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Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe 28.11.16

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01 November 2016

 GREECE-TURKEY-FRONTEX: E.U. Border Agency Still Unaccountable on Refugees’ Rights (Refugees Deeply, link): "Last month, 10 Syrians boarded a flight organized and staffed by the European Union’s border agency, Frontex, on the Greek island of Kos, believing their destination was Athens. Instead, they landed in the Turkish city of Adana.

 

The Syrians had wanted to seek international protection in Greece, and carried documents indicating their intention to initiate asylum procedures. They were never given deportation orders or offered an opportunity to mount a legal challenge to their deportation."

 GREECE: Refugee Tensions Spiral on Greek Island of Chios (VOA, link):

"CHIOS, GREECE — Transformed into a holding pen by the European Union, tensions are escalating on the Greek island of Chios as both residents and refugees pay a heavy price.

Just over a week ago, brewing frustrations culminated in clashes breaking out in Souda refugee camp, which is home to about 800 people.

For two nights running, huge rocks and - some claim - molotov cocktails were thrown from the ancient walls of a castle onto refugees in the tents below, while a small number of Greeks and some residents of the camp clashed.

And with some still too fearful to sleep in the camp, which is in the island’s main town, there are now concerns that more violence could follow."

 GREECE: «We’ve managed to improve the provisions for all the people in the camp» (Papierlose Zeitung, link):

"The inhabitants of Oreokastro, the Greek refugee camp, have kicked out the NGOs responsible for them and have taken over the day-to-day running of the camp themselves: a small ray of hope that nevertheless can’t blot out the adverse conditions of life in Oreokastro."

 EU: Resettled in the Baltics, refugees flee for wealthier lands (Reuters, link):

"In early November, 34 Syrian and Iraqi refugees boarded buses heading for Germany from Lithuania, the country where they had been resettled. No one expects them to return.

Only a tiny number of refugees from war in the Middle East have been sent to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, among the European Union's poorest countries. The Baltic states were nobody's first choice.

"When we left from Turkey to Greece, our final goal was Germany or Holland," said Mohamed Kamel Haj Ali, 52, once a shopkeeper in Syria, who for the time being still lives in Rukla in Lithuania.

"But the land route from Greece was already closed, so we had no choice but to enter the relocation program, which brought us here.""

 FRANCE: From CAO to PRAHDA (Passeurs d'hospitalités, link): "The PRAHDA (Asylum Seekers’ Hosting and Accommodation Program) began to to be talked about in relation to the incease in asylum seeker’s deportations with the Dublin procedure to the country responsible for their application for asylum (the Dublin III regulation is used to determine the European country responsible for an asylum application, usually the country of entry into the European Union), because one of its tasks as defined by the public tender was published: “the preparation of the transfer of persons under Dublin procedure and follow-up, where appropriate, people placed under house arrest in the scheme “.

But a deeper reading of the tendering process shows that the target audience is that of the CAO’s (Reception and Orientation Centres – see here, here, here and there), that is to say not only persons whose asylum procedure is ongoing"

And in French: Des CAO au PRAHDA (link)

 IRAQ: Winter closes in on refugees fleeing Iraq's Mosul (Reuters, link):

"U.S.-backed Iraqi government troops and Kurdish security forces have launched the biggest battle in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to drive Islamic State fighters from Mosul, the militant group's last major bastion in the country, many times larger than any other city the fighters have held.

The United Nations is asking donors to fund winter kits for 1.2 million people -- preparing for a worst case scenario that much of the city's population may have to flee. Seventy-two thousand have fled so far, and winter has brought freezing temperatures.

The Kurdish authorities are requiring fleeing civilians to stay in camps even if they have family outside, so that males can be checked for ties to Islamic State. Relatives crowded out front, bringing blankets and pillows."