#Libyan asylum-seekers in Italy

[poliphoon]

Giorgia Meloni’s misguided love affair with Libya

It is a long story behind the confession. As Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of Italy, says she is being probed, her words have an air of rarity about them. More so in Italy, Pinocchio’s country of chronic liars, where fibbing is almost an institution. The probe, Ms Meloni says, relates to Italy’s sudden release and repatriation of a Libyan general accused of war crimes. This is serious because…

[mariacallous]

EU's immigration showdown | The Guardian

This week’s summit could toughen the EU’s anti-immigration stance

Spain’s prime minister sees immigration as an ethical and economic necessity, but he’s a lonely voice amid European leaders seeking to regain control of their borders

Last week, Pedro Sánchez told Spain’s parliament that his government wanted to make it easier for newcomers to settle in the country, describing migration as not just a question of humanity but essential to economic growth and prosperity.

“Spain needs to choose between being an open and prosperous country or a closed off, poor country,” the centre-left Spanish prime minister said. “Simple as that.” With the birthrate plunging, he said immigration is the only realistic hope of avoiding decline.

Most of Europe is in the same demographic boat – but you certainly wouldn’t know it. An anti-immigration mood is sweeping Europe’s capitals and Sánchez’s plea for not just compassion but cold economic pragmatism is, increasingly, an outlier.

Last Friday, Italy formally opened two centres in Albania where it will hold men intercepted in international waters trying to cross from Africa to Europe, part of Rome’s far wider programme to deter migrants from making the journey in the first place.

Under the terms of a controversial deal criticised by human rights groups, up to 3,000 men a month – no women, children or vulnerable individuals – will be taken to the centres while their asylum requests are processed in Italy. The first 16 arrived today.

On Saturday, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, announced plans to temporarily suspend the right to asylum as he vowed to cut irregular migration to “a minimum” and “regain 100% of the control over who enters and leaves Poland”.

The move, amid accusations that Belarus and Russia are actively helping thousands of mainly African and Middle Eastern migrants travel to the Polish border as a form of “hybrid warfare”, was sharply criticised by more than 60 human rights NGOs.

And on Monday, in the strongest signal yet that the steadily hardening sentiment in EU capitals around irregular migration has been heard loud and clear in Brussels, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, wrote to EU leaders.

Ahead of an EU leaders’ summit later this week, where migration will be high on the agenda, von der Leyen called for “innovative ways” to curb illegal immigration, citing Italy’s deal with Albania as a possible model to follow. She also said it was time for the bloc to explore the possibility of “return hubs” outside the EU.

Not long ago, EU governments were condemning the UK’s Rwanda scheme. But in May, 15 of them wrote to the Commission calling for a “paradigm shift” on migration, including detention centres where rejected asylum seekers could be held.

Von der Leyen’s letter “confirms a new consensus on offshoring asylum applications, and around tougher approaches”, says the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent Jennifer Rankin, with Germany – once relatively liberal on migration – “decisive in tipping the balance”.

As a Guardian editorial noted, Europe’s existing precedents for “outsourcing” migration are not reassuring. A controversial agreement with Tunisia and joint work with Libyan authorities have been widely condemned by human rights groups.

Irregular arrivals on the central Mediterranean route may be down two-thirds in 2024, but mounting evidence – including a recent Guardian investigation – has documented serious human rights abuses, with no mechanism even to claw EU money back.

As Andreina De Leo and Marco Gerbaudo, two Italian researchers, say in this opinion piece on the Italy-Albania deal, offshore processing is seen by many as a more humane alternative to simply dumping migrants in developing countries indefinitely, as the UK’s Rwanda scheme proposed.

An EU member state, after all, “remains responsible for examining asylum claims and resettling recognised refugees”. Many may also see offshoring as more humane than “throwing millions of euros at north African countries such as Tunisia … and Libya”.

But as De Leo and Gerbaudo argue, the Albania scheme may not be more humane in practice, could be hard to replicate at EU level, and is potentially incompatible with EU law. Solutions are desperately needed, they say.

They point out that EU could always try “investing in effective access to asylum and dignified reception and integration within the EU”, because, as its successful integration of 4 million Ukrainian refugees showed “the EU migration challenge is not a numeric issue”.

[head-post]

EU discusses deportation centres to tackle migration

European countries will discuss on Thursday “innovative” ways to increase deportations of irregular migrants and rejected asylum seekers, including controversial plans to set up special return centres in non-EU countries.

The rise of nationally-oriented parties in several European countries has helped put migration issues at the centre of the attention of the interior ministers of the 27-nation bloc, who are meeting in Luxembourg ahead of a meeting of EU leaders later this month.

Whether the bloc should explore “the feasibility of innovative solutions for the return of migrants, in particular the concept of return centres” will be discussed at the ministers working lunch, according to a background note to the official agenda.

The meeting comes just months after the EU adopted a sweeping reform of its asylum policy.

The long-discussed package, which will come into force in June 2026, tightens border procedures and requires countries to accept asylum seekers from “frontline” states such as Italy or Greece or provide money and resources. But more than half of EU member states said it doesn’t go far enough.

In May, 15 of them urged the European Commission to “think outside the box” by calling for the creation of centres outside the EU where rejected asylum seekers could be sent while awaiting deportation – a plan to be discussed on Thursday. Jacob Kirkegaard, an analyst at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank, told AFP:

Pressure is on accelerating deportations.

A growing number of governments are keen to show they are trying to “get rejected migrants off the streets one way or another,” he also added.

Centres for migrants

There are no detailed plans yet for how the return centres might work in practice. A diplomatic source said one option would be to ask EU candidates, over whom the bloc has some leverage to ensure acceptable standards, to host such centres. But sending migrants to third countries is fraught with ethical and legal issues, which could prevent the idea from becoming a reality.

Another diplomatic source warned that legal due diligence and an assessment of basic human rights would be needed to test the feasibility of any such project.

Last year, less than 20 per cent of the nearly 500,000 people ordered to leave the bloc were returned to their country of origin, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office. Repatriation is notoriously difficult – it is costly and requires the co-operation of the countries to which the migrants need to return.

According to border agency Frontex, the top three migrants who crossed the EU border illegally this year include Syria, Mali and Afghanistan – countries with which Brussels has no or at best difficult relations.

In addition to return centres, Austria and the Netherlands have proposed legislative changes that would punish asylum seekers who are ordered to leave the country but fail to do so, which experts say could open the door to detentions.

“Hotspots” outside the EU

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who currently holds the presidency of the EU Council, advocated the creation of “hotspots” outside the EU to process asylum claims and called for a regular “Schengen summit” to discuss border control issues. Hungary’s PM also reiterated his country’s request to opt out of EU migration policy – an approach the Dutch government is now considering.

Some point to Italy’s deal with Albania to hold and process migrants in that country as a possible way forward. But other agreements the EU has made with Tunisia, Libya and other countries, providing aid and investment in exchange for help in deterring the arrival of migrants, have proved highly controversial and faced legal challenges for subjecting migrants to abuse.

Just last week, two non-governmental organisations filed a lawsuit against Frontex, claiming that the support it provided to the Libyan coastguard to detect boats carrying migrants violated EU rules.

Numbers are down, but that means nothing

Frontex claims that unauthorised border crossings from the south have fallen by 39 per cent in 2024 compared to 2023.

The route from North Africa through the central Mediterranean to Italy is the most commonly used by migrants, but 65 per cent fewer people used it this year than in 2023. However, the figures for individual routes do not show a decline in all cases.

The second most popular route is the eastern Mediterranean, where migrants arrive in Greece. Arrivals have increased by 57 per cent in the first eight months of this year, with trafficking networks using speedboats and other aggressive methods to thwart the coastguard.

This is despite the supposed success of a declaration between the EU and Turkey signed in 2016 that was supposed to stem the flow of irregular migrants from Turkey to the EU.

The Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is the third most popular and has more than doubled this year. More than 25,500 migrants from countries such as Mali and Senegal landed here at the end of August, according to the United Nations.

Read more HERE

[hummussexual]

Chloe Haralambous 21 Apr, 2022

While European politicians celebrate the triumph of their “European values” by offering asylum to refugees fleeing Ukraine, Greece is using Middle Eastern and South Asian refugees to carry out extrajudicial deportations.

In a report published last week, asylum seekers who crossed the Greco-Turkish border said they were stripped, beaten, robbed and forced to wade through chest-high freezing water back to Turkey. In a new sadistic twist on the European border regime, the squadrons who attacked them were not made of Greek border police alone, but of recently arrived refugee men. They were conscripted on the promise of asylum in Europe.

No one should be surprised. The securitisation of Europe’s border has long depended on the violence and humiliation meted out to those seeking its protection. For years, and especially since the Arab Spring, the European Union has shaped its borders to deflect rather than welcome people seeking safety in Europe.

Notwithstanding European leaders’ occasional and highly mediatised gestures of humanitarian compassion, “European solidarity” with regards to migration has primarily consisted in member-states banding together into border defence forces stronger than the sum of their parts, such as Frontex.

In order for Europe to keep out refugees, someone must break the law. Traditionally, the EU has paid others to commit the human rights violations that keep Fortress Europe standing. In the Central Mediterranean, the 2017 Italy-Libya deal used EU funding to transform Libyan militias into coast guards holding back refugees trying to reach Italy. In the Aegean, the 2016 EU-Turkey agreement ensured that refugees attempting the passage to Greece were intercepted and returned to Turkey by Turkish border forces. While these agreements came at immense financial expense, they had the benefit of keeping both the EU’s territorial integrity and its “European values” intact.

Today, that balancing act seems increasingly untenable.

In 2020, Turkey’s threat to stand down as Europe’s border guard exposed the continent’s dangerous gamble in vesting its faith, political reputation and financial resources in a third-party state as the custodian of its borders. Reliance breeds vulnerability; Turkey’s periodic belligerence has dispelled Europe’s colonial illusion that it can count on the continued obedience of its neighbouring countries, and today it falls increasingly on the EU’s own member-states to do the dirty work necessary for vouchsafing Fortress Europe.

In Greece, the right-wing government has answered Ursula Von der Leyen’s call to act as “the shield of Europe;” it accuses journalists and NGOs of spreading “fake news” when they reveal the human cost of its success in halting refugee arrivals. While on the Evros land border, refugees are tortured and sent back across the river, in the Aegean sea crossing, the Coast Guard systematically pushes back refugees by shooting at them and puncturing their boats, or confiscating their engines and leaving them to drift into Turkish waters. Those who do make it to the Greek islands are forced onto life rafts and towed back towards Turkey. No official record exists of the (likely) thousands of people who made it to Europe and were illegally sent back.

The sickening practice of forcing groups of refugees to push back other refugees first appears as yet another attempt to impose onto brown people the most unsavoury tasks of border control, shifting the burden of liability involved in them. But individual refugees are neither plausible nor efficient proxies the way third-party states are.

The invention of these squads speaks to far more sadistic interests. It aims to break the very spirit of those whom the border regime systematically abuses, forcing them into what Primo Levi called “the grey zone:” a tortuous zone of ambiguity that corrupts the purity of the opposition between good and evil, oppressed and oppressor that makes solidarity and resistance possible.

There is an abject perversion in the fact that these refugee commandos were promised not money but asylum: a right typically granted in recognition of vulnerability and need of protection. Now, this right is proffered as a reward for services rendered to Europe in the form of wanton brutality against others in need of protection.

To the refugees seeking safety at its shores, Europe shows the true extent of its cruelty and says, “if you want to be admitted, you, too, must taint yourself with our brutality.” Forcing its victims to turn perpetrators, this bargain robs them even of “the solace of innocence,” the comfort of fellowship, the dignity of moral and political belonging among the ranks of the oppressed. In the process, Europe creates the “bad immigrant” it will later call upon to justify the violence of the border regime. In the peculiarly clarifying dynamics of the border, that “bad immigrant” is nothing more than product of the European who despises him. 

Each season of migration brings forth fresh horrors at the border. And each time, NGOs, activists and refugees turn to national and European tribunals to condemn the actions of the border police and demand that the European Commission impose sanctions on the governments of border countries. Implicitly, we keep faith that the EU’s “fundamental values,” must, in the end, prevail. In the absence of an alternative recourse, to relinquish that faith seems too horrifying a prospect. But it should be clear that any feeble gesture of admonition it might now issue against Greece will be nothing more than cosmetic.

The violence committed on the Greek border is no exception to European border policy, but an integral part of its design. It, too, is a reflection of “European values.” It is no wonder that, with rare exception, no European leader has dared to condemn it.

The past weeks have exposed the EU’s hypocrisy as member states have swiftly established safe and legal pathways to asylum for people escaping the horrors in Ukraine even as they continue to imprison, denigrate and assault those fleeing its former colonies. Now, the EU is at a new impasse: it can take the opportunity to truly make good on those “fundamental values” of freedom, equality and respect for human dignity by expanding that reception system to include all those seeking asylum at its borders. Alternately, it can dig deeper into the contradictions in which it is currently ensconced, resorting to more brutal, inhumane and humiliating measures of externalisation and deterrence to keep out black and brown refugees.

It is a cycle of violence that is as old as it is limitless. Whatever its “fundamental values” claim, the European Union has proved a device for violently walling in the rich world against the poor; in that sense, the new Europe carries on the racism and classism of the old. For those who now find themselves under bullet fire at Greece’s borders, the conflict may look different, but the violence of Europe will feel all too familiar.

Chloe Haralambous is a member of Sea-Watch, coordinating maritime rescue missions in the Central Mediterranean migration corridor, and co-founder of the Mosaik Support Center for Refugees and Locals on the Greek island of Lesvos. She is also a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

[rightsinexile]

News on Countries of Asylum

Global

Deadly practice of migrant ‘pushbacks’ must cease: UN Special Rapporteur

How vaccine passports could imperil LGBTQ+ refugees

Africa

Experts call for increased inclusion of refugees in health, education, sports in Africa

BOTSWANA: As universities begin to offer scholarships, refugee students look forward to a more secure future

ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia commended for efforts towards inclusive education policies for refugee children and the youth

MOZAMBIQUE: Grave concerns for forcibly disappeared Rwandan asylum seeker 

UGANDA: 

Over 950 refugees from DRC cross into Uganda amid rebel activities in North Kivu province

COVID-19 poses a major threat to the life and welfare of refugees in Uganda

Americas

CANADA: 

Oversight of Canada Border Services Agency requested in case of Egyptian asylum-seeker facing deportation

Government plans to increase the number of protected persons admitted to Canada from 23,500 to 45,000 in 2021

What the Biden administration can learn from Canada’s private refugee sponsorship program

COLOMBIA: Colombia reopens border with Venezuela after 14 months

USA: 

US suspects 4,000 cases of fraud in Iraq refugee resettlement programme, with freeze of refugee programme extended indefinitely 

The Biden administration ends former administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols

US ends policy limiting asylum for gang and domestic violence survivors

US border officials are using a new surveillance app to collect and store information on asylum seekers before they enter the US

The 2021 Spring Regulatory Agenda signals major change to immigration, asylum, and border policy

Asia

BANGLADESH: 

Rohingya Muslim refugees injured in protests on isolated island during UNHCR visit

Concerning conditions reported on remote island of Bhasan Char, housing thousands of Rohingya refugees

UNHCR improperly collected and shared personal information from ethnic Rohingya refugees with Bangladesh, who relayed to Myanmar

INDIA: Over 50 shanties housing Rohingya refugees destroyed in a fire, leaving hundreds homeless

JAPAN: Government withdraws controversial immigration bill after mounting public criticism, following death of an asylum-seeker in detention facility

Asia Pacific

UN shared Rohingya data without informed consent: HRW

AUSTRALIA: 

Immigration detention centres on Christmas Island pose a COVID outbreak risk and should be closed - Australian Human Rights Commission

Asylum seeker family who spent nearly three years in detention on Christmas Island are reunited

130 people still being held in Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby and 110 people on Nauru

Australia's foreign affairs department urged to retract a report, amidst claims of inaccuracy and deportation of Tamil refugees

Anger mounts as Australia declines to fast-track plans to save Afghan translators, who worked with Western troops, from Taliban retribution

Plight of Tamil family fuels concern over Australia asylum rules

NEW ZEALAND: Discussions taking place to resettle refugees from Australia’s offshore regime in New Zealand

Europe

Efforts to stop people from entering the European Union illegally are being ramped up with experimental new digital barriers

DENMARK: 

Amendment to Danish law seeks to forcibly transfer asylum-seekers to third countries for processing

Hundreds of Syrian refugees conducted a sit-in demonstration in front of the Danish parliament, protesting measures aimed at returning them to Syria

Denmark’s Syrian refugee residency move reflects shifting policies across Europe

FINLAND: City of Lahti seeks to evict the only reception centre for asylum seekers with mental health problems in Finland

FRANCE: New app launched in southern France to help asylum seekers with their administrative status, accommodation, health and everyday needs

GREECE: 

Greece should not consider Turkey 'safe' for asylum seekers, rights organizations say

Greece plans to send back asylum seekers from Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Bangladesh who arrive from Turkey

Greek plans for refugee camps, including concrete walls and drones, decried

Draconian prison sentences handed to four Afghan youths found guilty of starting the fire that destroyed the Moria migrant camp on the island of Lesbos

ITALY: 

Fishermen in the Sicilian fishing town of Mazara del Vallo targeted by Libyan Coast Guard when rescuing migrant boats

Italy under pressure to reduce arrivals from Mediterranean, as they record a nine-fold increase in arrivals to shore in the past two years

Around 700 people arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in one day in June, as reception centre reaches full capacity

IRELAND: Housing policies exclude travellers, migrants and asylum seekers

SPAIN: At least three people are dead and four missing after a migrant boat carrying nearly 50 passengers capsized in Spain's Canary Islands

UK: 

Asylum in the UK, by numbers

UK high court strikes down pandemic protections for refused asylum seekers

Plans to impose a ‘good faith’ requirement on immigration lawyers, strongly attacked by Law Society, Bar Council and Immigration Law Practitioners Association 

Temporary ban on accepting new asylum seekers into Scotland could last for years

Conservative-run Kent County Council planning to sue government over number of child asylum seekers in the local authority’s care

Problems with new cash cards, issued through the Home Office, leaves thousands of asylum-seekers at risk

MENA

IRAN: Government formalises access to banking services – including debit cards, for Afghan refugees

LEBANON: 

Lebanese protesters attack Syrian refugees and demanded they "go home," as voting for Syrian election takes place

Vital aid needed for around 1.5 million Lebanese and 400,000 migrant workers living in increasingly critical conditions

[ailedhoo]

Disturbing report by Sally Hayden on the conditions at Libyan detention centres for refugees and European Union deal with the Libyan authories in contributions to the suffering faced by asylum seekers.

[mubashirnews]

EU hands Libya coast guard boats ahead of migration summit

The EU commission gave the Libyan Coast Guard the first of five new EU-funded patrol boats to help prevent migrants and asylum seekers from fleeing to Europe. The handover on Monday (6 February) in Italy by EU commissioner Oliver Varhelyi to Libya’s minister of foreign affairs comes just days ahead of an EU summit on migration. A Libyan patrol boat which had chased a boat of migrants into…

[viralhai]

Last year, more than double the number of migrants in Italy, World News | ViralHai News [ad_1]

The number of migrants landing on the coasts of Italy has doubled over the past year as the economic crisis in Tunisia fueled fuel in boats across the Mediterranean Sea, Interior Minister Luciana LaMorgesse said on Saturday.

The minister said that between August 2019 and the end of July, 148 percent arrived in Italy on an annual basis, the minister spoke at an annual conference on 15 August.

LaMorgesi said most of the arrivals were "autonomous landings, harder to manage ... with smaller boats and dinghies", rather than salvaged at sea and brought to shore. Many of them land on Italy's southern Mediterranean island of Lampedusa.

Also read: Italy Approves Outpatient Use for Abortion Pill

According to data from the ministry, over a period of 12 months, just over 5,000 people were rescued, mainly by vessels operated by NGOs.

More than 80 percent of the migrants who arrived in Italy from Tunisia and Libya showed that the Tunisia crisis halted the numbers while attempting treacherous crossings.

Lamargis told reporters, "The numbers are not very high - they are certainly higher than last year, but we must put them in context: Tunisia is in a deep economic, social and political crisis."

"We have left entire families to arrive in the Italian territory."

Also read: France, Germany, Italy threaten arms embargo to Libya

Over the years Italy has been Europe's main route for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and other migrants and the western coast of Libya, a main departure point for African migrants who hope to reach Europe.

A peak was reached between August 2016 and July 2017, when around 183,000 migrants arrived in Italy.

The numbers began to fall, but have picked up in 2020 due to an Italian-led effort to disrupt the smuggling network and support the Libyan coast guard to intercept boats.

The head of the anti-immigrant League party Mateo Salvini, Lemorges' predecessor, took stern action against charity ships that rescued migrants at sea, closed Italian ports and defended the real groups of cooperation of human smugglers.

Lamorgesi said she will meet Tunisian President Cass Said on Monday to discuss the issue, along with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi de Mao and European Union commissioners Yalva Johansson and Oliver Vareheli.

. [ad_2] https://tinyurl.com/y3yzaft4 #double #economiccrisis #italiandiaspora #italy #migrants #news #number #theemigrants #thestay #tunisia #viralhai #wionews.com #world #worldnews #year

[khalilhumam]

Libya and its migrants confront new threats

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New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/libya-and-its-migrants-confront-new-threats/

Libya and its migrants confront new threats

By Omer Karasapan In February 2020, the Libya-Italy Memorandum of Understanding on Migration (LIMUM) was extended for another three years. LIMUM provides Italian support to Libyan maritime authorities to stop vessels and return asylum-seekers to detention camps in Libya—a flagrant violation of European Union and international norms and legislation. The support has been about $ 100 million in training, ships, and equipment from Italy and the EU’s Trust Fund for Africa—the latter ostensibly established for development in migrants’ home countries. Though the migration route to Italy did shut down, some 40,000 people, including thousands of children, have been brought back to Libya to face horrific ordeals. Furthermore, while EU navies and private trawlers hired by Malta act as spotters for the Libyan coast guard, the last two NGO rescue ships were impounded by Italy in May 2020. In 2017, there had been ten. Amnesty International says the mostly sub-Saharan African migrants and asylum-seekers held in detention centers face torture, rape, beatings, and appalling sanitary conditions. Human Rights Watch (HRW), Medecins Sans Frontieres, and others concur. Sale of migrants for their labor or to militias to extract payments from their families and friends in exchange for release or visiting less violence on them continues. It is estimated that some 1,500 are held in official detention centers run by the U.N.-recognized Tripoli Government of National Accord (GNA) and thousands more in centers controlled by militias. This number appears to be a decline from previous years but reliable numbers are hard to come by. The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Bosnia’s Dunja Mijatovic, states “I am gravely concerned about certain types of assistance provided … in particular to the Libyan Coast Guard which have resulted in increased interceptions of migrants and asylum seekers … and their subsequent return to Libya, where they are subjected to serious human rights violations”. Italy’s foreign minister has said that Rome asked Libya to make changes to the agreement, giving humanitarian groups some undefined responsibility for migrants caught by the Coast Guard—a statement viewed by HRW as “tweaking” an essentially broken and flawed arrangement. This arrangement and attendant abuses have a history. Libya has long been both a destination and a transit point for migration to Europe. Estimating that there were some 2.5 million irregular migrants in Libya in 2011, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) underlined the abuses against migrants, including arbitrary, unfair, and indefinite detention, torture, extortion of bribes with violence, and threat of deportation. Among other agreements was a $5-billion, 20-year agreement with Italy to compensate for Libya’s colonization while safeguarding Italy from illegal migration. The civil war in 2011 upended any arrangements and most migrants left. However, an unguarded coast of nearly 1,000 kilometers with Europe beckoning activated human smugglers while desperation once again pushed migrants onward. With no state authority, the current tragic situation took hold, with greed a principal driver but racism also playing a role, especially when it comes to the ransoming of human beings in detention centers and their sale for labor. Yet Libya continues to act as a magnet for large numbers of migrants who come to work there or go on to Europe. Untold numbers of households from Chad to Egypt to Sudan depend on remittances from Libya. IOM estimates that in February 2020 there were at least 654,000 migrants in Libya. The top 5 nationalities were Nigerien (21 percent), Chadian (16 percent), Egyptian (15 percent), Sudanese (12 percent), and Nigerian (8 percent). Men constituted 89 percent of migrants, women 11 percent, and 7 percent were children of which 24 percent were unaccompanied. Of the migrants, 83 percent were employed and it cost them an average of $1,000 to reach Libya. They sent home $160 a month on average with monthly accommodation costs of around $50. Clearly, Libya has a significant “pull” effect on migrants and asylum-seekers. However, all now face much higher risks—escalating violence, the COVID-19 pandemic, a potential food crisis, and further risks of trafficking for asylum-seekers as the economy worsens and repatriation and resettlement prospects close. On May 13, 2020, seven U.N. agencies (OCHA, UNICEF, IOM, UNHCR, WFP, WHO, UNFPA) issued a joint statement that, due to conflict and COVID-19, the health and safety of Libya’s entire population was at risk. The escalation in fighting over the past year as warlord General Haftar moved to take Tripoli and oust the Government of National Accord (GNA) has led to thousands of casualties and a further 200,000 internally displaced persons, including migrants. Increasingly civilians are targeted as are health facilities, including a Tripoli hospital hit by Haftar’s forces hours after the joint U.N. statement that called for a pandemic ceasefire. As of May 13, 2020, there were only 64 COVID-19 cases in Libya but with deaths in three different regions underlining local/community transmissions, there are real fears of further expansion. Furthermore, food security is being compromised as most cities face shortages of basic food items amid rising prices and supply chain disruptions. Water supply facilities have also been targeted in the fighting, with dire implications for all residents. These risks will impact migrants and refugees most immediately. According to the Mixed Migration Center, 75 percent of migrants and refugees became unemployed in March and April; many cannot afford rent and eat one meal a day. With all ports and airports closed on both sides of the Mediterranean and an acute, multipronged crisis in Libya, this is a humanitarian disaster of major proportions. UNHCR also notes that “desperation will drive more refugees to risk their lives and embark on dangerous journeys by sea.” To return asylum-seekers to Libya under these conditions is an abomination. Italy and the EU have the clout to improve conditions within Libya, including in the detention centers. They should do so. They will only be upholding their own laws and principles.

[upshotre]

Italy, EU End Latest Standoff on African Asylum Seekers

The European Union on Wednesday ended a standoff with Italy over African immigration. However,Agreeing to take 116 asylum seekers rescued at sea last week, but denied permission to go ashore by the country’s right-wing interior minister.     The EU said that Germany, France, Portugal, Luxembourg and Ireland had agreed to take the asylum seekers, meeting a condition set by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini for allowing the group to come ashore.   An additional group of those rescued by an Italian coastguard boat last week would be received in Italy with the support of the Catholic Church, it added. Reports last week said there were 135 migrants on the vessel. “Job done, mission accomplished,” Salvini tweeted after announcing he was finally willing to let the ship disembark. A European Commission spokeswoman said the incident showed the urgent need for temporary arrangements to ensure disembarkations of rescued persons in a timely manner. The French presidency said France was “doing its bit.” Salvini, who is also Italy’s deputy prime minister, has staked much of his political credibility on a drive to halt migrant flows. Shutting Italian ports to charity rescue ships has become a frequent strategy in the past year to try to force the EU’s hand over dealing with migrants. In a statement on Facebook on Wednesday, Salvini said a boat from a German charity carrying 40 rescued asylum seekers off the Libyan coast would now be stopped from disembarking in Italy. “In the next few minutes I will sign a ban on admission and transit in Italian waters,” Salvini said. Last August, he prevented another national coastguard boat carrying 150 migrants from docking for five days until Albania, Ireland and Italy’s Catholic Church agreed to take responsibility for them. Read the full article

[reneeacaseyfl]

‘Tragedy’: Up to 150 people feared drowned in Mediterranean Sea | News

Scores of refugees and migrants are feared drowned after the boats they were travelling in capsized off Libya’s coast in the Mediterranean Sea, according to aid agencies and officials.

Ayoub Qasim, a spokesman for Libya’s coastguard, told The Associated Press news agency that two boats carrying around 300 people sank around 120km east of the capital, Tripoli, before adding that 134 others were rescued.

However, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a Twitter post on Thursday that more than 150 people were feared drowned while 145 were rescued and returned to Libya after the incident.

Charlie Yaxley, spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), said the survivors were picked up by local fishermen and then taken back to shore by the Libyan coastguard.

“We estimate that 150 migrants are potentially missing and died at sea,” he said. “The dead include women and children.”

“The worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year has just occurred,” Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said.

He called on European nations to resume rescue missions in the Mediterranean, halted after a European Union decision, and appealed for an end to migrant detentions in Libya. Safe pathways out of the North African country are needed “before it is too late for many more desperate people”, Grandi said.

I don’t want anything now except to go back to my country, Sudan, to die there

Sabah Youssef, survivor who lost her seven-year-old child

Qasim told AFP news agency that most of the rescued from the sea were from Ethiopia while others were Palestinians and Sudanese.

Sabah Youssef, from Sudan, lost her seven-year-old child after the boat sank. “I don’t want anything now except to go back to my country, Sudan, to die there,” Youssef, who was rescued, told Reuters news agency.

Some of the survivors shared their ordeal at the sea.

“In the afternoon, we started from Libya going to Italy, but when we went there, after one hour the ship started to sink and most of them (people) sank,” an unnamed survivor from Eritrea told AP.

Another survivor from Eritrea added: “We rescued ourselves. No-one could help us and no one came to rescue us, and here we are in a big problem so we need your (International community) help.”

Urgent: tragic shipwreck may have occurred in the central mediterranean. Nearly 150 migrants are reported missing and 145 more returned to Libyan shore.

— IOM Libya (@IOM_Libya) July 25, 2019

Libya is one of the main departure points for migrants and refugees fleeing poverty and war in the Middle East and Africa and attempting to reach Europe by boat via the Mediterranean.

Those who make the journey often travel in overcrowded and unsafe vessels.

Nearly 700 deaths have been recorded in the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the IOM, almost half as many as the 1,425 registered in 2018.

“If current trends for this year continue, that will see us pass more than 1000 deaths in the Mediterranean for the sixth year in a row,” Yaxley, the spokesman for UNHCR told Al Jazeera.

“That’s a really bleak milestone. It comes just weeks after more than 50 people lost their lives in a detention centre following an airstrike in Tajoura, and really once again stresses the [need] for a shift in approach to the situation in Libya and the Mediterranean.”

An estimated 6,000 refugees and migrants are held in detention centres across Libya, while some 50,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers reside elsewhere in the country, according to the UNHCR.

‘Preventable deaths’

The UN has repeatedly warned that the conflict-wracked sprawling North African country is not a safe place for migrants and refugees to be held in and called for those in detention centres to be released.

It has also urged the European Union to drop its policy of backing the Libyan coastguard to intercept and forcibly return people caught while trying to cross to Europe from the country. 

The EU ended its naval patrols in the Mediterranean in March due to disagreements on how to divide those rescued among EU member states.

Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has objected to the existing arrangement because most of the rescued migrants and refugees were brought to Italian ports.

Salvini, who is also Italy’s deputy prime minister, has barred charity rescue vessels from docking at Italy’s ports, and threatened to fine transgressors tens of thousands of euros and impound their vessels.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in recent days slammed the EU’s approach, saying the “suffering” of migrants and refugees in Libya and “deaths” of others in the Mediterranean were “preventable”.

“Politicians would have you believe that the deaths of hundreds of people at sea, and the suffering of thousands of refugees and migrants trapped in Libya, are the acceptable price of attempts to control migration,” Sam Turner, MSF’s head of mission for search and rescue in Libya, said in a statement on Sunday.

“The cold reality is that while they herald the end of the so-called ‘European migration crisis’, they are knowingly turning a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis these policies perpetuate in Libya and at sea,” he added.

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[velmaemyers88]

‘Tragedy’: Up to 150 people feared drowned in Mediterranean Sea | News

Scores of refugees and migrants are feared drowned after the boats they were travelling in capsized off Libya’s coast in the Mediterranean Sea, according to aid agencies and officials.

Ayoub Qasim, a spokesman for Libya’s coastguard, told The Associated Press news agency that two boats carrying around 300 people sank around 120km east of the capital, Tripoli, before adding that 134 others were rescued.

However, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a Twitter post on Thursday that more than 150 people were feared drowned while 145 were rescued and returned to Libya after the incident.

Charlie Yaxley, spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), said the survivors were picked up by local fishermen and then taken back to shore by the Libyan coastguard.

“We estimate that 150 migrants are potentially missing and died at sea,” he said. “The dead include women and children.”

“The worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year has just occurred,” Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said.

He called on European nations to resume rescue missions in the Mediterranean, halted after a European Union decision, and appealed for an end to migrant detentions in Libya. Safe pathways out of the North African country are needed “before it is too late for many more desperate people”, Grandi said.

I don’t want anything now except to go back to my country, Sudan, to die there

Sabah Youssef, survivor who lost her seven-year-old child

Qasim told AFP news agency that most of the rescued from the sea were from Ethiopia while others were Palestinians and Sudanese.

Sabah Youssef, from Sudan, lost her seven-year-old child after the boat sank. “I don’t want anything now except to go back to my country, Sudan, to die there,” Youssef, who was rescued, told Reuters news agency.

Some of the survivors shared their ordeal at the sea.

“In the afternoon, we started from Libya going to Italy, but when we went there, after one hour the ship started to sink and most of them (people) sank,” an unnamed survivor from Eritrea told AP.

Another survivor from Eritrea added: “We rescued ourselves. No-one could help us and no one came to rescue us, and here we are in a big problem so we need your (International community) help.”

Urgent: tragic shipwreck may have occurred in the central mediterranean. Nearly 150 migrants are reported missing and 145 more returned to Libyan shore.

— IOM Libya (@IOM_Libya) July 25, 2019

Libya is one of the main departure points for migrants and refugees fleeing poverty and war in the Middle East and Africa and attempting to reach Europe by boat via the Mediterranean.

Those who make the journey often travel in overcrowded and unsafe vessels.

Nearly 700 deaths have been recorded in the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the IOM, almost half as many as the 1,425 registered in 2018.

“If current trends for this year continue, that will see us pass more than 1000 deaths in the Mediterranean for the sixth year in a row,” Yaxley, the spokesman for UNHCR told Al Jazeera.

“That’s a really bleak milestone. It comes just weeks after more than 50 people lost their lives in a detention centre following an airstrike in Tajoura, and really once again stresses the [need] for a shift in approach to the situation in Libya and the Mediterranean.”

An estimated 6,000 refugees and migrants are held in detention centres across Libya, while some 50,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers reside elsewhere in the country, according to the UNHCR.

‘Preventable deaths’

The UN has repeatedly warned that the conflict-wracked sprawling North African country is not a safe place for migrants and refugees to be held in and called for those in detention centres to be released.

It has also urged the European Union to drop its policy of backing the Libyan coastguard to intercept and forcibly return people caught while trying to cross to Europe from the country. 

The EU ended its naval patrols in the Mediterranean in March due to disagreements on how to divide those rescued among EU member states.

Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has objected to the existing arrangement because most of the rescued migrants and refugees were brought to Italian ports.

Salvini, who is also Italy’s deputy prime minister, has barred charity rescue vessels from docking at Italy’s ports, and threatened to fine transgressors tens of thousands of euros and impound their vessels.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in recent days slammed the EU’s approach, saying the “suffering” of migrants and refugees in Libya and “deaths” of others in the Mediterranean were “preventable”.

“Politicians would have you believe that the deaths of hundreds of people at sea, and the suffering of thousands of refugees and migrants trapped in Libya, are the acceptable price of attempts to control migration,” Sam Turner, MSF’s head of mission for search and rescue in Libya, said in a statement on Sunday.

“The cold reality is that while they herald the end of the so-called ‘European migration crisis’, they are knowingly turning a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis these policies perpetuate in Libya and at sea,” he added.

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from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/tragedy-up-to-150-people-feared-drowned-in-mediterranean-sea-news/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tragedy-up-to-150-people-feared-drowned-in-mediterranean-sea-news from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186558593617

[weeklyreviewer]

‘Tragedy’: Up to 150 people feared drowned in Mediterranean Sea | News

Scores of refugees and migrants are feared drowned after the boats they were travelling in capsized off Libya’s coast in the Mediterranean Sea, according to aid agencies and officials.

Ayoub Qasim, a spokesman for Libya’s coastguard, told The Associated Press news agency that two boats carrying around 300 people sank around 120km east of the capital, Tripoli, before adding that 134 others were rescued.

However, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a Twitter post on Thursday that more than 150 people were feared drowned while 145 were rescued and returned to Libya after the incident.

Charlie Yaxley, spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), said the survivors were picked up by local fishermen and then taken back to shore by the Libyan coastguard.

“We estimate that 150 migrants are potentially missing and died at sea,” he said. “The dead include women and children.”

“The worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year has just occurred,” Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said.

He called on European nations to resume rescue missions in the Mediterranean, halted after a European Union decision, and appealed for an end to migrant detentions in Libya. Safe pathways out of the North African country are needed “before it is too late for many more desperate people”, Grandi said.

I don’t want anything now except to go back to my country, Sudan, to die there

Sabah Youssef, survivor who lost her seven-year-old child

Qasim told AFP news agency that most of the rescued from the sea were from Ethiopia while others were Palestinians and Sudanese.

Sabah Youssef, from Sudan, lost her seven-year-old child after the boat sank. “I don’t want anything now except to go back to my country, Sudan, to die there,” Youssef, who was rescued, told Reuters news agency.

Some of the survivors shared their ordeal at the sea.

“In the afternoon, we started from Libya going to Italy, but when we went there, after one hour the ship started to sink and most of them (people) sank,” an unnamed survivor from Eritrea told AP.

Another survivor from Eritrea added: “We rescued ourselves. No-one could help us and no one came to rescue us, and here we are in a big problem so we need your (International community) help.”

Urgent: tragic shipwreck may have occurred in the central mediterranean. Nearly 150 migrants are reported missing and 145 more returned to Libyan shore.

— IOM Libya (@IOM_Libya) July 25, 2019

Libya is one of the main departure points for migrants and refugees fleeing poverty and war in the Middle East and Africa and attempting to reach Europe by boat via the Mediterranean.

Those who make the journey often travel in overcrowded and unsafe vessels.

Nearly 700 deaths have been recorded in the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the IOM, almost half as many as the 1,425 registered in 2018.

“If current trends for this year continue, that will see us pass more than 1000 deaths in the Mediterranean for the sixth year in a row,” Yaxley, the spokesman for UNHCR told Al Jazeera.

“That’s a really bleak milestone. It comes just weeks after more than 50 people lost their lives in a detention centre following an airstrike in Tajoura, and really once again stresses the [need] for a shift in approach to the situation in Libya and the Mediterranean.”

An estimated 6,000 refugees and migrants are held in detention centres across Libya, while some 50,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers reside elsewhere in the country, according to the UNHCR.

‘Preventable deaths’

The UN has repeatedly warned that the conflict-wracked sprawling North African country is not a safe place for migrants and refugees to be held in and called for those in detention centres to be released.

It has also urged the European Union to drop its policy of backing the Libyan coastguard to intercept and forcibly return people caught while trying to cross to Europe from the country. 

The EU ended its naval patrols in the Mediterranean in March due to disagreements on how to divide those rescued among EU member states.

Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has objected to the existing arrangement because most of the rescued migrants and refugees were brought to Italian ports.

Salvini, who is also Italy’s deputy prime minister, has barred charity rescue vessels from docking at Italy’s ports, and threatened to fine transgressors tens of thousands of euros and impound their vessels.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in recent days slammed the EU’s approach, saying the “suffering” of migrants and refugees in Libya and “deaths” of others in the Mediterranean were “preventable”.

“Politicians would have you believe that the deaths of hundreds of people at sea, and the suffering of thousands of refugees and migrants trapped in Libya, are the acceptable price of attempts to control migration,” Sam Turner, MSF’s head of mission for search and rescue in Libya, said in a statement on Sunday.

“The cold reality is that while they herald the end of the so-called ‘European migration crisis’, they are knowingly turning a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis these policies perpetuate in Libya and at sea,” he added.

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from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/tragedy-up-to-150-people-feared-drowned-in-mediterranean-sea-news/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tragedy-up-to-150-people-feared-drowned-in-mediterranean-sea-news

[rightsinexile]

Publications

“Lack of federal data and the legal complexity of individual instances of statelessness make it impossible at the current moment to provide accurate estimates of the number of stateless persons in the United States. However, the CMS report identifies over 35 groups of persons with members who are potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness, and it used Census data to find persons who matched these profiles. It also draws upon limited administrative data on refugees and asylum seekers to supplement its estimates of persons who are potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness.” Statelessness in the United States: A study to estimate and profile the US stateless population. Center for Migration Studies. January 2020. 

“The rhetoric surrounding refugees and migrants has become increasingly polarized over the last decade. The global recession exacerbated feelings of economic and social dislocation for the working and middle class in many countries, caused by rapid globalization, the changing nature of work, shifting demographics, and increased strain on post-World War II era social welfare systems. Tapping into these real and perceived feelings of loss, politicians on the far right in many countries have combined populist economic policies with nativist worldviews, using immigrants and refugees as scapegoats for changing economic realities.” Refugees as assets not burdens: The role of policy. Dany Bahar and Meagan Dooley. Brookings. 6 February 2020. 

“This study applies the motivation – opportunity – ability (MOA) theoretical framework to study the intention – behaviour gap for asylum seekers and refugees who are currently transiting through Egypt and are intending to leave the country in the short term. Primary data were collected through the narratives of fifteen asylum seekers or refugees, coming from South Sudan, Libya or Syria.” Narrative analysis of Syrians, South Sudanese and Libyans transiting in Egypt: A motivation-opportunity-ability approach. Hélène Syed Zwick. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 3 February 2020. 

“ICMPD’s Migration Outlook presents a brief analysis of migration and policy trends and provides an outlook on developments and events to watch out for in 2020. Thus, the outlook does not claim to foretell the future or to cover all relevant trends. It wants to use past experience and highlight what might happen and is important to consider.” ICMPD Migration Outlook 2020. International Centre for Migration Policy Development. February 2020. 

“Pressure on Syrian refugees in Lebanon to return home is rising. Although Syria remains unsafe for most, refugees are trickling back, escaping increasingly harsh conditions in Lebanon and hoping that the situation will improve back home. Procedures that clarify refugees’ legal status are making return more plausible for some.” Easing Syrian refugees’ plight in Lebanon. International Crisis Group. 13 February 2020. 

“This report explores the effects that enforced destitution has on women who have sought asylum, particularly those women whose claims were rejected, and highlights the urgent need to end this inhumane and ineffective policy. To the best of our knowledge, this report represents the most detailed contemporary account of asylum-seeking women’s experiences of destitution in the UK.” Will I ever be safe? Asylum-seeking women made destitute in the UK. Women for Refugee Women. 11 February 2020. 

“The UK's Immigration Rules allow for refugees to be joined in the UK by immediate family members in certain circumstances. Provisions in EU law (the Dublin III Regulation) can also be used to reunite families separated across the EU/UK. The Regulations will cease to apply in the UK after the Brexit 'transition period'. This has given extra impetus to pre-existing calls to widen the scope of the UK's rules.” The UK's refugee family reunion rules: A comprehensive framework? House of Commons Library. 13 January 2020. 

“Based on the site visits, interviews conducted and the evidence obtained, UNSMIL confirms that between 23:28 and 23:39 on 2 July 2019, a foreign aircraft conducted an attack on the Daman complex in Tajoura, which struck two buildings in the complex. DCIM reported that at least 53 migrants and refugees were killed in the attack, namely 47 men and six boys. Those killed were reportedly citizens of Algeria, Chad, Bangladesh, Morocco, Niger and Tunisia. DCIM also stated that 87 male migrants and refugees were injured. Injured migrants and refugees were transferred to four different hospitals in Tripoli, namely the Tripoli University Hospital, Mitiga Hospital, Abu Slim Hospital, and the National Heart Center (also called Tajoura Heart Hospital). Fifteen of those injured were returned to detention following treatment.” The airstrikes on the Daman building complex, including the Tajoura Detention Centre, 2 July 2019. United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). January 2020. 

“This report provides an overview of the legal framework regulating the detention of asylum seekers in Greece and an analysis of the ‘low profile detention scheme’ – under which single males from certain countries are automatically detained – implemented on the island of Lesvos. It then identifies concerning trends and potential legal violations in implementation of this policy. Finally, the report provides a summary of the new 2020 Law on International Protection.” Locked up without rights: Nationality-based detention in the Moria refugee camp. HIAS. December 2019. 

“An Italian court has ruled that the country’s Cabinet presidency and defence ministry were responsible for the refoulement of 14 Eritrean nationals in July 2009, when a warship rescued some 80 people and took them back to Libya, ignoring requests for international protection.” Italy guilty of refoulements in 2009 handover of Eritrean shipwreck survivors to Libya. Yasha Maccanico. Statewatch. January 2020. 

“The Court has never questioned the legitimacy of the national lists of “safe third countries” as such, nor has it declared that a given third country was (or was not) safe. The current approach of our Court is mainly procedural; it is focused on examining the procedural guarantees that must necessarily underpin the evaluation carried out by domestic authorities. The deporting State cannot simply rely on its own definition of the third country as safe, and it has a general procedural obligation to carry out a fair and thorough examination of the conditions in that third country.” Articles 2, 3, 8 and 13: The concept of a “safe third country” in the case-law of the Court. European Court of Human Rights. 2018. 

“Would the disembarkation of migrants and refugees in North African countries by EU state vessels, including vessels participating in a Frontex operation, comply with international obligations and European law? Thus, can Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia be considered ‘Places of Safety’ for rescued persons? Can private vessels, including NGO rescue vessels, be obliged to disembark rescued migrants and refugees in places which are unsafe? Can they refuse to follow such a command without breaking the law? Is it in line with international and EU law if European Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres (MRCCs) shift their coordination responsibility for SAR onto MRCCs in North Africa?” Places of safety in the Mediterranean: The EU’s policy of outsourcing responsibility. Prof. Dr. Anuscheh Farahat and Prof. Dr. Nora Markard. Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. February 2020. 

“The epidemic of violence and the deterioration of economic and social conditions in the Central American countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have forced large numbers of people to head north to Mexico and the United States in search of safety and security. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people continue to be forced to flee to escape death threats, physical assault, sexual violence and confinement. Increased displacement across the region coupled with sharply reduced options for international protection have created a humanitarian crisis that demands a coordinated humanitarian response. Governments in the region must place the wellbeing of individuals at the center of their migration policies.” No way out: The humanitarian crisis for migrants and asylum seekers trapped between the United States, Mexico and the Northern Triangle of Central America. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). February 2020. 

“New refugees must complete a number of complex tasks which, research by the British Red Cross and other organisations has shown, are almost impossible to achieve in 28 days. These include opening a bank account, finding a job and/or applying for mainstream benefits (and receiving the first wages or payment), and finding and moving into new accommodation. Homelessness legislation prescribes 56 days for Local Authorities to support people threatened with homelessness. Yet, despite having additional vulnerabilities, refugees are currently given half this time to find a new place to live.” The costs of destitution: A cost–benefit analysis of extending the move-on period for new refugees. British Red Cross. 2020. 

“It is estimated that around 15 percent of the world’s population has a disability. This percentage is likely to be higher in displacement situations. However, persons with a disability are often under-identified at reception, which negatively impacts their access to protection and assistance. Forced displacement disproportionately affects persons with disabilities who are more likely to be left behind or abandoned. They are often at higher risk of violence, exploitation and abuse, face barriers to access basic services, and are often excluded from education and livelihood opportunities.” UNHCR’s approach to persons with disabilities in displacement. UNHCR. 2019.

[newstfionline]

Europe’s migrant crisis threatens to overwhelm Italy, even as flows to Greece dry up

By Alexandra Zavis and Ann M. Simmons, Los Angeles Times, July 4, 2017

Europe’s unrelenting migrant crisis is threatening to overwhelm Italy, even as the tide of flimsy boats washing up on Greece’s shores has slowed to a trickle.

More than 85,000 people fleeing poverty and violence have risked the perilous Mediterranean crossing to reach Italy this year, a 20% increase over the same period in 2016, according to United Nations figures. At least 2,150 others have died trying.

The surge has inflamed a long-standing dispute over the way European Union countries share the burden of accommodating refugees and migrants from Africa, the Middle East and beyond.

Italian officials, who have been among the more welcoming in Europe, threatened last week to close their ports to rescue ships operated by humanitarian groups that weren’t flying the Italian flag unless they received more help from other EU members.

On Tuesday, Austrian defense officials said they were prepared to use armored vehicles and troops to prevent migrants from crossing the border from Italy.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, decried the “unfolding tragedy.”

“Italy is playing its part in receiving those rescued and providing asylum to those in need of protection,” he said in a statement Saturday. “But this cannot be an Italian problem alone. It is, first and foremost, a matter of international concern.”

Until last year, many of those trying to reach Europe were Syrians using the shorter route from Turkey to the Greek islands. But the number of arrivals there has plunged since the EU struck a deal with Turkey in March that year to stem the flow. More than 9,200 have made the crossing this year, compared with 158,000 in the first half of 2016.

The rest of the arrivals by sea have been shared between Spain and Cyprus, which as of Monday had received 6,464 and 273, respectively.

Why are migrants headed to Italy?

Italy has long been a destination for those hoping to reach European shores because of its proximity to North Africa, and specifically the lawless nation of Libya, which in recent years has become a launchpad for Mediterranean crossings.

Most of these migrants come from sub-Saharan Africa. According to UNHCR, the top two nationalities arriving in Italy by sea in 2016 were Nigerians (21%) and Eritreans (11%).

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is facing its worst economic crisis in decades and a deadly uprising by the militant group Boko Haram, while Eritrea has a notoriously repressive government that migrants accuse of imposing a system of forced labor and governing by fear.

Libya was itself a destination for migrants under longtime strongman Moammar Kadafi, who needed labor for his oil-rich nation. But Kadafi’s ouster in 2011 plunged the country into violent chaos, spurring many foreigners to take their chances on overloaded boats to Europe.

The number of Mediterranean crossings often increases during the warm summer months, but U.N. officials say the recent surge is exceptional. More than 12,000 people were plucked from the sea over four days last week.

Officials note another striking feature: the high number of children who make the journey alone or get separated from their parents along the way.

How is Italy handling the influx?

The Italian Coast Guard has taken the lead on efforts to rescue migrants stranded at sea. The survivors are taken to reception centers, where they are allowed to apply for asylum.

But Italian officials say they are getting overwhelmed and are stepping up pressure on their European counterparts to share the burden.

Last week, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned that unless other countries do their part, the growing number of migrants could fuel a public backlash and position euroskeptic populist parties for victory in national elections expected within the next year.

“Italy has never ducked its commitments and it does not intend to do so,” Gentiloni told reporters in Berlin. But he added, “We are under pressure, and we ask for a concrete contribution from the Europeans.”

Many of those who apply for asylum in Italy do not qualify, and officials have promised to build more detention facilities for migrants and step up deportations.

What’s the rest of Europe doing to help Italy?

Under EU rules, asylum seekers are supposed to apply for protection in the first member country they reach.

At the height of the migration crisis in late 2015, EU leaders set up a quota system to try to relocate up to 160,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy within two years. But some countries refused to take part, and officials say the number of people resettled will fall far short of the goal.

European leaders are now trying to mobilize resources to help Italy cope with the growing number of migrants. The EU’s executive branch announced nearly $40 million in additional aid for the country on Tuesday.

The European Commission said it would also raise more than $50 million for an initiative to help Libya reduce the flow of migrants headed to Italy. Efforts under discussion include making improvements to the camps that house migrants in that country, strengthening border controls and supporting the Libyan coast guard.

Germany and France are promising to increase their efforts to help relocate those migrants in need of protection, according to a joint declaration with the EU commission Monday. But Austria is threatening to take a less-welcoming stance.

An Austrian defense ministry spokesman told the Reuters news agency Monday that four armored vehicles had already been deployed to its border with Italy and some 750 troops were poised to be deployed within 72 hours to deal with any emergencies. Other Austrian officials, however, said there was currently no need for such measures.

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/migrant-crisis-un-says-six-die-every-day-in-mediterranean-crossings/

Migrant crisis: UN says six die every day in Mediterranean crossings

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption Some of the passengers aboard the Sea Watch 3 wait off the coast of Sicily on Sunday

An average of six migrants died crossing the Mediterranean every day last year, a UN report says.

Italy had earlier highlighted the lower overall number of deaths last year, due to fewer people making the crossing.

But the rate of deaths increased to one for every 14 arrivals in 2018 – from one in 38 the year before.

It comes as one humanitarian group has gone to the Europe’s human rights court over Italy’s refusal to allow 47 rescued people to leave its ship.

Sea Watch, a German humanitarian organisation, is currently holding dozens of people including minors off the coast of Sicily. It pulled them from waters near Libya on 19 January.

Italy, which has adopted a hardline stance on boat arrivals, has refused the ship permission to dock. It argues that since the ship is flying the Dutch flag, the Netherlands should be responsible for the migrants.

Sea Watch has accused Italy of taking the people on board its ship “hostage”, and filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the impasse.

The ECHR has not yet told Italy it must allow the migrants to disembark, but has said they must be provided with “adequate medical care, food, water and basic supplies”.

Why is the death rate higher?

Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has been vocal about his country’s opposition to immigration, which was a key part of his election campaign.

In a letter published in Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera (in Italian), published on Tuesday, he wrote: “In 2018 there were fewer deaths, 23,370 landings compared to 119,369 the previous year. The trend is also confirmed by the first few weeks of 2019.”

But the latest report from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) highlighted the higher rate of deaths among those who did make the journey, pointing to the difficulties faces by humanitarian rescue groups as the cause.

Image copyright AFP

Image caption On 9 January, a different group of migrants celebrate the news that they will be allowed to disembark

“It is likely that reductions to search and rescue capacity coupled with an uncoordinated and unpredictable response to disembarkation led to an increased death rate,” the report said.

An estimated 2,275 people died making the journey in 2018 – an average of more than six every day.

The death toll was particularly high on the route to Spain, where it was more than four times the 2017 figure.

What do migrants face in Libya?

The report said that Italy’s refusal to accept migrants rescued off the Libyan coast coincided with reduced search and rescue operations from European ships – and there had been a rise in “interceptions” by the Libyan Coast Guard instead.

But the report said those people were then transferred to detention centres, where they faced “appalling” conditions.

“Detainees in some facilities were given limited access to food, while there were also reports of an outbreak of tuberculosis,” it said.

For those who were rescued by European ships, it criticised the lack of a coordinated response on their fate.

“On several occasions, large numbers of often traumatised and sick people were kept at sea for days before permission to disembark was granted,” it said.

It recommended that search and rescue operations be stepped up – but also that “solidarity” among European nations should allow relocation of asylum seekers to other EU nations, to ease the burden on those dealing with “a disproportionate number of asylum claims”.