Background information

FROM THE SEA TO THE CITY Ideas, good practices and next steps for a welcoming Europe

The From the Sea to the City Consortium publishes in April 2021 its first report with key recommendations and best practices in the field of European migration addressing EU representatives, civil society, mayors and city representatives. Together with the new publication, the initiative launches a new save the date for a hybrid Conference of Cities on 25-26 June 2021 online and in Palermo, in cooperation with the Cities of Potsdam and Palermo. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Europäische Union, Europa

The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum in light of the United Nations Global Compact on Refugees: International Experiences on Containment and Mobility and their Impacts on Trust and Rights

In September 2020, the European Commission published what it described as a New Pact on Migration and Asylum (emphasis added) that lays down a multi-annual policy agenda on issues that have been central to debate about the future of European integration. This book critically examines the new Pact as part of a Forum organized by the Horizon 2020 project ASILE – Global Asylum Governance and the EU’s Role. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Europäische Union, Weltweit

Human rights on the southern borders in 2021

The increasing arrivals of small boats in 2020 once again calls into questioning the migration policies based on repression and violation of human rights. read more

Language(s): Spanisch / Español
Region(s): Spanien, Nordafrika, Europäische Union, Afrika

Solidarity process: migrants and supporters persecuted by the Belgian state!

Alaa, Anouk, Hassan, Hussein, Mahmoud, Mohammad, Mustapha, Myriam, Walid, Youssef, Zakia. Prison sentence for being migrants? Prison sentence for showing solidarity with migrants?
On the 23rd and 24th of March 2021, the appeal trial of eleven people accused of human trafficking and participation in a criminal organisation since 2017 will take place. Today we call on everyone who believes in justice and solidarity to support them in this new trial.
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Language(s): Französisch / Français
Region(s): Europäische Union, Europa

A BRIDGE OF BODIES: Let's open the borders!

On 6 March a group of women, recognizing themselves in the Manifesto "Un Ponte di Corpi" promoted by Lorena Fornasir, activist on the Balkan route beyond and on this side of the border, between Bosnia and Trieste, will build with their bodies a symbolic bridge to cross the border, to denounce the continuous violence and pushbacks of people who try to reach their destination. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Balkanstaaten, Italien / Malta, Europäische Union

Perché si devono “salvare i migranti dai libici”, e dai governi europei.

Secondo quanto riferisce l’ANSA oggi sarebbero annegate “almeno 15 persone nelle acque libiche e 95 sono sopravvissute, portate a riva dalla Guardia costiera libica”. Questo il bilancio fatto dall’OIM, Organizzazione internazionale delle migrazioni, facente capo alle Nazioni Unite. Da una agenzia di ADN KRONOS di ieri 27 febbraio, si ha notizia che ci sarebbero state“142 persone catturate da Guardia costiera libica”. Nelle stesse ore la nave Sea Watch 3 riusciva ad operare ben quattro interventi di soccorso prendendo a bordo oltre trecento persone, mentre altre quattro imbarcazioni venivano avvistate alla deriva nel Mediterraneo centrale da un aereo appartenente ad una organizzazione umanitaria. Secondo l’OIM, i naufraghi intercettati in mare e riportati a terra per essere rinchiusi nuovamente nei centri di detenzione, dopo essere stati “recuperati” dalla Guardia costiera libica, sarebbero da inizio anno sono più di 3700. read more

Language(s): Deutsch / German
Region(s): Italien / Malta, Europa

Mare Liberum - Pushback Report 2020

Since March 2020, Mare Liberum has witnessed a dramatic increase in human rights violations in the Aegean, both at sea and on land. Illegal pushbacks, in which those fleeing and migrating people are pushed back across a national border, play an especially crucial role. Over the past year in particular, pushbacks have become an inhumane everyday reality for people on the move. Pushbacks happen almost daily at the Greek-Turkish border and in 2020 alone, we counted 321 pushbacks in the Aegean Sea, with some 9,798 people pushed back. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Italien / Malta, Griechenland / Türkei, Nordafrika, Europäische Union

Serbia as a transit country - A Timline

This timeline provides a graphic overview of Serbia becoming part of the buffer zone of the EU in regards to curbing migration. Starting with the visa liberalisation between Serbia and the EU in 2009, continuing with the increase of clandestine transit migration from 2011 onwards, the state-organised humanitarian passage in 2015, the so-called closure of the corridor and the resulting “Balkan impasse” from 2016 and the rise of the anti-migration far right in Serbia from 2020, the history of the Serbian part of the so-called Balkan route will be traced and contextualized. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Balkanstaaten

Greece: de facto suspension of human rights for protection seekers in the aegean sea

In a new report, the organization Mare Liberum shows that last year saw an unprecedented escalation of human rights violations in the Aegean Sea - both at sea and on land. Mare Liberum documented that from March to December alone, more than 9,000 people fleeing were forcibly pushed back to Turkey, depriving them of their right to asylum. The report also shows that, in addition to the Greek coast guard as the main actor, the European border protection agency Frontex and ships under NATO command are also involved in these systematic and illegal repatriation operations.

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Language(s): Deutsch / German
Region(s): Italien / Malta, Griechenland / Türkei, Afrika

A Struggle for Every Single Boat

Over the past six months, from July to December 2020, we witnessed a continuity in the Central Mediterranean Sea, with Italian and Maltese state actors withdrawing from their rescue obligations, the administrative detention of the civil fleet and the unresponsiveness of the so-called Libyan Coast Guard in situations where people were in extreme distress off the Libyan shores. The combination of these elements has inevitably led to an increasing rescue gap, more suffering and many shipwrecks at sea. read more

Language(s): Deutsch / German
Region(s): Italien / Malta, Nordafrika

Crimes against Humanity in the Aegean

The present report contributes to this growing body of evidence both to serve as a resource for survivors of collective expulsions and solidarity actors, and to demonstrate the consistent and systematic nature of this practice over the last year. It is based on recent additional evidence shared with LCL by survivors of collective expulsions, and analyses the violations committed by the Greek authorities in their commission of collective expulsions. It identifies the consistent modus operandi of collective expulsions at the Aegean sea border, which evidences both the widespread and systematic nature of ‘push-backs’ as an attack against migrants, and the policy pursuant to and in furtherance of which this attack is carried out: amounting to crimes against humanity committed by Greek authorities in accordance with the criteria of Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute). It should also be reminded however, that it does not capture the years of systematic pushback practices carried out by Greece at both its land and sea border with
Turkey. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Griechenland / Türkei

Amnesty International denuncia il Memorandum of Understanding tra i due paesi

Alla vigilia del quarto anniversario della firma del Memorandum d’intesa con la Libia, Amnesty International ha denunciato che nel paese nordafricano si susseguono arresti arbitrari, torture, rapimenti e violenze ai danni di rifugiati e migranti con la complicità e nel silenzio delle istituzioni italiane. read more

Language(s): Deutsch / German
Region(s): Italien / Malta, Nordafrika

Research Report: Migrants and Migration in the eastern region of Libya

This situational report is based on a research conducted from October to December 2020 in Tobruk, Eastern Libya. It contains a situational analysis of living and health conditions of migrants in Eastern Libya with a special focus on the perception of migrants on social media. It gives a unique insight into the lifes of migrants marked by total exploitation and extortion as well as threats of imprisonment and deportation.The author was an intern with borderline Europe, sponsored by IfA, International Institut of Foreign Relations within the scope of their CCP fellowships as a remote intern. The research was conducted in a period when Libya was shaken by electricity and internet outages, scarcity of commodities, limitation of movement due to the pandemic and physical threats by militias especially against young women and also our intern.
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Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Nordafrika

Shocking number of deaths, but also growing struggles on the ground

2020 was a difficult year for people all around the world. Travellers on the routes across the Western Mediterranean and the Atlantic were no exception. They faced numerous novel challenges this year. We witnessed unprecedented developments. In Morocco and Spain, not only has the Corona crisis served as yet another pretext to harass, intimidate and mistreat migrants, but the travel routes also changed significantly read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Nordafrika, Europa

Lipa is the cruel consequence of the European border politics.

The images from Lipa are harrowing. The catastrophic situation people on the move are facing in northern Bosnia-Herzegovina is the consequence of European policies of shutting off people, no matter what. Germany and the EU are direct responsible for the systematic violation of the rights of people on the move at Europe's external borders. It is the EU that has created the humanitarian emergency in Bosnia in the first place through the systematic use of force by Croatian border guards. These violent pushbacks must be stopped immediately. The German government must act now: People on the move must be evacuated immediately from Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Germany, federal states and municipalities are ready to take them in – their entry into the EU must be made possible! read more

Language(s): Deutsch / German
Region(s): Balkanstaaten

Balkan Region Report - December 2020

During December 2020, the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) gathered 25 testimonies of pushbacks, impacting a total of 707 people-on-the-move. This rounds off a year of consistent and compelling evidence collected by BVMN, exposing the systematised use of pushbacks at the European Union external border. In this report, updates cover a variety of violations including pushback practices, internal violence and the crisis around winterised shelter.

This report analyses among other things:

Tri-border pushbacks from Bulgaria to Turkey
Expulsion of transit groups from Lesvos
Fire pits used by the Croatian police
The burning of camp Lipa in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Legal proceedings against Croatia and Hungary
Gateway removals near Idomeni
Read the full report to find out more about these, and further events from the region that occured in December. Other topics include an update from activists working with arrivals in Trieste, analysis of Greek Ministry of Asylum videos, coverage of right wing attacks in Thessaloniki and fires on Samos, and challenging transit conditions for people in Serbia as winter intensifies. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Balkanstaaten, Europäische Union

Sea rescue in the Mediterranean Sea the review of 2020

Since 2015, several civilian sea rescue organizations from various European countries, primarily Germany, Italy and Spain, have been operating mainly in the central Mediterranean Sea - repeatedly emphasizing that sea rescue is actually a state task, but that it is not being adequately performed. According to their own figures, they were able to rescue more than 3,500 people from distress at sea in 2020. But for some time now, their work has been increasingly hindered by political measures, for example because Mediterranean states such as Italy and Malta refuse to shelter refugees and prohibit them from entering their ports, while the EU has suspended "Sophia," its rescue mission in the Mediterranean.
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Language(s): Deutsch / German
Region(s): Europäische Union, Europa

KISA denounces the new act of repression by the government.

PRESS REEASE – 16/12/2020
KISA denounces the new act of repression by the government.

KISA denounces a mew attempt by the government to repress its action and vision for a society without racism and discrimination
The Minister of Interior, immediately after his appointment last December, unleashed an unprecedented defamation attack against KISA and other NGOS active in the field of migration and asylum, making his intention to close them down very clear.
The Minister, with no substantiation whatsoever of his positions, repeatedly accused KISA for cooperation with terrorist religious organisations collaborating with Turkey, for corruption and participating in money laundering as well as for participation in the pursued, according to him, demographic and cultural identity changes of Cyprus by Turkey. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Griechenland / Türkei

LOCKED UP AND EXCLUDED - Informal and illegal detention in Spain, Greece, Italy and Germany

The report of Migreurop “Locked up and excluded" : Informal and illegal detention in Spain, Greece, Italy and Germany” looks back at how four EU member states practiced the administrative detention of non- nationals in 2019. The report shows how, in both first arrival countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain and in a presumed destination country, Germany, the detention of non-nationals is evolving, taking new forms and based on new grounds. In particular, this report argues that, in 2019, administrative detention was increasingly happening outside or at the margins of existing legal frameworks. We consider that locking migrants up without respecting or by bending existing legislations amounted to a generalization of ad hoc and informal detention and that it led to the further precarisation and deterioration of detention conditions. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Europa

Balkan Region Report – October 2020

In October, the Border Violence Monitoring Network published 40 reports of pushbacks and police violence at European Union borders. These cases, which relate the experience of 1003 people-on-the-move, are a testament to the brutal border systems in place at internal and external EU borders. Respondents experienced a range of physical, psychological and structural violence, which is examined in detail in this report. Read the full report for further updates on the criminalisation of solidarity work in Croatia, forced removals to the South of Serbia, Frontex pushbacks in the Aegean and deaths of people-on-the-move killed on the route last month. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Balkanstaaten

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