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EU: Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe: 25.4.17

25 April 2017

EU  
Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe
25.4.17
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Keep in touch: Statewatch Observatory: Refugee crisis in the Med and inside the EU: Daily news (updated through the day), commentaries and official documents

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EU: Migration monitoring in the Mediterranean region – Libyan military to be linked up to European surveillance systems (Matthias Monroy, link):

"The Mediterranean countries of the EU are establishing a network to facilitate communication between armed forces and the border police. Libya, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia are also set to take part. This would make them, through the back door, part of the surveillance system EUROSUR. Refugees could then be seized on the open seas before being returned to Libya."

And see: Answer to a parliamentary question given by Commissioner Avramopoulos on behalf of the Commission (EP, link):

"The satellite-supported communication infrastructure of the Seahorse Mediterranean network will be established in 2017, if the security situation in Libya allows, and will enable the Libyan Coast Guard to exchange information on incidents and contribute to rescue operations.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency will support this cooperation with regular monitoring and surveillance information.

Regional engagement of Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt in the Seahorse network is ongoing. In the framework of the EU-Tunisia high political level dialogue on security and the fight on terrorism, held on 19 January 2017, Tunisia has been encouraged to join the Seahorse project by joining the network and participating to the training.

The same approach was followed in a bilateral meeting with Egypt in the margins of the Valletta Summit on 8 February 2017 and with Algeria at the 7th sub-committee on justice and home affairs on 22 February 2017."

GREECE: Refugees drown off Greek coast, others start hunger strike in Lesbos camp (Deutsche Welle, link):

"At least 15 bodies were recovered by vessels from Greece's navy and the EU's Frontex agency on Monday. The Greek coastguard said one of its patrol vessels rescued two women, including one who was pregnant.

Authorities said the dead comprised two children, four women and nine men.

(...)

On Saturday in Rome, Pope Francis described Lesbos arrival centers he visited last year as "concentration camps," and urged European nations to provide relief by receiving those "left there inside."

At Moria, one of the camps on Lesbos, where the statuses of 13,800 refugees remain unresolved, 14 Kurds from Syria remain on hunger strike.

They began their protest against the slow processing of their appeals on Friday, sitting in blankets in front of the camp's asylum bureau."

EU: International Commission of Jurists: comments on the new Asylum Procedures Regulation and Reception Conditions Directive

The International Commission of Jurists has published two new notes offering critical observations on the EU's proposed Asylum Procedures Regulation and Reception Conditions Directive, noting with regular to the former that "the areas most impacted include access to legal information; legal assistance, representation and legal aid; accelerated and border procedures; and access to an effective remedy."

Immigrant detention: a prospering business (The Prisma, link):

"Four multinationals manage 7 of the 9 detention centres in the United Kingdom, with the contracts they sign worth millions of pounds. Nevertheless, there are complaints, allegations and deaths amidst what is happening under their management. Which are they and how can this system be explained? "

And see: UK: Behave or get deported, says G4S (OpenDemocracy, link):

"EXCLUSIVE: The world’s biggest security company, landlord to asylum-seekers, threatens tenants with expulsion from the UK.

About 900 people who are seeking asylum live in the city of Sheffield, in South Yorkshire. For five years G4S, the world’s largest security company, has held the government contract to accommodate them whilst they await the outcome of their claims for asylum."

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