AYS Daily Digest 7/5/20: Humanitarian Crisis in Morocco
Worsening situation aboard MV Marina /// Proposed Asylum Law in Greece Sparking Criticism /// Growing Concerns Over Conditions in Lampedusa /// Germany Violating Privacy of People on the Move
FEATURED — Human Rights Abuses in Morocco
MOROCCO
The coronavirus has created a humanitarian crisis in the sub-Saharan migrant community in Morocco, accentuated by extralegal security practices, local sources report.
In Laâyoune, a mutiny broke out in a migrant detention centre on May 1.
72 people have been held outside of any legal framework for over a month. These people were reportedly deprived of their liberty without legal grounds. After a month, they rebelled, demanding their release. The intervention of local associations did not allow their release. On May 1st, police shot rubber bullets to quell their rebellion.
Various serious issues reveal a humanitarian crisis in these communities — deprived of the right of exit and excluded from the various aid programmes launched by the government.
In Nador, NGOs are often banned from delivering aid to single migrants in the forests of the province. In Rabat, due to lack of travel documents, irregular migrants can’t leave home to collect food baskets.
SEA
Worsening Situation on MV Marina
The situation on the MV Marina is dire, according to Thies Klingenberg, the owner of the shipping company that operates it. “Unless a solution is found soon, people on board will die,” he said. The ship’s crew still lacks supplies to provide for everyone on board, and they have not heard from Italy or Malta if they can dock. Tensions are rising on board the ship as people begin to protest the conditions they are held in, which include sleeping on bare steel.
Malta is continuing the trend of using private ships to “rescue” people in distress, then basically turning them into “floating prisons.” A second Captain Morgan ship (yes, like the rum company) is being used to hold people rescued at sea. Conditions aboard cargo ships or daily cruise ships like this one are not adequate for people in distress, who may also need medical attention. They must be allowed to land!
In another incident, AlarmPhone made contact with a group of 39 people fleeing Libya and alerted the authorities. They were not told if a rescue attempt was made and lost contact with the ship in distress last night.
GREECE
Proposed New Asylum Laws Causing Uproar
Many international and Greek NGOs are criticizing Greece’s new asylum laws, saying they infringe on the rights of asylum applicants. Some of the proposed changes include making administrative detention the norm (according to EU law, asylum seekers can only be detained as an exception), abolishing special asylum procedures for vulnerable populations such as unaccompanied minors, and creating a fast-track asylum procedure that will make it easier to deny people their rights. Legal Center Lesvos and 20 other civil society organizations and lawyers signed a petition asking members of parliament not to vote on this law. Amnesty International also condemned this law, saying that “detention should *always* be avoided,” especially during a pandemic.
Meanwhile, transfers from Moria to the mainland continue. 99 people left yesterday afternoon, although thousands still remain. The UNHCR called on the Greek government to go one step further and abolish the camps completely, instead integrating people into Greek society.
Thousands of people still remain in Greek camps, both on the islands and on the mainland, and in horrible conditions. Salvamento Maritimo Humanitario posted about the situation in Vial on Chios, where the government hasn’t provided any tests and the organization is doing their best to provide hygienic supplies in a camp that is several thousand people over capacity. To read more and to find out how to donate, go here.
In two mainland camps, hundreds of people who were automatically detained in March are stuck in legal limbo. They are unsure if the government will hear their asylum applications, but they haven’t yet been deported, as the government initially announced. Instead, people are living in overcrowded conditions, with limited water and electricity and almost no access to healthcare.
ITALY
Growing Concerns Over Conditions in Lampedusa
The conditions in the Lampedusa hotspot are concerning, according to Italy’s guarantor for the rights of detainees. Arrivals are continuing, even as the hotspot has been at capacity for almost a month, and conditions at the reception center are overcrowded and dangerous, especially given the pandemic. The national guarantor said conditions need to be improved on a local level, and that the national government needs to work out strategic “accommodation management.”
Meanwhile, the Italian agricultural minister is including a measure to regularize the status of undocumented workers, many of whom work on Italy’s farms, in the emergency May legislation. If passed, this would help over 600,000 people.
FRANCE
French Police Blocking Vital Donations for Calais
Police are blocking donations and volunteers from England who want to help people stuck in Calais. A group of English volunteers collected donated food after an appeal was launched by organizations working in Calais, but the donations were blocked at the border in Douvres. The police claimed that the aid “isn’t necessary.”
Refugee Info Bus published information about family reunification with relatives in England and other EU countries here (in Arabic). They are encouraging minors not to make the deadly crossing across the English Channel, but instead to contact them for help beginning the family reunification process.
GERMANY
German Government Accessing People’s Personal Cell Phone Data
In Germany, three migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Cameroon are suing the state, claiming it accessed personal data on their mobile phones. A civil rights group taking part in the action says the phone searches are a serious invasion of privacy.
A 29-year-old Syrian man called Mohammad A. was recognized as a refugee in Germany in 2015. Four years later, the German Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) reviewed his case — without giving a specific reason. During the review, they carried out an evaluation of his smartphone.
“Suddenly the BAMF employee told me to hand over my mobile phone and unlock it,” said Mohammad A. in a statement published by the Berlin-based Society for Civil Rights (GFF). “I didn’t know what was happening. Nothing was explained to me. But I was afraid of being deported. So I gave him the mobile phone. It felt like I was handing over my whole life.”
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