AYS Daily Digest 24/4/20: Malta’s involvement in illegal pushbacks
Did the Maltese government commission the finishing boat of a captain previously alleged to be involved in smuggling? // European NGOs fight for the rights of civil society // failure to relocate asylum seekers in Greece // Dutch government’s refusal to assist vulnerable children
Feature
The Times Malta report on how a Maltese fishing boat commissioned by the Maltese authorities to assist dinghies in distress pushed migrants back to war-torn Libya.
Over the Easter weekend on April 14th, the boat owned by sea captain Carmelo Grech was sent to give food and supplies to migrants trapped at sea, but instead he picked up the migrants and, in an act prohibited under international law, forced them back to a country accused of mass human rights violations and torture.
Previously, in 2015, captain Grech was set to be charged with alleged smuggling offences after being apprehended carrying over €300,000 in cash before the Maltese government intervened and repatriated the captain.
Captain Grech declined to comment on his involvement but confirmed that his vessel had gone out for the people trapped at sea. The Times Malta affirm that it is not clear if Grech was paid by the Maltese government or not.
Alarm phone had additionally published their own investigation into the incident and it can be found here:
Europe
Nineteen NGOs and civic initiatives from the European Civic Forum have signed a letter to Ms Urusla Von Der Leyen, Ms Vera Jourova, and Mr Didier Reynders stating that civil society organisations must be able to keep acting in response to social emergencies and affirming that the state must integrate the needs of these organisations into their policies.
The letter states:
For decades, civil society organisations (CSOs) and the third sector have played an essential role in supporting vulnerable communities and populations. From one country to another, our organisations have different status and modus operandi. The tasks they perform also vary. But everywhere they are in the front line to witness the precarious situations people suffer from, trying to respond to people’s needs for effective access to rights, to alert on the limitations and adverse consequences of public policies.We call on the European Commission to pay attention, in all the initiatives it takes, to including the CSOs in order to give them the place they deserve. This concerns in particular:
● Ensuring that C SOs benefit in all Member States from all measures taken to help maintain the capacities of companies, and in particular so that they can keep their premises and staff. This is important during the crisis. And it is equally important in the post-crisis period. Our societies must not lose the unique expertise and capacity of CSOs in dealing with vulnerable groups.
● Ensuring that CSOs have access to public authorities, at all levels, in all Member States, so that their alerts, analyses and proposals are included in the decision — making process, both during and after the crisis.
● Taking action vis — a — vis public authorities where they do not conduct this civil dialogue with CSOs.
Greece
After residents and local authorities in mainland Greece mobilised against plans to relocate 2,000 vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers, the Greek Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Notis Mitarakis, announced that the plans would be deferred. Additionally, the decision by the Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis to extend the lockdown until May 4th also contributed to the decision to stop the relocation process.
Following pressure from the European Commission, the Greek government planned to relocate vulnerable asylum seekers from the overcrowded migrant reception centres where they are currently being housed and move them to the facilities on the mainland. Vulnerable migrants include unaccompanied minors, people with disabilities, pregnant women and new mothers, the elderly and victims of rape and torture. The decision to attempt to rehouse the asylum seekers was made due to the fears the current conditions within the Aegean camps would provide fertile conditions for the spread of the coronavirus. In the first quarter of 2020, the government had already transferred 10,000 people, but in April had only managed to relocate 627 people, leading NGO and rights groups to reaffirm their warning of the potential health crisis that could develop if camp overcrowding and poor sanitation is not immediately addressed. Recently, in southern Greece, 470 asylum seekers have been placed in quarantine in a hotel due to a third of them testing positive for COVID-19, again highlighting the human cost of the Greek government’s inability to effectively manage the situation.
To date, the IOM said it remains unclear where the migrants will be staying. Mr Mitarakis additionally announced that within 2020 the existing programme of hosting asylum seekers in hotel rooms across Greece will be abolished. One source suggested that the community, local mayor and municipal councils within Messolonghi in Western Greece opposed the plans to rehouse migrants under the demand that the hotels in which they may have been housed stay free for the upcoming tourist season.
An indictment has been submitted in accordance with article 42 of the code of criminal procedure following the shooting of four asylum seekers in Lesvos, previously reported on by Are You Syrious. The Racist Crimes Observatory in a letter to the General Regional Police Directorate of North Aegean affirms that due to the nationality of the victim and the frequency of similar attacks against migrants and refugees, it is unacceptable that this crime is not being investigated in line with Article 82A of the Penal Code, and this is being deemed to have racist characteristics.
Racist Crimes Watch shared the press release from the police:
The perpetrator of yesterday’s incident of injury of foreigners in Lesvos was immediately arrested. A shotgun and ammunition were confiscated.
The Mytilene Security Sub-Directorate, after a systematic and thorough investigation, managed in a short period of time to identify the person who yesterday (22–04–2020) in the afternoon at a rural location in Lesvos, shot with a shotgun and injured two foreigners.
He is a citizen, who was arrested today (23–04–2020) in the afternoon in Mytilene, while at the same time the hunting weapon that used two cartridges was confiscated. A criminal case was filed against the detainee for attempted murder with intent and violation of the law on weapons.
The arrested person will be taken to the competent Prosecutor’s Office, while the investigations and the preliminary investigation will be carried out by the Mytilene Security Sub-Directorate.
Workers of the Migration Ministry’s Asylum Service declared on Thursday an indefinite walkout over the ministry’s failure to renew the contracts of 17 employees. Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said in a statement that “due to unsurpassable administrative and legal obstacles.” specific contracts could not be renewed, but the union that represents the workers said that these 17 employees had been ‘deliberately’ left out.
Following a bill submitted by the ministry of migration and asylum, the NGO Refugee Support Aegean has expressed their continued concern over the government’s attempt to hastily introduce further restrictions to the procedural guarantees of the asylum procedures. Refugee Support Aegean provided a summary of positions:
Registration: The inclusion of Regional Reception and Identification Services as “responsible receiving authorities” for the lodging of asylum claims should be resisted, given that the Asylum Service retains sole responsibility for the issuance of documents such as the international protection applicant card and PAAYPA number, and the conduct of Dublin procedures. RSA also recommends extending interview guarantees such as audio-recording to the stage of registration.
Interpretation: Article 11, allowing for the omission of personal interviews where the applicant does not wish to have the procedure conducted in the official language of their country of origin, should be deleted. Expanding the grounds for omitting personal interviews undermines the guarantees afforded by the Asylum Procedures Directive by unduly restricting asylum seekers’ right to be heard and the quality of first-instance procedures.
Legal assistance: The introduction of a “merits test” will deprive the majority of appellants of the right to legal assistance and will add burden to already overstretched Appeals Committees, as they will be required to examine legal aid applications prior to assessing applicants’ right to remain on the territory and to processing appeals on the merits. RSA also urges for the repeal of problematic provisions in force relating to the condition of certified signature for power of attorney and to the automatic appointment of lawyers as representatives ad litem.
Implicit withdrawal: Albeit improved, the proposed formulation of Article 81(1) IPA remains incompatible with Article 28(1) of the Asylum Procedures Directive, since it still makes no provision on the possibility for the determining authority to discontinue the examination of the application. This leaves legal uncertainty as to the process the Asylum Service should follow when a claim is implicitly withdrawn and may not be rejected as unfounded. RSA recommends inserting the possibility to discontinue the procedure upon implicit withdrawal.
Prioritisation: RSA recommends reinstating vulnerable persons and manifestly well-founded cases within the categories of cases eligible for prioritisation, in line with the spirit of the Asylum Procedures Directive and established practice of the Asylum Service.
Safe third country: RSA recommends a consultation with a view to developing legislative measures to properly transpose the methodology rules required for the use of the “safe third country” concept under Article 38(2) of the Asylum Procedures Directive, as interpreted by the CJEU in LH. Until such rules are enacted, the “safe third country” concept under Greek law is contrary to EU law and should not be applied based on the IPA.
Appeals: RSA reiterates its recommendation to repeal derogations from applicants’ right to remain on the territory during the appeal procedure, bearing in mind serious difficulties raised during the implementation of the IPA.
Detention of asylum seekers: RSA recommends deletion of Article 21(2) which imposes detention in a pre-removal centre upon rejection of the appeal and thereby amounts to a flagrant violation of Greece’s duty to resort to detention only as a last resort and the right to an effective remedy.
Age assessment: RSA recommends reinstating the benefit of the doubt principle during age assessment procedures, in line with international and EU law.
Germany
The former German minister of Labour Norbert Blüm has unfortunately died. Described as the “the social conscience of the Bonn Republic” we would like to share a previous act of solidarity of Blüm from when he decided to spend a night in a tent within Camp Idomeni in Greece. The 80-year-old former minister visited the refugee camp that held over 12,000 people where conditions are so dire that young children are being diagnosed with Hepatitis A, a condition primarily transmitted through drinking contaminated drinking water. Describing the camp Blüm sad that “This kind of brutality is unworthy of European culture,” further describing it as a “cultural disgrace.”
After pitching his tent within the camp people gathered round shouting “thank you, Germany!”.
After Norbert Blüm’s death was announced on Friday, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that “To Blüm, justice, credibility and philanthropy were no mere phrases, but the maxim of a Christian social politician”
Video footage and photos from the German roadside solidarity actions
Netherlands
Over 100 politicians, celebrities and local authorities signed a page-sized advertisement in the NRC and NRC Next newspapers calling on the government to take urgent action and ultimately help to take in some of the 2,500 children who are living in the terrible conditions within the Greek refugee camps.
Whilst the Junior justice minister Ankie Broekers-Knol confirmed the Dutch government’s willingness to help she affirmed that no children will be brought to the Netherlands despite 40 local authorities having expressed their ability to help. The Dutch government said that they are ultimately willing to help Greece to move unaccompanied refugee children from Greek islands to the mainland but that is where their willingness to assist unfortunately stops.
Turkey
““Thousands of Refugees in Turkey are still being moved from quarantine camp to detention prison to the next one. They are locked up without sufficient food in crowded rooms — and then randomly dropped off in the streets somewhere in Turkey. Like Arash and his friends who have been abused in this wicked political game for over 50 days — all because they dared to dream of an average life in freedom.They are human beings, with the same inviolable human rights as those of us who were born with the right passport. They deserve dignity and freedom just like we do. They deserve to be seen”
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