The Greek newspaper Ef.Syn published an article on a pushback from Greece to Turkey based on information by the Watch the Med Alarm:
In this video, taken by refugees trying to reach the Greek islands by boat on the 21st July, we see a boat with a Greek flag creating waves by circling around them. The refugees are desperately calling the organization for documentation and surveillance of dangerous incidents in the Mediterranean Sea, Watch the Med, to inform them that a pushback-operation back to Turkey is in progress.
‘End Immigration Detention For Children‘ published a very insightful article on the fate or refugee children in the midst of the EU-Turkey Deal. In particular, the article deals with the situation of Pakistanis minors who reached the island of Lesvos.
What is certain is that these boys waited, alongside other children and adults, inside the detention center for many weeks or even months amidst appalling conditions, limited access to medical attention and information, violent outbursts, and food shortages. Many of them continue to wait in shelters or in other unstable and impermanent housing arrangements throughout the country. All of these boys remained far from home, but even further away from the better lives that they set out looking for.
The No Border Kitchen Lesvos supports around 350 refugees in Lesvos to cook and subsist autonomously. Now they are asking for financial support to keep up their vital work!
The EU claims refugee flows from Turkey to Greece have slowed, so it is cutting funding to aid agencies and paying the Greek government to take over services there instead.
MSF published a report on the psychological and physiological health conditions of asylum seekers in Lesvos:
“Our medical teams treating asylum seeking men, women and children in Lesbos wish to ring the alarm bell as to the further deterioration of the care and protection afforded to vulnerable people. In Lesbos, as in much of Greece, vulnerable people’s health and well-being are being put at risk by a grossly deficient vulnerability screening system and policies aimed at returning as many people as possible to Turkey.”
The organization Sea-Watch, who were one of the first humanitarian NGO’s to start rescue operations in front of the Libyan coast and have been active in the Aegean sea with rescue assets too, now started a new monitoring project in the Aegean. See more in the video
Via Legal Center Lesvos – On Tuesday 18th July 2017, 35 refugees in Moria camp, Lesvos, were arrested. For the second day in a row, protesters sat outside the European Asylum Support Office inside the camp, holding banners denouncing dehumanising conditions, and calling for freedom of movement for those kept on the island for over 6 months. Following this peaceful exercise of the right to protest, there were clashes between a handful of protesters and Greek riot police. Police forces then carried out raids of Isoboxes, and made 35 arrests. Continue reading FREE THE MORIA35→
The assaults – bravely captured on camera by refugee activists inside Moria – clearly depict the way the EU is abusing these vulnerable individuals. Following protests against the lack of action on the cases of refugees from certain countries, riot police forced the demonstrators inside the camp and closed the gates.
Via BBC News Turkey – “The Greek islands feel abandoned by the mainland – and Greece feels abandoned by the EU”. Arrivals of migrants to Greece are growing again – but with doors elsewhere in Europe shut, most are now trapped in Greece or deported back to Turkey.
