AYS Daily News Digest 8/2/19: Violence in Morocco increases
Even racist attacks of civilians increase / New makeshift camps in Greece show up / Mainly South and Central American refugees in Spain
FEATURE
There are currently repeated reports coming through that the violations of the Moroccan authorities against sub-Saharan migrants have reached unbearable limits.
Today, people in civilian clothes, who are neither police, nor the army, nor even members of the auxiliary forces, have arrested dozens of migrants in Nador. They tried even to arrest our colleague Abdoulay who is a community agent, who has his residence card, and who works legally in Nador.
Thus, it is safe to say these attacks are racially motivated and directed against the potential refugees and migrants.
Listen to his testimony:
Association Marocaine des Droits Humains — Section Nador, who were present during this arrest attempt, claim to know those ‘outside the law’ that are civilians with no right to arrest people.
Ours and their full solidarity with Aboubakar.
According to these reports, nearly 500 migrants were arrested, women with their children included, but also asylum seekers who have submitted their asylum applications in Morocco.
6 refoulement bus came out of Nador for now. While the authorities have kept simple migrants in detention to charge them of being traffickers.
A known game that must be unmasked.
The great traffickers are still running, while migrants who get arrested in forest or on the street are presented as great smugglers.
Libya
Journalist Sally Hayden reports that a group from Khoms has been deported to Sebha detention center in Tripoli. “It’s not clear why they were moved, & obviously it’s distressing for detainees when this happens at night without them feeling they can trust the Libyan authorities moving them,” she writes on Twitter. For the Time she also wrote an article about families raising money on Facebook to free their relatives held hostage by smugglers.
Greece
The land route of Greece and Turkey through the Evros river still seems to be in use, according to AYS information. As the Diavata camp is overcrowded, a new makeshift camp popped up close to the central station of Thessaloniki. Several people have reported that they have been denied access to official reception facilities for months. Conditions have also been reported to be very poor in the Diavata camp.
BALKAN WEATHER 08.02
MONTENEGERO
Lightly to moderately cloudy with sunny intervals. In the morning in the basins in the north there is a possibility of fog. Wind weak too moderate from changing directions. Lowest temperatures from -8 to 6 and highest daily from 4 to 15 degrees.
SERBIA
Predominately sunny and warm, wind moderate. Lowest temperatures from -3 to 1 and highest daily form 6 to 9 degrees.,
BiH
Moderately to predominantly sunny. In the basins and alongside the rivers there will be fog before noon. During the day less clouds. Wind moderate, in the southwest moderate, from the south and southwest. Lowest temperatures from -3 to 5 and highest daily from 3 to 13 degrees.
CROATIA
Partly sunny, alongside the coast predominately sunny. Inland locally fog during the morning. Moderate to strong southwestern wind will be blowing. Lowest temperatures from -5 to 8 and highest daily from 7 to 15 degrees.
Serbia
Info Park continues to note cases of individuals who were sent to Serbia by authorities of other countries, although Serbia had never been the country of their transit. With that regard, a man from Somalia, who was intercepted by Hungarian police, was assisted in the Info Park’s hub. He stated he was granted asylum in Romania in 2016 before he travelled to Belgium in 2018, where he filed an asylum claim which was denied.
On his return from Belgium to Romania through Hungary, he was required by
Hungarian police to enter Serbia, although he had never been in Serbia before. Out protection staff briefed the man thoroughly on legal options in his situation. SCRM referred him to a reception center, while an interview at the Embassy of Romania in Belgrade was scheduled for Monday, 11 February.
Collective Aid is looking for van drivers in Serbia to continue the daily operations.
Spain
The UNHCR released the yearly aslum report for Spain. As of 31/12/2018, More than 55,000 people filed an application for international protection, which is 75 percent more than the year before. The recognition rat is 22% and more than 78,000 applications are still pending.
More than half of the applicants are from Venezuela and Colombia; four of the top eight nationalities are Central or South American. Syrians and Algerians together made up only around 4,300 applications. Ukrainians, who before Venezuelans have the highest rejection rate, and Palestinians around 4,000.
France
Collectif Soutien Migrants 13 / El Manba writes about another death due to hypothermia in Montgenevre. On Saturday they announced a solidarity march at 3pm: “Don’t let them silently turn the mountains into a cemetery.”
Netherlands
In its newsletter, ECRI writes about the current development in Dutch interior politics: The government announced to examine the cases of 700 children and their families, who had made use of the “children’s pardon” scheme, which is about to be scrapped. Families, whose asylum cases hadn’t been processed for five years or longer, were eligible to apply for this kind of residence permit. “There will be a transitional arrangement for families that have been here for five years or longer, but have not made any application for the children’s pardon before,” ECRI writes. At the same time, the government wants to relocate 500 instead of 750 people from UNHCR refugee camps in war zones.
EU
Dunja Mijatovic, commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe, expressed “deep concern” about Italy’s closed harbour policy in the recent months, Ansa reports. In a letter sent to prime minister Giuseppe Conte, she urged the government to prioritize Human Rights over disagreements with other countries.
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