AYS Weekend Digest 29–30/5/21: Protesting the new camp on Samos
OHCHR report on Search and Rescue // AIDA Report on Croatia // In Greece: no vaccines for the most vulnerable // UK: Disquieting insight into the story of Esparto 11 // Recommended reads and more
FEATURED REPORTS
“Go ahead, kill yourselves!”
Stating what many previous reports and testimonies already confirmed, the recent OHCHR report on Search and Rescue and the protection of migrants in the Mediterranean explicitly confirmed that detention centre guards urged desperate and suicidal people in the centres to “go ahead, kill yourselves”….
Their officials also received information regarding multiple instances of depression, self-harm and attempted suicide within immigration detention centres, as well as talking about the role of Frontex in the whole operation.
The report features information on detention conditions in Malta, detailing people in overcrowded spaces with lack of adequate sanitary facilities and medical supplies, including poor prevention of COVID-19. Malta thus adheres to the practice that all rescued persons within the Malta SAR region should be disembarked in the nearest place of safety as provided for in the pre-amendment legislation. Not having signed the 2004 amendments to the SAR and SOLAS Conventions, the Maltese authorities tell the people they have three options: return to Libya, continue to Lampedusa or continue to Malta and be arrested upon arrival.
It also documents how people were prevented from continuing to Malta, on how women and girls were sold to human traffickers after they were returned to Libya, and how all the suffering takes place away from any public scrutiny, care or attention:
When they rescued us they gave us hope… but then they dumped us here. Here we are still treated like criminals, only here everything is invisible.
Read the entire report “Lethal Disregard” here.
The past year in Croatia
Asylum Information Database (AIDA) country report on Croatia draws on information gathered through the practice of the Croatian Law Centre, data and information provided by Administrative Courts, the High Administrative Court, the Croatian Employment Service, IOM, UNHCR, attorneys at law and relevant organisations, including Are You Syrious.
Apart from the appalling, still present reports on the border violence, meticulously reported by the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN), reports on deaths of people on the move were also documented. In the past year there were records of dead bodies found floating in the Mrežnica River, and the Korana River, near Karlovac. Sadly, such and other unreported tragedies still continue to happen, along with a number of reported instances of expulsions from police stations across the country, with people going missing, unreported pushbacks, and mistreatment of people asking for asylum.
Find the entire report (on 2020) here:
GREECE
Protest on Samos
On Sunday 30th May, a peaceful protest was organised to demonstrate against the opening of the new refugee camp in Samos, and the EU asylum seeking process in general.
The Pan-Samian Peace Committee arranged a march from the location of the new camp, all the way to Vathy — a two hour walk in total — with the intention of spreading awareness about these issues. It was also an opportunity for the community in Vathy to voice their frustration with the proposed plans of the new camp.
Whilst information about the new camp remains scarce, we believe the closure of the Vathy camp is the next step in further marginalising the refugee community, moving the problem out of sight as opposed to providing a meaningful solution.
We want to add our support to the refugee community and the Pan-Samian Peace Committee, advocating for a more humane asylum seeking procedure as well as the halting of new camp policy and a more meaningful alternative to detention.
No vaccines for the most vulnerable people
As Greece boasts fewer COVID-19 cases ahead of the start of the tourist season, many of the restrictions are being lifted and life is getting back to a more active one, but not for everyone. As we reported earlier, people inside the refugee camps are being left out when it comes to freedom of movement, but also when it comes to healthcare and protection. Following that infamous practice, it is reported that while 0 vaccines were distributed and given to people in Moria 2.0, the camp quarantine is currently full.
The local medical authorities have stated that the 36% increase in the number of coronavirus cases is due to the incidents in Kara Tepe — Moria 2.0, it is reported. A similar situation is in other camps, with no provision of COVID-19 vaccines:
Pushbacks continue, reactions fade
While documented illegal refoulements of migrants in the Aegean Sea multiply, and the Council of Europe, amongst others, calls for inquiries into the matter, Athens continues to deny and welcomes the drop in arrivals on the Greek islands.
As we and the BVMN fellow activists have reported extensively on this earlier on, and the mainstream media seems to be picking up on the subject more -read the latest piece by Le Monde here.
One of the organisations present in the area and reporting about this is Josoor. They are now in need of support:
More than ever, we need the support of donations if we are to continue with our work at this critical time. If we don’t get enough private donations and all grant providers and organisations we apply to continue to refuse us funding on the grounds of this Greek criminalisation campaign, we will simply cease to exist — and with us, the only organisation in Turkey focused on supporting pushback survivors at the European Union’s external borders.
Consider supporting them here.
Events
Moria — and further? With Jean Asselborn, Gerald Knaus and Isabel Schayani: What are the acute problems? What are the perspectives? What could a humane refugee and immigration policy look like?
ITALY
Kesha Niya team is looking for more people to join them!
“…as a lot of us are leaving in the next week(s) and more and more people on the move are arriving in Ventimiglia. In addition to our No Border work, we are currently also looking for people who would like to do PR and financial work.”
It is important that those interested are ready to stay for a minimum of one month. Feel free to spread this call with friends and reach out to the group for more info!
FRANCE
Refugee Info Bus are working with La Cabane Juridique / Legal Shelter and HRO — Human Rights Observers to deliver workshops that give practical information in multiple languages to displaced people at risk from police violence.
Our first workshop for the Eritrean community was delivered in French and Tigrinya, with written info in French, German and English. We explained what constitutes an act of violence, the rights and responsibilities of the police, how to identify different types of police and their arms and what to do in cases of police violence.
Police violence is a real risk for people on the move, and many more people could still benefit from this advice.
Lyon protests
Over 1500 people gathered in the streets of Lyon to protest far right and police violence, after Lyon has suffered a string of recent fascist attacks, Antifa International reported in a photo story:
SPAIN
Canary Islands: 58 people rescued
A boat with 58 people on board was intercepted after Salvamento Marítimo in Las Palmas received a notification of a suspicious echo, possibly a refugee boat, south of Gran Canaria. The boat was rescued while heading towards the Gran Canaria, the Emergency and Security Coordination Centre (Cecoes) announced.
AUSTRIA
Weekend for Moria
GERMANY
Arson in Blankenburg — groups from Oldenburg declare their solidarity with those affected
Solidarity without Borders Oldenburg collective, anti-racist group United Against Racism, and other activists in the area have published a media statement on the arson that happened on Friday night, saying that two incendiary devices were detonated in the Oldenburg branch of the Lower Saxony State Reception Authority in Blankenburg Abbey. One of them damaged a building that is currently inhabited by people.
To our great relief, no one was physically injured.
Last year there were three arson attacks on restaurants operated by migrants in the vicinity of Oldenburg in the Bremen area in Syke, Gnarrenburg and Ganderkesee, which can clearly be assigned to a series of right-wing attacks, the activists point out.
The attacks in Hanau, Kassel and Halle also show that right-wing violence still has its place in Germany. We are shocked and want complete clarification and consistency. — United Against Racism
UK
The hidden story of Esparto 11
As UK asylum claims continue to drop, those who have had “the luck” to be able to apply for asylum in the country are now facing a range of issues while waiting for their requests to be processed. “From Hammersmith to Huddersfield, Bradford to Luton, asylum-seeking families and individuals have been left without a penny by the UK Home Office and are going hungry,” London’s welcome initiatives warn.
Also, the waiting time for medical appointments to assess detainees’ torture claims grew to 21 days in August last year, it was reported by Independent Monitoring Board.
In the meantime, shock and disbelief at the stories of people who were on board the Esparto 11 deportation flight that left Stansted on 12 August last year are once again reminding people of the unprecedented move by the Home Office, and its consequences. “Accompanied by scores of escorts, just 14 asylum seekers would be pressed on board the 295-seat aircraft. Bound for Toulouse and Frankfurt, Esparto 11 would dump its detainees thousands of miles from home. It is not known what happened to the man who self-harmed in the toilet,” the Guardian reports. As they say, the story yields a fundamental question: why is the world’s fifth-richest economy so aggressively targeting a handful of at-risk people who arrived seeking sanctuary?
The chair of the parliamentary group on immigration detention believes the Esparto 11 revelations are so grave that Priti Patel “should consider her position in light of these shocking reports”.
Video summary and thread on the topic are also available here:
You can still sign the petition against the planned new detention centre for women at Hassockfield in County Durham:
EU
New UNHCR note & annex on externalisation
UNHCR has issued a note that “summarizes applicable legal standards and UNHCR’s positions regarding policies and practices which effectively serve to ‘externalize’ international protection obligations.”
ALGERIA
This morning, a boat with 11 people which left from #Achakar was intercepted by the Moroccan Navy. During the operation the boat capsized leaving one person in the water. Despite protests of the other travellers, the Navy left the scene and left the person behind in the water, Alarm Phone reported.
WORTH READING
- Irish search and rescue organization aims to raise £2 million to purchase a new civilian sea rescue ship:
- Overhaul of UK asylum:
- “The cruel method of deterrence must stop” — the German NGO Sea-Eye has rescued more than 400 people from distress off the Libyan coast in recent weeks. The Sea-Eye chairman Gorden Isler makes serious accusations of the EU in the RND interview. Frontex breaks international law (in German):
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