AYS News Digest 24/07/23: More Deaths at the Tunisian Border as Meloni Courts Saied
6 Deaths off Morocco, Navy Culpable? // Free Homayoun Sabetara // Hunger Strike on Chios Restarts // Worth Reading and more…
FEATURE: Deaths at the Tunisian border as Meloni courts Saied
A Sudanese man’s body was found on the 23rd of July in Tunisia near the Libyan border. According to Tunisian authorities he died from malnutrition. He had reportedly been expelled from Tunisia as a part of the Tunisian government’s current brutal border policies. On the following day another five bodies were found on the Libyan side of the border.
Yet, on the same day Giorgia Meloni hosted a conference which aimed “to govern the migration phenomenon, combat human trafficking and promote economic development based on a new model of collaboration between states.” Tunisian President Kais Saied, who has been internationally condemned for his role in inciting violence against black Africans in Tunisia in recent months, was invited.
According to a report out by Human Rights Watch this week:
The Tunisian police, military, and national guard including the coast guard have committed serious abuses against Black African migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
As such, Tunisia can not be considered a safe place for the disembarkation of third country nationals nor a safe third country for the transfer of asylum seekers. Although these facts are well known, the EU announced on the 16th of July the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding with Tunisia which will see them receive up to 1 billion Euros to fund development and migration control.
…this agreement […] has the effect of systemising indiscriminate violence as a means of deterring mobility, an increasing role for an unscrupulous Coast Guard, a systematic and progressive erosion of the right to asylum through humanitarian instruments that have no real impact in terms of rights. — Joint press release published by the Iuventa Crew
Yet, despite the diabolical consequences for many third country Africans in Tunisia, the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, stated at the conference that she wants the agreement with Tunisia to be a template for further partnerships within the region.
Worrying, that her blueprint is one that has such violent consequences.
SEA
Six deaths off Morocco, Navy culpable?
At least six people lost their lives on the 22nd of July while trying to reach Spain. A local human rights group has stated that the Morrocan Navy was at the scene before the boat capsized. The official line is that after the inflatable dingy hit rocks, 48 people managed to swim back to shore.
GREECE
Free Homayoun Sabetara
A petition has been launched by Mahtab Sabetara, who is based in Berlin, to free her father, Homayoun Sabetara, who has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after being forced to drive a car over the Turkish Greek border. He has now been in prison for two years, along with over 2000 others on similar charges. You can follow the campaign HERE.
Hunger strike on Chios restarts
Having been promised that they would receive their asylum decisions the hunger strike was briefly halted but then restarted on the 24th when this promise was not fulfilled. They originally began the hunger strike on the 17th of July.
SERBIA
New report from Klikaktiv
Two of our friends have disappeared in the woods of Bulgaria. They got separated from the rest of us in the dark and they probably got lost. We haven’t heard from them since and I am not sure if they are still alive. Their families are calling us all the time asking us what has happened to their cousins and we don’t know what to tell them. In Bulgaria you can sometimes find bodies in the woods and that scares us the most. — (a man from Morocco, in a squat near the Serbian — Hungarian border, May 2023.)
Klikaktiv have published a new report covering April to June 2023 describing the situation for people on the move in Serbia at external EU borders. It notes an increase in violence by the Serbian police including violent raids, beatings, theft of money, an increase in detention and an uptick in Syrians leaving Lebanon while documenting experiences of pushbacks and border crossing.
GERMANY
Racist attack in shelter
On Sunday 23rd, police reported that an 18-year-old Afghani boy was injured when four men broke into a refugee shelter, shouting xenophobic taunts. Having entered through the back door, they held the 18-year-old against a wall and then threw objects at a 16-year-old who was luckily unhurt. The perpetrators fled when other residents arrived and have not yet been found.
WORTH READING AND WATCHING
Dear Mother — YouTube ‘Dear Mother’ is about a young woman from Somalia who sends her mother a message from a hiding spot in the mountains of Greece, after arriving on a rubber dinghy. She hid fearing she may be pushed back and later died as a consequence of this illegal and violent violation.
The state of the Greek asylum system, twelve years since M.S.S. — R.S.A. (rsaegean.org)
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