GREECE: THERE IS MONEY HERE, THERE NO

Tags

Balkans, detention, exilés, Greece, minors

The Pagani detention center on the Greek island of Lesbos http://goo.gl/maps/FeMKO , was closed in 2009 following a joint struggle of exile and their supporters, and following numerous reports denouncing the unworthy conditions there.

In September 2013 a new detention center opened on the island, thanks to European funding.

An open center was also to accommodate unaccompanied foreign minors. It closed in December 2013 due to lack of funding.

Unaccompanied minors are from either locked up with adults in the new detention center, or left on the street when the center is full.

To follow the situation of exiles in Lesbos:

http://lesvos.w2eu.net/

 

 

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HUNGARY: AIDA REPORT

Tags

asylum, Balkans, exilés, Hungary

Through the Balkans, the exiles in search of Europe often enter the European Union by Hungary (or are reentering by a path Turkey – Bulgaria – Serbia – Hungary or Turkey – Greece – Macedonia – Serbia – Hungary). Country that will become the one in which they will have to apply for asylum under the Dublin III Regulation if they choose to seek asylum. So this is where that other European countries will return them under this Regulation.

Written by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the AIDA report (Asylum Information Database) describes procedures and reception conditions, and emphasizes the development of the detention of asylum seekers, which concerns a quarter of them (26 %) and almost half of single men (42%).

You can download here the AIDA report (in English).

 

 

SERBIA: A NON-FONCTIONNAL ASYLUM SYSTEM

Tags

asylum, Balkans, exilés, Serbia

The director of the Centre for assistance to asylum seekers declares to the newspaper Blic that the Serbian asylum system is not functional. The number of asylum seekers rose sharply (2055 in the first quarter of 2014 against 5065 for the entire year 2013). The number of places in reception centers has been doubled, but it is to go from 250 to 500, which is totally undersized. The procedure does not work. In 2013, only 4 people were granted asylum applications for 5065. No one who has filed an application in 2014 has been recognised as refugee.

French article on the blog Serbie droits humains:

http://serbie-droitshumains.blogspot.fr/2014/04/2055-personnes-ont-demande-lasile-au.html

 

Banja Koviljaca, reception center for asylum seekers, March 2012.

 

GREECE: ABUSE AND IMPUNITY IN THE POLICE

Tags

Balkans, exilés, Greece, human rights, police

A report by Amnesty International denounces uncompromising violence by the Greek police, impunity enjoy their authors, and the culture of impunity that this generates. If migrants are a particularly vulnerable target, this violence is also exerted against other marginalized groups such as homosexuals, but also against demonstrators and journalists covering demonstrations. The report also discusses the links between the police and neo-nazi party Golden Dawn, and police practices leading to violations of human rights, for example in the framework of “Operation Zeus hospitable“, which consists in controls racial profiling and foreign mass arrests.

You can download the report here.

 

GREECE: NEW REACTIONS TO RETENTION BEYOND EIGHTEEN MONTHS

Tags

Balkans, detention, exilés, Greece

The European Council on Refugees and Exiles, the Greek Council for Refugees and the Greek Association Aitima challenge the Greek government about his recent decision to maintain foreigners in detention centers beyond eighteen months if they refuse a proposal for voluntary return or they may hide. This decision violates European legislation (Directive “return” 2008), which sets the maximum imprisonment for eighteen months duration (which in itself is already huge, and huge when you consider that these people who have committed no offense).

In English on the website Infomobile:

http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2014/05/08/ecre-gcr-and-atima-urge-european-commission-to-call-for-a-immediate-withdrawal-of-the-decision-on-more-than-18-months-detention/

http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2014/05/09/minister-urged-to-stop-detention-of-migrants-beyond-18-months/

and French on Okeanews:

http://www.okeanews.fr/20140509-grece-viole-les-directives-lue-duree-detention-migrants

together with an article on the criminalization of migration in Greece:

http://www.okeanews.fr/20140506-criminalisation-migration-en-grece

 

SERBIA: GOVERNMENT SINGS ITS VICTORY OVER “FALSE ASYLUM SEEKERS”

Tags

asylum, Balkans, European Union, exilés, Serbia

It was a requirement of the European Union in exchange for the removal of the requirement for Serbian citizens to obtain a visa for a short stay in the Schengen area: Serbia was prevented from leaving its territory persons coming to ask asylum in EU countries, such persons together being referred to as “false asylum seekers”. This agreement was made ​​in violation of fundamental rights of the persons concerned, be it to leave any country including his own or those guaranteed by the Geneva Convention on Refugees.

Chairman of the Commission on visa-free regime can therefore boast publicly reduction “false asylum seekers“. As a bonus, he asks Germany, which has already expelled thousands of Roma from Serbia and Kosovo, and has added Serbia to the list of safe countries of origin (which means the processing of applications for asylum under an accelerated procedure) to reduce the monthly allowance paid to asylum seekers and even shorten the procedure.

French article on the blog Serbie – droits humains:

http://serbie-droitshumains.blogspot.fr/2014/05/reduction-des-faux-demandeurs-dasile.html

 

AMNESTY STORIES: AT THE EUROPEAN UNION’S BORDERS

Tags

Balkans, border, Bulgaria, exilés, Greece

Amnesty International launches a series of multimedia reports, entitled Amnesty Stories, by a topic about the borders of the European Union, which scans clearly different aspects of European policies. We just regret a video report which is lost in the clichés and the effects of staging (diction dramatized commentary, night scenes, passages in black and white, evil smugglers, migrants victims), and so misses the subject.

http://stories.amnesty.fr/?utm_source=emailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2014-05-03-AIStories_1&utm_term=site-lien

 

GREECE: NEWS ARRIVALS, NEW DEATHS AT THE BORDER

Tags

Balkans, border, exilés, Greece

On May 1, a boat which left from of Egypt with one hundred and forty seven exiles on bord is in trouble and sending out an SOS when it is between Malta and Greece. A tanker rescues and brings them in Greece.

On May 2, a boat carrying about sixty exiles launches SOS near the Greek island of Samos, located near the Turkish coast. The passengers were transferred to the mainland, Alexandroupolis.

http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2014/05/02/147-refugees-saved-between-malta-an-greece-transferred-to-athens/

On May 2 the bodies of two exiles are found in the delta of the Evros River at the border with Turkey. With the construction of a fence on a portion of the border and strengthening controls, exiles take more risks in crossing the river.

http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2014/05/02/two-migrants-dead-in-evros-delta/

On May 5, two small boats were wrecked near the island of Samos. Thirty-nine people were rescued thirty-two died.

http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2014/05/05/two-migrants-dead-and-30-missing-after-boats-capsize-off-greece/

http://goo.gl/maps/e4FGP

 

BOSNIA: LUKAVICA DETENTION CENTER

Tags

Balkans, border, Bosnia-Herzegovina, detention, exilés

Crossing the Balkans to the European Union, the exiles generally avoid Bosnia–Herzegovina. Going through the country does indeed adds only additional difficulties and borders. The asylum procedure is not functional and integration prospects virtually nil, and exiles may be confined in detention indefinitely without having the possibility to exercise their rights. A readmission agreement with Serbia allows returning such of them who went there. Under these conditions, several protest movements were carried out inside the detention center of Lukavica, the only one in the country.

This is confirmed by the testimony of an exile detained in Lukavica and returned in Serbia, published on the blog No Border Serbia (in English):

http://noborderserbia.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/testimony-detention-in-bosnia-deportation-to-serbia/

 

 

GREECE: NEW INTERPELLATION FROM AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Tags

Balkans, border, European Union, exilés, Greece, human rights

In a new report published on April 28, Amnesty International looks at the push-back operations of exiles at the Greek-Turkish border, based on two years of collecting evidence. It also questioned the role of the European Agency for surveillance of external borders, Frontex, in this situation of violation of human rights.

Noting the routine nature of these violations and the lack of response of the Greek authorities to stop them, the association asks the European Union to take sanctions against Greece and Frontex to stop its land and sea operations at the Greek-Turkish border.

The report “Greece: border of hope and fear” can be downloaded here.