AYS NEWSLETTER 09/10/18: Winter is coming and help is needed
As temperatures fall, the situation for many people is worsening all over Europe / EASO to support Greek Asylum Service with interviews / Hostile situation in Bosnia / People are back at Saint Denis / Only 100,000 people have cometo Germany so far this year
Greece
Volunteers of Chios Eastern Shore Response Team on Tuesday assisted 52 people, 23 men, nine women and 20 children at their arrival. “We gave warm blankets and dry clothes to get changed as soon as possible,” one volunteer reported.
As the Greek Asylum Service is overburdened with asylum interviews, EASO will assist in a pilot project. In October and November, eight new employees will start their work in Thessaloniki and twelve in Athens, the Mobile Info Team announced: “This will hopefully help, so that asylum applicants don’t have to wait for more than 3 years until they have their asylum interviews.” At the moment, some people have their interviews scheduled for 2021. If the project is successful, more staff could be employed by the beginning of next year and help to speed up the procedure.
On the other hand, the Greek government criticized Turkey for neglecting its duties to control its border with Greece at the Evros river. So far this year, around 12,000 people entered Greece through this route. Comparing to 3,300 in 2016, this is a sharp increase, Kathimerini reports. In 2018 Greek authorities arrested more than 1200 suspected smugglers.
“Kathimerini understands that a representative of the European Commission landed in Ankara Monday and raised the issue with Turkish authorities,” the newspaper writes.
Malta
The people who were rescued recently by SOS Mediterranée have left Malta to go to France, Malta’s Prime Minister Joesph Muscat confirmed.
Italy
Activists call for a demonstration in favor of the Mediterranean project on Wednesday, at 9pm.
Bosnia
According to official statistics, over 14,000 people have been registered entering Bosnia and Herzegovina since February this year. More or less, Bosnian police have so far been acting professionally, showing empathy with people on the move, but AYS volunteers have recorded numerous cases of police violence and racial profiling coming from individual police officers in some parts of the country.
In Bihać, as we reported earlier, police do not allow people to walk in the main streets after 5pm and on weekends, claiming that they do not have proper documents. However, the fact is that the state authorities refuse to issue people with the proper documents, or even to renew the once already issued.
In Sarajevo people are often warned by the police that they cannot move away from the main train station — where they are forced to stay due to lack of accommodation — and where food and NFIs are distributed twice a day.
Officially, there are no restrictions on freedom of movement for refugees and migrants in Bosnia, and this is entirely a decision of the local police chiefs in Sarajevo.
Additionally, several people in Sarajevo reported violence by the police at the train station, or that police habitually act in a threatening way: walking around with their hands on their guns, shouting at people for no reason, that they are kicking them if they find them sleeping on the ground…
We received the following video from a local volunteer in Sarajevo. It shows two police officers, one in uniform and one dressed as a civilian, at the train station. Unfortunately, this is happening more often lately. At the same time, tensions at the train station are rising, which is unsurprising given that asylum seekers there are left to live outside, with no assistance from the state or big organizations including IOM and UNHCR. The local population is still helping and showing solidarity, and hopefully this will continue. The local charity pomozi.ba is still providing most of the help, including food and NFIs, that is distributed by the volunteers in the city. Among people living rough in Sarajevo are many minors, but also other vulnerable groups include people with psychological problems.
As the weather is worsening and many people are stuck in makeshift camps, the situation is becoming more hostile. This also leads to increasing tensions among the population of asylum seekers. During the last few weeks, there have been several fights, where the police intervened, like in Sarajevo. In Bihać, the police even made warning shots in the air to stop the clashes.
At this point, we cannot provide information about the reasons for or background of this increase of violence.
The fact is, that thousands of people are in need of support. The SOS Team in Velika Kladusa asks for shoes, sleeping bags, blankets, jumpers, jackets, socks, underwear, backpacks.
France
There are around 300 people at Saint-Denis square in Paris. Solidarité migrants Wilson is providing food there. Today they distributed around 400 meals.
Migrants are still in the north of Paris, but more scattered than ever and in more precarious survival conditions than before!
The volunteers demand the City Council of Saint Denis install a restroom, toilets, water points, garbage bins, and clean the place regularly.
In Northern France, the Refugee Info Bus managed to raise more than 1,000 euro to buy a new generator after the old one broke. This means that the team will be able to continue its operation and to provide electricity to people in the area.
Germany
Only around 100,000 people came to Germany in 2018, the Interior Ministry reported. This is far from the upper limit of 200,000 people a year on which the government agreed. 124,000 first-time asylum applications have been submitted and in the first half of the year, 19,000 visas for family reunion were issued, Zeit Online reports. At the same time, 16,000 people were deported and 12,000 returned voluntarily.
In Frankfurt am Main will be a big demonstration against racism, discrimination and nationalism on Saturday October 13th. The protest starts at 1.30pm at the Baseler Platz. “Several lorries will join the demonstration and be our “mobile stages” for musicians, bands and speeches. At the destination place of our demonstration there will be a real stage with more musicians and speeches,” the organizers of the “we are more”-protest announced.
Also in Berlin there will be an “unteilbar” (indivisible) protest next Saturday at 1pm for an Open and Free society.
Belgium
In the closed camp of Vottem, close to Liege, a man from Eritrea has committed suicide, Plateforme citoyenne de soutien aux réfugiés Bruxellesreports. “It is in Belgium, in our country, in our democracy, in a prison managed by our political representatives, that he finally lost what he still had hoped,” the organisation stated.
Finland
Amnesty International handed over a petitition to the Interior Ministry signed by almost 18,000 people demanding that deportations to Afghanistan be stopped. At the same time, some 60 people were demonstrating outside, yle reports. Finland deported 2,600 people back to Afghanistan this year; in 2017 the number was 556.
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