AYS Daily Digest 30/04/20- Maltese government official admits to coordinating pushbacks
Finland to accept refugees from Greece // Updates from Stand By Me Lesvos // EU to make €4.5 million accessible to Bosnia and Herzegovina // Turkish soldier shoots at Frontex // Behind the scenes with Sea-Watch International
Feature
Maltese government official Neville Gafà has reportedly admitted under oath that he has been responsible for the coordination of pushbacks. The statement was provided under oath to Magistrate Joe Mifsud after NGO Repubblika brought a criminal case.
In a statement to the media, Gafà said: “I confirm that on Easter night and the days that followed I was involved in a mission in which a boat with 51 irregular migrants, including 8 women and 3 minors, were taken to a port in Tripoli. On the same boat were five corpses…I ensured that this boat would be such that it would not catch the eye and become a target for some air-strike…”
Even more worrying is the claim that Gafà was instructed to coordinate these illegal pushbacks by the Office of the Prime Minister. He alleges that for the past three years, he has been facilitating these illegal pushbacks through direct coordination with the Libyan Home Affairs ministry and the Libyan Coast Guard. It has previously been confirmed that Gafà held a Maltese diplomatic passport and thus not only worked for the Office of the Prime Minister but has in the past been an official representative of the Republic of Malta.
NGO Repubblika, who originally initiated the legal proceedings, said Gafà’s shocking confirmation of coordinating illegal pushback needed further investigation. According to the NGO, “his declaration meant the prime minister had ordered actions which violated Malta’s obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights including the protection of life and preventing inhuman treatment.”
In response to the allegation of a potential mass breach in international law by Malta, a group of 25 civil society organisations has demanded more information and has asked for Malta to clarify the situation of around 62 migrants in distress at sea whose fate is currently still shrouded in secrecy. The NGO statement says:
“For more than 24 hours, men, women and children were known by European and Maltese authorities to be in distress within Malta’s Search and Rescue Zone, yet nothing is known of actions taken to ensure their safety. We remain in the dark as to whether the Government decided to rescue them, to refuse their entry to Malta, to return them to Libya or to let them drown.
It is disconcerting that news of migrants about to drown and who could be saved by Malta’s prompt intervention does not trigger any sort of response from the Government. We wholly appreciate Malta’s challenges in managing the arrival of migrants and refugees. Yet it is nonetheless abhorrent that these challenges render us insensitive to loss of life right at our doorstep.
Government is fully aware that returning migrants to Libya is a clear and unequivocal breach of international law, confirmed in 2013 by a decree of the European Court of Human Rights against Malta. Attempting to circumvent these obligations through the engagement of a private vessel would in no way absolve Malta of its legal and moral responsibilities. On the contrary, if such allegations of collusion were to be confirmed, they would indicate a cowardly and callous approach to human dignity itself.
The vessel in question, which has been responsible for carrying out these pushbacks, was reported by Maltatoday to have once again been commissioned by the Maltese government to rescue 57 migrants on April 30. It is currently reported that the people rescued will now be transferred onto a private ship 13 nautical miles from the coast, forced to stay at sea until an ‘EU’ solution is found. Journalist Sara Creta contacted the Libyan Coast Guard to ask about the people in distress at sea. Masoud Abdal Samad, Libyan Coast Guard commander, said by telephone “we haven’t been involved in any operation at sea these days”. Maltatoday reports that “a senior government official would only say that Malta’s stand was clear and its ports remained closed”.
Germany
The administrative Court in Dresden confirmed the dangers of COVID-19 for the residents of the reception centres in the city. Due to the increased risk for pregnant women, they have also affirmed that one pregnant woman should be removed from the reception centre and housed in an alternative accommodation.
The court writes:
In this context, it may be questioned whether, due to the pandemic situation cited by the applicant, there are reasons for public health care that could generally lead to the termination of a residential obligation in a reception facility in which a large number of residents must reside in a limited space. […] It can also be a question of whether the measures taken by the defendant [regional directorate] in the reception facility […] in Dresden to protect the residents from the Coronavirus are generally to be regarded as sufficient to avoid an infection risk of the residents living together in a confined space.”
Reflecting upon the judgment of the court, Angela Müller from the SFR explained: “The applicant is pregnant. We are relieved that the court has now ordered that they be released and distributed to Dresden.”
Spain
NGOs have demanded that undocumented immigrants be included in the upcoming plans to introduce a minimum income in Spain.
The Spanish Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has already stated that it “does not contemplate” the possibility of including undocumented immigrants in the upcoming policy change due to the difficult legal requirements.
Highlighting the need for undocumented immigrants to be included in the upcoming previsions, the Association of Foreign Lawyers said:
“What appears today as a transitory situation is going to have much longer consequences, which will condemn a percentage of the population to an intolerable situation of legal insecurity and an effective legal vacuum.” The Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid has estimated that there are 800,000 undocumented immigrants currently living in Spain.
Finland
Finland has agreed to accept one hundred unaccompanied refugee children from camps in Greece and another 30 adult asylum seekersunder the framework of family reunification. A Wednesday telephone conversation between Deputy Minister of Migration Giorgos Koumoutsakos and Finnish Interior Minister Olly-Poika Parviainen sealed the deal.
Finland is the latest of a number of EU countries who have offered their assistance to Greece. Germany and Luxembourg accepted 47 and 12 unaccompanied children last week, respectively.
Whilst this move by Finland is clearly welcome, it fails to systemically address the suffering of the tens of thousands of people being forced to live in squalor and inhumane conditions in the overcrowded refugee camps of Greece.
Greece
Aegean Boat Report has broken the news that a boat carrying approximately 30 people landed on north-west Samos on Thursday morning. The NGO reports that the boat’s occupants managed to walk to a nearby village and asked the residents to call the police to let them know they had arrived. A number of village residents witnessed the arriving asylum seekers, but after the port police arrived and transported the people out of the area, there has been no further knowledge of their whereabouts.
When port police in Karlovasi were confronted with questions about these new arrivals, they stated that there had been no arrivals on Samos in the area of Drakaioi.
An open letter to the European Commission has been published by a collection of NGOs, asking the commission to “urgently assist Greece in evacuating the 38,700 people living in the camps of the Aegean Islands.”
The letter:
“Severe overcrowding and a lack of adequate accommodation and services have led to incidents of violence before. This is the second time in less than a year that a large area of the camp has burned down. On 14 October 2019, the tents and belongings of more than 700 people were lost. We voiced our outrage, and yet, little has been done to decongest the camp. This week, these same factors, combined with tension due to restrictive measures against COVID-19, resulted in the fires….
“These fires are not unique to Samos. Regrettably, there have been similar incidents since September 2019 on both Chios and Lesvos, in which three people have lost their lives…These incidents and fatalities are the direct consequence of deficient European solidarity. The EU must move beyond the “hotspot approach” and revise the EU-Turkey Statement, which has proven itself to be not only inefficient but also inhumane.”
More photos have been published from the recent protest in Moria:
Stand by me Lesvos has reported that they will soon finish the reconstruction of facilities that were destroyed by a fire in March.
EFSYN has released a new investigation into the systematic and repetitive pushbacks of refugees and immigrants from the Greek Islands back to Turkey in special rafts called life rafts.
EFSYN notes that despite the fully documented report from their newspaper, which was accompanied by indisputable photographic evidence of at least two such incidents from Samos on April Fool’s Day and from Chios on March 23, not only did the political leadership of the Coast Guard not order an investigation — they kept silent.
To read their full report, please follow the link below:
Bosnia and Herzegovina
The European Commission announced today that it is making €4.5 million accessible to Bosnia and Herzegovina to help provide immediate humanitarian assistance to vulnerable refugees and migrants. This money shall be used to access comprehensive health and protection assistance. This will bring the amount of humanitarian assistance provided by to Bosnia and Herzegovina to €10.3 million since 2018.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said: “We have a special responsibility to assist in this pandemic our partners in the Western Balkans, as their future clearly lies in European Union. The EU is mobilising a substantial financial package, confirming the strong solidarity. Together we will overcome this crisis and recover. And beyond that, we will continue to support the region, including with the reforms needed on their EU path, as the recovery will only work effectively if the countries keep delivering on their commitments.”
Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management, said: “The EU continues to support the most vulnerable refugees and migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We announce today €4.5 million to help meet the humanitarian needs that are especially high now due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. We will not leave our neighbours in the Western Balkans alone.”
This massive support package provided by the EU was announced just as the security minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced their plans to forcibly deport migrants out of the country in the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak. The initiative follows a decision on April 16 by the Council of Ministers of BiH on the Restriction of Movement and Stay of Foreigners.
Netherlands
The European Council on Refugee and Exiles shared an interview with Femke de Vries, a policy officer for Asylum Dutch Council for Refugees, who is currently campaigning to ensure that the Dutch government joins the efforts of 11 other European countries in relocating unaccompanied children from the Greek island camps. Currently, Femke de Vries’s campaign has resulted in a published manifesto in a prominent newspaper with more than 100 sound signatories; among these are prominent former politicians — including from the political parties CDA (Christian democrats) and VVD (liberals), which voted against the relocation.
To read the interview and hear more about their work, please follow the link below.
Turkey
Reports have indicated that a Turkish soldier has fired at German Frontex officers on April 28th at the Evros border between Turkey and Greece.
As part of the so-called RAPID intervention request by Athens, Frontex has deployed 100 officers to the border, with 20 among them German nationals. Internal Frontex documents attained by Der Spiegel confirm that “a Turkish soldier fired a shot at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday evening when German officer were on the other side of the border.” It’s been reported that the German Frontex officers saw the Turkish soldier aiming an automatic weapon at the Greek border through a pair of binoculars.
Hungary
Today is Armin’s 11th birthday, and — much like last year — he’s spending it in detention. Today will be the 512th day of his detention at the Hungarian border’s transit zone; both he and his father have been held there since December 2018, when they entered the country legally to apply for asylum after waiting for more than two years in Serbia.
The BBC has previously published a short documentary about Armin’s detention between the Hungarian-Serbian border:
Italy
Sea
The team at Sea-Watch international has produced a behind-the-scenes video of one of their rescue boats. They are currently converting this former scientific vessel into what’s likely the best-equipped rescue ship in the Mediterranean.
No news of the 62 people on a white dinghy identified by Frontex the day before yesterday: they have perhaps been intercepted by the same “phantom” fishing boat that in mid-April brought 55 other people back to Libya after intercepting them in the Maltese SAR area.
Find daily updates and special reports on our Medium page.
If you wish to contribute, either by writing a report or a story, or by joining the info gathering team, please let us know.
We strive to echo correct news from the ground through collaboration and fairness. Every effort has been made to credit organisations and individuals with regard to the supply of information, video, and photo material (in cases where the source wanted to be accredited). Please notify us regarding corrections.
If there’s anything you want to share or comment, contact us through Facebook, Twitter or write to: areyousyrious@gmail.com
