AYS Weekend Digest 23–24/01/2021: UK — The Home Office VS the Law

SEA: 17 people dead, more than 400 rescued and transported to Italy // ETHIOPIA: reports of attacks on refugee camps // GREECE: deportations under EU-Turkey deal to restart in March // BELGIUM: trial for Mawda’s death is a symbol of the shattered justice system.

Featured: UK — The Home Office vs the Law

The repressive nature of the British Home Office policies and statements regarding migrants has a long history, but the arrival of Priti Patel has added a cruel and quasi-despotic nuance to it.

We’ve reported in the past weeks on the rushed procedures to deport as many people as possible to other European countries before Brexit, the statements against ‘activist’ lawyers for appealing unlawful decisions, the indiscriminate selection of people to be deported to Jamaica on the #Jamaica50 flight, the brutal consequences of the No Recourse to Public Funding policy (check HERE for a crowdfunder supporting a court challenge against it), etc.

In the last few days, the Home Office, in line with the actions of other countries like Italy and Greece, has been bragging about having arrested 5 people for assisting illegal immigration, among those ‘piloting’ small boats across the Channel. Not only has the Home Office published faces and photos of people that have not been prosecuted yet, but smugglers don’t put themselves at risk in the small boats they send towards the UK. As refugee rights campaigner Gulwali Passarlay states:

You [are] jailing asylum seekers, who wanted to protect and save themselves and their fellow refugees. This is so immoral and wrong to blame them for helping get out of the sea

Also, media report that the Home Office and the Government have criticised the state prosecutors’ office for simply applying the law, instead of falling in line with Patel’s and Johnson’s repressive and criminalising intents.

In the last few weeks the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) has dropped charges in two immigration cases, triggering the ire of Priti Patel’s office.

In one case, charges were dismissed against 69 people from Albania, initially accused of entering the UK illegally, but they had never made it to the country.

In the second case, charges were dropped against 7 people who had hidden in an oil tanker heading to the UK. They had been charged with attempted hijacking, but the CPS ruled that this never happened and that, in fact, they had been found by the crew and supported with food and clothing.

Private contractors hired by the Home Office to manage the refugee camps in the country — like Clearsprings or G4S, long-time favourite for detention subcontracts — also have a record of abuse and mismanagement. Lately they have been threatening asylum seekers with blacklisting or halting their application if they speak to the media, complain about conditions or go on hunger strike, media report. Organisations working in the sectors have described the use of this kind of threats as ‘systemic’.

Sign the Free From Torture petition to ‘empty the barracks / close the camps/ save lives’ HERE.

The Detention Forum report from the Ministry of Justice plans to turn the former Hassockfield Detention Centre, in Medomsley, into a Category 3-style prison to detain around 80 people who have had applications for UK residency denied. Durham council is reportedly demanding answers from the ministry, as the area had been earmarked for residential development.

ETHIOPIA

Reports of attacks on refugee camps in Tigray region

This article reports of attacks on the Shimelba and Hitsats refugee camp in the Tigray region in Ethiopia. Satellite images taken in January show the extensive damage in both camps. Moreover, “minutes from an 8th of January meeting involving the Tigray Emergency Coordination Centre of the U.N. and other humanitarian organisations, seen by VICE World News, detail how aid agencies raised the alarm that an estimated 4.5 million people needed emergency food assistance and warned hundreds of thousands could starve to death if action is not taken swiftly. Local authorities put the number of people needing urgent humanitarian assistance at 2.2 million.”

It is also reported that Pramila Patten, U.N. special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, called on all people in the conflict to end hostilities and stop using sexual violence as a weapon, after having received “ ‘serious’ reports of large-scale sexual violence, particularly around Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region.”

SEA

Central Mediterranean

Since Thursday, in a 48 hour period, Ocean Viking rescued 374 people from 4 overcrowded small boats: “there are 21 babies and 35 children. 131 unaccompanied minors. 2 pregnant women.” On Saturday morning, one pregnant woman was evacuated to Lampedusa.

Only on Sunday evening, Italy provided a safe port to the SOS Mediterranee vessel. They are set to arrive in Augusta, Sicily on Monday morning. According to journalist Angela Caponneto, 121 minors will be disembarked on to land, while the other people will be transferred to a quarantine ship.

Also, 200 people on 2 boats were reported to be heading back to Libya due to engine damage and 70 more were rescued by the Italian commercial vessel AssoTrenta. Far into the night on Sunday, one more boat with 45 people was rescued very close to Lampedusa and transported to the island after 2 days at sea.

Libyan media report of one boat with 32 people being pulled back to Tripoli by the so called LCG. Sara Creta also report that 80 people were pulled back to the area of Garabulli, Libya on Saturday.

Too little information is provided regarding the victims of this weekend. Alarm Phone report that at least 45 more people are still at sea.

GREECE

Turkey accept to ‘readmit’ 1450 people from the Greek islands

As we reported previously, last week Greek authorities formally requested that the EU and Frontex reactivate the ‘readmission’ of rejected asylum seekers from the Greek islands to Turkey, as part of the EU-Turkey deal signed in 2016. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, such ‘readmissions’ have been halted by Turkey. Greece was in fact requesting the deportation of 1450 people.

Now, after a meeting between EU Commission’s vice president Schinias and Turkish foreign minister Tsavousoglu, Turkey will allow ‘readmissions’ again, starting from March, as reported by media.

Updates from Moria 2.0

Dunya Collective report that aggravated lockdown for the island of Lesvos has been extended until February 1. A curfew applies from 6 pm. For people in the camp this means further restrictions on movement. The length of time permitted for leaving the camp was reduced from 4 to 3 hours per person per week.

Updates on soil analysis for lead poisoning.

Greek authorities have published a statement on the results of the analysis of the soil in the new camp after residents and organisations found unexploded ordnances and ammunitions buried in the ground and expressed concerns regarding the risk of lead poisoning from the soil.

The ministry of migration states that 12 samples of soil were analysed; 11 from the area of the camp where people live and 1 from the area hosting administrative structures. The only sample with lead concentration above international limits is the one from the administrative area. The area (and only that one) will be covered with a concrete base, while in the rest of the camp further embarkment works are planned.

Meanwhile Seebrücke, MSF, Stand by Me Lesvos, and Human Rights Watchtell a different story: “A scientific analysis regarding possible lead poisoning of the soil has now confirmed this thesis: Almost all samples that were examined were able to detect lead in toxic quantities … As a result, further analyses of the soil are now initiated and parts of the poisoned areas are sealed with concrete slabs.” There are no “safe” levels of lead exposure!

Greek authorities have a well documented history of providing false accounts of the situation on Lesvos and in general for people on the move in the country, as we have shown many times in our digests — they should understand by now if we can’t take their official statements at face value.

A testimony from Moria 2.0

Mare Liberum published a testimony from inside Moria 2.0:

… But when the boat arrived in Europe, it was surprised by a camp called Moria Al-Hujim. [Arabic for hell]

We entered a world that does not have human rights — only on Greek TV.

[…] After a while, people burned the Moria camp, the number[of people] was more than 300, but the Greek government said that they are five. How is a camp of 5 Kilometers burned by 5 people?

… We went out towards Karatepe. We saw the racists on our way cursing us in Greek and telling us we are bastards. We escaped from the fire, afraid of a fire and also of the racists.

… It is a military place. We are in a very large prison that does not allow us to go out. A place that is all army and police in abundance.

The employees are all racists and also the UN organization is also racist and we have no rights.

You have to wait for food and also for water and medicine.

Where we do not have safety, there are thieves and thefts as well. A month ago, a three-year-old boy was raped [in the camp]

Everything is bad in this camp, but what one sees is not what one hears.

I hope that the European Parliament will stay 15 days in the Moria camp. They are the ones who judge us. I don’t think they will leave with their full mental strength.

This is a message from a refugee who does not have human rights and who dreams that we have [at least] animal rights.

Read the full statement HERE.

International Day of Education

From Samos Volunteers:

Make a difference on International Day of Education: support schools run by people living in the Vathy refugee camp in Samos!

These teachers live in the ‘Jungle’ of Samos camp. And from literally nothing, they set up schools and run classes in English, French, Arabic and Farsi to teach children and adults who otherwise would have no access to education.

They are completely self-organised and have succeeded despite all imaginable odds and obstacles.

Everyone of their students has the right to receive an education. These teachers have stepped in and are doing an amazing job at filling this gap.

However, they need school materials to teach a growing number of students.

If you want to contribute with your donation, follow this LINK

Make sure to state “self-organised schools” when making a donation: it will go 100% to support the schools.

GERMANY

Deportation alert from Leipzig to Pakistan on March 17

Bayerischer Flüchtlingsrat (Bavarian Refugee Council) alert of a planned deportation flight from Leipzig to Pakistan on March 17, 2021. The group, advise all people on the move from Pakistan in the region to reach out to acquaintances, lawyers, counselling and legal advice groups for more information on how to stay safe.

THE NETHERLANDS

Deported despite threats of torture

Dutch media reports that several Sudanese asylum seekers have been deported from the Netherlands since 2014, despite threats of torture in their home country.

Official documents reveal that authorities knew that “upon their arrival at the airport in the capital, Khartoum, the notorious Sudanese security service NISS interrogated, detained, and — in several instances — tortured the victims.” Despite this, since 2018, the State Secretary for Asylum and Migration, Mark Habers (VVD) has decided that such confirmation is insufficient to change the policy.

BELGIUM

Which justice for Mawda?

As the sentencing in the trial on the death of Mawda, the 2-year-old child shot in the face by a policeman while sitting on her mother’s lap in a van on May 16, 2018, draws closer, Justice for Madwa share doubts on the direction the trial has taken:

According to the group, the man charged as the driver of the van may have been an innocent passenger, as reported by several witnesses. Read the whole thread HERE.

The trial has been criticised and described as a ‘symbol of the shattered Belgian justice system’, especially after prosecutors asked for a one-year suspended sentence for the policeman who shot Mawda, while asking for 7- and 8-year-long sentences for two suspected smugglers.

FRANCE

Abandoned school occupied to host people on the move

Utopia56 has occupied an abandoned school, doomed to be destroyed and empty for 2 years, in Paris’ 16th arrondissement. Now the building is hosting 150 people from the streets of the city. The group is demanding decent housing solutions, protection from the cold and from the pandemic. The action forced Paris city council to open one (or two) structures as emergency shelters for the night.

Calais: bike racks where people sleep

WORTH READING

• The Lipa crisis: The predictable culmination of a deteriorating emergency by Refugee Rights Europe:

What we are seeing is directly linked to EU’s migration and asylum policy which is based on external border protection and responsibility shifting of the protection of displaced people. What is desperately needed is concrete actions and solidarity on the part of EU member states in establishing safe and regular pathways to Europe instead of solely providing emergency funding. Not doing so will allow for further deterioration of the existing situation.

WORTH LISTENING

• Podcast Academy. Episode 3: Fear and Hope, by Latitude Adjustment Podcast: “in the third episode four young Afghan women share their greatest hopes and fears since arriving to Lesvos and to the borders of the European Union.”

WORTH WATCHING

• Pushback at the Greek Turkish border. The recording of the ‘Bordering Europe’ webinar hosted by Mediterranea Saving Humans, with speakers by Legal Centre Lesvos and Forensic Architecture.
• Refugee denial: Settler colonialism and the making of a Global North imaginary, by Laura Madokoro. Webinar organised by Refugees Studies Centre.