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EU: Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe: 8-10.5.17

01 May 2017

EU  
Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe
8-10.5.17
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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: Racism plays a key role in migrants’ exclusion and violations of rights in the European Union

Brussels, 2 May 2017 – Anti-migrant political discourses and exclusionary migration policies are having a disproportionate impact on racialised migrants, according to a new report by the European Network Against Racism, covering 26 EU countries. Migrants are increasingly the targets of racist violence and speech; and face discriminatory policies and attitudes hindering their access to the labour market.

ITALY/MALTA: 'You have to call Malta': recordings suggest Italy dallied while hundreds drowned (Times of Malta, link):

"By 1.48pm, Mohammed Jammo was on the verge of despair.

"We are dying, please! Don't abandon us! We have no captain, he ran away. I have no credit on my phone, please help," he pleaded with an official at Italy's rescue coordination centre in Rome.

By that time, Mr Jammo - a self-described Syrian doctor - and the hundreds of men, women and children aboard the rickety boat some 60 nautical miles south of Lampedusa had been waiting more than an hour for help to arrive.

The reply from Rome was chilling. "Yes, yes. You have to call Malta. You have to call Malta."

It would take a further four hours for a rescue vessel to make it to their position, despite an Italian warship being situated just an hour-and-a-half away. By then, Mr Jammo and the boat's other passengers were in the water. Hundreds were dead."

Germany grants asylum to Turkish military personnel (Deutsche Welle, link):

"Several Turkish soldiers and their families, all stationed at NATO facilities in Germany, have been granted asylum in a preliminary decision. The German Interior Ministry is said to have confirmed the reports.

According to numerous reports in German media, the soldiers in question and their families are Turkish nationals with diplomatic passports who had previously been stationed at NATO facilities in Germany. The military employees had filed for asylum in Germany after facing persecution following the failed coup of July 15, 2016."

Italy builds new detention centers to speed up migrant deportations (Reuters, link):

"Italy will open new detention centers across the country in the next few months as part of its push to speed up deportations of illegal migrants, despite critics saying that the centers are not only inhumane but also do not produce the desired result.

Violent protests and difficulty identifying migrants has led to the closure of similar centers over the past few years, but on Tuesday the Interior Ministry asked regional governments to provide a total of 1,600 beds in such centers.

Interior Minister Marco Minniti says migrants must be detained to stop them from slipping away before they can be sent home."

UK:Asylum seekers may have been wrongly deported to Albania(The Guardian, link):

"Hundreds of lesbian and gay asylum seekers, victims of trafficking and survivors of domestic violence may have been wrongly deported to Albania after courts and the Home Office relied on incorrect guidance, it has emerged.

In October 2011, the court of appeal ruled that the courts and the Home Office could no longer rely on expert evidence they had previously used, which stated it was safe to send these groups back to Albania. However, the Home Office and the courts continued to use this evidence for the next five years.

It is not clear why the Home Office or the courts ignored the court of appeal order made in 2011. The lawyers who brought the case said they had never before come across this situation, where the Home Office has in effect ignored a court of appeal ruling for five years."

UK: Britain’s brutal asylum rules allow a little girl to be uprooted with a day’s notice (The Guardian, link):

"During the London terror attack, trapped pupils from Birmingham represented all the good in the world. Now a 10-year-old from the same school has been forced to move"

Council of the European Union: Reception, Eurodac & Visas

• RECEPTION: Proposal for a Directive laying down standards for the reception of applicants for international protection (recast) (LIMITE doc no: 8258-17, pdf): The Council developing its position before entering trilogue meetings with the European Parliament. Lots of amendments from the Concil Presidency and with 134 Footnotes with Member States' positions:

"The text of the proposal in Annex contains modifications suggested by the Presidency in relation to all articles except for the recitals: placed in square brackets, to be discussed at a later stage."

• EURODAC: Proposal for a Regulation on the establishment of 'Eurodac' for the comparison of biometric data for the effective application of [Regulation (EU) No 604/2013 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person]... (LIMITE doc no: 8502-17, 94 pages, pdf): The Council developing its position before entering trilogue meetings with the European Parliament.

"Delegations will find in Annex suggestions from the Presidency for modifications of the text of the draft Eurodac Regulation."

• VISA FORMAT: Proposal for a Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1683/1995 of 29 May 1995 laying down a uniform format for visas (LIMITE doc no: 8510-17, pdf): Almost final Council text.

One of the first times that the impending BREXIT is referred to in Council decision-making:

"This proposal envisaged a "hybrid" Regulation, applying to the Schengen States and allowing for Ireland and the UK to opt in by reference to Protocol 21 TFEU. However, the Council Legal Service (CLS) expressed the view that the proposal constituted a development of the Schengen acquis, and therefore it was not subject to Protocol 21 but to Protocol 19. This means that Ireland and the UK cannot opt in. At the same time, Member States agreed that a solution would need to be found to allow Ireland to use the visa sticker format in one way or another." [emphasis added]

'It's like Airbnb for refugees': UK hosts and their guests – in pictures (Guardian, link):

"Think of it as Airbnb for refugees, quips Robina Qureshi. It’s a simple premise: people with a spare room in their house are matched with a refugee or asylum seeker in need of somewhere to stay.

And it’s a popular one: before 2015, Qureshi’s organisation, called Positive Action in Housing (PAIH), used to provide about 600 nights of shelter a year to people with nowhere to go. In the 18 months since September 2015 this has risen to 29,000 nights."

Hungary withdraws from negotiations over asylum law, dares EC to take legal action (Budapest Beacon, link):

"The Hungarian government walked away from the negotiating table as discussions with the European Commission broke down over Hungary’s asylum policy. In a defiant statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office on Wednesday, the government insisted that “Since the … negotiations were unsuccessful, Hungary’s government does not wish to change the rules concerning immigration, and if the Brussels commission launches legal proceedings, we stand ready to fight the legal dispute.”

With this, the government has given up on all negotiations with the European Commission over its asylum policy, and openly invited the EC to take legal action. The government’s statement made clear that it would not budge on the existence of the so-called “transit zones” erected along Hungary’s southern border, designed to hold asylum-seekers in detention and house them in shipping containers while their asylum applications are being processed.

The Commission opposes the existence of these transit zones, arguing they break EU rules that prohibit the detention of persons based solely on their request for international protection.... "

The reality of NGO migrant rescues (euobserver, link):

"NGOs have become the largest provider of search and rescue (SAR) around Libyan waters.

Based on data from the Italian Coast Guard, NGOs rescued a total of 46,795 migrants in 2016, many more than EU border control and anti-smuggling missions Triton and EUNAVFOR Med.

Still, non-governmental SAR faces mounting criticism as a pull factor for illegal migration, a facilitator of human smuggling, and an obstacle to the identification of smugglers and asylum seekers."

Vessels deployed by Frontex help rescue 2 800 people in Central Mediterranean (link):

"Vessels deployed by Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, helped rescue more than 2 800 migrants from 20 rubber and wooden boats coming from Libya this weekend."

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