WEEKLY REPORT 08 - Feb 22-28, 2021

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Thousands of refugees and migrants wait in Bosnia for the possibility to enter the EU. Disagreements over how to distribute aid threaten to leave many in cold if it weren't for volunteers working on their own. [10]

Libyan authorities say they have raided a secret prison in a southeastern city used by human traffickers and freed at least 156 African migrants – including 15 women and five children. The raid in the city of Kufra took place on February 16 after a migrant managed to escape a house-turned-prison last week and reported to authorities that he and other migrants were held and tortured by traffickers there, the Kufra security bureau said. [5]

45 people were rescued by the ship SeaWatch3. There were 5 women and 15 minors among them, escaping Libya on a boat in distress as reported by Alarmphone. 102 people rescued in a 2nd operation. One of the boat's tubes was already deflated, but the people could be brought safely on board, where there are now a total of 147 guests. A 3rd operation on Saturday, so 220 people saved are on board. A 4th operation on Saturday, so 317 people saved are on board. [9, 19, 20, 21]

On Friday, Alarmphone reported a boat with approximately 150 people in severe distress off the coast of Libya and alerted authorities. During the night the so-called Libyan coastguard captured 142 people and reported them in Libya. They should be the same group but it is not confirmed by authorities. [12]

102 migrants, including two pregnant women and a seven-month-old baby, were disembarked from the Aita Mari rescue ship at the Sicilian port of Augusta on Monday. They had all been rescued last week in the Mediterranean Sea. [8]

Thousands of people are reported to have been killed, and about two million have been internally displaced. About 100,000 Eritrean refugees who had been living in UN-run camps in Tigray have also been caught up in the conflict. Conflict broke out in November after the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) seized federal military bases in the region following a breakdown in relations with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government in Addis Ababa. [1, 2, 3, 4]

While a total of 5,000 people, including all the unaccompanied minors, have been transferred from Lesbos — according to the Greek government — more than 7,000 remain in Moria 2.0, where conditions have been described as worse than the previous camp. [6, 13, 14] 

The Cypriot government has lashed out at Turkey, saying it was indirectly involved in helping create a new migration route that "disproportionately burdened" Cyprus. The island nation and EU member state has had the bloc’s highest percentage of asylum seekers for several years. The Republic of Cyprus has seen an influx in asylum seekers in recent weeks and months, with many migrants entering the southern part of the country by illegally crossing the UN-patrolled buffer zone that divides the island between the Greek-majority south and a self-declared breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north. Cyprus said it has had the highest proportion of asylum applications in the EU for four consecutive years. About four percent of Cyprus' population is currently made up of asylum seekers — a number that is more than four times as high as the EU average. Cyprus also has the highest number of first-time asylum applications in the EU per capita. Authorities say they are overwhelmed and cannot cope with the high number of arrivals. [7]

Elementary school children don't typically venture far from home on their own, but 11-year-old Abou managed to cross a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean, from Africa to Europe, in the hands of strangers. Abou, from West Africa's Ivory Coast, boarded an inflatable dinghy alongside four other children, and a mother and her baby, all bound for the Canary Islands, in search of a better life. They arrived on the island of Fuerteventura in June 2020 after a full day's journey from southern Morocco. [11]

UN appeals for rescue of Rohingya adrift in Andaman Sea
The UN refugee agency is calling for the immediate rescue of a group of Rohingya refugees after their boat broke down in the Andaman Sea leaving them adrift for days without food or water.
Hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim Rohingya have been living in refugee camps in Bangladesh since they were forced out of Myanmar in a brutal military crackdown in 2017.
Muslim-majority Malaysia has long been a favoured destination for the group who are among the world’s most persecuted peoples. And although boat journeys have declined in recent years, governments around Southeast Asia have tightened borders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are currently some 102,250 Rohingya registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia but rights groups say there are many more who are undocumented. Neither Malaysia nor Indonesia are signatories to the UN convention on refugees. [17]

Syria: Pressuring France to Bring Them Home, Women Who Joined ISIS Stage Hunger Strike.
UN human rights experts urged 57 states, including France, to repatriate women and children whose “continued detention, on unclear grounds” in the camps “is a matter of grave concern and undermines the progression of accountability, truth and justice.”
Rights groups have pressed the governments to at least bring home their citizens’ children, arguing that the minors did not choose to go to Syria and that having them raised in camps that have become cauldrons of Islamist radicalization would only aggravate the situation. [18]

25 years since the Sarajevo Siege
On the 29th of February 2021 it's been 25 years since the end of the siege of the city of Sarajevo, perpetrated by the Army of the Republika Srpska.
The siege was the longest (1425 days) in the history of Europe and was watched, but by no means stopped by the international community.
11.000 people (1600 children) were killed and 56.000 severely wounded.
The war in Bosnia claimed 100,000 lives. The number of internally displaced persons and refugees was over 2,200,000. And even though several of the commanders involved in the several massacres were arrested, surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia and then prosecuted, the tensions in the area are far from being over. [15, 16]

References:

𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗦

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56147512

[2] https://www.fanabc.com/.../ethiopian-army-chief-on.../

[3] https://www.amnesty.org/.../ethiopia-eritrean-troops.../

[4] https://www.reuters.com/.../us-ethiopia-conflict-fires...

[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/.../libya-more-than-150...

[6] https://thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/.../living-in-this.../

[7] https://www.infomigrants.net/.../cyprus-accuses-turkey-of...

[8] https://www.infomigrants.net/.../over-100-migrants...

[9] https://twitter.com/savinghumansusa?s=11

[10] https://www.infomigrants.net/.../bosnia-refugee-aid...

[11] https://edition.cnn.com/.../child-migrants.../index.html

[12] https://twitter.com/alarm.../status/1365225900015509504...

[13] https://www.theguardian.com/.../woman-who-set-herself-on...

[14] https://www.nytimes.com/.../lesbos-greece-refugee-arson.html

[15] https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a6d20.html

[16] https://republica.ro/bosnia-si-balcanii-25-de-ani-de-la...

[17] https://www.aljazeera.com/.../un-appeals-for-rescue-of...

[18] https://www.nytimes.com/.../isis-frenchwomen-hunger...

[19] https://twitter.com/seawatc.../status/1365615825592410112...

[20] https://twitter.com/SeaWatchItaly/status/1365957466131955714

[21] https://twitter.com/seawatch_intl/status/1365998916374843393

After a forced stop of over 7 months, SeaWatch3 has left the Burriana port with a certified confirmation of safety by Spanish authorities.
They will carry out the last training in the open sea before the crew can finally set sail towards the search and rescue zone. (9)

~120 people in severe distress in international waters!
AlarmPhone was asked to send urgent rescue. All authorities & merchant vessels in the area had been alerted. The so-called Libyan coastguard refused to help. This week there have been several reports of boats in distress, but authorities have not responded. (8)

Greek NGOs denounce inaction over illegal migrant pushbacks on the Greek-Turkish border. After the Greek government denied allegations human rights groups deplored the lack of "an efficient investigation" by Greece.

The Hellenic League for Human Rights and five other rights groups stressed that the alleged pushbacks -- which have been reported since March 2020 -- were not just illegal but were endangering the lives of migrants.
Deploring the lack of "an efficient investigation" by either the country's justice system or any independent authority, they said they had sent a detailed report to the UN on February 1. (6)

Athens accused of ‘downplaying’ risks of lead contamination at Lesbos camp
Human Rights Watch is calling for further comprehensive testing at the Mavrovouni camp after results revealed that one area had particularly high levels of lead contamination.

About 21,000 sq m of the former military camp adapted to accommodate refugees in September last year had previously been used as a firing range, raising concerns about the potential for lead exposure.

~ 7,000 people, including thousands of children, live in the temporary camp, which is now five months old and was built after the nearby Moria camp went up in flames last September.

After calls for transparency, Greek authorities released the test results of 12 soil samples taken from the camp, also known as new Kara Tepe, one of which showed 2,233 milligrams of lead a kilo. The normal limit for residential areas in Greece is 500 milligrams a kilo. (10), (11)

Lampedusa: Migrant memorial to be created at former quarry

A memorial and a theater will be created at a former quarry on the Italian island of Lampedusa. The memorial will be dedicated to those who have lost their lives in the Mediterranean, especially the more than 360 migrants who died in the tragic October 2013 shipwreck. (2)

Five Eritreans take legal action against Italy over alleged pushback

The Eritrean citizens, with the support of the Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) and Amnesty International Italia, have filed a suit with the civil court in Rome against Italian authorities, the private company Augusta Offshore and the skipper of one of its vessels, the Asso Ventinove, because on July 2, 2018 they were "pushed back to Libya by the ship 'Asso Ventinove' run by Augusta Offshore as part of operations coordinated by Italian authorities in collaboration with the so-called Libyan coast guard." (3)

EU Urges Bosnia to Share Migration ‘Burden’ More Equally

The EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson called for all parts of the country to share the burden of migration equally – in an implicit dig at Bosnia’s Serb-led entity, which has refused to host migrant camps.

She called the new program for migration and asylum at the level of the European Union a “new beginning” in solving the problem, for which it is first necessary to obtain the consent of all EU members.

The international rights watchdog Human Rights Watch, warned last month that Bosnia’s authorities were not providing adequate winter-suitable accommodation for migrants and asylum seekers “stranded in freezing temperatures in the northwestern part of the country”.

HRW also noted that while many of the migrants are seeking to enter EU member Croatia, “Croatia has responded with violent police pushbacks that breach EU, human rights, and refugee law and exacerbate the degrading conditions for migrants”. (7)

Relocated: 116 refugees arrive in Germany from Greece

26 family groups of refugees have arrived in Germany, the German interior ministry said in a press release on Wednesday. The 53 adults and 63 children have already been granted refugee status by the Greek authorities.

The latest 116 people to land in the German city of Hanover are part of an agreed contingent of people in need of protection. The agreement was signed between Germany and Greece in March 2020. (4)

German courts correct asylum decisions after 2018 scandal
In 2018, Germany's asylum office BAMF came under fire for supposedly wrongly issuing numerous positive asylum decisions. Now, German courts have ruled in favor of 66 refugees whose positive asylum decisions had been revoked.

According to the interior ministry, 184 lawsuits were filed in total. Nearly half of these cases (91) haven't yet been decided by the courts. Six cases were decided in 2017. (5)

Malta refuses to take 146 migrants rescued by Open Arms in its SAR area

On Saturday, the ship, which is operated by Open Arms, rescued 40 people, including a three-month-old baby, and later made a second rescue, where 106 people were found in Malta's search and rescue zone.

“The ship will be disembarking at Port Empedocle, Sicily, on Monday evening, after Malta once again denied port of safety requests several times,” an NGO spokesperson stated. (1)

References:

(1) https://timesofmalta.com/.../malta-refuses-to-take-146...

(2) https://www.infomigrants.net/.../lampedusa-migrant...

(3) https://www.infomigrants.net/.../five-eritreans-take...

(4) https://www.infomigrants.net/.../relocated-116-refugees...

(5) https://www.infomigrants.net/.../german-courts-correct...

(6) https://www.infomigrants.net/.../greek-ngos-denounce...

(7) https://balkaninsight.com/.../eu-urges-bosnia-to-share.../

(8) https://twitter.com/alarm_phone?s=09

(9) https://twitter.com/seawatch_intl?s=09

(10) https://www.tagesschau.de/fluechtlingslager-lesbos-blei...

(11) https://www.theguardian.com/.../athens-accused-of...

 After a forced stop of over 7 months, SeaWatch3 has left the Burriana port with a certified confirmation of safety by Spanish authorities.
They will carry out the last training in the open sea before the crew can finally set sail towards the search and rescue zone. (9)

~120 people in severe distress in international waters!
AlarmPhone was asked to send urgent rescue. All authorities & merchant vessels in the area had been alerted. The so-called Libyan coastguard refused to help. This week there have been several reports of boats in distress, but authorities have not responded. (8)

Greek NGOs denounce inaction over illegal migrant pushbacks on the Greek-Turkish border

After the Greek government denied allegations human rights groups deplored the lack of "an efficient investigation" by Greece.

The Hellenic League for Human Rights and five other rights groups stressed that the alleged pushbacks -- which have been reported since March 2020 -- were not just illegal but were endangering the lives of migrants.
Deploring the lack of "an efficient investigation" by either the country's justice system or any independent authority, they said they had sent a detailed report to the UN on February 1. (6)

Athens accused of ‘downplaying’ risks of lead contamination at Lesbos camp
Human Rights Watch is calling for further comprehensive testing at the Mavrovouni camp after results revealed that one area had particularly high levels of lead contamination.

About 21,000 sq m of the former military camp adapted to accommodate refugees in September last year had previously been used as a firing range, raising concerns about the potential for lead exposure.

~ 7,000 people, including thousands of children, live in the temporary camp, which is now five months old and was built after the nearby Moria camp went up in flames last September.

After calls for transparency, Greek authorities released the test results of 12 soil samples taken from the camp, also known as new Kara Tepe, one of which showed 2,233 milligrams of lead a kilo. The normal limit for residential areas in Greece is 500 milligrams a kilo. (10), (11)

Lampedusa: Migrant memorial to be created at former quarry

A memorial and a theater will be created at a former quarry on the Italian island of Lampedusa. The memorial will be dedicated to those who have lost their lives in the Mediterranean, especially the more than 360 migrants who died in the tragic October 2013 shipwreck. (2)

Five Eritreans take legal action against Italy over alleged pushback

The Eritrean citizens, with the support of the Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) and Amnesty International Italia, have filed a suit with the civil court in Rome against Italian authorities, the private company Augusta Offshore and the skipper of one of its vessels, the Asso Ventinove, because on July 2, 2018 they were "pushed back to Libya by the ship 'Asso Ventinove' run by Augusta Offshore as part of operations coordinated by Italian authorities in collaboration with the so-called Libyan coast guard." (3)

EU Urges Bosnia to Share Migration ‘Burden’ More Equally

The EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson called for all parts of the country to share the burden of migration equally – in an implicit dig at Bosnia’s Serb-led entity, which has refused to host migrant camps.

She called the new program for migration and asylum at the level of the European Union a “new beginning” in solving the problem, for which it is first necessary to obtain the consent of all EU members.

The international rights watchdog Human Rights Watch, warned last month that Bosnia’s authorities were not providing adequate winter-suitable accommodation for migrants and asylum seekers “stranded in freezing temperatures in the northwestern part of the country”.

HRW also noted that while many of the migrants are seeking to enter EU member Croatia, “Croatia has responded with violent police pushbacks that breach EU, human rights, and refugee law and exacerbate the degrading conditions for migrants”. (7)

Relocated: 116 refugees arrive in Germany from Greece

26 family groups of refugees have arrived in Germany, the German interior ministry said in a press release on Wednesday. The 53 adults and 63 children have already been granted refugee status by the Greek authorities.

The latest 116 people to land in the German city of Hanover are part of an agreed contingent of people in need of protection. The agreement was signed between Germany and Greece in March 2020. (4)

German courts correct asylum decisions after 2018 scandal
In 2018, Germany's asylum office BAMF came under fire for supposedly wrongly issuing numerous positive asylum decisions. Now, German courts have ruled in favor of 66 refugees whose positive asylum decisions had been revoked.

According to the interior ministry, 184 lawsuits were filed in total. Nearly half of these cases (91) haven't yet been decided by the courts. Six cases were decided in 2017. (5)

Malta refuses to take 146 migrants rescued by Open Arms in its SAR area

On Saturday, the ship, which is operated by Open Arms, rescued 40 people, including a three-month-old baby, and later made a second rescue, where 106 people were found in Malta's search and rescue zone.

“The ship will be disembarking at Port Empedocle, Sicily, on Monday evening, after Malta once again denied port of safety requests several times,” an NGO spokesperson stated. (1)

References:

(1) https://timesofmalta.com/.../malta-refuses-to-take-146...

(2) https://www.infomigrants.net/.../lampedusa-migrant...

(3) https://www.infomigrants.net/.../five-eritreans-take...

(4) https://www.infomigrants.net/.../relocated-116-refugees...

(5) https://www.infomigrants.net/.../german-courts-correct...

(6) https://www.infomigrants.net/.../greek-ngos-denounce...

(7) https://balkaninsight.com/.../eu-urges-bosnia-to-share.../

(8) https://twitter.com/alarm_phone?s=09

(9) https://twitter.com/seawatch_intl?s=09

(10) https://www.tagesschau.de/fluechtlingslager-lesbos-blei...

(11) https://www.theguardian.com/.../athens-accused-of...

The situation in the Central Mediterranean remains very tense. Since the beginning of the year, 2,274 people have been intercepted and pushed back to the detention centers in Libya by the so-called Libyan "Coast Guard." Even with the past week's freezing temperatures, many pushbacks, shipwrecks, independent landings, and unfortunately,  numerous missing were reported.

Sadly, yesterday, it was confirmed that a vessel capsized with 48 people on board after setting off on the night of February 12th from the port of Sfax, Tunisia. The Tunisian Military Marine Corps intervened and managed to save 25 people of which 6 were women.  Maritime weather conditions were so forbidding that rescue operations had to be suspended many times. The lifeless body of a man was also recovered.  However, there is no trace of the other 22 migrants who were swept away by waves and strong currents.

There is some good news. At this time, a  port of safety  (POS) has been finally assigned to the 146 people who were rescued during two separate operations by Open Arms’ Astral (40 on February 12th and 106 on February 13th). There were many women and children among them. The shipwrecked people will be disembarked at Porto Empedocle in Italy according to Covid-19 quarantine protocol procedures.

An episode involving the so-called Libyan Coast Guards is worth mentioning because it demonstrates how hostile and seriously threatening  their mindset is. On February 12th, the so-called Libyan Coast Guard attempted to hinder the intercession of the Spanish NGO while it was attempting to trace a vessel of 40 shipwrecked people among which there were 3 unaccompanied minors and a woman with a 3 month old child.

The Astral, one of Open Arms’ boats, following the geolocation coordinates provided by Seabird, Sea Watch International's aircraft, reported a swimmer 7 nautical miles from Zuwara, Libya. They were pulled back by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard's patrol boat, "Fezzan P658," for allegedly "intentionally violating Libya's national waters and for carrying out clandestine surveillance activities of migrant vessels." In spite of everything, Open Arms' crew courageously managed to rescue the shipwrecked people whose boat was sinking.

On February 11th, the same patrol boat  carried out another interception and an additional 209 people were pushed back - among them were 25 women and 13 minors. Concurrently, on the Garabulli coast, a lifeless body was pulled from the sea. Again, the same patrol boat, during a night time operation on February 12th, intercepted another 90 migrants and pushed them back to Tripoli. 

It is easy, therefore, to assume that there are many vessels present that have not been reported in the Central Mediterranean. Presently, adverse weather conditions have forced  another dinghy with a group of migrants that had not yet been reported to Zuwara's shore. 

Groups of people also continue to arrive on Italian shores. On February 12th, there were two independent landings in Lampedusa from Tunisia for a total of 99 migrants. The first vessel had 53 people on board (among them were 5 women and 4 minors); the second vessel had 46 people on board (among them were 15 women and 4 minors).

Yet another week ends with a considerable number of pushbacks by proxy, with European authorities and  governments failing to rescue those in distress and with independent landings. Rather than intervene, Europe, Italy, but also most of the national public media, are silent on the subject. Instead, they should denounce this, protect the lives and the rights of these people and ensure rescue and care in compliance with international law and  the Italian Constitution.