EU: Missing at the Borders: the website for the project dedicated to the families of migrants deceased, missing or victims of enforced disappearances
24 September 2018
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Press release: Missing at the Borders: the website for the project dedicated to the families of migrants deceased, missing or victims of enforced disappearances
24.9.18
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Press release issued by Missing at the Borders on 21 September 2018. Also available as a pdf file.
"People not numbers". This is the fundamental principle that guides Missing at the Borders, the project aimed at giving voice to the victims of enforced disappearances and the families of migrants who have become deceased or missing while attempting to reach Europe.
The self-financed initiative is promoted by a network of organizations that works on both sides of the Mediterranean to combine forces with the families of migrants. Ever since the project's beginning, various actors - such as Milano senza frontiere, Como senza frontiere, Palermo senza frontiere, Carovane Migranti, Association des travailleurs Maghrèbins de France, Alarm Phone and Watch the Med - have assisted Missing at the Borders to raise awareness for the cause.
The network of organizations has created a website (www.missingattheborders.org) to shed light on the sad phenomenon of the "new desaparecidos". Although the website has been online for just a few days, it hosts a collection of stories and testimonies of family members of migrants who have been involved in denouncing European politics on migration that, by denying regular entrance into Europe, force people to risk their lives and violate their right to mobility established by Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The website currently provides detailed information about the migrant phenomenon, as well as information on the present situation in countries such as Tunisia and Algeria. The individual video testimonies of the families of migrants are particularly interesting and touching - their voices tell anecdotes, stories about walks of life, and inform about decisions made in order to truly transform the dramatic "numbers" associated with the phenomenon into real facts and events that these people have experienced.
Hatem Gheribi of Alarmphone says:
"Year after year, thousands of people disappear along the borders in the course of their migratory journey. It has been estimated that the number of victims has exceeded 35,000 since the year 2000. And no one knows exactly how many victims there are along the routes from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East to the southern shores of the Mediterranean. Missing at the Borders is asking for justice, truth and dignity for the families; that they may receive concrete answers to questions about what has happened to their disappeared loved ones, that the EU may cease outsourcing border surveillance and that the right to mobility be guaranteed to all".
Missing at the Borders is founded on the idea that the presence of family members of deceased or missing migrants and the victims of forced disappearances as a political entity is essential to denounce and expose the consequences of the criminal migration policies of Europe and its single member states.
Edda Pando of Milano senza Frontiere concludes:
"The family members of migrants met while searching for their children in hospitals, in ministries, in police stations where they went to report disappearances. What is paramount is that all of them have made a leap of consciousness and do not accept their tragedy as a necessary consequence, and instead are mobilizing for justice and to ensure that, thanks to their testimonies, these episodes will not reoccur".
New videos showing interviews and testimonies of families of migrants will be published monthly, made possible in part by donors. Information on how to contribute to the project is available on the project's website.
www.missingattheborders.org
Info: info [at] missingattheboders.org
English trailer https://youtu.be/1P5GW0HRB3Q
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