#https://euromedrights.org/

[rightsinexile]

EuroMed Rights: MigrAction News

MigrAction News is a newsletter highlighting the activities of member organizations of EuroMed Rights. This is 25 October 2017 newsletter.

Association Marocaine des Droits Humains/Paris

9 October 2017 - ADMH Europe organized its first Autumn University in Douy la Ramee on 29 September 1 October under the theme “here and elsewhere…fight together for human rights.” The participants passionately debated, exchanged and analyzed, during three days, in a convivial and cordial frame, during various self-formations.

ARCI

20 October 2017 - Arci released its weekly report, Arcireport number 32

11 October 2017 - An announcement for a national demonstration on 21 Octobert against racism and for justice and equality, to which dozens of NGOs, social, political, trade union, student and cultural organizations have joined

ARDD and Tamkeen

28 September 2017 - A statement celebrating the final ceremony of the Community Leaders sessions which are part of the Syrian Refugees Empowerment project implemented in partnership with Tamkeen and supported by Open Society Foundation. This project works to train Community Facilitators to spread information and provide support to members of their host-communities.

CEAR

20 October 2017 - A press release stating that the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance has criticized the award of the Princess of Asturias Award of Concordia to the European Union. This award is undeserved in a year in which the EU countries have “failed clamorously” in their host commitments and thousands of people have continued to lose their lives at the gates of Europe.

17 October 2017 - The organizations that make up Migreurop Spain point out that the binomial that has centered the summit of the G6 has been an unfortunate idea because this linkage represents an important danger for the coexistence and only feeds the discourses of hatred, feelings of social rejection against the migrant population and an increase of radicalisms. At the summit, no initiative has been presented to strengthen the protection of migrants at borders.

16 October 2017 - A statement that Greece must ensure the relocation of refugees who arrived after the EU-Turkey agreement.  The Greek Council for Refugees, a partner organization of CEAR  has urged the competent Greek authorities to review the practice by which it excludes from the relocation program any person who entered Greek territory after the E.U-Turkey agreement.

3 October 2017 - The European Court of Human Rights condemned Spain for the complaint of two young men from Mali and Côte d'Ivoire who were expelled from Melilla in August 2014. This unprecedented sentence is the latest proof that these practices known as "hot returns" and common on the Spanish southern border are clearly illegal and violate the human right to seek asylum. In the coming months, the Congress of Deputies plans to reform the Citizen Security Law. From the Spanish Commission for Assistance to Refugee we want to push a petition to eliminate the amendment that has modified the Aliens Act and that tries to give legal appearance to these illegal returns and to end them once and for all. We would like to count on your support as an organization / collective to stop this practice that endangers the lives of thousands of people.

CIR- Italian Council for Refugees

17 October 2017 - An announcement for an informative meeting on 20 October in collaboration with the Consulate General of Columbia in Rome on the assisted voluntary return program; the purpose of the information session is the illustrate the extent of the voluntary return assisted program.

12 October 2017 - An announcement for an informative meeting on 19 October in collaboration with the Consulate of Ecuador in Rome on the assisted voluntary return program; the purpose of the information session is to illustrate the extent of the voluntary return assisted program.

11 October 2017 - A report called “Time for needs: A Joint Action for an Appropriate Assessment of special needs of victims of torture and violence.”  This report outlines the most salient aspects of the procedure for recognizing international protection in the countries covered by research and reception with regard to the rules for survivors of torture and/or serious forms of violence and results of a field research attempting to return a framework on practice.

10 October 2017 - A monthly processing of data and statistics on asylum and immigration in Italy and Europe for the month of September 2017.

Forum Tunisien pour les droits économiques et sociaux

20 October 2017 - A press release announcing the concern of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights over the massive deportations that the Italian government is inflicting on Tunisian non-regulatory migrants. The behavior once again demonstrates the European Union’s vision of cooperation with Southern countries, its unfair migration policy aimed at closing borders, deportations and its outsourcing strategy to these countries.

17 October 2017 - A press release denouncing the Moroccan authorities who intercepted a delegation of Maghreb associative activists, including FTDES and CRLDHT members- who came to Morocco as observers at the trial of journalist Hamid Mahdaoui and other activists.

Greek Council for Refugees

17 October 2017 - A press statement in which GCR replies to questions posed by a foreign public authority regarding the actual conditions pertaining to the access to basic social rights for beneficiaries of international protection in Greece, including persons with disabilities. GCR notes that the recognition of asylum seekers as beneficiaries of international protection does not result in any improvement of their social status. Instead, many of them continue to be homeless and unemployed with no future possibility of improvement. The majority of beneficiaries of international protection have never received adequate reception facilities, like housing and financial support. As a result, they keep facing serious welfare problems (poverty, homelessness, unemployment etc.) and most of the times they cannot cover their basic needs.

13 October 2017 - A report made upon completion of the program “Time for Needs: Listening, Healing, Protecting.”  This project  addresses the issue of the special needs of asylum seekers and refugees who were subjected to torture and/or serious violence. It is estimated that between 5-35% of the asylum seekers and refugees suffer from torture and/or serious violence. The general aim of the project was to facilitate the improvement of the effectiveness and fairness of both the asylum system and the standard of protection of victims of torture and/or serious violence. Those interviewed for the report spoke of detention centers with poor sanitation and hygiene and situated far from the main cities. They said that there was only basic medical care, no recreational activities and that their time in the centers had a very negative impact on them psychologically.

11 October 2017 - An announcement of the Greek Council for Refugees on the relocation of Syrian refugees after 20 March 2016. The Greek Council for Refugees urges the Greek authorities to review their existing practice, which excludes from the relocation program a person that fulfills the conditions laid out in the Decisions of the European Council, but entered the Greek territory after the EU-Turkey Statement.

Hotline for Migrants and Refugees

19 October 2017 - An announcement that the Hotline for Migrants and Refugees submitted a petition to two asylum seekers from Darfur who have been waiting for four years to decide their asylum request, as well as thousands of asylum seekers from the Darfur region who have applied for asylum for years.

Human Rights Association

21 October 2017 - A report stating that the pressure to silence human rights advocates, lawyers, free press workers and increasingly all opposition continues to increase. The report states that those detained on unjustified charges must be released immediately.

11 October 2017 - A press release on World Girls’ Day focusing on issues that girls in Turkey face including early marriage, free housework, less access to educational opportunities, access to health and social rights as well as primary disadvantage during local and regional conflicts.

KISA

19 October 2017 - A statement in which Kisa notes with grave concern the rise of the far-right on a European and worldwide scale. The influence exerted by the far-right on the stance and shaping of policies and political speech of conservative parties and politicians is also alarming. Now more than ever, it is necessary to stand up to far-right and neo-Nazi rhetoric with a progressive stance in favor of human rights for all.

Human Rights League - LDH

18 October 2017 - A press statement asking people to put pressure on the French government to make France’s voice heard at the U.N by supporting a draft treaty which aims to end human rights violations such as exploitation of workers, evictions of populations, funding of militias, environmental destruction and deadly pollution.

17 October 2017 - An invitation to join a press conference which denounces the idea of a “delocalized” courtroom next to the Roissy airport waiting area where thousands of foreigners are deprived of their liberty and refused entry by police to the borders, often arbitrarily.

17 October 2017 - A press release alerting the public to the situation of unaccompanied foreign minors. For the first time in ten years, this questioning of the place of these vulnerable young people in child protection has found an echo with the presidency and the government: the state plans to take over the responsibility of these minors, considering these children first as strangers.

17 October 2017 - An invitation to join a rally in the memory of Mehdi Ben Barka, an intellectual and political figure of the anti- colonialist movement on the 52nd anniversary of his kidnapping.

16 October 2017 - The LDH and the French Observatory on Detention of Foreigners (16 NGOs) denounces the “rejection policy” used by the French government against foreign nationals, that is particularly reinforced with the latest piece of legislation on security passed last month: possibly for police officers to conduct ID checks 20km around any international point of entry (train station, border, airport) without any judicial oversight, detention length pending deportation lasting up to 90 days if not 135 days (32 days before), and the increasing of the detention capacity in France (+200 detention places). Last month, the Appeals Court (Court of Cassation) invalidated the use of administrative detention for people meant to be returned to the first European country through which they had been transited (Dublin Regulation.)

SNAPAP

18 October 2017 - EuroMed Rights and SNAPAP are alerting the United Nations and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. Several hundred people of sub-Saharan origin were arbitrarily arrested in Algiers between late September and early October 2017 by the police and the National Gendarmerie. Without any regard for procedural safeguards and their fundamental rights, these people were arbitrarily detained at the centre in Zeralda and forcibly collectively transported to a detention centre. The statement calls on the Algerian authorities to immediately cease these discriminatory and illegal practices, and call on the special mechanisms to react as soon as possible.

Tamkeen

18-19 October 2017 - Tamkeen conducted a training workshop implemented by the support and support centre on "protecting the rights of migrant workers and refugees and combating human trafficking".

15 October 2017 - Tamkeen and JHR (Journalist for Human Rights) conducted a training workshop on "the rights of migrant and Syrian workers."

---

Newsletter MigrAsyl - Extra Info

The following is a supplement to the MigrAsyl November newsletter that includes information on the European Agenda on Migration.

European Union

European Agenda on Migration: Remarks by Commissioner Avramopoulos on consolidating the progress made. The EU welcomes the lowering of the total number of arrivals with 63%, but is concerned about the situation in Libya… which is precisely why the EU is acting on capacity-building in this country with a view to ensure safety and dignity to migrants there, so he stresses. Also the progress made with regard to the EU Africa Trust Fund and the EU Turkey statement is mentioned. The Commission though is unsatisfied with the number of returns under the latter agreement. Also mentioned are the 25,700 people resettled under the EU resettlement scheme since 2015 and the additional 34,4000 recently pledged by EU Member, as well as the need to facilitate return for people not in need of international protection who cannot be resettled. 25 people were relocated from Libya to Niger last week pending heir resettlement to an EU country (a very small number considering the needs but still promoted as a positive step by the Commissioner). Meanwhile, Greece is still being helped by the EU to increase capacity on the overcrowded reception islands. Finally, the commissioner made call on member States to show solidarity with regard to the issue of relocation. The overcrowded islands and the overstretched reception capacities are underlined as an issue of concern (see below the letter by Greek and international NGOs to Greek Prime Minister in this respect).

Factsheets:

Latest figures on EU resettlement

Latest figures on EU relocation

Funding to Turkey

Support to Greece

Support to Italy

EU Trust Fund

Implementation of Frontex’ new mandate

Central Mediterranean Route

The European Commission (DG Home) responded to a request by the Chair of the LIBE commission of the European Parliament on the state of play of the EU's negotiations on, and implementation of, non-binding arrangements to facilitate readmission. According to the Commission, cooperation with third countries on readmission to break smugglers incentives remains a priority. Most third countries however, do not want to engage in negotiations on readmission agreements mainly due to internal political considerations as such agreements can be a source of public hostility. This is an important point as mounting concerns and frustration among NGOs and parliaments are increasingly voiced against non-binding arrangements meant to facilitate technical cooperation on migration with hardly any parliamentary oversight on the legality of procedures or even the human rights impact of such cooperation (EU-Afghanistan Joint Way Forward; EU-Turkey statement; Frontex’ working arrangements with non-EU countries etc.).

EU-Africa

In 2015, the EU and its member states set up the ‘EU Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa’ to promote stability and economic opportunities and to strengthen resilience. According to  Oxfam’s analysis of all the projects approved under the instrument, the flexible nature of the EUTF has generated both opportunities and risks. This briefing argues that the Fund lacks sufficient checks and balances to ensure that European interests do not take precedence over the needs of the people that aid is intended to help.

 Key findings are available in the summary in EN and FR, and include for instance:

Civil society organizations should be able to take an active and propositional role in project development stages by being able to submit proposals for new projects. Their capacities and expertise in the humanitarian and development fields can balance political agendas

Within the €400m allocated to migration management, most projects are designed to restrict and discourage irregular migration through migration containment and control (55% of the budget allocated to migration management); raising awareness about the dangers of irregular migration (4%) and implementing policy reforms for returns (25%); and improving the identification of countries’ nationals (13%). Only a meagre 3% of the budget is allocated to developing safe and regular routes.

Greece

NGOs in Greece sent an open letter to PM Tsipras about the conditions in Greece. The main ask is to remove the geographical restrictions on asylum seekers and allow them to move to the mainland. So far there was no answer. A letter to EU MS embassies in Greece and a media advisory is planned for the coming days.