Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe 18-21.11.16
Topic
01 November 2016
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EU: November deadly for migrants crossing Mediterranean, IOM says (Reuters, link)
"At least 365 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean this week in six sinkings, bringing the death toll so far this year to 4,636, already 1,000 more than in all of 2015, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday.
Migrants, mainly from West Africa, are taking to the sea from Libya in flimsy rubber boats, trying to reach Italian islands and Europe, where they have little hope of being granted asylum, IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle said.
"This is really a calamity in plain sight," Doyle told a news briefing. "We are seeing really tragic scenes of rubber rafts going under the seas in the middle of winter in the Mediterranean.""
See latest figures from: the UN (17 November, pdf) which records 4,518 dead or missing people in the Mediterranean in 2016; and the IOM (18 November, pdf) which reports 4,621 dead or missing.
GREECE: Far-right group attacks refugee camp on Greek island of Chios (The Guardian, link):
"Dozens of people have been driven out of a refugee camp on the Greek island of Chios after two successive nights of attacks by a far-right group.
At least two people were wounded after attackers threw Molotov cocktails and rocks as big as boulders from elevated areas surrounding the Souda camp, activists said.
Three tents were burned down and three others were hit by rocks. A 42-year-old Syrian man was assaulted, while a Nigerian boy was hit by a rock.
Fearing a third attack on Friday night, about 100 former occupants refused to re-enter the camp, instead taking shelter in a nearby car park. “We do not have any kind of protection,” Mostafa al-Khatib, a Syrian refugee, told the Guardian. “No one cares about us.”"
And see: Chios tense after unrest at migrant camp (Ekathimerini, link)
TURKEY: 123 Migrants Flee Center in Turkey After Fire Breaks Out (ABC News, link):
"Turkey's interior ministry says that 123 migrants being held at a repatriation center in Istanbul have fled in the chaos that ensued after a fire broke out.
The ministry said in a statement that Saturday's fire was set by some of the migrants.
All rooms were vacated and the inmates were brought to an assembly area, from where 123 people fled during the ensuing chaos."
UK:-FRANCE: Charities criticise Home Office for UK ban on teenage refugees (Third Force News, link):
"Charities have hit out at the Home Office after it revealed most unaccompanied children over the age of 12 will not be allowed to enter the UK from the demolished Calais 'Jungle' refugee camp.
Representatives from Citizens UK, Calais Action, Refugee Action and Help Refugees say the government is breaking its promises after guidance was issued which means unaccompanied teenage refugees who do not have family in the UK and are from countries other than Syria and Sudan will not be allowed entry except in exceptional circumstances.
The guidance on how to implement the Dubs Amendment – passed by Lord Alf Dubs in April this year – that committed the government to taking 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees, means that children as young as 13 and 14 from countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Eritrea will be barred from being transferred to Britain."
See: Government must not backtrack on commitment to protect refugee children from Calais (Refugee Action, link) and: Home Office Guidance: Implementation of section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 in France (pdf): contains the new eligibility criteria.
POLAND-BELARUS: A road to nowhere for asylum-seekers
"On 2-5 October 2016, we conducted a monitoring visit as representatives of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in order to investigate the situation at the Brzesc-Terespol (Brest-Terespol) border crossing between Belarus and Poland. The purpose of our monitoring was threefold: (1) Uncovering the general situation of those of the foreign nationals present in Brest who express intention to seek international protection in Poland, and specifically the scale of the phenomenon, types of problems and aid actions taken on-site; (2) Observation of access to the procedure of filing an application for international protection at the Terespol border crossing point; (3) Conducting interviews with foreign nationals present in Brest with the purpose of exploring the expressed reasons for them seeking international protection and their experiences in contacts with Polish Border Guard (Straz Graniczna)."
See: A road to nowhere (Helsinki Foundation, link) and the report: A road to nowhere. The account of a monitoring visit at the Brest-Terespol border crossing between Poland and Belarus (link to pdf)
And see: Inaccessible? Polish asylum procedure at the border crossing between Poland and Belarus (ECRE, link)
BULGARIA: Helsinki Committee report on the detention of migrants and possible alternatives
A new report by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee examines the detention of migrants and possible alternatives: "The purpose of this report is making an analysis of the efficiency of the national practice in applying administrative detention of foreign nationals and the potential new alternatives to detention which, when put in place, would both improve the efficiency of immigration control and lower its financial and human costs."
The report: Bulgarian Helsinki Committee: Program for Legal Protection of Refugees and Migrants: Detention Mapping Report (pdf)
EU: Civil liberties committee: more funding for "on-going migration, refugee and security crisis" needed
"The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution...
Acknowledges that the financial impact of the current internal security crises, as well as of the humanitarian and migratory challenges, were not accounted for when the current MFF was adopted in 2013... Emphasises that, even with the systematic mobilisation of the totality of the Flexibility Instrument under heading 3 in the coming years, the financial resources available will not be sufficient to tackle the increased needs; considers as essential, therefore, a fair distribution of funding according to priorities, in full transparency and accountability".
And: European Parliament Legislative Observatory: Mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument: financing immediate budgetary measures to address the ongoing migration, refugee and security crisis (link). The report to be drawn up by the Committee on Budgets is expected to be the subject of a plenary vote on 30 November.
EU: Draft Conclusions on the integration of third-country nationals legally residing in the EU
The Council is drawing up a set of conclusions on the integration of legally-residing third-country nationals in the EU, as a follow up to the Commission's recent Action Plan on the topic. See: Draft Conclusions of the Council and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States on the integration of third-country nationals legally residing in the EU (14096/16, LIMITE, 10 November 2016, pdf)
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