AYS Weekend Digest 05–06.06.2021 — Denmark’s Cruel Policies Expose European-Wide Failure
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Digest, Refugees, Denmark, Migrants, Asylum Policy

AYS Weekend Digest 05–06.06.2021 — Denmark’s Cruel Policies Expose European-Wide Failure

Photos from No Name Kitchen and SOS Refugiados’ distribution campaign. Photo credit: No Name Kitchen

FEATURE

Criticisms of Denmark’s recent cruel laws expose European-wide flaws in the system

Denmark has been in the news recently because of its recent laws making its notoriously cruel asylum system even harsher. However, Denmark should not be treated as an outlier in Europe. Rather, its policies are just a more extreme version of Europe’s existing cruelties.

Some are pointing out that the Danish government’s decision that Syria is a safe place to return for some sets a worrying precedent that protection for people with refugee status is something temporary. On average, people need protection for 17 years, because conflicts do not end overnight and countries do not rebuild like magic. Even once someone may not need refugee status anymore, it is still cruel to rip them away from a family and life they have built in their new home.

Another Danish law that is under fire is the recent one passed by parliament that would send people to third-party countries while their asylum claims were processed. The UNHCR came out with a statement saying it “strongly opposed” this measure to externalize asylum.

The details of the law are not completely clear yet. For example, Denmark would have to create individual agreements with the countries it would outsource people on the move to, and there are no definite countries as of yet (although there is speculation an agreement with Rwanda is in the works). The Danish government justified this decision by saying it will save lives on the Mediterranean, through the questionable logic that people will learn they will be processed outside of Europe and not come. If the myriad other cruel ways Europe treats people on the move has not been enough proof that “deterrence” does not work, it is hardly likely this law will “work” either.

Denmark is not alone in its careless violations of human rights in the name of deterrence and eliminating pull factors. The same logic is also behind the EU’s new sea operation, replacing Operation Sophia, that will be based in eastern Libya where there have been no crossings since 2017. The EU claims that it will stop the mission immediately once it proves it’s becoming a pull factor, but it’s impossible to prove that — because those factors rarely, if ever, matter. That logic decimated Operation Sophia, led to the criminalization of sea rescues, and is now being used by Denmark to justify shipping asylum seekers to a third country to be forgotten.

If you want to learn more about the usage of deterrence in Europe as a whole, check out this helpful webinar from the European Society of International Law, happening this Thursday.

Denmark’s recent asylum decisions can be looked at in tandem with the situation on the Greek border. Greek border guards are using a sound cannon at the Greek-Turkish border in Evros. The device, mounted on an armoured car, is portable and emits sounds at the volume of a fighter jet along the border. Greek officials argued that they need the latest technology to prevent crossings at the border. However, human rights advocates are saying that the sound cannon is an example of torture. The equipment received lukewarm criticism from European officials late last week — criticism that is even more lukewarm when one considers how much the EU funds the Greek border.

However, the sound cannons should not be looked at in isolation, nor should Greece be the “enfant terrible” of European politics. This is just the latest tactic in persecution of people on the move, which is just as vile when done with high-tech torture as it is when it is couched in the rhetoric of law. The sound cannons are not just a loud machine but another part of the European apparatus to keep people on the move out, such as the Danish laws to send asylum seekers to a third country.

While physical brutality continues to be part of European border policy, the recent turn towards detached technocratic human rights violations is no less cruel. While individual countries have become the testing grounds for these policies, European policies as a whole have enabled this turn.

IRAQ

Turkish forces bomb Kurdish refugee camp

The Turkish army’s drone strikes killed several people in a camp near the Iraqi town of Makhmour. Witnesses on the ground say the strikes purposefully targeted a kindergarten. Erdogan had publicly threatened to bomb the camp, which the Turkish government claims is a recruitment base for the PKK, a few days prior. Unfortunately, Turkish government forces attacking Kurdish civilians in the area has been sporadic but common in the past few years.

SEA

SEA-EYE 4 detained…again

Italian authorities detained the Sea-Eye 4 again in Palermo after a 12-hour control. Their “violation”? They rescued too many people. The coast guard claimed that the ship’s rescue equipment was inadequate. Of course, rescue boats would not be overcrowded if national navies actually participated in rescue operations instead of leaving people to die.

Meanwhile, Admiral Pettorino, the commander of the Italian coast guard, went off-script during a speech and said that saving lives is a moral and legal obligation, calling on Italians to continue their thousand-year maritime tradition with morality. However, this rhetoric is clearly empty words as it is his coast guard currently detaining the Sea-Eye 4.

Rescue round-up

Salvamento Maritimo rescued a small boat with 37 people on board a few hundred kilometers off the coast of the Canary Islands. Those rescued included one baby.

Most of the people on board were from sub-Saharan Africa, although their port of departure is still unclear. Recently, more and more people are leaving for the Canary Islands from Western Sahara, which is worrying as there are no humanitarian organizations in the area.

Sadly, the news from Moroccan waters is less happy. AlarmPhone was contacted by a boat in distress with 45 people on board. Unfortunately, 15 died during the rescue operation by the Moroccan Navy, which survivors called “a disaster.”

GREECE

Another pushback from Lesvos

Aegean Boat Report (ABR) reported about yet another pushback case from Lesvos which occurred in late May. A group of 49 people landed near Panagiouda, then split up. One of the groups was picked up by the police, rounded up into a van, searched, beaten, then pushed back into Turkish waters by a Greek coast guard vessel. The second group was able to make it to the Mavrovouni quarantine camp. For more on this situation, including identifying footage and photographs, check out the reportage from ABR here.

Pushbacks in Greece are unfortunately nothing new, but the fact that Greek prosecutors will investigate them is. 15 prosecutors agreed to investigate the Greek Helsinki Monitor’s (GHM) complaint detailing 147 cases of pushbacks that occurred in 2020. The GHM also succeeded in exempting the Athens Naval Court Prosecutor from the initial investigation because of previous instances of biased investigation.

The Moria 6 have been unfairly accused of burning down Moria camp and face a trial full of legal irregularities and prejudices. Sign a petition to help them here.

SERBIA

Help No Name Kitchen!

No Name Kitchen is looking for donations to continue their Health on the Move project, which helps people on the move access necessary medical treatment they cannot normally get due to racial discrimination and medical neglect. Read more about the project, including how to donate, here.

ITALY

Food distribution in Trieste

Photo Credit: Lorena Fornasir

SPAIN

Updates from Ceuta

No Name Kitchen and SOS Refugiados were able to provide people stuck in Ceuta with food and basic needs thanks to generous donations. Read more about their work here.

If you want to learn more about Spanish migration policy, and how it led to thousands of people getting stuck in the North African exclaves and the recent event where thousands entered in a single day, check out this interview between Begüm Başdaş and Maria Serrano.

FRANCE

Victory in Paris

After protests by the collective Requisitions, 523 people were finally taken in by the state and will be giving housing. Most were people on the move. For four days and nights, the people were camping in Jardin Villemin, claiming their right to housing as guaranteed by French law.

This protest was able to succeed in part thanks to the tireless work of volunteers and solidarity workers. If you are based in Paris, you can contribute to valuable work by volunteering with Solidarite migrants Wilson. They need people to help with cooking and food distribution.

AUSTRIA

300-strong protest in Graz

200 to 300 people met in Graz over the weekend to protest the murderous border policy. Their demands included the end of deportations, deportation centers, the decriminalization of sea rescue, and other solidarity demands. The protest snaked through Graz and stopped in front of OVP headquarters and the police detention center.

There will be another demonstration next Friday.

GERMANY

German nun faces fine for giving women church asylum

Germany is continuing to ramp up persecution of church figures that take advantage of the legal loophole of church asylum to help people on the move. A nun, Juliana Seelmann, was forced to pay hundreds of euros for giving shelter to two women escaping sexual trafficking in Italy. Hers is the latest case in several situations where German authorities have punished church figures for sheltering asylum seekers, ignoring years of legal precedent.

Despite its criminalization of solidarity workers and disregard for the lives of people on the move, Germany is still attempting to play the moral high ground. Its embassy in Afghanistan tweeted its “concern” about violence against civilians, particularly Hazara people. However, since 2016, Germany has deported over 1,000 people to Afghanistan. Its words, when the state is so ready to deport people and fine anyone who tries to help them, mean nothing.

UK

Home Office silencing people on the move through retaliation

People housed in the Napier Barracks have been told that if they speak out about conditions in the camp, which are so bad that it’s even been deemed illegal by the High Court, it will affect their asylum applications. This is a clear violation of people’s freedom of speech and a form of harassment. People that have spoken to the media have been singled out:

They were told by staff that there is a full list of people in the camp and that names have been circled who are known to have spoken to journalists[…]

Among other details about the inhumane conditions in the camp, it’s worth mentioning that known victims of trafficking were sent to the barracks despite assurances to the contrary. There were also fears of a new COVID-19 outbreak after conditions had not been changed since the last one, and a new, more contagious variant is spreading in the UK.

This is one of the latest examples of the Home Office restricting the rights of people on the move, as this article outlines.

Instead of providing people with actual dignified living conditions, the UK is spending money on a new drone for the RAF to track alleged “people smugglers,” but which will really be used to criminalize ordinary people trying to cross the English Channel.

Right to Remain created these series of videos outlining how to get a positive UK asylum decision in several languages. Learn more here.

GENERAL

UNHCR subject of protests, people say it disregards humanity

People on the move in camps from Egypt to Jordan have protested against the UNHCR several times. One of the most infamous examples was the Zaatari camp riot in 2014. A recent study outlined this phenomenon. They found that people were dissatisfied with systemic issues within the aid organization, such as lengthy resettlement processes, as well as staff attitudes. Many staff are condescending and unprofessional, often treating people on the move in a dehumanizing fashion. The UNHCR defended itself by saying it was doing the best it could with limited resources, but limited resources do not explain dehumanizing treatment by staff.

This is a global issue that goes beyond the UNHCR itself, and all of us involved in the aid sector should consider our relationships with this work and the people we work with.

WORTH READING

This story follows a group of people on the move in Athens training in martial arts to blow off steam. Across the world, martial arts have been a valuable source of community and empowerment for people in precarious situations, as seen by this story about Yazidi women in Iraq.

This article tackles the rise in British nationalism, which encompasses xenophobia and anti-immigrant policies and much more.

This article tackles common myths about the “vulnerability” of people on the move and seeks to highlight the agency and actions of women on the move.

WORTH ATTENDING

The Refugee Festival Scotland will be taking place later this month with plenty of outdoor, in-person events. Learn more about the festival here.

WORTH WATCHING

Last week, Border Criminologies hosted a conference called “Landscapes of Border Control and Immigration in Europe.” The panels were recorded and can be accessed on their YouTube page.

Find daily updates and special reports on our Medium page.

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