AYS News Digest 29/1/22: Court case reveals how tourist boats were turned into “floating prisons” in the pandemic
Libyan “female migrant center” a “media stunt”/ Polish border wall to cut through protected forest/ Greek locals challenge prison camps narrative/ / Alleged “smugglers” sentenced in Spain / “Smoking Guns” report / Updates on SAR missions
FEATURE
A constitutional case against Malta’s government members has revealed how four tourist sightseeing boats were turned into quarantine ships described as “floating prisons” in only a few days, after Malta closed its ports in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Thirty-two people have sued the government, saying their detention onboard those ships was illegal and constituted a breach of their fundamental rights.
In 2020, over 400 people rescued in the Maltese SAR were transferred on three boats chartered by the government from companies Captain Morgan and Supreme Cruises, where they spent weeks in detention without being allowed to come to land. They had no means of contacting their families or seeking legal advice, and were not informed about their right to apply for asylum, according to the lawyers for the 32 applicants. The conditions on the ships were dire, with not enough beds and sanitary facilities and little access to medical care. Finally, 425 people were allowed to disembark in Malta on 6 June 2020, after spending up to 37 days onboard. They were immediately put into detention.
A testimony by the general manager of Captain Morgan, Kevin Zammit Briffa, revealed that people had tested negative for Covid-19 before their offshore detention, calling into question the government’s claim that this was a necessary emergency health measure.
Briffa also explained that the ships’ registration had been changed from “passenger vessels” to “workboats” just a few days before they became floating detention facilities. With this new license, the ships could carry passengers beyond Malta’s territorial waters : they received instructions to remain 13 miles offshore.
Read more about the case currently at Malta’s Constitutional Court.
LIBYA
New “female migrant center” criticized as a media stunt
The opening of a new so-called reception center for women and children in Tripoli, run by female guards, is criticized as a “media stunt”. If the ironically dubbed “Abu Salim Shelter Center” was praised as “an improvement” by UNHCR’s Vincent Cochetel, this is seen as a farce in a detention system where half a million people are routinely abused, tortured, sexually violated, sold into slavery, starved and killed. According to Amnesty International, people on the move in Libya are “trapped in a vicious cycle of cruelty with little or no hope of finding safe and legal ways out”.
“All of this is theater, and cheap propaganda for media gain claiming that the Government of National Unity (GNU) is interested in migrants,” said an anonymous official who attended the opening ceremony: “They brought media professionals, especially representatives of the international media, to send a message to the international community that the GNU cares about migrants. They brought about twenty female migrants from African countries, put them in front of the cameras and began filming. The women seemed to reject what was happening, but they were powerless. Then they were taken to an unknown place,” he added to the Libya Review.
This comes as a UN rights expert has recently pointed out Libya’s practice of forcing people across its land borders and abandoning them in the desert without water.
POLAND
Border wall cuts through protected forest
The new 186 km-long wall that will stretch for almost half the length of the border with Belarus cuts through a protected forest and Unesco heritage site. Activists criticize the environmental impact of this 5.5 meter-high barrier that will run through the Bialowieza forest, home to European bison and several endangered species. The wall will cost 353 million euros. Unesco and the European commission called for a proper assessment of the wall’s environmental impact. Grupa Granica, on the other hand, criticized the wall as a useless measure that “stops only the disabled, the weak, the sick” and “doesn’t stop desperate people who are fleeing danger from trying to cross”.
A 13 year-old hospitalized on hunger strike
Tiba, a 13 year-old Iraqi girl held at the Biala Podlaska Guarded Centre, was taken to the hospital after several weeks on a hunger strike. Even in hospital, while being fed with a sonde, she is being guarded by the border police …
Useful : A new page dedicated to residents of Podlasie and activists aims to inform on the basic legal principles of providing humanitarian aid at the Polish border.
GREECE
Islanders challenge the government on new prison camps in the Aegean
Massive protests of locals on Chios and Lesvos are putting into question the narrative of successful migration management promoted by the government over the construction of new closed camps on the islands. In its submission to the 2022 Rule of Law Report of the European Commission, RSA has also highlighted serious concerns about asylum and the rule of law in Greece.
In the camp of Kara Tepe, on Lesvos, yet another fire broke out in a big tent housing more than 40 people. This is the second fire to catch in the camp in two weeks.
Winter conditions make life difficult for people on the move
Due to the heavy snow that hit Greece, residents of several camps have found themselves without water and electricity for days. At Schisto camp, residents had to melt snow for drinking water, after the supply was cut for four days.
Students beaten in right-wing attack
Two students of the intercultural high school of Evosmos, in Thessaloniki, were attacked and beaten by member of a neo-Nazi organization. One of the students has since stopped going to school in fear of being targeted again.
More pushbacks
Twenty-nine people were stuck for five days on a strip of land on the Evros river, with the Greek government criticized for its slow response. Among them were several children and a man with a serious kidney health issue. Despite being warned early on about the people’s situation, the Greek authorities took so long to act that by the time they searched the island, the people had already been taken back to detention in Turkey. They were violently beaten, especially four Turkish citizens who were in the group. According to them, the police visited them on the islet the day before, but told them” that they are not welcome in Greece and that they have to find a way to return to Turkey”.
At sea, 40 people, including 15 children, were illegally pushed back to Turkey after landing on the Inousses islands on 24 January.
New deaths in Evros
SEARCH AND RESCUE AT SEA
Over 117 people have died trying to reach Europe by sea in the last 12 days only. After eight days at sea, the 439 survivors onboard the Geo Barents finally received a port of safety in Augusta, Italy. Aita Mari rescued 176 people in two operations in the Central Mediterranean.
GERMANY
400 people have tested positive for Covid-19 at the reception centers in the state of Hesse. This has led to severe criticism of the accommodation provided to asylum-seekers and the vaccination strategy of the German government.
EU & FRONTEX
1.1 million people displaced by EU arms exports
Over 1.1 million people have been displaced by EU arms exports, says the “Smoking Guns” report published by the Transnational Institute.
They found that the lucrative industry of arms and military equipment manufactured in Europe is widely under-regulated and has a devastating impact on populations worldwide, contributing to the destabilisation of entire countries and regions. European countries comprise 26% of global arms exports since 2015 : France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK are the top five exporters.
In parallel to this mass displacement caused by European lethal weapons, the EU Agency for Asylum announced that asylum applications are approaching the highest level since 2016. Applications in November 2021 were the second highest in two years, with 71,400 applications submitted.
Back in Europe, the EU biometrics “Prüm” system will probably be expanded in the coming years, creating a central European biometric repository and making it possible to query facial images across Member States. Concerns have also been raised about the EU Commission proposal for an Instrumentalisation Regulation, which the ECRE says “expands and normalises derogation from EU law” and undermines the right to asylum.
For a touch of humor : the EU Commission says it is “not aware of human rights violations committed by agents of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex)” …
BELGIUM
Asylum-seekers still shelterless in Brussels
“People seeking protection are still being abandoned on the streets,” human rights organizations condemned in a letter to Belgium’s Prime Minister. A recent court ruling ordered an obligation to comply with the requirements of reception of asylum seekers, which includes providing shelter and access to the international protection procedure. Organizations say the government has not respected this ruling, and has gone even farther by refusing to provide housing for people who applied for asylum in another EU country.
SPAIN
Two alleged smugglers sentenced to nine years in prison
Amadou D., from Senegal and Kate D., from the Gambia have both been sentenced to nine years in prison following the deaths of nine people, including two young children, on route to the Canary Islands in March 2021. They received three years for “crimes against the rights of foreigners”, and one year per victim on counts of “reckless homicide”.
GENERAL
The European vaccination campaign has not been inclusive enough of undocumented people, reveals a survey by Lighthouse Reports and the Picum network. The survey covering 18 countries found that the United Kingdom and Portugal adopted “open and accessible” vaccination policies, whereas Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia’s policies were “explicitly exclusionary”.
In an incredible show of cynicism, the head of Fifa Gianni Infantino told the Council of Europe that hosting the World Cup every two years instead of four would “give hope to Africans so they don’t need to cross the Mediterranean in order to find, maybe, a better life but more probably death in the sea”.
WORTH READING
- In Croatia, solidarity stands up to a “toxic minority” (Balkan Insight):
- ECRE report on the Balkan route :
- For residents and activists at the Poland-Belarus border, this page provides legal advice for bringing assistance to people on the move:
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