AYS Weekend Digest: 11–12/09/2021 NGOs and activists banned from Poland-Belarus border
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Humanrights, European Union, Digest, Refugees, Pushback

AYS Weekend Digest: 11–12/09/2021 NGOs and activists banned from Poland-Belarus border

Smuggler arrested in Libya / News from the ‘tent town’ in Sombor, Serbia / 22 MEPs call for Greek government to be challenged / Complex pushback from Samos, Greece / French Navy Channel Rescues / Myth-busting UK refugee numbers / Praise for ship captain Are You Syrious? 1 day ago·7 min read

LIBYA

Human smuggler Hajj Hakim was arrested on 12th September. Migrant Rescue Watch reported the arrest saying that MoJ Cyber Crime Unit in collaboration with Western Region Bureau of Investigation arrested Hajj Hakim from Egypt. He was reportedly involved in “human smuggling, torture and extortion of migrants.”

SEA

Reports of successful ocean rescues came from several organisations across the weekend.

MSF Sea reported 40 people were successfully rescued from a sailing boat by the Italian coastguard. Whilst Alarm Phone reports of a further 20 people who were in distress before being rescued from the sea between Tensamane, Morocco to Spain.

The ship Salvamar Denébola also performed a rescue of 10 men from a boat near Algeciras on 12th September.

Court case update

Lawyer Nicola Canestrini updates on the court case against sea rescue organisation Luventa,

“Italian court declared wiretapping of defense attorneys illegal… regarding alleged complicity in people smuggling ”.

GREECE

22 MEPs have sent a letter to the European Commission concerning the move by the Greek government’s reform bill to “reform the deportation and return procedures of third-country nationals”. The letter questions the legality of the action, asking:

“Does the Commission consider that, by dismantling these NGO activities, the Greek government is suspending the right to asylum, the preservation of legality for all return procedures, the prevention of deportations and the prevention of automatic, large-scale illegal detentions?”

“It’s time for European politicians to take off their blindfolds,”

The bold headline of the Aegean Boat report this weekend. It is important to note the report is based on information from the Turkish coastguard. The report goes on to describe the call for assistance from a group of 28 people, including a pregnant woman and someone with leg injuries. Their location on Samos was confirmed, but all contact (from three phones simultaneously) was lost 5 hours after first contact.

“The possibility that they had been illegally removed from the island seemed highly possible.”

The report goes on to describe a further incident. The Turkish coastguard reported helping a group of 25 people in a life raft. Through photos, this was confirmed as the same group. The complex story unfolds here.

Meanwhile, a message from people in a camp on the island of Leros, says that they are being denied enough food. “Some of us are very sick but they do not give us medicine.”

Whilst on the mainland, hundreds of people turned out for a demonstration in Thessaloniki in support of Afghan people.

Photographer @hoshangdollawri

SERBIA

Sombor

A ‘small town’ has been created outside of the reception centre, using tents and other equipment. Serbian NGO Klikaktiv’s field team spoke to people there on 11th September.

“Many people prefer to sleep outside, in the open air, in already persistent and dirty tents and in the woods than to be pushed into rooms where they literally lie and step over each other. There’s been such a situation in the reception centre for months.”

More than 13,000 people are in the centre and outside, many times the intended capacity of the centre.

The ‘tent town’ in Sombor, Serbia. Photo Klikaktiv

POLAND

The situation at the border area between Poland and Belarus remains complex. NGOs and activists have formed a group known as Granica Group, who are working together to report on when and where illegal pushbacks are occurring, and attempting to assist those in need.

Support and communication have been cut off from the border zone where people are trapped. Journalists and NGOs have been barred from the area, all except Polish government controlled TVP. “Why? It’s a propaganda broadcaster,” says Michał Kowalówka

This lack of access and general treatment of vulnerable people has resulted in a solidarity protest in Warsaw. On 12th September a group of people gathered outside the Ministry of Interior and Administration with signs and chants.

Franziska Grillmeier tweets the words of people who are trapped in the border area between Poland and Belarus.

“We have no more feelings. Nobody listens to us. We only talk to and ourselves and have been lying in the water and mud between the boundary for days #Polen and #Belarus .” “We urgently need medicine. We haven’t had anything to eat or drink for two days. A man from our group collapsed.”

SPAIN

El Pais reports on the sad story of a young person falling to his death. A further young person was injured when they both began to climb the cliff of Los Muertos, in Almería, from a boat which never fully landed. It is thought that both were 15 years old. The survivor is being treated in hospital.

FRANCE

126 people were rescued by the French Navy in the Channel. Several separate boats were assisted, two near Dunkirk and one near Calais. The people were handed over to the French border authority.

Tageschau reports that boat crossings have increased because security patrols have made crossings by ferry or tunnel on vehicles extremely difficult. The article reports 13,000 people have successfully reached the UK this year, despite the €62.7 million the UK has pledged to the French authorities to prevent crossings.

A video of French authorities removing tents from people in Calais was shared by Human Rights Observers.

The repeated clearing of tents and other belongings means, “each person is kept in precariousness and condemned once again to wandering”.

Solidarité migrants Wilson have an urgent call for volunteers to help with cooking, distributions and other activities in St Denis, near Paris.

GERMANY

Put your attitudes in practice

NGO Sea-Eye are calling on German voters to act in the forthcoming election with a helpful graphic of the policies of the different parties:

“In 2 weeks it’s #BundestagVote. We call on all our eligible supporters to vote in this election. For a policy that respects the human rights of every person — in Germany, the EU and at the European external borders, everywhere! Vote in solidarity with people on the run!!”

DENMARK

Bizarre support from the Danish democrats to the Croatian right wing

“The Croatian government is doing the right thing by stopping illegal migrants at its borders,” Rasmus Stokland of Denmark’s ruling Social Democratic Party has announced.

Stoklund declined to comment on the reports of illegal pushbacks and violent acts of the Croatian border authorities reported by numerous sources.

In contrast, on 12th September, a commemoration of people in Afghanistan was organised outside the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen, to “help honor the innocent lives and the struggle for freedom in ‘A Moment for Afghanistan.’”

UNITED KINGDOM

“No, there are not ‘record numbers’ of people seeking asylum in the UK.”

KentLive highlights the government figures which contradict the popular rhetoric that the UK is experiencing a ‘crisis’.

KentLive reports that the government and media have focused on the increased number of people crossing the Channel in small boats. These numbers have increased but only as a proportion of the total figure. The article is also keen to point out that “those making channel crossings are not breaking any law if they are crossing to claim asylum,”

Deported to Zimbabwe

29 year old Bruce Mpofu has told The Independent that he “fears for his life” following his deportation to Zimbabwe. Bruce was resident in the UK for 20 years but was deported on the basis of a crime he committed over 10 years ago.

This Twitter thread highlights the fears and realities faced by other people deported in July, who were ‘homeless and having to beg for food’.

Bruce is looking to legally challenge his deportation and has set up a Crowdfunder to help pay for the legal fees.

Bristol-based organisation Aid Box Community are calling for donations so that they can ‘step up and stand beside’ displaced people in the community. Their fundraising events have been restricted by pandemic rules.

GENERAL

Activist and editor of the German civil rights journal Bürgerrechte & Polizei/CILIP, Matthias Monroy reveals plans for biometric controls at all external European Union borders.

“All travellers will soon have to submit fingerprints and facial images…The European Union is paying almost one billion Euros for the expansion of its large migration databases.”

Author and Historian Marcus Reiker paid tribute to,

“ship captain and migrant solidarity worker Pia Klemp, a conductor on today’s maritime underground railroad. She refused a medal from the Mayor of Paris saying, “We do not need authorities deciding about who is a ‘hero’ and who is ‘illegal.’”

Ship Captain Pia Klemp

Here’s a fascinating interview:

“This week Begüm Başdaş talked with two Afghan women, Rada Akbar and Sediqa Fahimi, who recently had to leave Afghanistan after Taliban took over the control of Kabul.”

German NGO Seebrücke have made a toolkit to help you answer any difficult migration questions (in German).