The workshop took
place on the 16th of April, and in the beginning, an introduction was
given – also for the second workshop about missing people - about
the reason why we are in Catania now: the shipwreck on the 18th of
April 2015, when more than 800 migrants died during the rescue of a
boat between Libya and Sicily by a merchant vessel. Middle of April
2015 was the deadliest week with about 1200 deaths in the Central
Mediterranean Sea. This was not a natural disaster, but the result of
the EU policy and Frontex. Sabine summarized a report, just published
by Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani, which you can find here: https://deathbyrescue.org/
Some sentences from a press release
about it:
A new investigation accuses EU
policymakers of “killing by neglect” after cutting rescue
missions in the Mediterranean in full knowledge of the lethal
consequences of their actions.
Meeting transcripts and documents
unearthed in a report from Goldsmiths, University of London and the
University of York show that the EU border agency Frontex’s own
internal assessment of replacing Mare Nostrum with Triton predicted
increased deaths at sea, but the policy was introduced anyway.
Researchers found that a previously
unreported 2014 Frontex internal assessment on “tackling migrant
flows” stated:
“It has to be
stressed that the withdrawal of naval assets from the area, if not
properly planned and announced well in advance, would likely result
in a higher number of fatalities.”
The researchers from the ESRC-funded
‘Precarious Trajectories’ project argue that because the decision
to retreat from state-led search and rescue operations was taken in
full knowledge of the risk, EU policy makers and agencies carry a
strong degree of responsibility for mass deaths at sea.
On 12 April, 400
people died when an overcrowded boat capsized due to its passengers’
excitement at the sight of approaching rescue tugboats. Six days
later a similar incident killed 800, leading to the deadliest single
shipwreck recorded in the Mediterranean. In 2015 there was a total of
3,700 documented deaths at sea.
The report ‘Death
by Rescue: The lethal effects of the EU's policies of non-assistance
at sea’ demonstrates that, with the ending of the Italy-led Mare
Nostrum Operation and the launch of a limited Frontex-led Triton
operation, agencies and policy makers enacted a policy of retreat
from state-led search and rescue operations.
After this introduction, the two
workshops took place in different rooms. The structure of the Frontex
workshop was:
What is Frontex?
Hotspots and Deportations
Actions and Campaigns against
Frontex
The “Ferries not Frontex”
campaign
Presentation of a guide “Welcome
to Italy”
The Watch the Med Alarmphone
Discussion: What can we do?
In the discussion it was added that the
zone of 30 nautic miles, in which Frontex wanted “Triton” to
operate, does not exist anymore because of many deaths near the
Libyan coast and political pressure by organizations of the civil
society. The coastguard does no longer call merchant ships very
often. The vessels of the military operation EUNAFVOR Med (later
called “Sophia”), which started in the end of June 2015, are not
visible on maps and do not rescue very often, but have the aim to
“fight against smugglers”. Also Frontex has this aim and on every
boat, at least two people are arrested as “traffickers”. The
question was asked how the decision making of Frontex works and if
there is a democratic control of its work? This can be denied –
even EU parliamentarians do not know how decisions are taken like
those to send Frontex to the Greek borders, even if the government
does not want this.
2. A short
presentation about the aims of the “hotspot approach” and the
existing hotspots in Italy (at the moment: Lampedusa, Trapani,
Pozzalo and Taranto) was given:
Lucia from borderline Sicily added that
the selection of “economic migrants” now already takes place on
the boats after rescue. During the first identification, questions
are asked like: “Do you want to work in Italy?” and those who
answer “yes” are declared as “economic migrants” who have no
right to apply for asylum. They get a paper to leave Italy in 7 days
and are thrown out on the street. Mostly deportation is not possible,
because the people do not have passports. But only if they find a
support group and a lawyer they can manage to file an asylum
application and get access to accommodation. Lawyers who were present
reported about such cases (one has about 30).
Most of the
“hotspots” are overcrowded. In Pozzallo, about 400 people live on
120 places. Detention in a hotspot should officially last only three
days, but sometimes it lasts one week or more. Men, women and
children are put together, unaccompanied minors cannot go out, not
even leave the building. After detention, the people are distributed
to different places.
On Lampedusa, the
first place to make experiments about hotspots, people are waiting
2-3 months to be moved to others parts of Italy and there are no
criteria who is taken first. The 7-days-paper is issued on the boat
to Sicily.
In Trapani people
are detained 2-3 days and then moved to other centers. Many of them
get the 7-days-paper. The deadline to apply for asylum with the help
of a lawyer is 30 days.
A lawyer reported
that she has some cases of minors, who were not recognized as under
age. Frontex is also involved in age assessment, which is part of the
screening, and about 50% of the minors are declared adults. On
Lampedusa, several minors were arrested because they were considered
to be smugglers.
The relationship
between Frontex and local authorities is not clear. Officially,
Frontex gives only “technical support” and is lead by Italian
police, but the relationship is not regulated by any law.
There is no law for economic migrants,
so they have to apply for asylum or become irregular.
The percentage of
rejections of asylum applications is increasing: before it was about
1/3, now it is going to 2/3 (62% of rejections); many rejections are
made by nationality (espacially African Subsaharian countries) and
are affecting also several asylum seekers coming from countries where
there are wars and/or ethnic/religious/political conflicts (see the
table below)
3. A presentation
with photos of actions against Frontex in Europe and on the other
side of the Mediterranean (WSF Dakar and Tunis, Choucha camp) was
shown:
4. The campaign
“Ferries not Frontex” was presented – it is explained in a
newspaper which was distributed in English, French and Italian and
can be found here:
5. A new guide
“Welcome to Italy” was presented in a printed form as a small
booklet to be distributed to migrants.
You can find the short/print versions
(in low resolution) here:
and the long/web versions here:
Versions in arabic
and farsi to come soon, still looking for translators and layouters
for a tigrinya version. The guide will be updated every 4-5 months
and everybody can help to give new information and further contacts
to add to the “useful contacts” chapter!
6. The Watch the Med
Alarmphone was shortly presented by Judith. It was started in October
2014 by activist networks and civil society actors in Europe and
Northern Africa. The project set up a self-organized hotline for
refugees in distress in the Mediterranean Sea. It offers the affected
boat-people a second option to make their SOS noticeable. The alarm
phone documents and mobilizes in real-time. In this way, pressure to
rescue is built-up, wherever possible and push-backs and other forms
of human rights violations of refugees and migrants at sea can be
opposed. The project aims to create a Mediterranean space of mutual
solidarity, with open borders for all people. Thus, the Alarm Phone
is not a rescue number, but an alarm number to support rescue
operations. Find more here:
http://alarmphone.org/en/about/
7.Discussion about
what we can do against Frontex, hotspots and deportations
One thing is our
daily work, e.g. to spread information (like the guide to Italy) on a
local level to migrants, the other thing is to plan actions, if
possible, together, at least coordinated. After the break through on
the Balkan route, the border regimes strikes back now and we have to
think about ways to come into an offensive situation again.
Actions against the
hotspot system are important, because they separate the migrants in
“good” and “bad” ones (with the rethoric of “real” and
“fake” refugees very widespread in the public opinion), which
takes place all over Europe now. The “hotspot approach” - with a
direct involvement of Frontex - is being implemented both in Italy
and Greece (particularly in Sicily and in the Greek islands) with
many similarities so we need to exchange information and to carry out
common proposals to face these common situation and these policies
that are, in fact, killing the right of asylum as universal and
individual right.
We have to inform migrants about it and
mobilize together against Frontex, detention, selection and
deportation. Hotspots and also the new Frontex headquarter in
Catania, which will open soon, could be places to act. We have to
destroy the image which Frontex tries to spread that it is a rescue
organization. We have to show how human rights are violated in the
hotspots and also why we are against them in general.
The churches have
started a project for humanitarian corridors for 1000 people, who
can come by plane from transit countries – we should support this
(but also demand open borders for all).
We have to learn
from Greece, because the EU wants to have it as a training camp for
selection and deportation. We have to connect the struggles against
external and internal (Dublin) borders.
In Italy,
coordinated actions started because of missing people in Milano and
then went on every week in different cities. Later topics like the
EU/Turkey deal and racism were added and a new network was created.
Actions at the same time strengthen each other and it is important to
do them together with migrants. It is also important to work together
with people on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea against the
collaboration between EU and African countries (see the summit of
Valetta and consequences).
The Balkan route
shows that a network of people from different countries is possible.
There will be a No Border camp in Thessaloniki from 15th to 24th July to strengthen
this network and also people from the Central Med should take part.
And there will be “Defencing Days” at the Croatian-Slovenian
border (Kumrovec/Bistrita towns) from 24th to 26th of June. Actions
at the border between Italy and Austria took already place and others
are planned.
Maybe we can also
think about a common action in Italy in the next months?
Another proposals
that came out were 1) the creation of a “European Day Against
Frontex” that could take place every year (on the 18th April?) in
different European cities and 2) the writing and distribution of
clear and simple materials (as flyers, brochures, etc...) about
Frontex to inform people about EU policies and Frontex role inside
them (using also materials already written and distributed by
associations and campaigns against Frontex)
contatto e anche con dei materiali da mettere sul blog per continuare un lavoro insieme!
