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Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe 19.8.16

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01 August 2016

 AP witnesses rescue of migrants off Libya, 4 bodies found (AP, link): "A Spanish aid group rescued more than 100 migrants Thursday from three separate migrant boats off Libya's coast and recovered at least four bodies after one of the vessels sank. Relatives reported another two people drowned but rough seas hampered search efforts.

 

The Associated Press was aboard the Astral rescue ship of the group Proactiva Open Arms when a Libyan fisherman flagged the sunken migrant boat some 20 miles north of the western Libyan city of Sabratha."

 EU: Thematic focus: Migrants with disabilities (Fundamental Rights Agency, link): "Persons with disabilities make up around 15 % of the global population, and comprise a significant minority of refugees and migrants. In addition to pre-existing physical, sensory, intellectual or psychosocial impairments, people may acquire or develop impairments during the migration process. When identified, these impairments place an obligation on Member States to provide specific support throughout the arrival, registration and asylum process.

There is little information available on the situation of migrants and refugees with disabilities recently arrived in the EU, resulting in anecdotal evidence and individual reports of particular challenges faced. This thematic focus explores practices in four areas crucial to persons with disabilities and victims of torture in the current migrant situation:

1. Identification of persons with disabilities in reception and detention centres
2. Reception conditions for persons with disabilities
3. Mental health determinants and support
4. Identification and rehabilitation of victims of torture"

And see: Fundamental Rights Agency: Monthly data collection on the current migration situation in the EU: Thematic focus: Disability (pdf)

Covers 1-31 July 2016; contains the full text of the "thematic focus" report on disability and detailed information on the situation in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Sweden, looking at:

• New arrivals
• Criminal proceedings
• Initial registration and processing
• Reception conditions
• Child protection
• Legal, social and policy responses
• Hate speech

 FRANCE: New report on women living in Calais camps

"Since the publication of The Long Wait, we have processed and analysed additional data relating to women in Calais, which we are presenting in this report. Media coverage consistently tends to highlight that the majority of residents in the Calais camp are men and boys, while reports and news stories relating to women and girls in the settlement are few and far between.

This report hence aims to fill some of the information gaps relating to these women. It sheds light on the specific adversities they face, including gender-based violence, a lack of access to reproductive healthcare, and an absence of safety and security, amongst others."

See: Unsafe Borderlands: Filling the data gaps relating to women in the Calais camp (Refugee Rights, link)

 Migration through Egypt: The Safe Alternative to Libya? (Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, link): "The Greek Coast Guard rescued 340 migrants off the coast of Crete after a boat carrying the migrants bound for Italy capsized in the Mediterranean Sea on June 3, 2016. Four migrants were less lucky: they drowned in the Mediterranean. The boat reportedly originated in Egypt and capsized in waters in Egypt’s exclusive economic area.

The Crete incident cast a spotlight on Egypt as a country of transit and its policies towards the mixed migration flows from the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. "

 EU: 4 maps that will change how you see migration in Europe (World Economic Forum, link): "Did you know that Polish people represent the highest percentage of the foreign-born population in Norway? Or that the largest proportion of immigrants to the Republic of Ireland hail from the UK?

These four maps, created by Jakub Marian, a Czech linguist, mathematician and artist, are based on a 2015 study by the United Nations on international migration. They show European migration split into various numbers:

1. The percentage of the population of each country that is made up of foreign-born migrants

2. The most common country of origin for that number

3. Whether that number has gone up or down in the past five years

4. The immigrant populations that are expanding the most"

 EU: Sharing responsibility for refugees in Europe: the logic of identity (openDemocracy, link): "Values such as ‘shared responsibility’ that define the EU on paper do not appear to be powerful in practice. But across Europe national identities are a different matter. "

 Refugees find chance to flourish in German workforce (UNHCR, link): "Meet some of the refugees who are rolling up their sleeves in Germany, after finding work with a car maker, train operator and technology giant."