countries, such as Jordan, are vaccinating people on the move along with their own citizens, many others have been excluded.
The EU announced that it will launch a new agency to give 7 billion euros in aid to neighboring countries, with the ultimate goal of curbing “illegal migration”—even though studies have shown that development aid has very little impact on migration.
WORTH READING
This paper examines the impact of “hostile environments” on people on the move and especially on practitioners who work with them.
This article offers an overview of the situation in the Napier Barracks that led to the fire.
Why do people risk the Atlantic route? Mixed Migration Centre published a paper interviewing the people that have crossed it about their reasons.
Worth Attending: SYMAAG is hosting their first “Talks for Change” on February 25th. Learn more and register here.
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