AYS News Digest 31/07/23: ECtHR Refuses to Protect Children and Vulnerable Adults in Detention
Arrivals and rescues at sea // Protest in Milan // Four people arrested for piracy in Lampedusa // Cyprus — Deportations, low acceptance rates and questions over safety at sea // New smear campaign against NGOs in Greece // People being housed in ‘Ghost Towns’ and protest against new shelter in Germany // UK activist charged and more…
FEATURE: ECtHR refuses to protect children and vulnerable adults in detention
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has refused to grant interim measures for a group of 103 members of the persecuted Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. The Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) report that the group had approached the official Kapikule border crossing point from Turkey in an attempt to legally enter and lodge claims for international protection in Bulgaria. The group reported that they were met with extreme violence before being apprehended and taken to the Edirne Provincial Gendarmeria Command and later transferred to the Edirne Migration Centre. The two Turkish members of the group were released, whilst the others remain detained there some two months later.
The remaining 101 members of the persecuted religious minority have reported inhumane and degrading treatment and conditions in the Centre. These reports attest to ill-treatment, intimidation and medical neglect resulting in deteriorating health and psychological conditions. These conditions have been applied indiscriminately to the entire group, including the 22 children aged between 1 and 17, and the 27 elderly or sick adults which may be considered vulnerable individuals. They are being held in groups of 10–15 individuals in cells of less than 35 square metres, with one bathroom available for the entire group and a critical lack of hygiene supplies and basic provisions like changes of clothing, or sufficient food supplies. Many of them, including children, have been forced to sleep on the floor or outside — one child wet himself from the trauma of the situation and was forced to stay outside in the cold wearing the same clothes. The breastfeeding mothers have been unable to produce milk and been denied milk substitutes for their babies, and serious medical conditions are being left unattended to.
In a press released signed by 11 different rights groups and NGOs they call for the case to be re-examined in light of the severe and ongoing violations of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, protection from torture or inhuman and degrading treatment.
SEA
Arrivals
271 people arrived safely to Lampedusa on five small boats on the night of July 30th. The hotspot remains crowded and inadequate for the number of people arriving.
41 people rescued
On the morning of July 31st The Louise Michel was informed about a boat in distress.
41 people, including one baby in an overcrowded and unseaworthy iron boat were made stable by our crew with rescue equipment, water and medical assessments, whilst we tried to contact the Italian authorities.
Another boat, which they had left Sfax with, was rescued by the Italian coast guard, but unfortunately, the coast guard left these people drifting in the dangerous Mediterranean sea. After six hours and worsening weather, the iron boat started to fill with water.
Still, neither the Italian nor Maltese authorities send help. Therefore, our crew started to disembark the people. Everyone is now safely onboard of the Louise Michel and on their way to the port of Trapani.
ITALY
Protest in Milan
On July 29th a protest was held outside the Tunisian Consulate by Refugees in Libya, the Collective of Tunisian and Mediterranean Rights Activists Saving Humans, together with Milanese anti-racist activists, to ask the Libyan and Tunisian authorities that the bodies of Fati Dosso and his daughter Marie, who died of hunger and thirst in the desert between Libya and Tunisia, be returned to Côte d’Ivoire, their country of origin, and that light be shed on the responsibilities behind their deaths.
The world is watching us, and it is our common responsibility to uphold the principles of dignity, justice and care for all, regardless of someone’s origin.
Four people arrested for piracy
A captain and three members of his crew have been arrested on charges of maritime piracy in Lampedusa. It is alleged that they plundered numerous small boats on the Sfax — Lampedusa route, with mostly South-Saharan and Asian migrants on board.
CYPRUS
Deportations, low acceptance rates and questions over safety at sea
On Sunday, July 30th, 73 people, who had been rescued 12 nautical miles from Cyprus’s southeastern coast 3 days previously, were deported to Lebanon. However, safety concerns were raised due to the boat’s license which states it can only carry 54 people, yet along with the 73, 80 police officers were to accompany them. It is also not registered as a ferry but as a tug boat. A local Rights group, Equality, raised this issue on the grounds of safety with the police commissioner but ultimately they did not manage to halt the deportation.
Cyprus has a 96% rejection rate and imposes a five year ban on re-entry to the EU for those who are rejected.
GREECE
New smear campaign against NGOs
Racist Crimes Watch Report that on July 30th the Hellenic Police stated that they had discovered two organisations which constituted an organised criminal network, whose members were systematically active in facilitating the illegal entry of 4000 foreign nationals into Greek territory through Lesvos.
These organisations were found to involve 21 people, including members of an international organisation and a non-governmental organisation and residents of a Closed Controlled Facility on the island of Lesvos. Also 16 other persons are included in the criminal case that has been formed.
Reportedly, the only evidence against them is that following information received from other people involved, on the one hand they publicised the new arrivals on social media pages and on the other hand they went to the arrival points to ensure that the newcomers would not become victims of pushbacks!
On the subject of which, there is an update on the situation for the people who were videoed in Kos, handcuffed, blindfolded and locked in the back of a van by authorities. Meanwhile 28 civil society groups have called for an official investigation into the pushback from Lesvos on the 11th of April and published in the New York Times.
GERMANY
People being housed in ‘Ghost Towns’
A report has come out that people on the move, including Ukrainians but also those of other nationalities, are being housed in abandoned ex-mining towns in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. These towns and village surround three closed open pit mines and have been empty for months or even years as they were originally evicted to make way for the mines. Although the houses have water, electricity and wifi there are no open shops, pharmacies or other facilities.
Protest against new Shelter
On July 29th, around 100 people protested against the construction of a container accommodation facility for 250 people on the move in the village of Upahl in the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania. It is the third public protest against plans to build the shelter so far this year.
UK
Activist charged
The founder of Reclaim the Sea has been charged with obstructing the highway for protesting to protect people’s rights — people seeking asylum, people on the move, people without papers.
The maximum sentence is six months imprisonment. Protest rights and asylum rights are under attack.
WORTH READING, LISTENING, WATCHING
Doro by Brendan Woodhouse and Doro Ģoumãňęh: Unbound ‘This is Doro and he is beautiful.’ So begins the extraordinary story of Doro Ģoumãňęh, who faced an unimaginable series of adversities on his journey from persecution in The Gambia to refuge in France.
The Civil Fleet Podcast — Episode 43: Doro — refugee, hero, champion, survivor (google.com) Brendan tells us how he rescued his co-author from a boat in the Mediterranean in 2019 from the Sea-Watch 3, and while waiting for Italy to allow the rescued to disembark, Doro asked Brendan to write his story.
Driven into the desert in Tunisia, crammed into Lampedusa (pressenza.com) While the EU is trying to evade its responsibilities through further agreements with countries of origin and transit, the number of refugees arriving in Italy is increasing. Many have experienced massive violence in Tunisia. But civilian sea rescue cannot be stopped by harassment by the Italian government. An inventory.
Refugees: Pushbacks, asylum and smugglers — TO VIMA The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has irrefutable evidence of almost 900 pushbacks of groups of asylum seekers from Greece to Turkey, reveals an interview with “Vima” Gillian Triggs, deputy high commissioner for refugees in charge of protection, who visited Greece this week.
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