AYS Daily Digest 9/9/19: In Tuzla, a growing number of sick children, exhausted and wounded people on the move
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Migration, Digest, Detention, Europe, Refugees

CYPRUS

6554 people had asked for asylum in Cyprus as of June of this year, according to the official statistics. However, they expect a rise in arrivals by the end of the year. The asylum system has a backlog of 14,000 asylum applications and the Cypriot government has reportedly already asked for the EU’s assistance in relocating at least 5,000 migrants based on bilateral agreements.

GREECE

1752 people arrived to Greece last week, Attika Human Support reports. On Lesvos, 25 boats arrived since last Monday Sep 2 to Sunday Sep 8 carrying 949 people.

Over the weekend, 486 people arrived from Turkey on the Greek islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos.

1,577 people were transferred to mainland from Lesvos. Moria still has more than 10,000 people staying there, approximately 3,420 of them in the Olive grove.

Many are facing a wide range of problems, among them financial support.

747 people are registered as unaccompanied minors in Lesvos.

1,168 are in Kara Tepe, and 44 people are placed in thee so called ‘pre-removal centre’ in Moria. Iliakhtida has 664 people and Pikpa 79.

MALTA

Detained on the south of Malta

The detained asylum seekers who are staying at the closed centre in the south of Malta started protesting. From inside the fenced courtyards with barbed wire, groups of people were reportedly heard shouting “freedom”. It’s the second protest inside the center in a week. The detention is practiced on the official grounds that the people must go through medical checks before they are moved to various European countries that agreed to host them.

According to the testimony of a person inside the facility, the living conditions inside the centre are really poor; people feel abandoned. left to themselves, with out information and living great uncertainty about what will happen next.

‘THE BALKAN ROUTE’

In collaboration with the Croatian police, the Bonian authorities have organized a coordinated action to identify and prevent smuggling connections across the route, particularly in the area of the western part of Bosnia and Herzegovinna. During their activities, they report that they have documented the smuggling of at least 315 people that the smugglers charged more than a €1,000 in order to get them across the border. The Croatian side is allegedly doing a follow up on the contacts working in the same neetwork from the Croatian side fo the border.

ITALY

4 men, originally from Ghana, were reportedly involved in a very bad accident in Destra Volturno, while they were going to work, Csa Ex Canapificio Caserta reports. 3 of them were killed and one is wounded, known by all as Sisco, and is now in the Pinetagrande hospital.

The Movement of Immigrants and Refugees of Caserta is shocked by what happened, they have published that they are doing everything to find out the identity of these workers and support their families.

FRANCE

Evictions underway

More evictions are ahead for those in the north, it has been reported from several sides. Activists report that the next one is taking place in the Belgian port city of Zeebrugge, with use of drones and police on horseback.

According to activists on the ground, people in the area are on a sort of alert, many have left, “others got up very early in the morning, and the day centre of Secours Catholique, that usually opens in the afternoon, opened from 8 am to shelter people, but nothing happened, apart from the usual daily harassment of refugees by the police.” CRS are aroud Calais, and reportedly new places in the detention centre of Coquelles were made available, according to the Auberge des Migrants.

Over 800 people are sleeping in or around the gymnasium in Grande Synthe (Dunkirk), including many families with young children and unaccompanied minors.

SWEDEN

Twelve people escaped from the Migration Agency’s closed deportation facility (förvar) in Märsta, outside of Stockholm, the night until Sunday. They locked themselves into a room and blocked the door, before they managed to run away from the building. According to the daily paper Dagens Nyheter at least seven people were found and brought back to the deportation camp by the police.

Those who escaped were all facing deportation and it is very likely that the upcoming, forced, returns was the reason why they ran away. A spokesperson for Moderaterna (liberal/conservative party and the second biggest in Sweden, after the Social Democratic Party) took the chance to stress the need of more surveillance, saying that people are kept in detention for a reason, the paper Expressen reports.

ICELAND

Unannounced deportation in spite hunger strike

For the last 18 days an Iranian asylum seeker by the name of Amin has been on a hunger strike to protest his deportation. He hoped that his case would be reviewed and his deportation cancelled. In these 18 days, his health has been becoming worse and repeatedly doctors would refuse to evaluate his condition. Refugees in Iceland found out that he got arrested and was kept in a cell over night. He was then deported.