#migrant reception centres

[thoughtlessarse]

Languages: Deutsch

Police in Rome and Frosinone arrested several people - including a Fratelli d’Italia mayor - and seized assets on Thursday as part of a major investigation into a criminal network accused of illegally securing public contracts for migrant reception services funded by the EU's Recovery and Resilience Plan. Ten people have been placed under house arrest, and three were banned from bidding for public contracts due to the investigation known as "The Good Lobby" led by the European Public Prosecutor's Office in Rome. Among those detained were the mayor of Ceccano, Roberto Caligiore, a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia party, and business people and officials from Frosinone and Naples. The suspects are charged with conspiracy and corruption for allegedly rigging public tenders funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). Authorities have also frozen more than €500,000 in assets believed to be the proceeds of illegal activities.

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[trendynewsnow]

Spain Explores Emergency Reception Centre for Migrants at Ciudad Real Airport

Spain Considers Emergency Reception Centre for Migrants at Ciudad Real Airport The Spanish government is actively exploring the establishment of an emergency reception centre for migrants at Ciudad Real airport, located in the southern region of Madrid. This initiative comes amidst rising concerns over migration patterns and the need for effective management of incoming arrivals. Pilar Alegria,…

[beardedmrbean]

Swedish border guards will be given the power to search migrants’ smartphones to look for evidence of destroyed passports under a new law backed by the country’s Right-wing coalition government.

The law comes as part of a wider push to speed up deportations of failed asylum seekers to drive down migrant numbers amid fears they are being recruited by Sweden’s organised crime gangs.

Officials believe migrants entering Sweden may have used their phones to take photos or make digital copies of their passports and other documents before destroying them on arrival at airports.

Swedish officials said identifying migrants was vital if the person was to be deported after a failed claim.

‘They might keep a copy’ 

“Next week, we are going to receive a government inquiry on increasing the possibilities for the police to look into iPhones to find the documents that have been scanned there,” Anders Hall, state secretary for the ministry of justice, told The Telegraph.

“When you tear up your passport, you might keep a copy or a photo in your phone because sooner or later you might need it. This will give the legal basis to make it possible to look for them.”

The government expects the law to enter into force in 2025-26 after a consultation period.

Sweden now says there are more emigrants than immigrants for the first time in 50 years after toughening asylum rules since Ulf Kristersson took power as prime minister in 2022.

His conservative coalition is propped up by the hard-Right Sweden Democrats, which was partly founded by Nazi sympathisers and remains formally outside of government despite coming second in a 2022 election dominated by fears over migration and crime.

“We signed up for a very detailed agreement, both in terms of law enforcement and migration,” Mr Hall said.

“The Sweden Democrats have more or less full insight into what we are doing. We are constantly having meetings with them, telling them where we are implementing.”

He pointed out that despite the uproar over the cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, the opposition Social Democrats had not voted against a single migration measure brought forward by the government.

“There was much ado about nothing,” he said before adding that the Sweden Democrats were being encouraged to be more responsible through their brushes with government.

Mr Hall was in London this week to brief UK government officials on Sweden’s crackdown.

Other measures include boosting voluntary repatriation, as well as deportations.

Naturalised citizens and families of migrants could be offered money to leave the country as part of a voluntary return scheme that already offers refugees about £720 and travel costs.

As a rule, asylum seekers should live in reception centres or return centres rather than private housing. 

The government has also introduced rules making it possible to strip serious criminals or terrorists with dual nationalities of their Swedish nationality.

Accepted refugees are also no longer granted permanent residence as a matter of course. Instead, their claim is reviewed every three years.

Sweden is among EU member states calling for tougher rules to make deporting failed asylum seekers easier.

Increasing numbers of claims are being made by migrants arriving in the bloc legally in airports before destroying their papers.

In 2015, 13 per cent of all asylum claims in the EU were made in Sweden but that was down to 2 per cent in 2023. In 2023, Sweden received 12,600 asylum applications, which is lower than in 2020, and is expected to be the lowest since 1997.

[touchlikethesun]

one fun little thing about linguistics is that the stages speakers go through during their lives and the stages internet users go thru when integrating a new online community are actually quite similar.

so like, the first stage, broadly, when talking about language acquisition, a speaker starts with having no competence, but a huge receptiveness to the linguistic data around them. this is why babies learn to speak so fast. in online communities, a new comer won't have all the right vocab, they won't have learned/assimilated to the ways of "speaking"/communicating in the community, and can kinda easily be identified as like, not being from here (think of the way tumblr users can sometimes spot twitter migrants)

after learning the norms, and the basics of communication in a community, the speaker enters an adolescent phase. in irl speech communities, this is when someone's most receptive to new slang or linguistic innovations, but as these speakers grow up, the innovations become the standard. in online communities there's a very very similar adolescent phase (that has nothing to do with age, and just time spent in the community), where someone is fully integrated into the community and is in the centre of linguistic innovation for the community (often means coming up with new vocab, and sometimes can mean changes in other conventions like typing style, punctuation usages, etc.).

after the adolescent phase, in the adult phase, a speaker has a lot of linguistic competence (they can... speak... well... idk how else to describe it), but they are much more resistant to innovation, and hold on to the way that they spoke as a young person as being the objectively correct way to speak, looking down on the younger generation for their slang and their innovations. think of how boomers and gen x make fun of gen z slang. in online communities, i don't see this as being so much of conflictual relationship, but what is similar is that people that have been in online communities for extended periods of time will hold on to the way of communicating that was popular when they were in their adolescent phase, and won't be able to as easily adapt to the new ways of communicating, and this marks them as being an "elder", or long-time member, of the community.

the comparisons aren't always completely spot on, but there are enough parallels that i can have a lot of fun paying attention to this in the online communities that i'm a part of lol

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil: Refugee Situation Report - August 2023

From 1 to 4 August, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group, Amina J. Mohammed, visited Brazil. During her visit in Brasilia, the Brazilian Government and the UN System in Brazil signed the new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2023-2027, which guides the partnership between Brazil and the UN in implementing the 2030 Agenda in the country. R4V partners actively participated in the UNSDCF elaboration process, resulting in the systematic inclusion of the refugee and migrant population in multiple components of the new framework.

According to the Humanitarian-Logistics Taskforce of Operation Welcome, in August, nearly 400 refugees and migrants were sleeping on the streets of Pacaraima every week. There was a slowdown in the operations of the Reception and Documentation Centre, which partially contributed to this situation, as it resulted in a prolonged wait for refugees and migrants to receive health cards and vaccinations. This is a mandatory step before proceeding with their journeys to Boa Vista.

Brazil reached the milestone of over 10,000 indigenous refugees and migrants from Venezuela living in the country, of whom about 66% are of Warao ethnicity. To address the complex challenges faced by this population in accessing goods and services, such as food, education, and healthcare, R4V partners have highlighted the importance of strengthening culturally sensitive response measures. As part of a larger initiative by the Federal Government to strategically expand coverage of social programs by registering people in vulnerable situations in the Unified Registry for Social Programs (CadÚnico), more than 4,300 indigenous people were registered as of August. In Roraima, R4V partners played a crucial role in a large-scale effort to boost registrations.

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[ausetkmt]

New York mayor 'shocked' that migrant children as young as nine months secretly sent to his city

New York's mayor said he was shocked that at least 239 minors arrived incognito after being separated from parents on the Mexican border.

While Donald Trump signed the end of a policy of separation of families at the border that provoked outrage in the United States and abroad, Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio went into a a reception center for migrant children in Harlem, where a television crew had filmed the previous night some girls arriving secretly, apparently separated from their parents at the border.

The segregated minors included a nine-month-old baby and traumatized children, many with lice, bedbugs or contagious diseases.

Mr De Blasio emerged from the reception centre saying he was "shocked to learn" how many children separated from their parents had been sent to New York, explaining that this single center in Harlem had received 239 children without the knowledge of city authorities.

"How is it possible that none of us knew that there (were) 239 kids right here in our city?" he said. "How is the federal government holding back that information from the people of this city and holding back the help that these kids could need?"

"The mental health issues alone, they made clear to us, are very real; very painful," De Blasio stressed.

The Cayuga Center, which has classrooms in a six-story building across the street from an elevated train line, has a federal contract to place unaccompanied immigrant children in short-term foster care. Officials at the center did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

Mr De Blasio said the staff there told him it has taken in about 350 children since President Donald Trump's administration implemented its "zero tolerance" policy this spring calling for the criminal prosecution of all adults caught crossing the border illegally.

He is off to join other US mayors Thursday in Texas to visit a childcare center and denounce the migration policy of the Trump administration.

[projectourworld]

New York City, US.

Dozens of recently arrived migrants sit outside Roosevelt hotel, which has been made into a reception centre, as they try to secure temporary housing.

Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images / Guardian #peoplematter

[djuvlipen]

On the 18 August 2022, a staff member at a reception centre for refugees in Moldova, allegedly told Roma refugees: “I am fed up of you disgusting gypsies, I want to get rid of you once and for all.” Security guards turned up, ordered the Roma to leave, turned out the lights and sprayed them with tear gas. Elderly people and children were overcome and needed to be treated by paramedics. The victims have issued a criminal complaint, and the ERRC will represent the litigants.  

Monitoring by the ERRC in the countries bordering Ukraine since the Russian invasion and the outbreak of full-scale war, shows that despite the massive solidarity shown to refugees in general, when it comes to Romani refugees in particular, racism doesn’t vanish during wartime. 

Roma have faced discrimination on the borders, ethnic profiling and verbal abuse, and some families have been refused assistance. Roma refugees have been left stranded in railway stations, placed in makeshift camps or segregated and overcrowded reception centres. Authorities and others claim that Roma fleeing war are not ‘genuine refugees’, they’re just crossing the border for hot food and sandwiches, and any humanitarian aid that’s going.

These may seem to be isolated incidents in the context of the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War. But the history of antigypsyism in Europe suggests otherwise, as does the fate of Roma IDPs and refugees from the war in Kosovo. 

‘A continuation of a brutal and largely unknown history of repression’

Back in 2000, despite being refugees fleeing war, despite fleeing coordinated pogroms, burnings, rapes and killings, Romani asylum claims were met with scepticism and suspicion by various authorities. They were classed as bogus economic migrants, nomads on the move and on the make. UNMIK saw fit to house displaced Romani women, children and men in toxic, lead-contaminated camps for a decade.  

In the years that followed this forced migration of tens of thousands of Roma, EU member states saw fit to initiate forced removals and returns of Roma to Serbia and Kosovo that were as pitiless as they were unsustainable.  

The abuse and mistreatment of Roma fleeing conflicts is just one more manifestation of antigypsyism. To quote Thomas Hammarberg, what we witness today is a continuation of a brutal and largely unknown history of repression of Roma going back several hundreds of years. After the Holocaust, what is most disturbing is how, without any sense of shame, state institutions and political leaders perpetuate racism against Roma, and how the majority remain indifferent to the plight of their fellow citizens.

Police brutality

Away from war zones, antigypsyism in countries at peace also puts Romani lives in danger. The recent ERRC report on police violence against Roma in six EU Member States shows that all too often there is impunity for law enforcement concerning brutality against Roma. The extent of such violence demonstrates that anti-Roma racism is endemic and systemic within the ranks of officers paid to ‘protect and serve’. 

The case files in this report comprise a catalogue of official lies and botched investigations, testimonies concerning incidents of excessive, arbitrary, and sometimes lethal violence against young and old, deliberate attempts to discredit and intimidate Romani victims, and protracted struggles through the courts for remedy, where justice for Roma is often denied and always delayed. 

Without access to justice and effective mechanisms to hold law enforcement agencies accountable for their racist violence, institutional discrimination will remain solidly intact across the European Union. 

Anti-Roma violence and hate speech

ECRI’S latest report on Bulgaria described Roma and LGBTI persons as the main victims of hate speech often by high-ranking politicians; noted that Roma were frequently targeted by mob protests and attacks on entire Romani neighbourhoods, which led to the demolition of Roma houses, and noted that positive steps taken by the government to counter antisemitism have unfortunately not been applied to these types of hatred as well. 

Across Europe, growing far-right mobilization against ‘ethnic replacement’, multiculturalism and minorities, means that Roma – almost 80 years after the Holocaust – will continue to be singled out for collective blame and collective punishment by cynical nativist politicians and neo-fascist mobsters; victims of public cruelty, often orchestrated with official connivance, targeted because of their pariah status and their ethnicity.

Beyond the hard core of haters, anti-Roma hate speech contaminates the public sphere in a manner that inhibits any sense of solidarity or empathy; the cumulative effect is that majority populations acquiesce with a noxious consensus that ‘Gypsies get what they deserve’, and fail to recognize mistreatment of Roma as racism.

The burden of responsibility

In the face of a toxic and virulent racism that insults the dignity, and imperils the security and well-being of millions – a racism undiminished and unabashed, despite a 20th Century history of erasure and genocide – the message for the 2020s and beyond is simple: it’s not enough to be non-racist, anti-racism must be the starting point; and those who choose to remain silent stand accused of complicity. These days call for an active rejection of the systemic oppression that arises out of institutional and structural forms of racism. 

While Roma-led activism is the way forward for emancipation, the burden of responsibility to dismantle racist injustice lies with those who wield power and privilege. As the powerful are unlikely to do so of their own accord, at the ERRC we assert that they must be pushed and prodded; they must be sued and shamed; those who wield power for unjust ends must be publicly and forcefully held to account by all means necessary that are consistent with non-violent struggle. 

Banal though it may sound, in the 21st Century, regrettably and tragically, it’s still necessary to insist that Roma rights are human rights, and that Roma lives matter. In 2022, any liberal agendas that fail to register these basic truths, are unworthy of the moniker ‘liberal’. If after all this time, so-called enlightened organisations – whether wittingly or unwittingly – remain hostile environments for Roma, and ambivalent on the ethical imperative to combat antigypsyism and all forms of racism, then clearly, they are still part of the problem. In these dark times there is no room for ambivalence.

Recognition is vital, remembrance is crucial. But what follows recognition? There needs to be redistribution, reparations and respect: access to justice as well as clean water and sanitation, access to quality integrated schooling and health care; freedom from fear, forced evictions and political terror; and measures to ensure that equal opportunities and equitable outcomes prevail in all public spheres, to make amends for centuries of oppression. And that’s just for starters. 

One of the ways to honour the memory of those who perished and those who survived the Holocaust, is for states to ensure that current and future generations of Romani children and young people will enjoy equal rights and opportunities, will know what it is to be respected, and not reviled, for who they are; and that these generations can face the future with hope for a better day.  

(This text is adapted from a speech delivered in Stockholm at the International Conference on the Genocide of the Roma and Combating Antigypsyism, 20-21 October 2022, hosed by the Swedish IHRA Presidency)

[alaturkanews]

Judges block Albania model again and order return of 7 migrants to Italy

A court in Rome has suspended the approval of detention orders for seven migrants who were relocated last week to a repatriation centre in Albania established by Italy. Monday’s ruling has blocked the Italian government’s efforts for the second time to implement its plan to outsource the reception and repatriation of migrants, as part of an agreement signed with Tirana last year. The seven asylum…

[thoughtlessarse]

Recent developments in Germany and Hungary linked to irregular migration have cast serious doubts over the future of the Schengen Area. Is the Schengen Area, the passport-free zone that binds together 420 million people and represents one of the most tangible and recognisable achievements of European integration, in the throes of death? The question would have appeared radical a decade ago when the European Union was knee-deep in a financial crisis bending over backwards to salvage another of its greatest feats, the eurozone. Back then, Schengen was, if anything, a valued cushion to fall into to keep seamless trade going. But the mass arrival of asylum seekers in 2015 flipped the political agenda upside down and pushed migration to the very fore, opening a volatile, embittered conversation where governments gave priority to short-term measures to placate a furious electorate. Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden and Denmark were among those citing the unprecedented influx of migrants as a reason to re-introduce temporary checks at their borders, shattering the illusion that Schengen was untouchable. The COVID-19 pandemic dealt another blow to Schengen, with countries rushing to shut down borders in an attempt to contain the virus spread. Brussels thought that, once vaccination began and infections plunged, movement across the bloc would return to its normal state of seamlessness. The hope materialised, though not for long. The end of the health crisis prompted a steady rise in migration flows towards the EU, putting the combustive subject firmly back on the table. Asylum applications reached 1.12 million in 2023, the highest figure since 2016, and local authorities, from the Netherlands to Italy, complained reception centres were being overwhelmed. Support for hard- and far-right parties grew at the polls and the once-unthinkable idea of offshoring asylum procedures to faraway destinations went mainstream.

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[head-post]

EU parliament criticises Italy-Albania migration deal

European Union lawmakers on Wednesday criticised the migration agreement between Italy and Albania, saying it contradicts EU values and violates migrants’ rights.

During a plenary session of the European Parliament, several MEPs emphasised that Italy’s decision to conclude an agreement with a third country undermines the EU’s common migration policy. Spanish MEP Estrella Galan Perez said:

The agreement between Italy and Albania violates access to the right to asylum and international law and breaches the principle of non-reform on these innovative solutions.

Stressing that sending refugees and migrants to neighbouring countries is “illegal, immoral and inhumane,” Perez also added:

Building prisons for refugees in Europe is barbaric.

Similarly, Ana Catarina Mendes of the S&D party (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament) said:

The Albania solution from Italy is worrying, but it also reminds us we must not remain silent.

Arguing that such agreements weaken European security, French MEP Fabienne Keller said:

I am strongly opposed to so-called innovative solutions such as the externalisation of return policies to centres that are far away from our countries.

Italian MEP Cecilia Strada also emphasised that the deal with Tirana was a “threat to human rights” and harmful to the European economy.

Italy-Albania migration deal

The decision dealt the first blow to a five-year deal between Rome and Tirana, under which two new detention centres in Albania are to take in 3,000 migrants a month who are picked up by the Italian coastguard in international waters.

Meanwhile, the migrants could be considered for asylum in Italy or sent back to their home countries if their applications are rejected.

The deal has attracted interest from a number of countries including Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, despite Albania insisting it applies exclusively to Italy. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in a letter circulated to the media last week, expressed her potential support for the scheme, suggesting that EU member states should develop “innovative solutions” to cope with the migration problem.

On Saturday, the Italian government was forced to return 12 migrants who had previously been taken to new Italian migrant reception centres in Albania, following a court ruling in Rome. The court said the countries of origin of these migrants – Bangladesh and Egypt – were “unsafe.” The judges ruled that the men were at risk of violence if repatriated to their countries of origin, so could not be deported. This was a blow to the migration agreement, in which other EU countries have also shown interest.

Following the Rome court ruling, the Italian opposition said the scheme was against the law and should be cancelled.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni convened her cabinet on Monday to find a legislative solution to the situation. Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party argues that government decisions should take precedence over court decisions. Meloni said the court’s decision to return the migrants was “biased.”

Read more HERE

[beardedmrbean]

Germany has taken a sharp turn in its migration policy compared to the 'welcoming measures' associated with the 'Merkel era'. Euronews reporter Monica Pinna went to Berlin to discover what has changed and why.

For many, Germany is the land of immigration. More than three million refugees and asylum seekers live there, which is more than in any other European country.

Some migrants are attracted by the high demand for skilled workers and Germany's generous benefits. But last year, asylum applications increased by more than 50 per cent. The migrant reception system went into crisis mode. The far right, amid growing consensus, accused the government of failing to get to grips with the increase in arrivals.

As a consequence, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a historic turn and tightened immigration measures.

 Tegel-Berlin, once the capital's primary international airport, was permanently shut down in 2020. The authorities turned it into a refugee centre in 2022 when thousands of Ukrainians, fleeing Russia's full-scale invasion, started arriving every day.

Tegel has become Germany's largest refugee camp. Around 5,000 refugees and asylum seekers currently live there. It expanded several times to meet growing demands and can now host up to 7,000 people. However, the facility has reached capacity and authorities say they will no longer consider further expansion.

Almost 300,000 people applied for asylum in Germany in 2023, the highest number since 2015, when Germany received more than one million refugees. The vast majority were from Syria as well as Turkey and Afghanistan. 

The continuing stream of arrivals has prompted the government to find other means of accommodation such as hotels, but Euronews was not allowed to film at these sites.

With reception centres in crisis mode, integration is becoming a challenge which is fuelling the anti-immigration rhetoric across the country. Last year the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made historic gains in the local elections.

Border checks with Poland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic are already in place. Benefits for asylum seekers are expected to be cut while discouraging new arrivals is the new policy line.

“With these really large numbers and also this whole feeling, that many people in the electorate have, that they are losing control, the discourse got much more agitated” explained David Kipp, a migration expert for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, SWP.

Despite growing opposition to immigration, more than one million people took to the streets of Germany in January and protested against the far right. 

The demonstrations followed revelations of an alleged plot between members of AfD and neo-Nazis to deport millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship. The demonstrations impacted January's local elections and AfD suffered a narrow defeat to the opposition conservative party.

However, the parties in Scholz's traffic-light coalition are still trailing far behind AfD in the polls.

[leprivatebanker]

Two reception centres in Albania ready to handle migrants sent by Italy

[mariacallous]

The Greek Coast Guard on Wednesday stated that at least 78 migrants have been found dead after a fishing boat was wrecked off Pylos, Peloponnese. So far, 104 migrants have been rescued.

A rescue operation took place in the early hours of the morning in international waters 47 nautical miles southwest of Pylos.

Italian authorities informed the Greek authorities about the boat, which was carrying a large number of migrants. The Greek media reported that about 400 people were on board. Other reports have put the number as high as 750.

The boat had been deported from Libya, bound for Italy. The migrants were not wearing life jackets.

The survivors have been taken to the port of Kalamata, in the Peloponnese, where a reception centre with first aid has been organized in collaboration with the General Secretariat of Civil Protection.

The fishing vessel was spotted on Tuesday by a EU border protection agency FRONTEX aerial vehicle and by two ships. A Greek boat sailed to the spot, while a helicopter took off at the same time.

In successive telephone calls to the fishing vessel, offering assistance, they received a negative response, stating the vessel’s desire to continue the voyage to Italy.

The boat later capsized and sank. Two patrol boats, a coast guard’s lifeboats, a frigate of the navy, seven ships sailing alongside, a helicopter of the navy, and an unnamed aerial vehicle are operating at the site of the investigations.

Six such shipwrecks with migrant victims have occurred in the first six months or so of 2023.

More than 70,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe’s frontline countries this year, with the majority landing in Italy, according to UN data, the BBC reported Wednesday.

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Greece in July 2022 for violating the European Convention of Human Rights over the sinking of a migrant boat in 2014 in which 11 asylum seekers, among them eight children, lost their lives.

CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour asked Greek ex-PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis if he will order a full and independent investigation into a New York Times video allegedly showing Greek authorities illegally setting adrift some migrants in the Aegean. “I have already done so, Christiane. I take this incident very seriously. It is already being investigated by my government,” said Mitsotakis.

On 5 June, MEPs in the LIBE committee debated the situation in Greece with home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson.

The European Union submitted an official request to Greece for an independent investigation into the pushbacks of refugees-immigrants after The New York Times video document.