AYS Digest 04/05/2020 — Man in Bosnian Camp Killed, Family Accuses Security Guard
Alan Kurdi Docks in Palermo///Tensions Rise Across Greece///AlarmPhone Sahara Condemns Niger Pushbacks///&More
FEATURE — Man Living in Ušivak Camp Killed, Family Accuses Security Guard
Ahmed Mahmoud Omar was a 53-year-old Kurdish man living in the Sarajevo-based camp along with his wife and four children. He was hospitalized in late March because of injuries, the family claim, a guard inflicted on him. Over the weekend, the family found out that he had passed away.
In an interview for N1, Mohammed, one of Omar’s children, explained how his father was brutally beaten by a guard during a fight in the camp. The family had to fight to have him admitted to the hospital and received no information about his situation, let alone permission to visit, until the news of his death. This is far from the first time the private security firms hired by IOM to manage the Bosnian camps have been accused of violence.
Peter van der Auweraert, the Western Balkans Coordinator for the IOM, published a statement on his personal Facebook and Twitter accounts, where he says the man was injured “during a fight between two national groups,” and then goes on to praise IOM’s staff response to the situation. He did not mention the role of the security guard until people in the comments asked him to address the allegations, and then he said that he cannot comment further because of the ongoing criminal investigation.
The official UNHCR Bosnia and IOM Bosnia Facebook pages did not share any words of sympathy or information about the incident. Even if they cannot publish details because of the investigation, they should at least inform the public about what is happening inside the camps that they are managing.
YEMEN
UNHCR Calls for More Funding
The organization said emergency funding is needed to ensure the almost one million displaced people in Yemen continue receiving shelter and cash assistance. If the funding doesn’t appear, they claim that they will be forced to cut programs.
SEA
Alan Kurdi Finally Docks In Palermo, Others Not So Lucky
On Monday morning, the Italian ship Raffaele Rubatino, which housed people rescued by the Aita Mari and Alan Kurdi during their quarantine period, docked in Sicily. The Alan Kurdi itself was finally allowed to dock in Palermo. The crew have to stay on board until their COVID-19 test results come back and thoroughly disinfect the ship, but it’s still a relief after weeks of being stuck at sea. For the people rescued, the ordeal is not over as Europe still has not decided where they will be settled.
In a different situation in the Mediterranean, 78 people are still trapped aboard the merchant ship Marina as both Italy and Malta continue to deny responsibility. There is not enough food or water to last past the next 24 hours, and six people are in need of medical care. While the ship is geographically closer to Lampedusa in Italy, the people were rescued in the Maltese SAR area. Lampedusa is a hotspot that is already overcrowded and has seen five independent arrivals of over 50 people in less than a week. Unfortunately, this pattern of Malta leaving people to die in the Mediterranean has become all too common lately.
In Spain, a boat of 53 people was rescued off the coast of the Canary Islands. Everyone on board, including three pregnant women, were thankfully in good health.
GREECE
Tensions Rise Across Greece as Government Doesn’t Deliver on its Promises
The situation is becoming more and more tense on the Greek island camps, as well as on the mainland and in Athens.
On the Aegean Islands, the Minister of Immigration’s ending of the plan to transfer 2300 vulnerable people from the overcrowded camps to the mainland has angered many residents. Workers at Samos camp said this was a big factor behind the anger that led to last week’s fires. This just added to existing frustrations about camp lockdowns, hours-long food lines, and dangerous, unsanitary conditions.
Also on the Greek islands, more and more reports are coming in of illegal pushbacks where people actually land on Greek soil, then are put on inflatable rafts by the Greek coast guard and put out to sea and all official records of the landing are released. Another incident like this happened in Chios a few days ago. The landing was witnessed by multiple people but the arrivals were never recorded and an article about the arrival on a local site was allegedly deleted.
In an interview, Minister Mitarakis did not mention these illegal pushbacks, but talked about his government’s “decongestion” efforts on the islands and expanding who can be returned to Turkey.
Even employees of the Greek asylum service are unsatisfied — their union is continuing to strike after 16 workers, including several senior members, did not have their contracts renewed.
For the few “lucky” people transferred to the mainland, worries continue. In the northern Greek village of Mouries, people were supposed to be housed in a local hotel but villagers protested their arrival and blocked them from entering the hotel.
Those Greeks that want to help vulnerable people, including people on the move, are often stopped from doing so by the authorities, as seen by this video from Exarcheia where police show up in armor and helmets to — a food collection.
People on the move are stuck in crowded camps without enough food, suffer violent pushbacks, and even their allies are harassed by the Greek state. This cannot continue!
Mitarakis has also come under fire for his creation of an alleged “black fund.” He wants to expand on an existing law giving the government the power to give direct award contracts when it comes to migration-related expenses and give his ministry the power to take money from the budget for “confidential national needs.” No information about these national needs ever need to be made public and all records can be destroyed within six months. If this legislation is approved, we’ll probably see even more illegal pushbacks, violence, and general shady dealings.
NIGER
Alarm Phone Sahara Condemns Pushbacks to Niger
After this weekend’s announcement of pushbacks to Niger from Algeria and Libya, despite the fact that all borders between African states are closed due to coronavirus, AlarmPhone Sahara issued a statement in support of people protesting the conditions in Nigerien camps. They called on the IOM to provide adequate accommodation for people in these camps, communicate with them clearly, and to help those who wish to return to their homes to do so. They also called on Algeria and Libya to stop illegal pushbacks and on European states to stop the externalization of borders and to help resettle people stranded in Niger’s camps.
ITALY
Italian Unions Demonstrate in Support of People Stuck in Tent Cities
Members of two unions demonstrated in the Sicilian town of Cassabile on May Day to ask the government to regularize the status of migrant workers in Italy, especially those in a nearby so-called ‘tent camp’.
Many do not have regular work contracts or papers, so they cannot access government support or even a movement permit, meaning they’re stuck inside the camp. Although the municipality installed chemical toilets in the tent camp and is providing water, the union says it is not enough. They organized food donations for the stranded workers, but are calling on the government to do more.
FRANCE
Call to Action After People’s Tents Slashed in Paris
The organization Solidarité migrants Wilson posted a call to action on their Facebook page after people sleeping rough in Paris, Saint-Denis, Aubervilliers and Saint Ouen had their tents slashed or thrown away. This was in addition to other mistreatment by the municipalities such as cutting their water in the middle of the pandemic and forcing people to move in the middle of the night. Residents of these four communes are asked to contact their elected officials and demand fair treatment for people on the move.
Bordermonitoring.eu created a new blog, “Jungle of Calais,” to report on the situation on the route between the north of France and Great Britain. They’re reporting from a distance using existing sources after years of working on the topic, and are also looking for new participants in the project. They hope to provide important information about the situation of marginalized people on the borders of Europe, especially during a plague.
BELGIUM
Call For Full Regularization of the Paperless
An organization of people without papers in Belgium is calling for the immediate regularization of their status. Many of these people have lived in Belgium for years, but don’t have access to regular housing, protection from on-the-job abuse, or medical care. This lack of access to medical care is especially worrying during the current pandemic.
GERMANY
Heartbreaking Letter From a Woman in Detention
The woman is a resident in the Geldersheim Centre and published her open letter here, where she talks about the indignities and injustices she suffered as a detainee. People in detention are denied basic rights such as freedom of movement and adequate medical care, and are housed in crowded rooms. They do not have access to Internet, except for some Wi-Fi in the yard area, which they have to pay for, and are subject to arbitrary fees. They have no way of integrating into German society since they cannot have jobs, they cannot leave the center without permission, cannot continue German language classes after a few months, and cannot even watch German TV. When they are able to leave the center, they are victims of racism by local people, who cover their nose when they walk by or accuse Africans of stealing. This is an inhumane living situation and cannot go on!
In happier news, 47 children resettled in Germany from the Greek islands are going to their new homes today, in the company of workers from the German youth services agency. Lower Saxony’s interior minister, Boris Pistorius, expressed his hope that after this successful action, Germany will agree to more resettlements.
Please support this project where refugees sew masks for other refugees!
DENMARK
Net Loss of Refugees in Denmark “Lovely Numbers”
This statement was made by the immigration and integration minister, Mattias Tesfaye, after a study showed that this year more people on the move left Denmark then came. “It shows, in part, that we can keep the influx at bay by pursuing sensible policy in Denmark,” he continued.
Some of the “sensible policy” he’s referencing includes refugee centers that were condemned in the EU’s own anti-torture report and continued deportations to warzones.
It is disgusting that a minister would talk about the same people he is supposed to help in this way, and sees them as a dehumanized wave of numbers.
UK
Over 100 People Tried to Cross the Channel Over the Weekend
The people were intercepted on their crossing either by British or French police. The UK Home Secretary Priti Patel is supposed to meet with her French counterpart to discuss the possibility of returning people captured on UK shores back to France.
As the weather gets warmer, crossings will increase, but the possibility of drowning in the Channel will still be high.
EU
People Protest EU’s Response to Current Crisis on Greek Islands
The European Parliament’s Petitions Committee held a special online meeting to discuss the numerous citizen’s petitions they’d received about the COVID-19 epidemic. Many of those petitions were about the situation of people on the move in Greek island camps. Petitioners, from ordinary EU citizens to an organization of presidents of peripheral maritime regions, called the EU’s response “incoherent” and “appalling.”
GENERAL
Council of Europe Issues New Guidelines Protecting Groups and NGOs Working With Refugees
The new regulations were written after an EU investigation last year uncovered how member states use criminal law to stop solidarity groups from conducting their work, and are especially timely after recent incidents of violence against NGOs and support groups. The rules are simple enough, basically calling for EU member states to allow NGOs to do their jobs without retaliating against them. Whether they will be followed is a different matter.
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