HarekAct offers a topical and chronological collection of news on the EU-Turkish border regime under this section. We link to external newspapers and websites and do not hold the copyright.
Views and opinions expressed in the articles published on HarekAct are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of all editorial board members.
Via Hurriyet Daily News (16th May 2018) – The EU warned on May 16 that asylum seeker arrivals from Turkey have surged this year and called on member countries to act urgently on pledges of support for the bloc’s border force.
The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, said 15,457 people had arrived via Turkey on Greece’s sea and land borders through March, nine times higher than the same period last year. Continue reading EU warns of new surge in asylum seekers from Turkey
Via Ekathimerini (15.05.18) – Turkey’s coast guard says seven Afghan nationals died, including three children, while trying to cross into Greece, but that it managed to rescue 13 people from the sinking boat.
In a statement Tuesday, it said a rescue ship and helicopter were dispatched late Monday near the western province of Canakkale following a tip. A half-sunk 6-meter fiber boat was found.
Continue reading Turkish coast guard says 7 Afghan migrants die on sea crossing to Greece
Valeria Hänsel, who contributes to HarekAct with her insights on the situation for refugees on Lesvos focusing on detention and deportations, wrote a report in German about the trial against the #Moria35 that took place last month in Chios.
Following a few abstracts:
“32 of the 35 defendants were collectively convicted for injuring a police officer in a four-day trial. They should go to jail for 26 month, though this penalty is temporarily suspended.
Vassilis Kerasiotis and Gina Palaialogou, the defendends of the convicts, lodged an appeal immediately after the process. Until a decision is made, all convicts are free. Palaialogou comments on the verdict: “The decision was a compromise. Due to political reasons an acquittal in the first instance would hardly have been possible. In that case, they would have needed a justification and compensation for the detention for a duration of 9 nine month before the trial and the police statements would have needed to be falsified. ”
Click here to read the whole article in German at borderline-europe
Lucia Heisterkamp also published a shorter version in German newspaper taz together with Valeria Hänsel.
In April 2018, borderline-europe members Doro Bruch, Jan Dunkemölle und Nora Freitag visited Lesvos for two weeks to gain an overview on the current situation for migrants in the island. They talked to lawyers, NGO workers, refugees and activists.
Their report is aimed at providing insights on the current situation of refugees on the island and giving links to related information plattforms. The report focuses firstly on spotting, i.e. monitoring of the coasts for the documentation of sea rescue and arrivals over the sea from the Turkey and secondly, the accommodation and care of refugees on the island.
Via Turkish Minute – Thirty Turks have fled to Greece daily since the announcement of snap elections in Turkey on June 24, the Greek Kathimerini newspaper reported.
According to official data cited by the newspaper 7,103 people crossed into Greece at the Evros River border in the first five months of the year, while 9,375 arrived in the Greek islands off the coast of Turkey, bringing the total number of arrivals to 16,478, 6,632 of them in April alone. Continue reading 30 Turks a day have fled to Greece since snap election decision: Greek media
Via Daily News (06.05.2018) – Hundreds of undocumented Afghan and Syrian migrants have been rounded up and deported during anti-human trafficking operations in Turkey’s Aegean provinces, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on May 5. Continue reading 324 Afghan migrants deported from Turkey
Via euobserver (02.05.2018) – Some six years after Greece erected a 10km barb wired border fence along a stretch of the Evros river it shares with Turkey, the European Commission has announced plans to create a standing corps of 10,000 border guards.
On Wednesday (2 May), the EU executive proposed the idea as part of its aim to overhaul the EU budget for the years 2021-27.
Frontex had 300 border guards in 2015. Under EU Commission plans, that could increase to 10,000 in less than ten years (Photo: europarl.europa.eu)
Are You Syrious, recently published another report about the situation of refugees in the province of Izmir. Previously HarekAct reported about this topic.
If you are living in the fields in Turkey, you are left to yourself — or the camp community around you. It can happen that no one comes to see you for months and you rarely have the chance to go into more socialized areas away from the olive trees and fields that surround your tents.
The village closest to one of the sites is a few kilometers away on dirt tracks, and if you walk over the field in the opposite direction you will find only a country road. Maybe, from time to time, a mobile shop will stop at the side of the country road and sell you overpriced items. After it rains, the dirt roads are inaccessible by car.
What sounds like the scene of a slum in a third world country is still reality for thousands of people in the province of Izmir. With the third biggest city in the country, bearing the same name, the province of Izmir is also one of the wealthiest in Turkey. With a population of more than 135,000 displaced Syrians, the province with its four million citizens belongs to the top ten provinces to host Syrians in the country.
Read the full report including more fotos and videos at AYS.
For more information about the situation of migrants around Izmir check the HarekAct report as well as AYS.
Via New Internationalist – After a two-year wait, five humanitarian volunteers who wanted to help refugees land safely have been acquitted. Tim Baster and Isabelle Merminod report from Lesbos
