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Press Review
 

 

30 July 2019
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  • EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS
SEARCH & RESCUE: AnsaMed: Migrants: contacts with states on Gregoretti – EU – A European Commission spokesperson confirmed that the commission is coordinating the contact between EU member states willing to cooperate on helping the situation of around 140 people blocked on the Italian coastguard ship Gregoretti in the Italian port of Augusta. Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini refused to let them disembark before EU member states agree to relocate the passengers rescued off the Libyan coast last week. Germany said it was willing to host some of the migrants.

See also: The Portugal News: GNR rescues 39 migrants on Samos Island.

SEARCH & RESCUE: Greenpeace Magazine: Deutsches Rettungsschiff «Alan Kurdi» wieder vor Libyen unterwegs – According to a spokesperson of the civilian sea rescue organization Sea Eye, their rescue vessel Alan Kurdi embarked upon a new mission in the Search and Rescue (SAR) zone off the Libyan coast, west of the Libyan capital Tripoli. Responsible authorities have been informed. The Alan Kurdi is currently the only SAR vessel in the central Mediterranean, where several hundred people have recently lost their lives trying to cross to Europe. 

BORDER MANAGEMENT: Ekhatimerini: EU gives Greece blimp to monitor migrants – The European Union border and coastguard agency Frontex provided the Greek coast guard with a crewless blimp to help detect irregular migrants and to increase search and rescue operations in the eastern Aegean Sea. The blimp is used on a four-week trial basis and equipped with radar and a thermal camera, able to provide real-time, 24-hour monitoring of the surrounding sea.
 
  • COUNTRY DEVELOPMENTS
CROATIA: BBC: 'Beaten and robbed': How Croatia is policing its borders – BBC documents the situation of people trying to enter the European Union via Croatia. Many report that they have been beaten, robbed and illegally pushed back to Bosnia by police. One police officer admits that he had taken part in three "pushback" operations.

UK: Independent: Home Office ‘illegally’ put trafficking victims in detention centres, report finds –The Independent reports that the Home Office has knowingly held victims of modern slavery in removal centres. According to an NGO, law enforcement agencies often refer them to removal centres as a way to “protect” them from returning to an exploitative situation – despite potentially traumatising effects. Ministers are accused of prioritising immigration control over survivors’ right to support – and of breaching their responsibility to assist them in their physical and psychological recovery under European law.

UK: The Guardian: Windrush scandal continues as Chagos Islanders are pressed to ‘go back’ – The Guardian reports that British passport holders from the Chagos Islands are being systematically targeted in attempts to have them removed from the UK. The revelations expose another dimension of the UK’s hostile environment, showing that the strategy also persecutes passport-holding British citizens of colour.

USA: The Hill: Barr reverses ruling on asylum for those with persecuted family members – U.S. Attorney General William Barr reversed a 2018 immigration board ruling that found that a migrant whose immediate family member was persecuted in their home country may be able to claim asylum. The Hill charts the order as yet another hit to the United States' asylum laws and the most recent action taken by U.S. authorities in recent weeks that would affect asylum rules and procedures.

Sri Lanka: The New Humanitarian: Caught in Sri Lanka’s anti-Muslim backlash, evicted refugees search for safe homes – The New humanitarian reports on the situation of hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers in Sri Lanka. Many have spent the past three months searching for safety across the island nation after being swept up in an anti-Muslim backlash following the April terrorist attacks. Local rights advocates and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, describe a volatile situation where plans to temporarily resettle displaced refugees were met with protests.
 
  • OF INTEREST
Libération: Le Programme frontières de l'Union Africaine [The Border Program of the African Union ]– Researcher Vincent Hiribarren traces the history of European influence on border-drawing on the African continent. While in the colonial era colonial powers drew certain borders very precisely to demarcate their empires, today only a third of African borders are officially delimited.  The Border Programm launched by the African Union in 2007 to demarcate borders between African countries is largely financed by the German development agency GIZ.

Independent: Trump’s asylum deal with Guatemala threatens to plunge country into political crisis, analysts warn – political analysts warn that the deal between the US and Guatemalan President Morales to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the U.S. could plunge Guatemala’s democracy into a constitutional crisis and burden the country with tens of thousands of Salvadoran and Honduran migrants who would be barred from making their claims in the United States under the new deal. Morales has not yet received the consent of the congress but claims it was not necessary.

The Guardian: Why I'm fleeing Honduras to seek asylum in the US – Wendy Garcia, a local activist from Honduras, explains why she is fleeing the country and is seeking protection in the U.S. She feared for her life after being teargassed and arrested by police when her community resisted a dam which contaminated the water they relied on. She decided to leave after one fellow activist was killed.

 
With kind regards,
Hannah Berwian
 

Hannah Berwian
Communications Assistant
p: +32 2 234 38 22
a: Rue Royale 146, Brussels
e: hberwian@ecre.org

 
Disclaimer:
Please note that the information of the press review is taken from publicly available information provided by media companies, organisations and blogs. All the sources are clearly ascribed and ECRE is not claiming any authorship over the content. The Press Review does not necessarily reflect the views of ECRE. This document is just a relay to the original articles and makes it easier to find stories concerning asylum issues. If you are the publisher of some of the information and would like it removed from this document, or if you would like to see a particular story published in the Press Review, please email: hberwian@ecre.org 






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