On 15 January, the Turkish Coastguard rescued 46 migrants in the Aegean Sea while recovering one body, off the southwestern Kuşadası district close to the Greek island of Samos. The father of the 4-years-old girl who died in the shipwreck claimed that the Greek Coastguard pushed back their boat: “It was so inhumane. They tried to kill us”
Muhammed Fadil, one of the 46 survivors of the January 15 shipwreck in the Aegean Sea, lost his daughter in the accident | Photo: Picture-alliance/Ibrahim Uzun/Anadolu Agency
Via InfoMigrants – The Turkish coastguard has reportedly rescued 46 migrants from a sinking rubber boat in the Aegean Sea. The body of a young girl was recovered.
Via Hürriyet Daily News – Iraqi migrant Mohammed Fadil, whose 4-year-old daughter’s body was recovered, claimed that Greek naval officers were responsible for the incident.
Via The Guardian – Violence so bad that women wear nappies at night to avoid leaving tents, report says.
About 5,000 people live in the Moria camp, where temperatures in winter can fall below freezing. Photograph: Giorgos Moutafis/Oxfam
The EU has been strongly criticised over conditions in Greece’s largest refugee camp, where Oxfam reported women are wearing nappies at night for fear of leaving their tents to go to the toilet.
This article was originally published by The Guardian.
Sara Mardini, Sean Binder and Nassos Karakitsos have been imprisoned for almost three month now. At the beginning of this month, Human Rights Watch published an article telling their story and researched the accusations made against Sara and Sean based on a 86-pages police report and other court documents.
Via The New Arab – Turkish coastguard are searching for ten migrants lost at sea after their boat sank in the Aegean Sea, according to the country’s state-run news agency.
This article was originally published by The New Arab.
In a recent post, Deportation Monitoring Aegean reports about deportations as a business model. It describes the role of private companies facilitating deportations from the Greek Islands to Turkey, which are employed by the European Border and Cost Guard Agency FRONTEX. The post follows the financial flows surrounding the execution of deportations.
Via Deportation Monitoring Aegean – The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, better known as Frontex, supports the operational implementation of the deportations under the EU-Turkey statement. This means that the agency is responsible for deploying so-called “forced-return escorts” that support the Greek authorities with deportations.
Via The New Arab – Freelance journalist Matt Broomfield describes the situation of LGBTIQ refugees on Lesvos Island. Hundreds of queer refugees who came to Europe to live a free life now face the same discrimination as they did in their home countries: by police, the asylum service and other migrants forced to live behind barbed wire.
The self-organized group Lesvos LGBTIQ+ Refugee Solidaritysupports queer refugees in group meetings and in terms of accommodation and legal advice.
For their work, they collect donations through: borderline-europe e.V. GLS Bank, Bochum IBAN: DE11 4306 0967 4005 7941 00 BIC:GENODEM1GLS Purpose: LGBTIQ Lesvos
Via The New Arab – From the gay Iraqi who saw Isis militants throw his lover from the tallest building in Mosul to the couple who escaped persecution to rendezvous for the first time in a refugee camp, each of the LGBTQI+ refugees trapped on the Greek island of Lesvos could fill a book with their own personal stories.
The report describes the legal grounds for detention in Greece and the actual policy of detaining migrants, focusing on the situation in the pre-removal prison of Moria camp. It criticizes detention of migrants on arrival based on their national belonging and the conditions of detention, following individual stories of asylum seekers held in detention.Continue reading The Prison within the Prison within The Prison→
The Legal Center Lesvos reports that the remaining persons of the #Moria35 were finally released after 15 month of injust imprisonment.
BREAKING:Last of the #Moria35 released! Over 15 months of unjust imprisoment, but the Moria35 are finally FREE. Today we celebrate, but we will continue to fight the racist and xenophobic policies that led to their violent arrest and prosecution in #Lesvos. #freethemoria35#moriapic.twitter.com/3edBLuq5az
If you want to learn more about the case of the #Moria35, the Legal Center Lesvos in cooperation with Joinda Production produced a short documentary about it: http://www.legalcentrelesbos.org/
Photographer and filmmaker Ali arrived in Lesvos one night in spring 2018 and has since then been living in Moria refugee camp. Currently, Moria is ‘hosting’ triple its capacities with more than 7.000 women, men and children trapped in inhumane and life-threatening conditions. Many are sleeping rough, with not enough tents and blankets for everyone. Winter is approaching fast and there is no solution and relief to be expected!
Ali produced a short film called ‘Silent Message’ that focuses on the appalling conditions refugees are facing in the camp and the life on the island. His previous work focused on the situation of the Hazara minority in Pakistan. Lisa from HarekAct and Ali met in Lesvos for an Interview.
Ali, tell us about your film ‘Silent Message’!
The film is not as good as I wanted it to be, as I realized it with very little equipment but with a lot of help of friends.
With my film, I wanted to show the life for refugees in Moria: The food lines, the tents and the garbage everywhere. But the film is also a message to other refugees stuck on the island. I wanted to show that there can be a life outside of Moria: exploring the capital of Lesvos, spending time at the beaches, swimming or fishing – and thereby trying to forget the horrors of Moria at least for a moment. I see so many people in Moria thinking about their asylum decision all the time and are getting depressed from waiting. So, I decided to do a documentary without any interviews, a silent film to give some hope!
