AYS Daily Digest 8/5/19: Deportation straight to danger, violence and humiliation — widely practiced by Europe
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Migration, Digest, Deportations, Europe, Refugees

GREECE

Proactiva Open Arms is still being prevented from delivering roughly 20 tons of material donations to Greek islands.

SLOVENIA

Report of collective expulsions

Processed under the readmission agreement, many people were denied their right to asylum procedure by the Slovenian police, still conducting systematic expulsions to Croatia under the guise of the readmission.

Threats, violence, abuse of power and denial of basic rights has became a common practice in other border police stations, collective expulsions to Croatia are happening daily with the knowledge and support of high police and government officials despite high risk of further violence and theft done by police in Croatia.

A report was written by the Slovenian activists, documenting the continuing unlawful police practice at the border between Croatia and Slovenia.

Read about it in AYS Special: Report on illegal practice of collective expulsion on Slovene-Croatian border

AUSTRIA

Deportation warning

We remind once again that a deportation in reportedly scheduled for 16 May from Vienna to Lagos, Nigeria.

The activists warn people who might be concerned to be aware the police will search for people at their known home addresses. Police raids are also common at shops, clubs, restaurants, barber shops etc., popular meeting points of African communities.

They report that most recently, people get picked up just one or two days before the scheduled deportation charter flight so there’s no time for protest or similar actions.

FRANCE

Help needed in Grande Synthe

Raids have been the main cause of the ongoing damage to the camp in Grande Synthe, at least twice a week — tents and clothes are destroyed and taken away, and now allegedly also food.

In the last few weeks, dozens of Kurdish families and many children have joined the mostly Pakistani community there and the groups supporting these people need help.

They are looking for:

Hygiene Products — Shower Gel, Shampoo, Shaving Foam, razors, Combs, Toothbrush, toothpaste, Towels

Blankets

Tents

Floor Mattress



Clothes: Children’s clothes from zero to five years old in good condition.

Adult clothes sizes S, M and L in good condition and clean.

Dark color jeans or joggings

T-shirts, pullovers, socks, underpants

Walking shoes or basketball, priority sizes: 42, 43 and 44

No female clothing is currently needed.

Bring all you can contribute to L’Epicerie Solidarity on Thursday and Friday (10 am / 12 pm / 6 pm) and on Saturday Morning (10 am-12 pm).

Address: 9 rue des Platanes, Coudekerque-Branche next to the old church of Saint Pierre (close to Dunkirk).

If you would like to join the volunteer teams, contact them.

Care4Calais is asking for help in donations to support those fasting in Calais area:

Ramadan is hard for the Muslim refugees in Calais and across Europe. Many are sleeping in the rough, living in the woods or in abandoned buildings. Few have the facility to cook. We are doing all we can to help make this time a little brighter but we need your help. We need volunteers to come and share their Ramadan by working with Care4Calais, and lots and lots of DATES — for when the refugees break their fast. If you can donate or bring over dates please get in touch with clare@care4calais.org, or you can donate to help us buy them

GERMANY

European Council criticizes deportations from Germany

“Methods that cause a suffocating feeling” and the squeezing of genitals need to be prohibited.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, as police beatings during deportations happen on a regular basis, the newest report concludes.

The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has published the report on its ad hoc visit to Germany carried out from 13 to 15 August 2018.

Among other recommendations, they state that it is crucial that no person is removed from Germany while appeal proceedings that have a suspensive effect are still pending before a court; this should be verified in practice by means of a “last call procedure”.

They seem to be critical of the practice of late or even last-minute notification of returnees of their impending removal on the day of their scheduled flight. We have written many times about the practice of night deportations, including those expelled under the Dublin agreement, even when there was no documentation for it and for example Croatia was tacitly accepting families to its Reception centre in Zagreb, unaware ad unprepared and — not asking questions on how and why it happened.

Persons at risk of self-harm and/or suicide or with mental health problems should undergo a comprehensive medical assessment, the report adds. Moreover, the existing complaints mechanism should be made accessible and effective in practice, including by providing adequate information to returnees on how to make a complaint. This, of course, is far from being practiced and many are still struggling to receive full and clear information on a process that concerns them.

Find the full report here, while the official answer is available here.

“It takes as long as this video to drown.” It’s a campaign video of the German Satire party “Die Partei” for the EU parliament elections in collaboration with Sea-Watch.