This is an email from AYS Daily Newsletter , a newsletter by Are You Syrious?.
Jan 19, 2019
AYS Daily News Digest 18/1/19: A system failing both the frontline states and people seeking safety
Amnesty International warning of the devastating consequences of the EU politics in the Mediterranean —read the analysis / SAR teams under pressure again / increasing number of arrivals to Greece and the area / Afghan minors sent to adults prison in Serbia / Pressure to volunteers in Bosnia and Herzegovina / more news
Jan 19
FEATURE
More women, men and children will suffer unless European governments agree on a swift and predictable disembarkation policy in line with international law and a fair system to share responsibility among EU countries. — Matteo de Bellis, Amnesty International’s Migration Researcher
Under international law, people rescued at sea must be taken to a nearby place of safety, namely a country where they will be treated humanely and offered a genuine opportunity to seek asylum. Avoiding legal and moral obligations, the EU states have continuously been giving the Libyan Coast Guard support to intercept people at sea and return them to Libya, where it is proven over and over again that they are subjected to arbitrary detention, and often torture.
European leaders must urgently act to fix a system which deters states from assisting refugees and migrants in peril at sea, said Amnesty International in an analysis published today. Cut adrift in the Mediterranean outlines how the outsourcing of European border control to the Libyan authorities, in combination with a system which fails to share responsibility for asylum-seekers fairly across Europe, has created a situation where people are frequently stranded in the Mediterranean and SAR teams are prevented from acting in order to save lives. The latest such example is the order issued by Spanish maritime authorities last week, preventing Proactiva Open Arms from rescuing people in the central Mediterranean. The AI analysis also sets out steps to ensure situations like the stranding of the Sea-Watch and Sea-Eye rescue ships, and the blocking of Proactiva Open Arms, do not happen again.
See their 2018 report here.
“European leaders can no longer turn their backs on people stranded at sea and continue distorting the debate on migration for their own political gain. They must urgently agree on a swift and predictable disembarkation policy in line with international law and on a fair system to share responsibility for asylum-seekers among EU countries.”
LIBYA
There were 14 dead and 58 wounded people as battles continue on the outskirts of Tripoli in Libya. In the conflict area Qasr Bin Gashir, citizens and refugees trapped in the detention centre must be transported securely while it is still possible.
The people I’m in touch with say everyone in the centre is a refugee: they can’t return to the country they’ve come from bc of war or dictatorship. They’ve all tried to get to Italy but were intercepted & returned to Libya by the EU-funded coastguard. Then they were locked up.
Since the beginning of the year a total of 25 people bodies have been found in the surrounding area. It is impossible to know how many more are missing and have not been found.
On Friday afternoon in the central Mediterranean, about 50 nautical miles off the North East of Tripoli, a maritime patrol plane spotted a raft sinking with about 20 people on board. The crew of the plane, given the bad conditions, immediately launched SAR in the vicinity of the raft, which was continued by the Libyan teams with the support of Italian Navy.
MOROCCO
The country stopped 89,000 people from illegally migrating in 2018, up 37 percent compared with the previous year, the interior ministry said on Thursday.
About 80 percent of migrants intercepted in 2018 were foreigners; 29,715 were saved at sea while 5,608 reportedly decided for a voluntary return to their home countries, the Moroccan ministry said.
However, the Association Marocaine des Droits Humains — Section Nadorwarn that their statistics rely on the number of documented attempts of migration, which vary from person to person — on average, people make from 4 to 8 attempts per year.
In a recent shipwreck off the coast of Nador, 53 people are missing, presumably with only 1 survivor.
2,217 died while crossing the Mediterranean including 744 on the western route, in 2018, the IOM said.
