Background information
Report on the fact-finding investigation on Frontex concerning alleged fundamental rights violations
The Frontex Scrutiny Working Group (FSWG) of the European Parliament was requested to present its findings on the fact-finding investigation in a written report with conclusions and concrete recommendations. read more
Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Europäische Union
Year of Covid-19 for the people on the move in Serbia
This report is the outcome of the project “Free legal aid and social support for people on the move in Serbia” and this report explains the context and legal background of the whole year 2020, with special
focus on the state of emergency and Covid-19 outbreak in Serbia. read more
Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Balkanstaaten
'No one will look for you' - forcibly returned from sea to abusive detention in Libya
In a grim illustration of prevailing impunity in Libya, Amnesty International’s new research reveals how since late 2020 Libyan authorities have legitimized informal places of captivity with unremedied histories of abuse against refugees and migrants by integrating them into the official migration detention infrastructure. read more
Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Nordafrika
Press release: Deportations to Afghanistan and Syria
The Berlin Alliance against Deportations to Afghanistan and SyriaNotSafe strongly condemn today's deportations to Afghanistan, a country at war, as well as the breaking of taboos by Franziska Giffey, the SPD's top candidate for the elections to the Berlin House of Representatives, who now also calls for deportations to Syria, a torture state. (Languages: English, German, Arabic and Dari): read more
Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Deutschland
Sentence of the trial against the Vial 15
A press release has been published by You Can't Evict Solidarity about the outcome of the Vial 15 trial that ended yesterday, 29th of June, in Mytilini, Lesvos. The court procedure followed the allegations towards 15 people for riots and fire within the EU Hotspot Camp Vial on Chios Island. The defendants were all acquitted of the felony charge of arson and of membership in a criminal group! While four people are completely innocent, eight people were found guilty for resisting arrest and violence in the camp and one for destroying public goods. One of the defendants was excluded from the procedure as he is a minor. Another person could not be found and therefore was not present in the trial. The nine people who were convicted received 3.5 years suspended sentence, which the lawyers will appeal. read more
Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Griechenland / Türkei
"Lethal Disregard" - Search and rescue and the protection of migrants in the central Mediterranean Sea
This thematic report aims to highlight how certain laws, policies and practices related to search and rescue (SAR) and the protection of migrants at sea have negatively impacted the human rights protection of migrants transiting through Libya. The report is part of a wider project by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) seeking to identify, document and analyze human rights violations and protection gaps impacting migrants in Libya and the neighbouring region and to formulate recommendations to relevant governments and other stakeholders, aimed at ensuring compliance with international human rights law and standards.This report covers the period from January 2019 to December 2020. We have made a summary of the report. You can find the hyperlink to the original document in the summary. read more
Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Nordafrika, Europäische Union
Pushing Back Responsibility. Rights Violations as a “Welcome Treatment” at Europe’s borders
Between January and April 2021 civil society organizationsin 6 differentcountries collected testimonies of 2162 cases of pushbacks, including chain pushbacks over multiple countries. The rights violations were recorded at different borders in Italy, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia-and-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Hungary. Over a third of pushbacks were accompanied by rights violations (denial of access to asylum procedure, physical abuse and assault, theft, extortionand destruction of property), at the hands of national border police and law enforcement officials. read more
Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Balkanstaaten, Italien / Malta, Griechenland / Türkei, Europäische Union, Europa
Torture and pushbacks: Stories of migration to Europe during Covid-19
Violent and often sadistic pushbacks from Italy, Slovenia and Croatia are a damning indictment of Europe's broken migrant policy.
Here, in an article and a comic, the artistic journalist collective Brush&Bow shares human stories behind the pushbacks and protracted violence that characterise journeys on the Balkan route. read more
Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Balkanstaaten, Italien / Malta, Europäische Union
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
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.
read more
Language(s): Französisch / Français
Region(s): Europäische Union, Europa
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
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.
read more
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