AYS Daily Digest 27/1/20: “Member States shall not hold a person in detention for the sole reason that he/she is an applicant”
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Balkans, Migration, Digest, Greece, Refugees

AYS Daily Digest 27/1/20: “Member States shall not hold a person in detention for the sole reason that he/she is an applicant”

The new Greek law goes against Directive 2013/32/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council / More than 484 people saved across the Mediterranean during weekend / Serbia: physical punishment and degrading access to Afghans from security and KIRS / Still no proper local shelter available for those sleeping rough in Grande-Synthe / &more news Are You Syrious? Follow Jan 28, 2020 · 10 min read

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Tight deadlines and firm decisions are at the core of the new Greek law that is being disputed across Europe. “The Greek government plans to deport 10,000 migrants this year,” the international papers write. That would be five times as many deportations as the Greek authorities have carried out since the refugee deal between the EU and Turkey was signed in March 2016. However, the Greek authorities are taking far too long to process the current applicaants for asylum, and therefore the camps across the Aegean islands are far over their respective capacities. The people there can barely survive in the past week.

According to some statistics, 76 percent of Greeks criticize their government’s refugee policy.

The new stricter law gives many options for extending detention. Still, the rejected asylum seekers are allowed to appeal any decision. Judges then have to decide on the application. Until then, the asylum seekers must remain in the closed part of the camp on Kos. Read more on the legal issues faced by thousands on the Aegean islands in our previous News Digest edition.

‘Member States shall not hold a person in detention for the sole reason that he or she is an applicant in accordance with Directive 2013/32/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on common procedures for granting and withdrawing international protection’.

As the laws change, the fights and protests continue and dissatisfaction grows. One of the increasingly popular moves is to hit the NGO and activist sector.

The enormous financial interests and participation of NGOs in the political parties are pervasive, says one of the local articles commenting on the much needed, though not ideal, work of the individuals and organizations, who are present to assist or take on a huge amount of the work required to fulfill some of the many needs of the concerned population.

For the small host communities on the Aegean islands, but not only there, international aid workers and volunteers have changed the make-up of local society. They have driven up rent prices, overcrowded local houses and, often coming for just a few days or weeks, shown little sympathy to those unable to fly back home. There is widespread local resentment towards the white saviour complex of volunteers who can fly home and leave behind this tragic situation, whilst locals remain caught up in the crossfire between European politics and mass human migration.

However, the vilification of NGOs is for the most part based on a series of incorrect assumptions and a lack of information, Jacob Warn writes. The greatest mistake in the Greek island, as well as some other cases, seems to be the failure to establish positive and open communication with local communities.

There are many underlying issues in each of the countries affected by similar issues. One of the biggest problems is the political one, which stems from the corrupt system we should be careful not to become supporters of, as some people tend to defend everything that is local, including ultimately the current state of things; a result of the lack of political will. The only way still seems to be, as Warn said, to work together with local community and NGOs, who share a vision of dignified living in order to find an end to a bankrupt system that has brought misery to hundreds of thousands of local people and asylum seekers.