AYS Daily Digest 16/06/21 — Demonstration Thursday for regularization in Naples
By: Ellen Elias-Bursac
Tags: Italy, Digest, Protest, Migrants, Refugees

Human traffickers sentenced to prison in Ethiopia//Twenty steps to protect people at sea//People lodge complaint with European Commission against Greece

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Jun 17 · 10 min read

Graphic credit: Movimento Migranti e Rifugiati Napoli, via Melting Pot Europa

FEATURE

Protest in Napoli for regularization

There is a protest on Thursday organized by Movimento Migranti e Rifugiati di Napoli for emergency temporary residence permits that would provide a pathway to permanent status for migrant workers. Current residency permits for workers tie people’s residency to a work contract, which left many without any access to necessary services during the pandemic and economic crisis when many lost their jobs. The amnesty measure the Italian government passed in 2020 was never enough because it only helped people in the agricultural sector, even though foreign workers are also the backbone of housekeeping and other industries, as well as other exclusionary aspects of the bill. You can sign their appeal here and register for the event here.

People without papers have difficulty accessing basic services such as healthcare, including COVID-19 vaccines. The province of Campania just began vaccinating foreigners without residency permits, even though there are thousands of people there in need of vaccines. As the people from MMRN said, it makes no sense to engage in nationalism because vaccine transmission does not ask for someone’s paperwork. Even this expansion of access does not encompass all people and only covers those in specific legal situations. Lack of vaccine access for people in precarious situations, including people on the move, has been a continent-wide problem and unequal rollout threatens people’s fundamental rights.

Even those eligible for legal status under existing regulations have had difficulty doing so. An applicant who made a request for Special Protection directly to Napoli Police Headquarters was rejected because the police claimed that they needed to apply for a residence permit first. Now, The Court of First Instance ordered the Napoli Police to receive requests for Special Protection directly, not just under special circumstances. While this will hopefully open up more opportunities for people to receive protection, the fact that the Court had to cut through such a bureaucratically convoluted process speaks to the ways the Italian government wants to discourage people from getting protection.

So many people have been shut out of the legal system because of convoluted bureaucratic processes, the termination of work contracts, or other circumstances outside their control. That is why there needs to be a pathway towards legalization immediately.

ETHIOPIA

Smuggler sentenced to 18 years in Prison

Welid, an Eritrean who extorted thousands of people traveling through Libya, was found guilty of smuggling and sentenced to prison in Ethiopia. An accomplice was sentenced to 16 years.

Witnesses testified that Welid ran an operation where people would arrive in Libya, only to find that the fees were much larger than what they had agreed to. If they could not pay, they were tortured. There were also many cases of sexual violence although the court refused to allow testimony about those experiences. However, there is still work to be done if justice is to be served, as the court seems amenable to letting Welid go on “good behavior” and there is a strong possibility that he could bribe his way out of serving. Many victims are also unhappy because they think the sentence is too short.

Welid was an associate of Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam, who was sentenced to life in prison in absentia after he escaped custody earlier this year. His easy escape gives people little hope that the others will serve out their prison sentences in full.

SEA

Twenty steps to protect people on the move

Amnesty International, ECRE, and Human Rights Watch released a plan of action outlining 20 action items that could protect people on the move passing through the Mediterranean. Many of these proposals seem obvious, but European governments have dragged their heels when it comes to implementing them.

Some of the steps would improve safety on the Mediterranean, for example by increasing search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean instead of blocking NGOs — the few groups that do so. Other steps tackle outside factors affecting safety at sea, such as the role of the Libyan Coast Guard. The document recommends limiting cooperation with the Libyan Coast Guard and making further aid contingent on improvement in treatment of people on the move.

The document also suggests establishing a mechanism that would assign rescue ships to a safe port instead of sending people back to Libya or stranding them at sea for days on end.

The proposals are ambitious and would save lives, but sadly, it is unlikely that the EU will adapt them. You can read the full document here.

The organizations highlighted that it is Europe’s “collective responsibility” to protect the lives of people at sea, which the bloc has failed to do. This year alone, 664 people drowned or went missing in the Mediterranean.

The release of this document was timed ahead of the next European Council meeting, which is on 24 and 25 June and will focus on migration policy.

Did the Vos Triton conduct an illegal pushback?

In yesterday’s digest, we touched on the saga of the Vos Triton, a merchant ship that rescued people at sea only to transfer them against their will to Libya. You can see a recap of the incident here courtesy of Sea-Watch International.

People are furious because the Vos Triton violated its obligation to protect people’s rights at several steps, first by acting too late in conducting the rescue then by sending them to Libya, which international law does not consider a safe port. Because the rescue took place in international waters, as confirmed by Italian state media, this pushback is highly illegal. Previously this year, the Vos Triton also rescued people on the move and threatened to take them to Libya but was averted because of protests on board.

Updates from the sea

Salvamento Maritimo saved 43 people northeast of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. The people were taken to safety at Arrecife.

The rescue ship the Nadir is attempting to help a boat with 86 people in distress. Unfortunately, the ship is too small to transport people to safety, and Maltese authorities are attempting to send people back to Libya.

There are still hundreds of people on board the rescue ship, the Geo Barents. MSF has treated at least 40 people with serious health issues who need additional treatment on land. There are also 91 unaccompanied minors on board. All these people need a safe harbor now!

GREECE

People lodge complaint with European Commission

Refugee Support Aegean is representing three people on the move who filed a formal complaint with the European Commission against Greece’s failure to properly implement the Asylum Procedures Directive. The complaint highlights how Greek law is not in line with EU standards.

Translation: “a young Afghan couple happened to be on the same plane to Dusseldorf as us. Nineteen months in Moria Camp, accepted, everything legal. Requesting asylum in Germany. Today: ‘we are in a new camp, they make beds and even give us blankets.’ That was probably not the case in Moria 2.0.”

The couple in the tweet above are among the thousands of asylum seekers who left Greece in the first half of 2021. The number of people on the move who left Greece was double the number that arrived according to official government figures.

However, this number did not occur through organic means. The number of arrivals was so low because the government pushes people back at sea and does not let people land in Greece. Departures are high in part due to arbitrary deportations which might increase due to questionable legal decisions, such as the designation of Turkey as a safe country for returns. People are so afraid of pushbacks that many hide in the woods once they arrive on Lesvos, such as the group who contacted Aegean Boat Report yesterday and wouldn’t go to the authorities until the night was over for fear of being deported.

Even though Greece officially named Turkey a “safe third country,” an official report made by the EASO and obtained by Refugee Support Aegean said that Turkey is not a safe country for people on the move. The report outlines systemic failures of the Turkish asylum system, including arbitrary standards and poor living conditions. However, caseworkers in Greece, even those from EASO, often recommend Turkey as a safe third country and Europe has passed smoothly over the fact that Greece designated Turkey a safe country.

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA

Calls for aid along the Balkan route

SOS Balkanroute is supporting volunteers along the Balkan route that provide people with a little bit of help and dignity. One of them, Nihad, writes:

Thanks to the almost traditional and constant support from SOS Balkan route, I can supply daily refugees in my town of Tuzla who live here longer or make a short stop on the way. Sometimes it’s clothes, sometimes it’s shoes or groceries, but sometimes with the money we can also put a sign of inclusion. This is how we paid some not only haircuts at the barber shop, but also monthly memberships at fitness centers, but also trips around Tuzla. It’s important to us that people on the move feel decent treatment.

Learn how you can help SOS Balkanroute continue their work here.

No Name Kitchen is continuing their program called Vouchers 4 Food, which would give people a voucher to spend at the local market on food and hygiene products. The program has already helped over a thousand people through the lockdowns, helped support local businesses, and provided people with some choice in their meals. Learn more about the program here.

CROATIA

More horrific pushbacks

Photo credit: Asylum Protection in Serbia

Activists in Šid shared this awful image and story of the boy who experienced it. They met a boy from Iraq who is 15 years old and experienced a brutal pushback from Croatia. The police set their dogs on him and he was unable to defend himself.

ITALY

Italy-Slovenia readmission agreement

Political rumblings from both sides indicate that Italy and Slovenia are looking to reestablish “readmission” (aka pushback) procedures now that the pandemic has subsided. As ICS pointed out, there is actually no legal basis for a readmissions agreement because the common framework such agreements refer to, the Italo-Slovenian agreement of 1996, was never actually ratified by Parliament. Any agreement would also have to comply with EU law, which prohibits pushbacks, and as recently as January 2021 the Court of Rome has said that informal readmissions are illegal.

Unfortunately, just because no formal agreement at readmission is forthcoming does not mean that illegal pushbacks will not continue, as they did during the height of the pandemic.

Fisherman saves 24 people at sea, receives thanks

Vincenzo Partinico, a fisherman from Lampedusa, saved 24 people at sea last weekend. “I would do it again a thousand times,” Partinico said. The NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans posted on social media and the head of mission, Luca Casarini, called the fisherman personally to thank him.

Besides the 24 who were saved by the fisherman, Lampedusa has seen hundreds of other arrivals this week and the mayor of the island called on the national government and the EU to help as the hotspot is over capacity.

FRANCE

Support Solidarite Migrants Wilson

Solidarite Migrants Wilson is looking for food donations so they can continue preparing meals for people. If you are based in Paris, find out how you can help here.

More evictions in Calais

This morning, another eviction happened in Calais, as is customary every 48 hours on the border. The police seized people’s tents and personal belongings, violating their fundamental human rights.

The number of people in Calais and Grand-Synthe has increased drastically since the end of winter, many of them families with children. The awful conditions the French government has subjected them to only reinforce that for many of them, the only option seems to be continuing towards the UK. Often, volunteer associations are the only help people have against the deprivations of nature and abuses of French authorities.

GERMANY

Privacy concerns about Bundestag rule change

From now on, the German government will store information about applicants’ asylum modifications, including sensitive information about why they were prosecuted, in the central foreigner’s register. This means that theoretically, information about a person’s sexuality, history of political activism, religion, or ethnic group is only protected from employers by a bit of blacked-out text that the government claims it will implement. Privacy activists say that this is not enough and could endanger people who were fleeing dangerous circumstances in their home country.

EU

EASO to be replaced

The Council is ready to negotiate a package with the European Parliament which would replace the European Asylum Support Office with a European Union Agency for Asylum which would have more powers. Previously, southern Mediterranean states threatened to block this proposal until the EU agreed to the rest of the New Pact, including a redistribution mechanism, but now said they would adopt parts of it “as a gesture of good will.” The southern states are still against provisions of the EUAA’s regulation that would monitor and evaluate the situation in their countries, which they see as pressure from northern European states to deport people that move north after landing in southern Mediterranean countries.

WORTH READING

This paper from the Norwegian Institute for Social Research outlines selection criteria when it comes to refugee resettlement.

This page provides an overview of asylum in the EU using data visualization, for a slightly different presentation than you may have seen before.

Find daily updates and special reports on our Medium page.

If you wish to contribute, either by writing a report or a story, or by joining the info gathering team, please let us know.

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Daily news digests from the field, mainly for volunteers…

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