BULGARIA: VIOLENCE AT THE BORDER AND IN RETENTION

Tags

Balkans, border, Bulgaria, exilés, human rights

The blog Bordermonitoring Bulgaria reported testimonies from exiled of violence during pushbacks operations at the border (pushback of persons without examining their situation and their possible application for protection is in itself illegal), including children and pregnant women. Also testimonies on violence in detention centers.

http://bordermonitoringbulgaria.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/child-beaten-at-eu-border-brutal-push-backs-continue-in-bulgaria/

Human Rights Watch also recently published a report on what it calls “containment plan”, using both the pushbacks at the border and confinement in detention to deter and dissuade asylum seekers and migrants, especially from Syria.

Download the report here.

 

GREECE – ITALY: EXILES INTERCEPTED AT THE BORDER

Tags

Balkans, border, exilés, Greece, Italy

There currently fifteen years, exiles from the Middle East and Asia (Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan …) came into Europe through Turkey and Greece. This country was undergoing economic expansion, and part of the economy was operating through moonlighting. It was therefore possible to make a little money to continue the road through Greek ports in the west of countries, mainly Patras to Italy. The economic crisis in Greece and the strengthening of controls in the Greek and Italian ports disrupted this scheme, and the exiles often prefer to cross multiple Balkan borders to access a Europe that they hope more hospitable.

Some continue to try their luck from Patras and Igoumenitsa, near the Albanian border. The Italian association Medici per Dritti Umani ( Physicians for Human Rights ) has published a report on the conditions of their interception in Italian ports and their return to Greece, which are occasion for multiple violations of their rights.

You can download the report (in Italian) here:

http://www.mediciperidirittiumani.org/pdf/low_rapporto_Medu_2013.pdf

 

Igoumenitsa, camp in the forest, above the harbor entrance, March 2011

GREECE: PASSAGES AND NAUFRAGES

Tags

Balkans, border, exilés, Greece

Exiles continue to arrive in the Greek islands near the Turkish coast.

http://goo.gl/maps/APQRh

Adding arrivals on different islands, the Infomobile website counts 737 people for the first half of April. Including those considered “smugglers” based on criteria of objectivity questionable.

http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2014/04/15/new-arrivals-in-greece/

Official statistics show 2863 arrivals in the first quarter of 2014, and 41 suspected smugglers arrested.

http://infomobile.w2eu.net/files/2014/04/statistics_arrivals150414.pdf

There are those who come and those who can not. Shipwreck on April 16, a small boat carrying sixteen Syrian refugees shipwrecked, killing eight, five missing and three survivors.

http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2014/04/16/shipwreck-near-izmir-another-8-refugees-found-dead-up-to-now-yet-5-missing/

On April 15, a young man was killed by gunfire Coastguards pursuing his boat. According to authorities, he was a smuggler, which in the official language means that it does not matter.

http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/one-dead-in-cost-guard-pursuit-in-the-aegean/

 

BULGARIA: SITUATION OF SYRIAN REFUGEES

Tags

Balkans, Bulgaria, exilés, refugees

In the latest weekly bulletin of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, an interview with Iliana Savova, Director of Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, on the situation of Syrian exiles. It addresses the push back at the border, reception conditions as well as the continued detention of asylum seekers and the criminalization of irregular migration.

To download the latest ECRE weekly bulletin (in English):

http://www.ecre.org/component/downloads/downloads/875.html

 

 

BULGARIA: UPDATE ON ASYLUM SEEKERS

Tags

asylum, Balkans, Bulgaria, exilés

Following a visit to Bulgaria in March, Amnesty International reported on the situation of asylum seekers. This report confirms the difficulties of access to the country and push-back practices at the border. It records and difficulties of access to information and to the asylum procedure, depending on their nationality, the use of detention of asylum seekers, the unworthy reception conditions since their number increased without corresponding resources mobilization, although improvements have been since last autumn.

Amnesty International concludes by recommending that other European states abstain from returning asylum seekers in Bulgaria.

You can download the report here (in English).

 

Sofia, nearby the reception center for asylum seekers, abandoned buildings are squated by homeless asylum seekers – August 2011.

TURKEY: COUNTRY PROFILE FROM GLOBAL DETENTION PROJECT

Tags

Balkans, detention, exilés, Turkey

This presentation of the detention of foreigners in Turkey comes after the signing of a readmission agreement with the European Union, facilitating the return to Turkey of people who have stayed there over the previous five years, and adoption under EU’s pressure of a new legislation on immigration and asylum. On asylum, the new law maintains the geographical limitation clause that Turkey applied before, and which provides that the authorities take into account only asylum claims of European nationals. Turkey applies a system of temporary protection for Syrian refugees, while nationals of other countries must apply for asylum with the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), and must then if the response is positive wait for resettlement in another country. These asylum seekers are assigned residence in some cities for the duration of the procedure , and may be detained if they leave this city without permission or try to leave the country illegally.

The new legislation is largely based on a compilation of earlier texts. Thus, people should always cover the cost of their deportation. The maximum period of continued detention is set at one year, the situation of persons imprisoned indefinitely until they can pay their tickets should disappear.

Minors may still be detained, except when seeking asylum. In fact, access to asylum procedures for people in detention remains difficult. Numerous reports have documented over the last twenty years, a worrying situation in detention centers, in terms of access to information and rights, abuse and detention conditions.

Cooperation with the European Union is also reflected in financial support for border control and the construction of six reception centers for asylum seekers and a new detention center.

The detention of foreigners may be in detention centers (of which there is no official list available, Global Detention Project has identified 14), police stations and gendarmerie, transit areas, or in areas affected to detention in circumstances. The document describes the conditions in the various identified centers.

To read the country profile (in English) :

http://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/europe/turkey/introduction.html

 

Kumkapi’s detention center in Istanbul.

CROATIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR REFUGEES OF ENTRY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Tags

Balkans, Croatia, exilés, refugees

 

The breakup of Yugoslavia moved nearly a million people, refugees of a republic on the territory of another over the conflict.The entry of Croatia into the European Union has changed that the people from Croatia who were refugees mainly in Serbia, are supposed to be able to return to Croatia if they wish, and thus lose their refugee status.

But the administrative procedures are particularly complex, the material conditions of their return are far from guaranteed, particularly with regard to recover their housing, the inter-ethnic tensions remain high in some areas, such as Vukovar, and the situation is even more complex for certain groups such as the Roma.

Article of Le Courrier des Balkans (in French):

http://balkans.courriers.info/article24655.html

 

 

 

SERBIA: ANTI-ROMA RACISM

Tags

Balkans, exilés, Roma, Serbia

By removing visa requirements for Serbian citizens for a stay of less than three months in the Schengen Area, the EU requires Serbia to prevent them from coming to seek asylum on its territory. The main targets are Roma.

Currently circulating in Serbia a particularly hostile video telling them to leave the country where they would be foreigners. Where to go, when the European Union, making grand statements and devises strategies for the inclusion of Roma, refuses to give them asylum and chase them from its territory?

Article in French in Le Courrier des Balkans:

http://balkans.courriers.info/article24670.html

 

GREECE: COUNTRY PROFILE FROM GLOBAL DETENTION PROJECT

Tags

Balkans, detention, exilés, Greece

Global detention project aims documenting the use of detention as a response to global migration.

The profile for Greece has been updated. After a general description of the Greek policy both at the border and within the country, the text discusses the legal framework, which becomes more repressive over time, as well as violations of national and international law, and the plight made to certain categories such as minors and asylum seekers. It describes the transition of detention centers first generation, which are gradually closed or renovated, to be replaced by centers divided into three categories, pre-removal, screening and first reception. Finally, it describes the main detention centers and facilities of the country and the conditions there.

This description confirms human rights violations and conditions of inhuman and degrading detention documented elsewhere.

The profile in English:

http://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/europe/greece/introduction.html

 

BULGARIA: SITUATION OF ASYLUM

Tags

Balkans, Bulgaria asylum, exilés

A report updated in November 2013 and published by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee in the framework of AIDA (Asylum Information Database) program, which gets quite comprehensively the situation of asylum seekers and refugees, procedures, reception conditions, integration, confinement, also addressing the dysfunction, barriers and human rights violations.

The report (in English).