In the following months, we will extend our focus further to Europe by reporting on the EU-Turkey Deal and its consequences for migrants in Greece. A cooperation with activists on Lesvos allows HarekAct to expand its monitoring to the Aegean islands, focusing in particular the situation refugees and migrants stranded there are facing due to the EU-Turkey Statement, deportations back to Turkey and legal aspects.
Articles under this section will be tagged with #MonitoringEUTurkey
Welcome2Europe updated their information on Turkey and added information for migrants who have been intercepted back to Turkey at sea or land and for those who have been readmitted/deported to Turkey from Greece.
For now the information are available in English. Arabic, Farsi and French will follow soon.
OpenTheIslands video on the unbearable situation in the EU-hotspot Moria on Lesvos. Winter is approaching and thousands of refugees are still trapped in the horrible conditions of Moria
OpenTheIslands Network – The situation for refugees in Lesvos remains critical. As weather conditions worsen and winter approaches, Moria camp still ‘houses’ three times more people than capacity allows. With a capacity of around 2300 people, Moria camp now has almost 7000 people inside. From the promised 5000 transfers to the mainland until December 15th only a few hundred actually happened so far. If and how it will be possible to transfer several thousand people in the next five days is a questions yet to be answered.
Continue reading Unrealisable promises? #OpenTheIslands Lesvos Update (11.12.2017)
Via Ekathimerini – The mayor of the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos has filed suit against all responsible parties over the conditions at the Moria refugee and migrant processing center, claiming that the law is being broken at the government-run facility, which is supervised by the military.
His action comes two days after foreign media published videos shot covertly inside the camp and showing the squalor and cramped conditions to which thousands of refugees and migrants are being subjected. Continue reading Lesvos mayor files suit over conditions at Moria migrant camp
Via Evrensel (Report in Turkish) – Amnesty International launched a campaign to end the refugee policy that holds refugees on the Greek islands. Because of the “Readmission Agreement” signed between the European Union and Turkey, the refugees who have been kept on Greek islands since 20 months and have not been given any permission to cross into mainland Greece, are trying to shelter in tents. They are exposed to the hardship when it comes to accessing basic needs such as clean water and health care services. Amnesty International Refugee Rights Coordinator Volkan Görendağ states that Amnesty International is launching a campaign to make the Greek government end its policy on the islands and allow asylum seekers to move to mainland Greece.
Via T24 (Link in Turkish) – The Greek government is preparing a legislative amendment, which includes the assessment of asylum requests of asylum seekers in the country. This legislative amendment, which is due to be discussed in parliament next week, is supposed to speed up the returning of asylum seekers to Turkey.
Via Ekathimerini – The Greek government is planning to amend a law governing the process of granting asylum to refugees next week! The aim is to accelerate the process of returning migrants to Turkey, which had been one of the goals of a deal that was struck last year between Ankara and the European Union but which is being inadequately enforced.
On Wednesday, Greece’s asylum service said its staff have processed 33,021 applications for asylum since March 2016, when the Turkey-EU deal was signed. The fact that rejected asylum claims are often appealed, and that reviews of those appeals take months, appears to be the main reason that thousands of applications remain pending, and thousands of migrants remain cooped up in state camps. Continue reading Greek gov’t aims to speed up migrant returns to Turkey
Via EurActiv – Greece will speed up the relocation of thousands of migrants from its overcrowded islands to the mainland before the onset of winter after reaching a deal with Turkey, a key ally in helping to tackle Europe’s migration crisis, government sources said yesterday (11 December).
Athens persuaded Ankara last week to accept migrant returns, including Syrian refugees, from the mainland and not just from the Aegean islands as previously agreed under a 2016 EU-Turkey pact, a government source told AFP. Continue reading Greece to speed up migrant transfer after Turkey deal
Via Greekreporter – Lesvos island decongestion plan is in full progress. 408 persons have left the island in the last 24 hours. 152 refugees and migrants left on Friday evening from the port of Piraeus while another 256 left with the ferry “Nissos Samos” on Saturday for the port of Heraklio, Crete. Continue reading Large Number of Migrants and Refugees Leave from Lesvos; Migration Ministry’s Decongestion Plan in Full Progress
Via No Border Kitchen Lesvos – Two brothers from Nigeria who made the deadly crossing from Turkey to Lesvos in a rubber dinghy were immediately detained in the pre-removal prison inside the so-called “Hotspot camp”, Moria. For almost three months they were isolated from society, adequate legal assistance or support structures. All refugees from countries with less than 33% acceptance rate (which are more than 28 countries including Syrian single men) can currently be detained immediately after their arrival on Lesvos, for the entire duration of their asylum procedure. While the two brothers were held in detention, their asylum application was rejected twice under the fast-track border procedure implemented on the Greek islands since the EU-Turkey statement of March 18th 2016. It has been repeatedly pointed out by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and lawyers such as those from the Legal Centre Lesbos that the fast-track procedure tramples roughshod over human rights. In practice, individuals are targeted because of their nationality and stripped of their legal right to a fair and proper asylum hearing.
Continue reading Nigerian man deported despite serious health condition on November 30th