AYS Weekend Digest 14–15/3/2020 COVID-19: The latest excuse for repression and human rights violations
Central Med: At least 300 people pushed back to Libya, some from within Maltese SAR / Iran expels Afghan nationals / Update from the Turkish-Greek border / Eviction in Athens / 436 people transported to new closed facilities on the Greek mainland
#Refugees #OpenEUborders
COVID-19: The latest excuse for repression and human rights violations
Calais Migrant Solidarity report on the situation for people on the move in France and those held in detention during the COVID-19 (corona virus) outbreak. They ask:
“But how about a quarantine when your “home” is a cell with several other inmates and you have no access to doctors if not through cooperative police officers?
How do you “stay safe at home” when you are in an abusive household , or when you are homeless?”
They condemn the current response of the government and decry the re-election of the former mayor, Natacha Bouchart.
“6 more years of walls and barbered wire politics, yay!”
People are still being held in the detention centre (CRA) in Coquelles, even though deportations are currently impossible due to newly closed borders in response to the outbreak. In another CRA in Lesquin (close to Lille) there has already been one confirmed COVID-19 case. Detainees have begun a hunger strike to protest against the lack of measures put in place for their health and asking for the immediate release of all detainees.
Here is their message:
“We’d rather starve than die of this shit!
15/03/2020 News from the Administrative Detention Centre (CRA) in Lesquin.
On Friday, 13/03/2020, we learned that at least one case of coronavirus has been confirmed at the CRA. Although the person has been evacuated, no measures have been taken for our safety in the face of the epidemic.
The Border Police (PAF) officers have gloves and masks and we have nothing.
We have therefore decided to stop using the collective spaces of the detention centre, in order to protect ourselves, which involves the refectory. We have not eaten for three days now for many of us.
Other consequences :
— the association, usually present to help us to assert our rights, is absent. How can we defend ourselves and inform ourselves?
— Visits from our relatives and supporters are also forbidden, reinforcing our isolation.
— Many hearings of the judge of liberties and detention (JLD) are postponed, and it is during these hearings that we can be freed. And we cannot remain locked up without a judge’s authorization.
— Most international air flights (especially to Italy and Morocco) are cancelled. If in any case we cannot be deported, what is the point of keeping us?For our survival and the respect of our rights, we demand the immediate freedom of all the people locked up in the Lesquin CRA and in all the detention centres!
Faced with the isolation and anxiety in which we find ourselves, we wish to make our voices heard through the sharing of this message.
Spread it!
You can also call us on public phone numbers, to get in touch with us, to get our messages out.
Hall: 03.20.44.74.13 Zone A: 03.20.32.76.20 Zone B: 03.20.32.70.53 Zone C: 03.20.32.75.31 ”DEPORTATIONS MUST STOP. CLOSE DOWN ALL DETENTION CENTRES NOW!
FREEDOM FOR ALL! HOUSE FOR ALL!
In this, France is aligning itself with other EU countries. In Italy, prisons have been on fire since the beginning of the outbreak because of the decision of the country’s authorities to forbid visits to all inmates. Protests were brutally repressed and from the information available, at least 12 inmates died as a result, officially from overdoses. Also, as we reported in the last digests, nothing is being done to relieve the situation of the many ghettoes in which migrant farm workers live.
In Greece, as you can read below, the situation is following a similar trend, with the government introducing new measures to contain the contagion, but doing nothing to protect those in detention or people on the move living in overcrowded and unsanitary camps.
In tourism driven countries where thousands of hotels are shut and camps and prisons are more than full, the solution seems obvious.
IRAN/AFGHANISTAN
Local news reports that Afghan refugees are being forcibly returned to Afghanistan from Iran by the Iranian police force leading to fears of an outbreak of the virus in this already war torn country.
TURKEY/GREECE
From Josoor International Solidarity, written on Sunday 15th:
Today was the worst day so far. People had to deal with lots of rain and a freezing wind. […] Water entered the “tents”, their feet are freezing in their wet shoes and they can’t make fire to bring some warmth during nighttime. It’s 0° outside at the moment and tomorrow it’s expected to fall even further down to -4°. It’s insane how horrible the conditions are right now. We get more and more requests for medication and the risk to the health of the people is further increasing.
Entrance and exit to the camp is controlled by Turkish authorities, who don’t allow solidarians and volunteers inside or people on the move outside. Aid delivery has reduced due to police harassment. GÖÇMEN DAYANIŞMASI report that within the camp tension is high. Clashes at the border gates have ceased, but non-violent protests are still going on.
People on the move can reportedly leave the camp only if they decide to board buses for Istanbul.
But we also heard about police pressuring singles and families with kids to choose — either depart to Istanbul or attempt the dangerous crossing of the Ebro river to the Greek side, knowing that they will most likely suffer police brutality, being stripped of their belongings and ultimately pushed back to the Turkish side. Many already experienced this procedure once or multiple times during the past days. […] Tonight, women and children were told to prepare for transport to hotels in the bordering city Edirne, which is a surprise and relief, during freezing nights after a rainy day. On the other hand, this threat to unity of families in the camp might leave the remaining members with no other choice than leaving as well. We can’t help but understand this as another move to dissolve the camp.(Josoor International Solidarity)
CENTRAL MED
More proof of collusion between the EU and the Libyan coast guard, if any more was needed…
Alarm Phone published a long statement regarding two distress calls they received this weekend.
On Saturday one boat, carrying 49 people, contacted them from inside the Maltese SAR zone. They had lost their engine, water was entering the vessel and they could not control the boat. Alarm Phone contacted Maltese and Italian authorities to inform them of the situation. Hours later, they were alerted by relatives of the people in distress, who told Alarm Phone that the boat was intercepted by the Libyan coast guard.
From Alarm Phone website:
Confidential sources have informed us that a Frontex aerial asset had spotted the migrant boat already at 6:00h when it was still in the contested Libyan SAR zone. At 18.04h, the Libyan coastguard vessel Ras Al Jadar intercepted the boat in the Maltese SAR zone at the position N34° 26’, E 14° 07’. This means that the European border agency Frontex, MRCC Rome as well as RCC Malta were all aware of this boat in distress and colluded with the Libyan authorities to enter Maltese SAR and intercept the migrant boat.
According to those returned to Libya, they had been travelling together with a second rubber boat, carrying 60 people, which was also pushed back to Libya.
One more distress call was received from the Maltese SAR zone on Friday night, from a boat carrying 112 people.
They had to spend 48 hours at sea before Maltese authorities decided to move their ass…ets and rescue them. According to testimonies, a tanker has been in the area and refused assistance.
News sources report that 5 boats carrying over 400 people were returned to Libya over the weekend. IOM report on 300 yet fail to mention the EU’s complicity, funding and general encouragement of this policy.
Or as someone else puts it…
GREECE
Athens: Eviction of the Gini occupation within the Polytechnio University in Exarchia
On Sunday morning, the police invaded the Polytechnio and evicted dozens of people living there, including small children. It is reported that they were taken to the migrant detention centre of Petrou Ralli, bringing an end to their occupation of Gini. Last week, one detainee in Petrou Ralli attempted suicide.
Open air assemblies were organised to discuss the situation and were reportedly harassed by police throughout the Exarchia neighborhood.
Antiracist and antifascist demonstrations took place in Mytilene, Lesvos on Saturday and on Crete on Sunday. Police intervened violently against protesters in Rethimno, Crete.
People on the move detained on the navy ship anchored off Lesvos harbour have been moved to the mainland.
Some have been taken to a new closed facility in Malakasa. According to media outlets, the setting up of the new camp and the transfers have been done almost in secrecy, with asylum officials refusing to comment on the destination. There are also reports of protests by locals in the Malakasa area. They state that central authorities have not communicated with their local counterparts about the new site and about the transfers, and that the area already hosts one camp and one detention centre.
UK
Mutual Aid groups in the UK
As the global COVID-19 pandemic is upon us, a number of mutual aid groups have started forming across the country. The groups aim at providing community support to those who are more at risk from the virus: be it help with running errands or cooking.
Freedom has put together a list of these groups throughout the UK. Find it HERE
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