AYS Daily Digest 14/07/2020 — Suffocating Conditions in Munich Shelters, Temperatures Up to 50° Celsius
57 People Adrift for 40 Hours Before Rescue///Young Man Dies Due to Police Violence in Greece///Republika Srpska Police Forcibly Transport People to Federation Territory///& More
FEATURE
Hellish Conditions in Munich Accommodation Centers
Temperatures reach up to 50 degrees Celsius. People are only allowed 30 minutes of fresh air a day and spend the rest of their time in seven square meters of space. There’s not even internet to communicate with the outside world or distract residents from their conditions.
Is this hell? No, it’s what people seeking asylum residing in Munich have to deal with. Their only crime? Being born in the wrong country.
Local authorities have put four community accomodation centers with 621 residents on strict lockdown, allegedly to stop the spread of coronavirus. Whole buildings are on lockdown, even if only a few residents have tested positive for the virus. Conditions inside also make it difficult for residents to maintain proper sanitation procedures and distance from each other. Thus, although these measures have been adopted with the excuse of protecting public health, it’s clear that local authorities only care about the health of Germans, not people on the move.
Local organizations and residents have been warning for months that these conditions are dangerous for mental and physical health and are especially difficult for children to bear. However, local authorities claim that they “meet market standards” because people can open a window if they’re hot and “individual cases” can get room fans (there was no explanation of how one qualifies for a room fan, or why access to fans is so limited in the middle of summer).
This case highlights what asylum seekers and their allies have been arguing for ages: mass accommodation like the ones described are dehumanizing and detrimental to residents’ health. They should have been replaced with individual accommodation that at least offer residents private rooms a long time ago.
Sadly, this is only the latest in a global pattern of governments denying people on the move basic liberties and freedom of movement with the excuse of stopping the spread of coronavirus.
LEBANON
Syrians Struggle to Access Healthcare in Lebanon
The poor treatment of Syrians in Lebanon extends to the healthcare system. Many are not able to access regular care they need and only go to the hospital in dire emergencies. The health system in Lebanon in general is failing: hospitals are running out of funds and pharmacies are running out of even basic medicine such as insulin.
One barrier is cost — although the UNHCR pays 75% of medical bills, the remaining 25% is often impossible for Syrian families to pay. Another is the bureaucracy and exploitative nature of some Lebanese hospitals — officials will steal people’s documents and one hospital even refused to give a newborn baby to his family until they paid their bill.
You can read a more detailed report here.
To help Syrian families in Lebanon, donate here to Endless Medical Advantage’s fundraiser to help provide rent relief and food packages.
SEA
57 People Stuck at Sea for Over Forty Hours Due to Government Inaction
The people were eventually rescued and taken to Lampedusa, but their horrifying ordeal could have been significantly shortened.
AlarmPhone was contacted by the boat on Sunday night, who said their engine was no longer working and water was entering their boat. Although the boat was technically in Maltese SAR, they were only a few kilometers from the sea border with Italy. Monday afternoon, Sea-Watch’s Moonbird spotted the boat in distress again. A cargo ship and Italian Coast Guard ship were nearby, but both left without conducting a rescue attempt. It was only until Tuesday that the people on board were rescued by the Italian Coast Guard and taken to Lampedusa, after spending forty hours adrift under the Mediterranean sun.
The Italian Coast Guard denied that they were to blame, saying that the distress call came from Maltese waters and that the cargo ship had agreed to conduct a rescue if something happened. This game of human hot potato where both Maltese and Italian authorities deny responsibility for conducting rescues is nothing new. However, international law clearly states that saving lives when they are in danger (and any tiny boat adrift in the Mediterranean without a working engine is in danger) and swiftly disembarking people in distress is the first priority.
Two weeks ago, Sea Watch International’s airplane crew alerted EU authorities that they found a dead body floating in the Mediterranean and requested its retrieval. So many days later, this still hasn’t been done. Sea Watch has seen the same body three more times, but no authorities have made an effort to recover it.
Who knows what family is still waiting to hear from their loved one, not knowing what happened to them? Everybody deserves to say goodbye in a dignified manner, or to be put to rest properly. The recovery of this body could also help authorities figure out what happened to the people the person was traveling with in addition to helping the family. However, nothing has been done because people on the move are not treated with dignity even in death.
Incidents of death and distress at sea continue to happen. Four men are missing, presumed drowned, off the coast of Crete. One survivor was taken to a local hospital and said the group was trying to reach Italy.
Meanwhile, a group of about 23 people who had escaped from Zuwara in Libya contacted AlarmPhone from the Maltese SAR late Tuesday night. AlarmPhone contacted Maltese and Italian authorities to organize a rescue, but so far has not heard back.
While it is too late to help the four who perished in the Aegean, countless other people can still be saved. Europe must act!
GREECE
“I Can’t Breathe” in Greece: Young Man Dies After Police Beating
Vassilis Maggos.
That’s the name of a 27-year-old young man who was found dead by his mother yesterday. A month ago he was severely beaten by police at a protest against garbage incineration. Although the public is still waiting for the results of his autopsy (and doubting the authenticity of its eventual results), his injuries had caused health problems and trauma until the end of his life and it is probable that they caused his death.
You may be wondering why Are You Syrious is writing about his death when our focus is on issues affecting people on the move, but police brutality and abuse of authority is out of control in Greece. People are targeted for expressing dissent, going to protests, or for no reason at all. Of course people of color and people without papers face the most violence from this deeply racist system, but Greek people are not safe either. The violent pushbacks at the borders and brutal beatings of protesters within the borders of Greece are all part of the same violent system that needs to be abolished — now.
Conditions on Lesvos are still dire.
Another young person, 19-year-old Namori from the Ivory Coast, was stabbed to death in Moria, the latest in a string of violent incidents in the camp. When thousands of desperate people are packed in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions with no way out, violence is bound to occur.
The thousands of people living in Moria are still without reliable water access, sanitation or garbage collection. The Moria White Helmets continue to organize garbage collection with the help of residents who volunteer, but there is an easier solution to this. As one volunteer, Raed, said, “We are waiting how to die. We deserve to be treated as humans and we urge the European Union to help: To evacuate refugees from Moria and accept them in their countries!”
Meanwhile, more and more vulnerable people are cut off from vital aid. 15 Syrian families protested in Mytilini and were met with violence.
Three people in a village in the north of Lesvos tested positive for coronavirus, and one old man is in the hospital. We hope the virus will not spread further and that the sick people recover quickly.
The neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn is organizing a march tomorrow, July 15th, in Victoria Park starting at 17h.
A counter-protest will happen to defend Viktoria, which has always been a neighborhood for people on the move. However, Golden Dawn has a history of violent actions and if you are planning to go, be ready to take precautions for your own safety.
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
RS Police Forced People on the Move Into Federation Territory
The police of Republika Srpska, one of the entities that make up Bosnia & Herzegovina, were caught on camera bringing people on the move to its border and forcing them into territory belonging to the Federation, towards the city of Bihac.
Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of BiH’s presidency, has previously said that he wants to cleanse RS territory of people on the move and increase power for RS police.
This is a gross violation of human rights. Reception centers in Bihac are already overcrowded, and people on the move face a dangerous journey to Croatia and the EU. It also has troubling implications for Bosnia’s internal politics. The two entities are not separate countries, and the RS police basically going rogue and performing internal deportations could cause unrest.
SERBIA
Harassment of No Name Kitchen’s Volunteers by Authorities
Local authorities in Sid are carrying out a harassment campaign against No Name Kitchen’s volunteers, targeting them on the street and entering their house to demand their papers. The military is continuing to intimidate people on the move as well as volunteers, despite the formal lifting of coronavirus restrictions.
Nevertheless, No Name Kitchen is carrying on with their work. They hav received donations from international organizations and local partners alike, helping them continue to serve people with food.
LIBYA
86 People Returned to Libya
After an interception by the Libyan Coast Guard, 86 people were returned to Libya, including 18 minors. The international community, including the IOM, are against returns to Libya due to the ongoing civil war and torture sites present there, however the European Union is more than happy to outsource its borders to the Libyan Coast Guard.
Medico International published a report on the troubling outsourcing of EU borders to Libya and Niger, which is often tied up with aid money in one big, unethical package. You can read the report here in English and here in German.
ITALY
Overcrowding in Lampedusa
On Monday, July 13th, 219 people from 14 different landings arrived in Lampedusa. Observers liken it to the very first wave of arrivals by sea in 2011.
Lampedusa’s authorities are not prepared to deal with a large amount of people. The former hotspot has never been rebuilt and people are sleeping on mattresses on the ground, with very little shade. Local authorities are planning a transfer of 345 people to the Sicilian mainland because they are even less prepared to house people than they were in 2011.
People are frustrated with the Italian Coast Guard’s lack of transparency. The government rarely releases press notes and denies journalists’ requests for information in a way one newspaper compared to the infamous omerta. Even though the harbor is visibly busy, there is no accurate information about arrivals or the conditions they are kept in, which also makes it difficult to coordinate solidarity services.
Protests erupted in Armantea, a small town in Calabria, after 24 people on the move, including several that had tested positive for coronavirus, were put up in the town.
Dozens of residents blocked a national highway and took to the streets. They said they are afraid the presence of people who were corona-positive would hurt the tourism industry that the town relies on.
A 28-year-old Albanian man passed away in the CPR in Gradisca d’Isonzo, where he was quarantined. His cause of death has not been determined. Other residents of the CPR began protesting after they learned of his death and the firefighters were called.
SPAIN
Over 7,000 Seasonal Workers Trapped in Spain
Now that the strawberry season is over and Morocco still hasn’t reopened its borders, thousands of workers are trapped in Spain. Instead of sending money home to their families, they have to spend it all on their own survival — and they are beginning to run out of funds.
The workers are separated from their families, victim to exploitative bosses who are beginning to charge them for utilities now that the picking season is over, and have no idea when they will be able to go back home.
FRANCE
Record Crossings of La Manche
On Sunday, 180 people crossed the Channel from France to the UK. Authorities say there’s never been so many crossings in just one day.
Ironically, these crossings happened at the same time the French and British Ministers of the Interior met in Calais to discuss further crackdowns on migration. Perhaps closing routes for legal migration and further militarizing borders does not actually stop border crossings, only pushes people to make more dangerous choices? It’s almost as if people on the move and solidarity organizations have been saying this for ages.
GERMANY
Deportations Down by 50% During Pandemic
Germany has deported 5,000 less people than in the same period last year, even though the number of people served with deportation orders has increased.
The reason behind this is that most countries have travel restrictions in place and will not accept returnees. However, German officials are itching for a “return to normalcy” and have already restarted Dublin returns.
As deportations restart, human rights violations are almost guaranteed, especially since Germany suspended the six month rule, where a person is safe from Dublin Regulation deportations if they’re in the host country longer than six months, during the pandemic.
NETHERLANDS
Protest Against Deportations of Sudanese People
Members of the Sudanese community gathered in The Hague to protest the Dutch government’s decision that since the situation in certain regions of Sudan has improved since 2017, it can begin deportations.
Even those who have been in The Netherlands for years and are on the verge of applying for permanent residency received a notice that they could be deported because their grounds for application is no longer valid.
The protestors also took issue with the assessment that conditions in Sudan have improved. Many regions of the country are still in conflict, and even the regions cited as “safe” are not actually safe. Returnees to Sudan have previously been subject to torture and harassment.
SWEDEN
COVID Conditions Affecting Detained People on the Move
Even though deportations stopped as a result of the pandemic and show no signs of restarting, Sweden continued to detain people slated for deportation during the pandemic (and in some cases, tried to deport them anyway).
A survey by FARR, the Swedish Network of Refugee Support, reported overcrowding in detention centers. People detained did not receive information about the virus and did not have access to regular medical care or testing, even if they showed coronavirus symptoms.
You can read more about the survey and its findings here.
FURTHER READING
This article about how the aid industry needs to decolonize and reckon with its racism is well worth a read.
This report (in Italian) is about incidents of racism in Italy.
Many sex workers are also people on the move. This video details their fight for basic human rights, and here is a know your rights guide for sex workers based in the UK.
Brown University’s exhibition “Transient Matter: Assemblages of Migration in the Mediterranean,” featuring work by Refocus Media Labs, is now available for viewing online.
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