AYS News Digest 20/5/22: Greece: Dysfunctional democracy and asylum system
No legal routes for asylum seekers in the UK — Rwanda expects first transfer of May/Illegal detentions and deportations in Grand Canaria/People still continue to attempt sea crossings/ and some material worth reading and listening to
FEATURE
Among all European countries, Greece ranked last in the World Press Index issued by Journalists without Borders. Press freedom has faced a setback with journalists covering controversial issues for the country — the frequent pushbacks and refugee issues but also Covid-19 — facing challenges and self-censorship due to lack of funds to continue their work.
Phones being tapped without explanation and monitored through spyware by the Greek authorities, but also the adoption by the Greek parliament of a legal provision to combat COVID-19 disinformation making it a criminal offence to spread fake news, punishable by up to five years imprisonment — these have been some of the current government’s tactics creating a chilling effect on free speech and media freedom.
With regard to asylum policies, we have repeatedly reported the institutionalized pushbacks by the Greek government which continue to take place in Greek waters. There have been more than 50 complaints of deportations in Evros and the Aegean, as revealed by the head of the independent authority Andreas Pottakis, who presented the Ombudsman’s annual report for 2021.
The dysfunctional asylum system and inadequate integration have increased social racism and discrimination in the country.
Only two days ago, a hostel for unaccompanied minors in Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, was attacked by a group of fascists who attacked eight unaccompanied minors, hitting a 16-year-old boy from Pakistan on the head with a stick, punching him in the face and stealing his mobile phone.
At the same time, victims of shipwrecks in Greek waters have often been imprisoned, facing lifelong sentences in jail for smuggling while spending sometimes even a year in pre-trial detention.
Criticized by NGOs, international media and opposition politicians, the inhumane and flawed asylum system forces people on the move to live on the fringes of society, in limbo, without the right to access the labour market, social services, cash assistance, healthcare systems or accommodation. The legal info team, Mobile info team, is raising awareness by showcasing the experiences of people seeking asylum on mainland Greece, Crete and Rhodes since the policy changes in late November 2021. Read the report here.
GREECE
People seeking safety continue to arrive on Samos
As of May 19, MSF Sea has rescued 48 people in distress on Samos, Greece, including one child and two pregnant women who have been transferred to a hospital, along with five others.
SEARCH AND RESCUE AT SEA
Ocean Viking team to rescue 158 survivors
The Ocean Viking rescue team rescued 158 survivors from two overloaded rubber dinghies in the Libyan Search & Rescue Region on May 19. The people who were rescued were attempting to reach Italy. They had spent nine hours in the water, including six pregnant women, several children and a three-month-old baby, according to SOS Mediterranean on Twitter.
Documenting physical evidence of violence and torture of people fleeing Libya
Medic Mohamed Fadlalla, aboard the GeoBarents rescue ship, documents the physical evidence of violence and torture that people on the move have faced in Libyan jails to make sure that such cases do not fall through the cracks and go unnoticed by the EU authorities, according to a tweet by journalist Franziska Grillmeier on Twitter.
Those being held in Libya are often tortured by their captors demanding money.
“As neither he nor his family could pay (as many survivors often tell me) they proceeded to beat him. They then tied his arms up, lit a lighter, and sprayed cologne from a bottle through the flame into his chest and arm. This created a large area of burns on the boy’s body.”
Geo Barents’ disembarkation on hold in Sicily without explanation
470 rescued people had been waiting at sea for a week when the disembarkation of the humanitarian ship Geo Barents was put on hold once again on May 19 without explanation according to InfoMigrants.
The ship still had 238 people waiting on board, and six people jumped into the sea “out of desperation after 11 days of unjustified waiting,”
Three dead and 10 missing after a boat capsizes off Tunisia
Coastal authorities in Tunisia rescued 44 people, 10 are still missing, and three were found dead in Sfax on May 20, according to Alarabya.
Lives at risk in Central Mediterranean
A total of 120 people were at risk in the Maltese search and rescue zone after two days at sea and in need of urgent help, Alarm Phone reported on Twitter on May 20.
After 30 hours of lost connection, Alarm Phone believes that they were intercepted by the Libyan authorities and forced back to Libya.
A boat with seven people on board has gone missing between Algeria and Spain
Italy
Afghan woman dies from a heart attack in a tent camp
After reaching the port of Rocella Ionica, a 70-year-old woman from Afghanistan died of a heart attack on Wednesday, May 18, reports InfoMigrants news media. She had reached the Calabrian seaport together with 96 others, including many children.
A medical team in Rocella had checked her upon arrival, but her condition was considered as not serious enough to require hospitalization. Her condition deteriorated suddenly and she died despite the immediate intervention of health workers and Red Cross volunteers. The woman was discovered to be diabetic after her death.
While police are investigating the death, prosecutors in the nearby city of Locri are expected to order an autopsy.
Asylum seekers eligible to open an Italian bank account
Asylum seekers who are waiting for a residence permit have the right to open a basic bank account in Italy.
The Italian government website Integrazione Migranti (Integration Migrants) has published information about opening a ‘basic bank account’ in Italy. The ‘FAQ’ site highlights that asylum seekers have the right to open a bank account, and explains which documents are needed.
Read more here.
FRANCE
Expulsions of exiled people continue in Calais
SPAIN
Illegal detentions and deportations in Grand Canaria
Serious institutional human rights violations are taking place at the CATE detention centre of Gran Canaria and Lanzarote, warns the Spanish Center for the Defense of Human Rights, IRIDIA.
According to IRIDIA, people are being detained under inadequate conditions for more than 72 hours without being provided with a lawyer. Despite the organization’s request to visit CATE, the Spanish Ministry of Interior has not allowed visiting.
IRIDIA has repeatedly denounced the irregular deportations of people with expired orders and the way CATEs function as extensions of police stations with no regulations.
At the same time, on the northern coast of Africa, in Ceuta, cross-border workers will be able to obtain a working visa from May 24.
The Delegation Government of the autonomous Spanish city, in coordination with the Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs and the Consulate of Spain in Tetouan, will allow cross-border people to access Ceuta through a visa with limited territorial validity and without a permit an Identity Card of Foreigners (TIE) needed.
ONLY THE FOLLOWING MAY SUBMIT A REQUEST:
- Workers who have been granted valid cross-border work authorization.
- Workers who have the previous authorization but “pending registration with Social Security”.
All of them must be included in the list provided to this Consulate General by the Immigration Office of the Ceuta Government Delegation.
Read more here.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Ukrainians seeking refuge in the Czech Republic to take up jobs, otherwise lose welfare benefits
Of the 348,000 Ukrainians seeking refuge in the Czech Republic, only around 50,000 of them have found jobs in industries that were previously short of workers. According to InfoMigrants, more than a third of them have either returned home or moved to other countries within the EU and beyond.
In the meanwhile, those who have stayed and are being hosted in government-provided shelters are likely to lose their entitlement to the state’s assistance after the Czech government makes changes in the health care system tying benefits to employment status. In this way, people are forced to seek employment as adults and are provided free health care only for the first 180 days.
UK
No legal routes for asylum seekers in the UK — Rwanda expects the first transfer in May
There has been much criticism of the controversial asylum agreement between the United Kingdom and Rwanda, but the east African country will receive the first 50 asylum seekers by the end of May despite critical remarks from the United Nations, rights activists, and opposition leaders.
Everyone entering the UK illegally, as well as those who arrived illegally since January 1, will be sent to Rwanda, while the British government will contribute up to £120 million ($157 million, 144 million euros).
A controversial reform, passed by the British parliament last month to crack down on illegal immigration, introduces life sentences for people smugglers — the Nationality and Borders Act — which also imposes harsher jail terms for those arriving illegally, and raises fears of discriminating against asylum seekers and refugees.
Despite this, and no safe and legal routes left to the UK, people are still attempting to reach the UK through sea crossings, risking their lives. Just a few days ago, a total of 34 people were rescued by the RNLI rescue crew amid a severe storm.
GENERAL
New podcast episode — The Civil Fleet
On May 21, Kathrin Schmidt — a rescue worker who saved the lives of 14,000 refugees in the Mediterranean Sea aboard the Iuventa five years ago — and three others from the ship are due to appear in an Italian court on charges of facilitating illegal entry into the country. They could all face 20 years behind bars.
She explains what this case means for the future of activist-led sea rescues, and for the people on the move at Europe’s edges.
BVMN’s voices from the borders: the closure of the humanitarian corridor
WORTH READING
- Border Violence — Monthly report on illegal pushbacks is here!
- Border Criminologies | Interview: EU Border Externalisation and the Migrant Transport Trade in Niger
Associate researcher Alice Anne Troy-Donovan at the Center for African Studies at the University of Copenhagen interviews political scientist Philippe Frowd on how historic and current European border interventions shape everyday lives and mobilities in Africa.
- Fixing Aid | The dangers of border technology for refugees
Biometrics, drones, sensor towers, and robot dogs: In this episode of Fixing Aid, host Alae Ismail explores the growing use of border and surveillance technology and looks at the grave consequences and long-lasting impacts on refugees and migrants around the globe.
- Frontera rima con primavera (Frontera rhymes with spring)
Op-ed on the border and its opening and closure in Ceuta.
- Mixed Migration — hebdo | May 9–19, 2022
This week, a quick reflection on what migration is and isn’t — with a cameo from Juan — followed by an unusually lengthy MMh before I go on 1–2 weeks of digital detox. See you again — at the latest — in June!
- Potential and Limits of Municipal Solidarity with Refugees: A Case Study of the Greek Island of Tilos
New open-access article by PhD researcher Tihomir Sabchev on academic and policy research in migration and refugee studies, refugee reception/integration at the local level.
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