AYS Weekend Digest 25–26/7/2020: FRONTEX support push-backs at sea and at land borders
Shipwreck off Tunisian coast, 56 bodies recovered // Racism in Greece // Online Asylum App from Greek Asylum Service // Fire in Moria, Lesvos // Updates from Ventimiglia // Inadequate health care in Sid and much more…
#noborders
FRONTEX support push-backs at sea and at land borders
Matthias Monroy, attentive observer of EU policies at the continent’s borders and beyond, published a series of articles (in German and in English) on the practical support provided by FRONTEX to national authorities when carrying out illegal push-backs (in Croatia) and pull-backs (in the central Med).
Since 2015, FRONTEX have chartered small private airplanes of different European companies under the FASS framework. Initially these aircraft were deployed within EU missions such as ‘Poseidon’, ‘Themis’ and ‘Indalo’, in national waters, then the border agency started to send these chartered surveillance flights in the central Mediterranean, to the Libyan SAR zone and to use them over the EU’s land borders.
Maritime rescue organisations have repeatedly pointed out that aircraft in the FASS occasionally switch off their transponders so that they cannot be tracked via the ADS-B service. In this way, it is not possible to monitor whether Frontex aircraft are involved in sea rescue cases or not. The EU Commission confirms the digital concealment of the missions. It also does not publish the call signs of state aircraft deployed, which are considered sensitive operational assets.
With such actions, the EU Border Agency have taken over aerial reconnaissance from the Tripoli government in Libya, an action reported in at least 42 cases. This is one more proof of the integral role of European assets and infrastructure in the working of the Libyan coast guard. Recent reports and ECHR cases argue that such a role implies the direct responsibility of European authorities in every single interception carried out by Libyan boats in the central Med.
Furthermore, a similar support role was carried out on the Bosnian/Croatian border, where Croatian police repeatedly carried out brutal and indiscriminate push-backs.
FASS surveillance of land borders was carried out for the first time with Croatia. In cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior there, Frontex has been monitoring the EU external border with Bosnia and Herzegovina since 18 July 2018. The flights took off from Zadar airport. According to the Frontex annual report for 2018, 635 migrants were identified in this way in 46 sightings throughout 2018, most of them were in small groups. Frontex calls an incident involving 89 people the ‘single biggest detection’.
The Croatian authorities had been informed immediately about the sightings. Croatia has therefore sent liaison officers to the ‘European Monitoring Team’ in Warsaw. According to Frontex, only the real-time videos had led to an immediate ‘operational response on the ground’. Thus, the EU Border Agency may have contributed to illegal deportations by the Croatian border police, about which refugees and humanitarian organisations have reported on several occasions.
In supporting the illegal actions of EU member states, FRONTEX finds itself in a position of virtual impunity. It is unclear which court is responsible for its actions. While these could possibly be prosecuted in Poland, home of FRONTEX headquarters, the EU itself — and its agencies — is not a member of the Council of Europe and “is therefore not subject to the jurisdiction of the European Convention on Human Rights.” This means that no complaints for FRONTEX actions could be taken in front of the ECHR in Strasbourg.
Recently, FRONTEX has expanded the operational areas of the FASS service, including the Western Balkans, the Aegean, the Black Sea and the Atlantic. While most of the flights are carried out with manned systems, in Portugal FRONTEX is currently flying a drone.
Before the end of this year the Border Agency also wants to station large drones in the Mediterranean for up to four years, after a EU-wide invitation to tender, the supplier is now being selected.
SEA
Central Med
56 bodies have been found off the Tunisian coast. The shipwreck happened between Wednesday and Thursday last week, and it has been confirmed by Sfax Red Crescent.
On Saturday night, one boat, carrying 95 people, made contact with Alarm Phone from Maltese waters. For hours, they kept communicating with them, as — per usual policy — Maltese and Italian authorities were refusing to answer the distress call. Throughout Sunday, people in distress saw vessels sailing past them and one tanker monitoring the situation without intervening. They told Alarm Phone that one person has died.
It seems that this morning the boat was finally rescued by Malta, but there is no official confirmation yet. It took more than 30 hours!
One more boat made contact with Alarm Phone on Sunday. 45 people are on board.
It is still not confirmed if this boat is the same that was rescued and taken to Lampedusa on Sunday night with 44 people on board.
Aegean / Eastern Med, yet another pushback?
From Aegean Boat Report: On Sunday night, a boat carrying approximately 24 people was in distress north east of Skala Mistegnon, Lesvos east. It is reported that the Greek coast guard have removed the petrol from the boat, before leaving them drifting helpless in the sea.
They have been drifting for at least four hours, Greek and Turkish coast guard is present, both refusing to help. There are many small children in the boat, and also one handicapped man that needs medical attention! This inhuman treatment of vulnerable people must come to and end!
Earlier this morning another boat was pushed back by Greek Coast Guard outside Lesvos south. The boat was carrying approximately 60 people, left drifting for hours before picked up by Turkish coast guard. Also a third boat was pushed back outside Lesvos north before first light, no numbers reported from this incident.
Western Med
454 people have been saved from Murcia within 24 hours over the weekend by the Spanish Salvamento Marítimo. They call on the government to provide more rescue ships.
GREECE
Racism in Greece
After having spoke out about his experience growing up in Greece as a black person, and the racism he and his family faced, NBA player Giannis Antetokoumpo was the subject of several racist insults, for daring to criticise his own country. Such insults, apart from proving Antetokoumpo’s points, came from Konstantinos Kalemis, refugee education coordinator in Malakasa camp, Intercultural Instructor at the Council of Europe and, reportedly, a member of the Kapodistrian University.
Kalemis was fired from his position in Malakasa, and the Kapodistrian University was quick to distance itself from him. It is a wonder how someone who holds such hateful ideas could ever be appointed ‘intercultural instructor’ or working with minorities and people on the move. Kalemis, deservedly, has become the last scapegoat for racism in Greece. Antetokoumpo had already been attacked and insulted by rightwing politicians on national TV, and racism is a feature of contemporary Greek society. Migration and citizenship policies of the last years speak loudly of this. The truth is that Antetokoumpo was only allowed to obtain Greek citizenship after he was drafted into the prestigious US basketball league, media report. The daily plight of people on the move, the racist attacks against them, the racial profiling by police forces, the transformation of refugees and asylum seekers into ‘illegal immigrants’ are all consequences of this institutional racism as widespread in Greece as in the rest of Europe.
Possibility to register your asylum claim online
Mobile info team report that the Greek Asylum Service has created a web portal, where you can answer all the questions that are necessary to register your asylum claim online! But this possibility can only be used by people that have an asylum willingness number.
You will have gotten an asylum willingness number if you have expressed your wish to apply for asylum either to the Greek police while being in detention or to the employees of the Reception and Identification Service in the Greek islands or in the camp of Fylakio at the Greek-Turkish land border. You can find more information on how to see on your documents if you have a willingness number here: https://www.mobileinfoteam.org/police-note-willingness.
In case you have a willingness number and your asylum claim hasn’t been fully registered yet, you can find the web portal here: https://apps.migration.gov.gr/selfregistration/login.
Read the full article in English and French HERE
Fires reported in Moria area and in Molyvos, Lesvos
Moria White Helmets reported on Sunday of another fire that broke out behind zone 11 (jungle). The firefighters have been called and are at the location. Everyone is trying their best to put out the fire. The self-organised group intend to hold some training in basic fire safety for people stuck in the overcrowded hotspot.
The day before, another fire was deliberately started outside a hotel in Molyvos. Media outlets report that this was the last of a series of attacks against the owner of the structure, who had expressed that he intended to rent his hotel out to host people on the move.
At the beginning of July, ‘an angry crowd of up to 500 residents of the area who were looking for me to lynch me and intentionally cause damage to my hotel unit, remained concentrated for hours and then moved to the port, where they found my car parked. that was literally looted.’
A testimony of the ‘game’ in Patras
He tries, that is, once over the two fences that delimit the port, to hide under the trailer of the trucks going to Italy. And it was just while “playing” yesterday that, when the truck was about to enter the ship, it was discovered by a private security officer patrolling the area.
The “rules of the game” are clear, when they discover you, the best thing you can do is to get out, hesitating only risks making the agents more angry, increasing your chances of being beaten.
Unfortunately, even if he followed them, luck was not on his side and, as soon as he pulled his head out from under the trailer, he received a kick just above the back of the head that made him slam his face violently against the concrete, breaking a tooth and damaging the other two.
Not content, and despite being confronted with what was clearly a minor — a child’s face resting on a six-foot body for a maximum of 50 kilograms — he pushed him against the cage where he was holding the dog that was accompanying him in the controls, a German shepherd who was barking angrily.
So, with a broken tooth, frightened and while he was still afraid that they would release the dog by throwing it at him, the boy was left free to go.
I want to leave this post without a conclusion, a little bit because I don’t have one to give either and a little bit because it’s just the result of a moment of anger and frustration, but above all because I believe that there can’t be a conclusion and that the only result it should have is to ask us the same question that too many times I have heard from the mouths of those who are experiencing the “game”: “Why?”. (Nello, No Name Kitchen volunteer)
ITALY
Arrivals
According to Interior ministry data, 258 people arrived in Italy over the weekend. Same data record 12,228 arrivals in 2020, updated to Monday morning 27th of July, which represent a high increase since last year (3,590), but lower than 2018 (18,358). The most represented nationalities are Tunisian (36%) and Bangladeshi (15%).
Lampedusa in critical conditions: who’s responsible?
Over the past week, Italian media reported of infighting among the country’s authorities over the responsibilities for the situation in Lampedusa, where the hotspot, of which one wing is still closed for maintenance, had reached 1,000 ‘guests’. The mayor is threatening to declare a state of emergency on the island, if national authorities don’t increase their actions towards Lampedusa. As Mediterraneo Cronaca points out, the large influx of autonomous arrivals on the island is caused — among other things — by the inaction of the Italian coast guard, which systematically refuse to intervene by intercepting vessels spotted on arrival. Also, the continuous hindering of humanitarian rescue missions also stop them from taking people at sea to different ports.
Over the weekend, 520 people on the move have been transferred to Sicily. The photos of the coast guard and guardia di finanza vessels packed with people for this transfer raises questions as to the regulations followed by Italian authorities, and about the safety of people on board, the very same reasons that prompted the seizing of the Ocean Viking only a few days ago by the same authorities.
Updates from Ventimiglia
From Kesha Niya:
Despite the committed efforts of some local residents to end our presence at the border, by erecting a fence two months ago, that has been sealing off the space that we previously used, we have been active on the border again since July 6th.
On July 6th and 7th, a 48-hour observation of the PAF (Police aux Frontieres) took place, which was organized by CAFFI (Coordination des Actions à la Frontière Franco-Italienne) and which was supplemented by the presence of lawyers and members of various NGOs. During these two days, the number of “push backs” taking place per day was 38 and 45. In the following days we observed a two to three times increase in the daily “push backs”. On Sunday July 12th we met as many people as never before, a total of 142. After that date, we met an average of around 100 people a day at the franco-italian border.
The number of meals served during the evening distribution in Ventimiglia varied between 40 and 120, but currently we meet around 70 to 80 people, almost all of whom live in the city on the street or on the beach.
Activists report on increasing problems with Italian authorities, which told them to stop distributing food in town.
Since neither party was able to show us anything written with a legal background, we continued with the meal distribution, which has since been accompanied by checks of our documents, as well as photos of the distribution and our vehicles, taken by the police.
Constant and aggressive checks by authorities who followed them in their activity at the border. Here, around 100 people per day are held in overcrowded spaces for up to 24 hours by French authorities, who refuse to take into account any health risk.
Kesha Niya activists also face other problems:
In addition, unknown people, who seem to be passionate about excrement, have come up with a completely new form of protest, with which we have not been confronted in the past.
Yesterday morning, [ when we arrived in ] the place where we are active at the border, excrement of unknown origin was spread on benches and walls that usually serve us well. We are impressed by the effort of one person to collect excrement and to distribute it in neat and tidy paths on humanitarian land.
After intensive cleaning, however, this is also complete and we will continue to be active, at the border and in Ventimiglia itself, despite the efforts made to decrease the humanity at and around this border.
As our expenses have increased recently, due to the complicated, Covid 19-related restrictions, such as an increased number of people, we would be happy to receive a donation or your personal support.
Self-managed camp against borders
The Casa Cantoniera Occupata di Oulx is organising a three day camp from Friday 31st of July to Sunday 2nd of August, with discussions, collective maintenance, walks, music and more.
For more info: http://www.passamontagna.info
BALKANS
Inadequate medical care in Sid
No Name Kitchen report that a young man whose legs were broken as a result of his attempt to cross the border into Croatia is not being given any medical support or follow up treatment. One leg was broken by the Croatian police, the other while trying to run away from the Serbian police. He was kept in hospital for only one day due to COVID-19 and has already lost 8kg since his release as he is not able to care for himself.
8,500 people stopped this year
The Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, who clearly has a limited grasp of international law, was pleased to announce that 8500 people have been prevented from entering Serbia this year and thus, conveniently, from attempting to claim asylum. There are currently 4,350 people in the reception centres. From the beginning of August, 10 specially trained Austrian police officers will join the Serbian-northern Macedonian border force near Presevo.
FRANCE
Volunteers needed in Paris
🚨 CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR TUESDAY, JULY 28 🚨
WE’RE COUNTING ON EVERYONE TO COOK THE MEAL AND ENSURE THE DISTRIBUTION! — Solidarité migrants Wilson
Updates on the current situation in Paris can be read HERE and HERE.
Fundraiser for Calais Tents
Hull Help for Refugees are running an online five week challenge to help raise money for tents in Calais. It starts on the 1st of August. For more info and to get involved look HERE.
EU
Report on push-backs in Europe available in multiple languages
Refugee Rights Europe published a report (in English, French, Italian, Croatian and Greek) titled ‘Push-backs and rights violations at European borders’, stressing how this illegal practice is a Europe-wide phenomenon which is being normalised by the refusal to address the problem at both national and EU level:
Several European states are actively carrying out pushbacks and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), which was established to ensure European integrated border management at the external borders, is regularly accused of supporting or enforcing these pushbacks. Most Member States turn a blind eye to these violations while the European Commission merely reminds them of their international and European obligations. Dangerously, pushbacks are being normalised amid a migratory situation depicted as a ‘war’ in which displaced people are primarily viewed as a ‘security threat’, rather than as rights holders.
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