#dissuasion

Familias rotas, familias vaciadas

Es delgada y pequeña. No rebasa el 1.60. La habitación en la que duerme —en el segundo piso del albergue para veteranos deportados que creó Héctor Barajas— tiene una cama con un oso de peluche que ella misma confeccionó y una mesa para cuatro personas. La sonrisa que a veces asoma en su rostro nunca llega a sus ojos, oscuros y con marcadas ojeras. Se llama Yolanda Varona y tiene prohibido, de por vida, entrar a Estados Unidos, el país donde trabajó 16 años y donde viven sus dos hijos y tres nietos.

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Taking Migrant Children From Parents Is Illegal, U.N. Tells U.S.

The Trump administration’s practice of separating children from migrant families entering the United States violates their rights and international law, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday, urging an immediate halt to the practice.

The administration angrily rejected what it called an ignorant attack by the United Nations human rights office and accused the global organization of hypocrisy.

The human rights office said it appeared that, as The New York Times revealed in April, United States authorities had separated several hundred children, including toddlers, from their parents or others claiming to be their family members, under a policy of criminally prosecuting undocumented people crossing the border.

That practice “amounts to arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is a serious violation of the rights of the child,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, based in Geneva, told reporters.

Last month, the Trump administration announced a “zero tolerance” policy for illegal border crossings, saying that it would significantly increase criminal prosecutions of migrants. Officials acknowledged that putting more adults in jail would mean separating more children from their families.

“The U.S. should immediately halt this practice of separating families and stop criminalizing what should at most be an administrative offense — that of irregular entry or stay in the U.S.,” Ms. Shamdasani said.

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The United States ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, clearly showed American irritation with the accusation in a statement released a few hours later.

“Once again, the United Nations shows its hypocrisy by calling out the United States while it ignores the reprehensible human rights records of several members of its own Human Rights Council,” Ms. Haley said. “While the High Commissioner’s office ignorantly attacks the United States with words, the United States leads the world with its actions, like providing more humanitarian assistance to global conflicts than any other nation.”

Without addressing the specifics of the accusation, Ms. Haley said: “Neither the United Nations nor anyone else will dictate how the United States upholds its borders.”
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The administration has characterized its policy as being about illegal immigration, though many of the detained migrants — including those in families that are split apart — enter at official border crossings and request asylum, which is not an illegal entry. It has also said that some adults falsely claim to be the parents of accompanying children, a genuine problem, and that it has to sort out their claims.

On Twitter, President Trump has appeared to agree that breaking up families was wrong, but blamed Democrats for the approach, saying that their “bad legislation” had caused it. In fact, no law requires separating children from families, and the practice was put in place by his administration just months ago.

The Times found in April that over six months, about 700 children had been taken from people claiming to be their parents.

The American Civil Liberties Union says that since then, the pace of separations has accelerated sharply. Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the group’s immigrant rights project, said that in the past five weeks, close to 1,000 children may have been taken from their families.

Last year, as Homeland Security secretary, John F. Kelly raised the idea of separating children from their families when they entered the country as a way to deter movement across the Mexican border.

Homeland Security officials have since denied that they separate families as part of a policy of deterrence, but have also faced sharp criticism from President Trump for failing to do more to curb the numbers of migrants crossing the border.

For the United Nations, it was a matter of great concern that in the United States “migration control appears to have been prioritized over the effective care and protection of migrant children,” Ms. Shamdasani said.

The United States is the only country in the world that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, she noted, but the practice of separating and detaining children breached its obligations under other international human rights conventions it has joined.

“Children should never be detained for reasons related to their own or their parents’ migration status. Detention is never in the best interests of the child and always constitutes a child rights violation,” she said, calling on the authorities to adopt noncustodial alternatives.

The A.C.L.U. has filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in San Diego, calling for a halt to the practice and for reunification of families.

▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/world/americas/us-un-migrant-children-families.html

U.S. policy of separating refugees from children is illegal, horrific

Somewhere in #Texas, a 3-year-old is crying into her pillow. She left all her toys behind when she fled Guatemala. And on this day the U.S. government took her mother away.

When we read about the U.S. administration’s new policy of trying to stop people from crossing its borders by taking away their children, we too had trouble sleeping.

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I work with children separated from caregivers at the border. What happens is unforgivable.

The policy has a devastating emotional impact on kids.

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Separating Children From Their Parents Is a New Low for Our Immigration System

The Trump administration has been systematically dividing families, opening traumatized migrants to greater distress.

▻https://www.thenation.com/article/separating-children-parents-new-low-immigration-system

What’s Really Happening When Asylum-Seeking Families Are Separated ?

An expert on helping parents navigate the asylum process describes what she’s seeing on the ground.

Everyone involved in U.S. immigration along the border has a unique perspective on the new “zero tolerance” policies—most notably, the increasing number of migrant parents who are separated from their children. Some workers are charged with taking the children away from their parents and sending them into the care of Health and Human Services. Some are contracted to find housing for the children and get them food. Some volunteers try to help the kids navigate the system. Some, like Anne Chandler, assist the parents. As executive director of the Houston office of the nonprofit Tahirih Justice Center, which focuses on helping immigrant women and children, she has been traveling to the border and to detention centers, listening to the parents’ stories. We asked her to talk with us about what she has been hearing in recent weeks.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Texas Monthly: First, can you give us an overview of your organization?

Anne Chandler: We run the Children’s Border Project, and we work with hundreds of kids that have been released from ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement] care. We are not a legal service provider that does work when they’re in the shelters. To date, most of our work with that issue of family separation has been working with the parents in the days when they are being separated: when they’re in the federal courthouse being convicted; partnering with the federal public defenders; and then in the adult detention center, as they have no idea how to communicate or speak to their children or get them back before being deported.

TM: Can you take me through what you’ve been seeing?

AC: The short of it is, we will take sample sizes of numbers and individuals we’re seeing that are being prosecuted for criminal entry. The majority of those are free to return to the home country. Vast majority. We can’t quite know exactly because our sample size is between one hundred and two hundred individuals. But 90 percent of those who are being convicted are having their children separated from them. The 10 percent that aren’t are some mothers who are going with their children to the detention centers in Karnes and Dilley. But, for the most part, the ones that I’ve been working with are the ones that are actually being prosecuted for criminal entry, which is a pretty new thing for our country—to take first-time asylum seekers who are here seeking safe refuge, to turn around and charge them with a criminal offense. Those parents are finding themselves in adult detention centers and in a process known as expedited removal, where many are being deported. And their children, on the other hand, are put in a completely different legal structure. They are categorized as unaccompanied children and thus are being put in place in a federal agency not with the Department of Homeland Security but with Health and Human Services. And Health and Human Services has this complicated structure in place where they’re not viewed as a long-term foster care system—that’s for very limited numbers—but their general mandate is to safeguard these children in temporary shelters and then find family members with whom they can be placed. So they start with parents, and then they go to grandparents, and then they go to other immediate family members, and then they go to acquaintances, people who’ve known the children, and they’re in that system, but they can’t be released to their parents because their parents are behind bars. And we may see more parents that get out of jail because they pass a “credible fear” interview, which is the screening done by the asylum office to see who should be deported quickly, within days or weeks of arrival, and who should stay here and have an opportunity to present their asylum case before an immigration judge of the Department of Justice. So we have a lot of individuals who are in that credible fear process right now, but in Houston, once you have a credible fear interview (which will sometimes take two to three weeks to even set up), those results aren’t coming out for four to six weeks. Meanwhile, these parents are just kind of languishing in these detention centers because of the zero-tolerance policy. There’s no individual adjudication of whether the parents should be put on some form of alternative detention program so that they can be in a position to be reunited with their kid.

TM: So, just so I make sure I understand: the parents come in and say, “We’re persecuted” or give some reason for asylum. They come in. And then their child or children are taken away and they’re in lockup for at least six weeks away from the kids and often don’t know where the kids are. Is that what’s happening under zero tolerance?

AC: So the idea of zero tolerance under the stated policy is that we don’t care why you’re afraid. We don’t care if it’s religion, political, gangs, anything. For all asylum seekers, you are going to be put in jail, in a detention center, and you’re going to have your children taken away from you. That’s the policy. They’re not 100 percent able to implement that because of a lot of reasons, including just having enough judges on the border. And bed space. There’s a big logistical problem because this is a new policy. So the way they get to that policy of taking the kids away and keeping the adults in detention centers and the kids in a different federal facility is based on the legal rationale that we’re going to convict you, and since we’re going to convict you, you’re going to be in the custody of the U.S. Marshals, and when that happens, we’re taking your kid away. So they’re not able to convict everybody of illegal entry right now just because there aren’t enough judges on the border right now to hear the number of cases that come over, and then they say if you have religious persecution or political persecution or persecution on something that our asylum definition recognizes, you can fight that case behind bars at an immigration detention center. And those cases take two, three, four, five, six months. And what happens to your child isn’t really our concern. That is, you have made the choice to bring your child over illegally. And this is what’s going to happen.

TM: Even if they crossed at a legal entry point?

AC: Very few people come to the bridge. Border Patrol is saying the bridge is closed. When I was last out in McAllen, people were stacked on the bridge, sleeping there for three, four, ten nights. They’ve now cleared those individuals from sleeping on the bridge, but there are hundreds of accounts of asylum seekers, when they go to the bridge, who are told, “I’m sorry, we’re full today. We can’t process your case.” So the families go illegally on a raft—I don’t want to say illegally; they cross without a visa on a raft. Many of them then look for Border Patrol to turn themselves in, because they know they’re going to ask for asylum. And under this government theory—you know, in the past, we’ve had international treaties, right? Statutes which codified the right of asylum seekers to ask for asylum. Right? Article 31 of the Refugee Convention clearly says that it is improper for any state to use criminal laws that could deter asylum seekers as long as that asylum seeker is asking for asylum within a reasonable amount of time. But our administration is kind of ignoring this longstanding international and national jurisprudence of basic beliefs to make this distinction that, if you come to a bridge, we’re not going to prosecute you, but if you come over the river and then find immigration or are caught by immigration, we’re prosecuting you.

TM: So if you cross any other way besides the bridge, we’re prosecuting you. But . . . you can’t cross the bridge.

AC: That’s right. I’ve talked to tons of people. There are organizations like Al Otro Lado that document border turn-backs. And there’s an effort to accompany asylum seekers so that Customs and Border Patrol can’t say, “We’re closed.” Everybody we’ve talked to who’s been prosecuted or separated has crossed the river without a visa.

TM: You said you were down there recently?

AC: Monday, June 4.

TM: What was happening on the bridge at that point?

AC: I talked to a lot of people who were there Saturdays and Sundays, a lot of church groups that are going, bringing those individuals umbrellas because they were in the sun. It’s morning shade, and then the sun—you know, it’s like 100 degrees on the cement. It’s really, really hot. So there were groups bringing diapers and water bottles and umbrellas and electric fans, and now everyone’s freaked out because they’re gone! What did they do with them? Did they process them all? Yet we know they’re saying you’re turned back. When I was in McAllen, the individuals that day who visited people on the bridge had been there four days. We’re talking infants; there were people breastfeeding on the bridge.

TM: Are the infants taken as well?

AC: Every border zone is different. We definitely saw a pattern in McAllen. We talked to 63 parents who had lost their children that day in the court. Of those, the children seemed to be all five and older. What we know from the shelters and working with people is that, yes, there are kids that are very young, that are breastfeeding babies and under three in the shelters, separated from their parents. But I’m just saying, in my experience, all those kids and all the parents’ stories were five and up.

TM: Can you talk about how you’ve seen the process change over the past few months?

AC: The zero-tolerance policy really started with Jeff Sessions’s announcement in May. One could argue that this was the original policy that we started seeing in the executive orders. One was called “border security and immigration enforcement.” And a lot of the principles underlying zero tolerance are found here. The idea is that we’re going to prosecute people.

TM: And the policy of separating kids from parents went into effect when?

AC: They would articulate it in various ways with different officials, but as immigration attorneys, starting in October, were like, “Oh my goodness. They are telling us these are all criminal lawbreakers and they’re going to have their children taken away.” We didn’t know what it would mean. And so we saw about six hundred children who were taken away from October to May, then we saw an explosion of the numbers in May. It ramped up. The Office of Refugee Resettlement taking in all these kids says that they are our children, that they are unaccompanied. It’s a fabrication. They’re not unaccompanied children. They are children that came with their parents, and the idea that we’re creating this crisis—it’s a manufactured crisis where we’re going to let children suffer to somehow allow this draconian approach with families seeking shelter and safe refuge.

TM: So what is the process for separation?

AC: There is no one process. Judging from the mothers and fathers I’ve spoken to and those my staff has spoken to, there are several different processes. Sometimes they will tell the parent, “We’re taking your child away.” And when the parent asks, “When will we get them back?” they say, “We can’t tell you that.” Sometimes the officers will say, “because you’re going to be prosecuted” or “because you’re not welcome in this country” or “because we’re separating them,” without giving them a clear justification. In other cases, we see no communication that the parent knows that their child is to be taken away. Instead, the officers say, “I’m going to take your child to get bathed.” That’s one we see again and again. “Your child needs to come with me for a bath.” The child goes off, and in a half an hour, twenty minutes, the parent inquires, “Where is my five-year-old?” “Where’s my seven-year-old?” “This is a long bath.” And they say, “You won’t be seeing your child again.” Sometimes mothers—I was talking to one mother, and she said, “Don’t take my child away,” and the child started screaming and vomiting and crying hysterically, and she asked the officers, “Can I at least have five minutes to console her?” They said no. In another case, the father said, “Can I comfort my child? Can I hold him for a few minutes?” The officer said, “You must let them go, and if you don’t let them go, I will write you up for an altercation, which will mean that you are the one that had the additional charges charged against you.” So, threats. So the father just let the child go. So it’s a lot of variations. But sometimes deceit and sometimes direct, just “I’m taking your child away.” Parents are not getting any information on what their rights are to communicate to get their child before they are deported, what reunification may look like. We spoke to nine parents on this Monday, which was the 11th, and these were adults in detention centers outside of Houston. They had been separated from their child between May 23 and May 25, and as of June 11, not one of them had been able to talk to their child or knew a phone number that functioned from the detention center director. None of them had direct information from immigration on where their child was located. The one number they were given by some government official from the Department of Homeland Security was a 1-800 number. But from the phones inside the detention center, they can’t make those calls. We know there are more parents who are being deported without their child, without any process or information on how to get their child back.

TM: And so it’s entirely possible that children will be left in the country without any relatives?

AC: Could be, yeah.

TM: And if the child is, say, five years old . . .?

AC: The child is going through deportation proceedings, so the likelihood that that child is going to be deported is pretty high.

TM: How do they know where to deport the child to, or who the parents are?

AC: How does that child navigate their deportation case without their parent around?

TM: Because a five-year-old doesn’t necessarily know his parents’ information.

AC: In the shelters, they can’t even find the parents because the kids are just crying inconsolably. They often don’t know the full legal name of their parents or their date of birth. They’re not in a position to share a trauma story like what caused the migration. These kids and parents had no idea. None of the parents I talked to were expecting to be separated as they faced the process of asking for asylum.

TM: I would think that there would be something in place where, when the child is taken, they’d be given a wristband or something with their information on it?

AC: I think the Department of Homeland Security gives the kids an alien number. They also give the parents an alien number and probably have that information. The issue is that the Department of Homeland Security is not the one caring for the children. Jurisdiction of that child has moved over to Health and Human Services, and the Health and Human Services staff has to figure out, where is this parent? And that’s not easy. Sometimes the parents are deported. Kids are in New York and Miami, and we’ve got parents being sent to Tacoma, Washington, and California. Talk about a mess. And nobody has a right to an attorney here. These kids don’t get a paid advocate or an ad litem or a friend of the court. They don’t get a paid attorney to represent them. Some find that, because there are programs. But it’s not a right. It’s not universal.

TM: What agency is in charge of physically separating the children and the adults?

AC: The Department of Homeland Security. We saw the separation take place while they were in the care and custody of Customs and Border Protection. That’s where it was happening, at a center called the Ursula, which the immigrants called La Perrera, because it looked like a dog pound, a dog cage. It’s a chain-link fence area, long running areas that remind Central Americans of the way people treat dogs.

TM: So the Department of Homeland Security does the separation and then they immediately pass the kids to HHS?

AC: I don’t have a bird’s-eye view of this, besides interviewing parents. Parents don’t know. All they know is that the kid hasn’t come back to their little room in CBP. Right? We know from talking to advocates and attorneys who have access to the shelters that they think that these kids leave in buses to shelters run by the Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement Department of Unaccompanied Children Services—which, on any given day there’s like three thousand kids in the Harlingen-Brownsville area. We know there are eight, soon to be nine, facilities in Houston. And they’re going to open up this place in Tornillo, along the border by El Paso. And they’re opening up places in Miami. They’re past capacity. This is a cyclical time, where rates of migration increase. So now you’re creating two populations. One is your traditional unaccompanied kids who are just coming because their life is at risk right now in El Salvador and Honduras and parts of Guatemala, and they come with incredible trauma, complex stories, and need a lot of resources, and so they navigate this immigration system. And now we have this new population, which is totally different: the young kids who don’t hold their stories and aren’t here to self-navigate the system and are crying out for their parents. There are attorneys that get money to go in and give rights presentations to let the teenagers know what they can ask for in court, what’s happening with their cases, and now the attorneys are having a hard time doing that because right next to them, in the other room, they’ve got kids crying and wailing, asking for their mom and dad. The attorneys can’t give these kids information. They’re just trying to learn grounding exercises.

TM: Do you know if siblings are allowed to stay together?

AC: We don’t know. I dealt with one father who knew that siblings were not at the same location from talking to his family member. He believes they’re separated. But I have no idea. Can’t answer that question.

TM: Is there another nonprofit similar to yours that handles kids more than adults?

AC: Yes: in Houston it’s Catholic Charities. We know in Houston they are going to open up shelters specific for the tender-age kids, which is defined as kids under twelve. And that’s going to be by Minute Maid Stadium. And that facility is also going to have some traditional demographic of pregnant teenagers. But it’s going to be a young kid—and young kids are, almost by definition, separated. Kids usually do not migrate on their own at that age.

TM: That’s usually teens?

AC: Teens. Population is thirteen to seventeen, with many more fifteen-, sixteen-, and seventeen-year-olds than thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds. They’re riding on top of trains. You know, the journey is very dangerous. Usually that’s the age where the gangs start taking the girls and saying “you’re going to be my sex slave”–type of stuff. I’ve heard that it’s going to be run by a nonprofit. ORR does not hold the shelters directly. They contract with nonprofits whose job it is to provide essential food, mental health care, caseworkers to try to figure out who they’re going to be released to, and all those functions to nonprofits, and I think the nonprofit in charge of this one is Southwest Key.

TM: So how long do the kids stay in the facility?

AC: It used to be, on average, thirty days. But that’s going up now. There are many reasons for that: one, these facilities and ORR are not used to working with this demographic of young children. Two, DHS is sharing information with ORR on the background of those families that are taking these children, and we’ve seen raids where they’re going to where the children are and looking for individuals in those households who are undocumented. So there is reticence and fear of getting these children if there’s someone in the household who is not a citizen.

TM: So if I’m understanding correctly, a relative can say, “Well, I can pick that kid up; that’s my niece.” She comes and picks up the child. And then DHS will follow them home? Is that what you’re saying?

AC: No. The kid would go to the aunt’s house, but let’s just imagine that she is here on a visa, a student visa, but the aunt falls out of visa status and is undocumented and her information, her address, is at the top of DHS’s files. So we’ve seen this happen a lot: a month or two weeks after kids have been released, DHS goes to those foster homes and arrests people and puts people in jail and deports them.

TM: And then I guess they start all over again trying to find a home for those kids?

AC: Right.

TM: What is explained to the kids about the proceedings, and who explains it to them?

AC: The Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement goes through an organization called the Vera Institute of Justice that then contracts with nonprofit organizations who hire attorneys and other specialized bilingual staff to go into these shelters and give what they call legal orientation programs for children, and they do group orientation. Sometimes they speak to the kids individually and try to explain to them, “This is the process here; and you’re going to have to go see an immigration judge; and these are your rights before a judge; you won’t have an attorney for your case, but you can hire one. If you’re afraid to go back to your country, you have to tell the judge.” That type of stuff.

TM: And if the child is five, and alone, doesn’t have older siblings or cousins—

AC: Or three or four. They’re young in our Houston detention centers. And that’s where these attorneys are frustrated—they can’t be attorneys. How do they talk and try to console and communicate with a five-year-old who is just focused on “I want my mom or dad,” right?

TM: Are the kids whose parents are applying for asylum processed differently from kids whose parents are not applying for asylum?

AC: I don’t know. These are questions we ask DHS, but we don’t know the answers.

TM: Why don’t you get an answer?

AC: I don’t know. To me, if you’re going to justify this in some way under the law, the idea that these parents don’t have the ability to obtain very simple answers—what are my rights and when can I be reunited with my kid before I’m deported without them?—is horrible. And has to go far below anything we, as a civil society of law, should find acceptable. The fact that I, as an attorney specializing in this area, cannot go to a detention center and tell a mother or father what the legal procedure is for them to get their child or to reunite with their child, even if they want to go home?

And my answer is, “I don’t think you can.” In my experience, they’re not releasing these children to the parents as they’re deported. To put a structure like that in place and the chaos in the system for “deterrence” and then carry out so much pain on the backs of some already incredibly traumatized mothers and fathers who have already experienced sometimes just horrific violence is unacceptable.

▻https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/whats-really-happening-asylum-seeking-families-separated

Mise en exergue d’un passage :

The child goes off, and in a half an hour, twenty minutes, the parent inquires, “Where is my five-year-old?” “Where’s my seven-year-old?” “This is a long bath.” And they say, “You won’t be seeing your child again.”

Why the US is separating migrant children from their parents

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has defended the separation of migrant children from their parents at the border with Mexico, a measure that has faced increasing criticism.

The “zero-tolerance” policy he announced last month sees adults who try to cross the border, many planning to seek asylum, being placed in custody and facing criminal prosecution for illegal entry.

As a result, hundreds of minors are now being housed in detention centres, and kept away from their parents.
What is happening?

Over a recent six-week period, nearly 2,000 children were separated from their parents after illegally crossing the border, figures released on Friday said.

Mr Sessions said those entering the US irregularly would be criminally prosecuted, a change to a long-standing policy of charging most of those crossing for the first time with a misdemeanour offence.

As the adults are being charged with a crime, the children that come with them are being separated and deemed unaccompanied minors.

Advocates of separations point out that hundreds of children are taken from parents who commit crimes in the US on a daily basis.

As such, they are placed in custody of the Department of Health and Human Services and sent to a relative, foster home or a shelter - officials at those places are said to be already running out of space to house them.

In recent days, a former Walmart in Texas has been converted into a detention centre for immigrant children.

Officials have also announced plans to erect tent cities to hold hundreds more children in the Texas desert where temperatures regularly reach 40C (105F).

Local lawmaker Jose Rodriguez described the plan as “totally inhumane” and “outrageous”, adding: “It should be condemned by anyone who has a moral sense of responsibility.”

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials estimate that around 1,500 people are arrested each day for illegally crossing the border.

In the first two weeks of the “zero-tolerance” new approach, 658 minors - including many babies and toddlers - were separated from the adults that came with them, according to the CBP.

The practice, however, was apparently happening way before that, with reports saying more than 700 families had been affected between October and April.

Not only the families crossing irregularly are being targeted, activists who work at the border say, but also those presenting themselves at a port of entry.

“This is really extreme, it’s nothing like we have seen before,” said Michelle Brané, director of Migrant Rights and Justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission, a New York-based non-governmental organisation that is helping some of these people.

In many of the cases, the families have already been reunited, after the parent was released from detention. However, there are reports of people being kept apart for weeks and even months.

Family separations had been reported in previous administrations but campaigners say the numbers then were very small.
Whose fault is it?

Mr Trump has blamed Democrats for the policy, saying “we have to break up the families” because of a law that “Democrats gave us”.

It is unclear what law he is referring to, but no law has been passed by the US Congress that mandates that migrant families be separated.

Fact-checkers say that the only thing that has changed is the Justice Department’s decision to criminally prosecute parents for a first-time border crossing offence. Because their children are not charged with a crime, they are not permitted to be jailed together.

Under a 1997 court decision known as the Flores settlement, children who come to the US alone are required to be released to their parents, an adult relative, or other caretaker.

If those options are all exhausted, then the government must find the “least restrictive” setting for the child “without unnecessary delay”.

The case initially applied to unaccompanied child arrivals, but a 2016 court decision expanded it to include children brought with their parents.

According to the New York Times, the government has three options under the Flores settlement - release whole families together, pass a law to allow for families to be detained together, or break up families.

It is worth noting that Mr Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly - who previously served as the head of Homeland Security - said in 2017 that the White House was considering separating families as a means of deterring parents from trying to cross the border.
What do the figures show?

The number of families trying to enter the US overland without documentation is on the rise. For the fourth consecutive month in May, there was an increase in the number of people caught crossing the border irregularly - in comparison with the same month of 2017, the rise was of 160%.

“The trends are clear: this must end,” Mr Sessions said last month.

It is not clear, though, if the tougher measures will stop the migrants. Most are fleeing violence and poverty in Central American countries like El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and staying, for many, could mean a death sentence.

Human rights groups, campaigners and Democrats have sharply criticised the separations, warning of the long-term trauma on the children. Meanwhile the UN Human Rights Office called on the US to “immediately halt” them.

But Mr Sessions has defended the measure, saying the separations were “not our goal” but it was not always possible to keep parents and children together.
What is the policy in other countries?

No other country has a policy of separating families who intend to seek asylum, activists say.

In the European Union, which faced its worst migrant crisis in decades three years ago, most asylum seekers are held in reception centres while their requests are processed - under the bloc’s Dublin Regulation, people must be registered in their first country of arrival.

Measures may vary in different member states but families are mostly kept together.

Even in Australia, which has some of the world’s most restrictive policies, including the detention of asylum seekers who arrive by boat in controversial offshore centres, there is no policy to separate parents from their children upon arrival.

Meanwhile, Canada has a deal with the US that allows it to deny asylum requests from those going north. It has tried to stem the number of migrants crossing outside border posts after a surge of Haitians and Nigerians coming from its neighbour. However, there were no reports of families being forcibly separated.

“What the US is doing now, there is no equivalent,” said Michael Flynn, executive director of the Geneva-based Global Detention Project, a non-profit group focused on the rights of detained immigrants. “There’s nothing like this anywhere”.

Republicans in the House of Representatives have unveiled legislation to keep families together but it is unlikely to win the support of its own party or the White House.

▻https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44503514?platform=hootsuite

Les récits de la détresse d’enfants de migrants créent l’émoi aux Etats-Unis

Plus de 2000 enfants ont été séparés de leurs parents depuis l’entrée en vigueur en avril de la politique de « tolérance zéro » en matière d’immigration illégale aux Etats-Unis. Ces jours, plusieurs témoignages ont ému dans le pays.

http://www.rts.ch/2018/06/19/14/26/9659067.image?w=1500&h=1000#.jpg

▻http://www.rts.ch/info/monde/9658887-les-recits-de-la-detresse-d-enfants-de-migrants-creent-l-emoi-aux-etats-

Etats-Unis : quand la sécurité des frontières rime avec torture d’enfants mineurs

Au Texas, dans un centre de détention, un enregistrement audio d’enfants migrants âgés entre 4 à 10 ans pleurant et appelant leurs parents alors qu’ils viennent d’être séparés d’eux, vient de faire surface.

Cet enregistrement a fuité de l’intérieur, remis à l’avocate Jennifer Harbury qui l’a transféré au média d’investigation américain ProPublica. L’enregistrement a été placé sur les images filmées dans ce centre. Il soulève l’indignation des américains et du monde entier. Elles sont une torture pour nous, spectateurs impuissants de la barbarie d’un homme, Donald Trump et de son administration.

Le rythme des séparations s’est beaucoup accéléré depuis début mai, lorsque le ministre de la Justice Jeff Sessions a annoncé que tous les migrants passant illégalement la frontière seraient arrêtés, qu’ils soient accompagnés de mineurs ou pas. Du 5 mai au 9 juin 2018 quelque 2’342 enfants ont été séparés de leurs parents placés en détention, accusés d’avoir traversé illégalement la frontière. C’est le résultat d’une politique sécuritaire dite de “tolérance zéro” qui criminalise ces entrées même lorsqu’elles sont justifiées par le dépôt d’une demande d’asile aux Etats-Unis. Un protocol empêche la détention d’enfants avec leurs parents. Ils sont alors placés dans des centres fermés qui ressemblent tout autant à des prisons adaptées.

https://blogs.letemps.ch/jasmine-caye/wp-content/uploads/sites/66/2018/06/Michelle-Obama-768x401.jpeg

▻https://blogs.letemps.ch/jasmine-caye/2018/06/19/etats-unis-quand-la-securite-des-frontieres-rime-avec-torture-denfants

Aux États-Unis, le traumatisme durable des enfants migrants

Trump a beau avoir mis fin à la séparation forcée des familles à la frontière, plus de 2 000 enfants migrants seraient encore éparpillés dans le pays. Le processus de regroupement des familles s’annonce long et douloureux.

https://www.courrierinternational.com/sites/ci_master/files/styles/image_original_1280/public/assets/images/chappatte_2018-06-24-8989.jpg?itok=tg0virqo#.jpg

The Government Has Taken At Least 1,100 Children From Their Parents Since Family Separations Officially Ended

“You can’t imagine the pain,” Dennis said. “If you’re not a dad, you don’t know what it’s like.” I reached Dennis by phone in a small town in the Copán Department of Honduras, where he lives with his wife and three children. For five months this year, the family was fractured across borders. Sonia, age 11, had been separated from Dennis after they crossed into the United States and turned themselves in to the Border Patrol to ask for asylum. Dennis was deported from Texas, and Sonia sent to a shelter in New York.

The U.S. government is still taking children from their parents after they cross the border. Since the supposed end of family separation — in the summer of 2018, after a federal judge’s injunction and President Donald Trump’s executive order reversing the deeply controversial policy — more than 1,100 children have been taken from their parents, according to the government’s own data. There may be more, since that data has been plagued by bad record keeping and inconsistencies. The government alleges that separations now only happen when a parent has a criminal history or is unfit to care for a child, but an ongoing lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union argues that the current policy still violates the rights of children and families. Border Patrol agents, untrained in child welfare, make decisions that some parents are unfit to stay with their children based solely on brief interactions with them while they are held in custody.

Dennis picks coffee during the harvest season and works other basic jobs when he can, but he struggles to put food on the table and pay for his kids’ school supplies. In April, unable to find steady work in the coffee fields and receiving regular threats from a creditor, he headed north, hoping to find safety and opportunity in the United States. “We were barely eating. I couldn’t give my kids a life,” Dennis told me. (He preferred that I only use first names for him and his family due to safety concerns.) Thinking that his two boys — ages 2 1/2 and 7 — were too young to travel, Dennis took Sonia and together they left Honduras. They trekked through Guatemala and Mexico by bus, train, and on foot. They were robbed once, terrified the whole way, and had to beg for food. They slept wherever they could — sometimes in the woods, along the tracks, or, when they could scrounge enough money together, in migrant flophouses.

After about a month of travel, Dennis and Sonia crossed the Rio Grande in a small raft outside of McAllen, Texas, on the morning of May 17. They walked for hours before they turned themselves in to a Border Patrol agent and were taken to a processing center, where they were locked up in one of the freezing-cold temporary holding centers known as hieleras, or iceboxes. Only a few hours later, a Border Patrol agent took Dennis and Sonia and locked them in separate rooms. It was the last time he would see his daughter for five months.

For the next 11 days, Dennis remained in the hielera, asking repeatedly to see his daughter. Border Patrol officers tried to get him to sign papers that were in English, which he couldn’t read. He refused. “You can’t see her,” a Border Patrol agent told him about his daughter. The agent said that she was fine, but wouldn’t tell him where she was. Border Patrol transferred Dennis to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Port Isabel, Texas. They told him that because of a previous deportation and a felony — a 10-year-old charge for using false work authorization papers — he was ineligible for asylum. For the next 30 days of his detention, he knew nothing of his daughter or her whereabouts. Finally, an agent called him over and told him that she was on the phone. The call was brief. They both cried. He told her to be strong. He told her that they were going to send him away. Two weeks later, without talking to his daughter again, he was deported back to Honduras. “I’m a man, but I cried. I cried,” he told me. “Oh, it was so hard.”

Sonia was in New York in an Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, shelter, where she was living with a number of other children. In Honduras, after Dennis’s deportation, the rest of the family waited in agony for nearly 5 months, until October 9, when Sonia was released and then flown home. “My wife,” Dennis said, “she didn’t eat, didn’t sleep. You can’t imagine the suffering. And, don’t forget,” he reminded me, “she had two other kids to raise.”

In 2018, much of the world looked on aghast as U.S. immigration agents separated thousands of children from their parents in an unprecedented anti-immigrant crackdown. In one notorious instance captured on audio, Border Patrol agents laughed and joked at desperate children crying for their parents. The separations, part of a series of policy changes to limit total immigration and effectively shutter refugee and asylum programs, stemmed from the so-called zero-tolerance policy that began in El Paso in 2017 and was rolled out border-wide in the spring of 2018. The administration had announced that it would seek to prosecute all people who illegally crossed the border (despite the fact that, according to U.S. law, it is not illegal for an asylum-seeker to cross the border), but it later emerged that the government had specifically targeted families. A strict zero tolerance policy — prosecuting every individual who was apprehended — was always beyond capacity. The focus on families was part of a distinct effort by the Department of Homeland Security and the White House to try and dissuade — by subjecting parents and children to the terror of separation — more people from coming to the United States.

After widespread uproar and international condemnation, Trump issued an executive order to halt the separations on June 20, 2018. Six days later, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw issued an injunction, demanding the reunification of parents with their children within 30 days. For children under the age of 5, the deadline was 14 days. For some, however, it was too late. Parents had already lost custody, been deported, or even lost track of their children. Even for those who were reunified, trauma had set in. In 2018, the number of publicly known separations was 2,800. In fact, as the government revealed this October after pressure from the ACLU lawsuit, that original count was over 1,500 children short. Furthermore, the government has admitted that more than 1,100 additional families have been separated since the executive order and injunction — bringing the total number of children impacted to at least 5,446. That number may still be an undercount and will continue to rise if immigration officials’ current practices continue.

The grounds for the ongoing separations — the 1,100 new cases — stem from a carve-out in Sabraw’s injunction: that children should not be separated “absent a determination that the parent is unfit or presents a danger to the child.” That language, the ACLU and others allege in an ongoing lawsuit, is being interpreted too broadly by the government, resulting in unwarranted separations. ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, who has been litigating against the government on behalf of a class of separated families, called the ongoing separation policy “as shocking as it is unlawful.”

The reason that Dennis and Sonia were separated, for example, goes back to 2008, when Dennis’s wife was pregnant with Sonia, and Dennis came to the U.S. to find work and support his family. He made it to Minnesota and was loaned false papers to get a job, but he was quickly picked up and charged with forgery. He spent three months in a federal prison before being deported. Eleven years later, that conviction led to Sonia being taken from him. “You could call any child expert from anywhere in the country, and they would tell you that these parents are not a danger to the child,” Gelernt said in a September 20 hearing. “The government is simply saying, ‘We are going to take away children because the court said we could.’”

In a brief filed to the court in July, ACLU attorneys pointed out cases in which children were taken from their parents for “the most minor or nonviolent criminal history.” The reasons for separation cited in those cases included marijuana possession convictions, a 27-year-old drug possession charge, and a charge of “malicious destruction of property value” over a total of $5. An 8-month-old was separated from his father for a “fictitious or fraudulent statement.” A mother who broke her leg at the border had her 5-year-old taken from her while she was in emergency surgery, and ORR did not release the child for 79 days.

In an example of a dubious determination made by the Border Patrol of a father being “unfit” to care for his 1-year-old daughter, an agent separated the two because the father left his daughter in a wet diaper while she was sleeping. She had been sick and, after caring for her and taking her to the hospital on two separate occasions for a high fever, the father “wanted to let her sleep instead of waking her to change her diaper,” according to the ACLU brief. Nonetheless, a female guard took his daughter from his arms, criticized him for not changing the diaper, and even called him a bad father. The government’s own documents show that the father has no other criminal history.

In another instance, a 3-year-old girl was separated from her father due to Customs and Border Protection’s allegation that he was not actually her parent. Although the father’s name does not appear on the child’s birth certificate, he presented other documentation showing parentage and requested a DNA test as proof. Officials ignored his request and separated the family. After an attorney intervened, the family took a DNA test and confirmed paternity. Meanwhile, the daughter was sexually abused while in ORR care and, according to the brief, “appears to be severely regressing in development.”

CBP did not respond to a request for comment.

The ACLU’s brief received some coverage this summer, but many of the most egregious stories it collected went unmentioned. Overall, even as the separations have continued, media attention has flagged. From a high of 2,000 stories a month in the summer of 2018, this fall has seen an average of only 50 to 100 stories a month that mention family separation, according to an analysis by Pamela Mejia, head of research at Berkeley Media Studies Group. Mejia told me that the issue had “reached a saturation point” for many people: “The overwhelming number of stories that generate outrage has made it harder to keep anything in the headlines.”

At first, the child victims of the government’s actions were easy to empathize with. There was no “crime frame,” as Mejia put it, to explain away the children’s suffering, in contrast to the way that immigration is often covered. Whether denominating migrants as “illegals,” seeing them as “hordes” or “invaders,” or using a broad brush to associate them with crime or terrorism, politicians and the media alike often wield anti-immigrant or dehumanizing language when discussing immigration. Young children, however, are something different. The broad consensus in 2018 was that the family separation policy was an outrageous and unnecessary cruelty.

But, despite the outrage, the policy continued and now there’s a sense of “futility that this is going to keep happening,” Mejia said. Gelernt likewise attributed the lack of ongoing coverage to “media burnout,” noting especially that there are more than 200 kids under the age of 5 who have been separated from their families. It’s hard to cover so many heartrending stories, Gelernt said. And now, simply, “People think it’s over.”

But it’s not. Sabraw, the southern California judge who issued the injunction in 2018, is expected to rule soon on the ACLU’s challenge to the continued separations. But even if he again orders the government to reunify families, or narrows immigration officials’ latitude in carrying out separations, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the government can, or will, comply. CBP, the Border Patrol’s parent agency, has already proven negligent in keeping track of the separated children — calling families who had undergone separation, for example, “deleted family units.” Some children still remain unaccounted for.

“At this point, no government official can plausibly claim that they are unaware of the damage these separations are doing to the children,” Gelernt told me, “yet they continue to do it.”

In late November, back in Copán, Sonia graduated from sixth grade. One of her favorite things to do, Dennis told me, is to draw with her younger brothers. She is also teaching the older of the two boys to read, practicing his letters with him. She’ll go into seventh grade soon, but her father worries about her growing up in what he described as a gang-ridden town. Honduras has one of the highest incidence rates of violence against women in the world. He also doesn’t know how he’ll be able to pay for her high school. “I know it’s desperate,” he said, “but I’m thinking of heading north again. I can’t see how else to do it.”

Sonia doesn’t talk much about her time separated from her family, but Dennis notices that she’s changed, and he and his wife are worried: “She told me she didn’t feel good. She was just crying at first [while in the ORR facility]; that’s all she did.” Now when she goes quiet sometimes, her parents wonder if she’s still affected by the trauma. As Dennis contemplated aloud another potential trip north in search of personal and financial security, he reflected, “I just ask that we have enough food to eat every day. I just want my family to be safe.”

▻https://theintercept.com/2019/12/09/family-separation-policy-lawsuit

Et cette vidéo de l’#IOM / #OIM, passée sur twitter, avec ce commentaire :

Hundreds of migrants have died in the deserts of North #Africa since 2015. Knowing the risks can ensure that truly informed decisions are made about whether to make the journey.

Lien vers le tweet et la vidéo :
▻https://twitter.com/UNmigration/status/959874324546162688

J’ai uniquement trouvé la vidéo via ce lien, pas sur le site de l’OIM par exemple...

Freed from Libyan jails, frustrated migrants pose challenge to new Gambia

Thousands of thwarted migrants are returning to Gambia, straining its government as officials scramble to get European-funded reintegration projects up and running

▻http://news.trust.org/item/20180130000138-tbxxg
#frustration #réintégration #intégration

Gambia’s Migration Paradox: The Horror and Promise of the Back Way

Since democracy returned to The Gambia last year, many Gambians are coming home, including from Libya with E.U. aid. Some returnees are warning others against the journey, but many are frustrated that returns and deterrence took precedence over reintegration and jobs.
By November 2017, IOM received 3.9 million euro ($4.8 million) for a three-year returns and reintegration project in The Gambia, part of a region-wide project funded by the E.U. Trust Fund for Africa (#EUTF). IOM’s office in Banjul only had two staff before the EUTF project; it now has around two dozen.
In the year since February 2017, some 2,210 Gambian migrants returned from Libya and 520 others from Niger with IOM assistance. Among them, 1,375 arrived under the new EUTF project.
The deportation of Gambians from E.U. countries remained stubbornly low under the Jammeh government: 12,000 Gambians arrived in Italy in 2016 and just 15 returned, according to latest available Eurostat figures. (2017 figures reflecting the returns under the Barrow government will be published in May.)

https://newsdeeply.imgix.net/20180326080437/IRomanoMigrantsLanding0630171.jpg?w=640&fit=max&q=60&dpr=2#.jpg https://newsdeeply.imgix.net/20180326134435/GettyImages-841999592.jpg https://newsdeeply.imgix.net/20180326134547/DSC_0269.jpg

Gambie : back home

Ils s’appellent Mustapha et Karamo. Torturés, réduits en esclavage, ils ont vécu les pires sévices en essayant de se rendre en Europe.

Dans une geôle libyenne, ils se font fait une promesse : celle de rentrer chez eux et de dissuader leurs compatriotes de se rendre en Europe de façon illégale à travers le « #backway », cette route de tous les périls qui passe par la Libye. Des centaines de Gambiens y ont perdu la vie. La Gambie, ex-colonie britannique, est le plus petit pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest. C’est pourtant l’un des plus importants contributeurs au flot de migrants traversant la Méditerranée.

Une quinzaine d’ex-migrants bénévoles, parcourt en caravane les régions rurales du nord du pays. Là où sévissent la pauvreté et le chômage, là où les enfants grandissent avec la seule perspective de quitter leur pays. Dans des écoles, au cours de séances de cinéma en plein air ou encore lors de rencontres avec les chefs locaux, les rapatriés vont partager leur calvaire pour essayer de mettre un terme à cette hémorragie humaine. Ils espèrent aussi convaincre les forces vives du pays du potentiel de cette « Nouvelle Gambie » et des ressources à développer.

Mais la route risque d’être longue. Malgré la récente stabilité politique, les promesses d’essor économique du nouveau gouvernement et les aides internationales, les changements radicaux se font attendre. Le tourisme et l’agriculture, asphyxiés par l’ancienne dictature de Jammeh, ne suffisent pas à donner de perspectives à cette nouvelle génération.

▻https://info.arte.tv/fr/gambie-back-home

#retour_au_pays #retour_volontaire #OIM #IOM #Libye #réintégration #dissuasion #sensibilisation #association_AIM #remittances

Au Niger, comme l’indiquent l’adresse mail et les numéros de téléphone (+227) dans le bas du panneau.

Merci @simplicissimus.
Du coup :
#Niger et #plan_Bazoum

J’avais lu que ce panneau était installé au Niger, à vérifier #Afrique

https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/18489875_1516238885114646_1054105330857301176_o.jpg?oh=b21c0dcde399480595dedca841575aea&oe=59A9B8D0

créée en 2010, organisée par décret en 2012

PRESTATION DE SERMENT | Ministère de la Justice
▻http://www.justice.gouv.ne/?q=node/189

La Commission Nationale de Coordination de la Lutte contre la Traite des Personnes est créée par l’article 96 de l’Ordonnance N° 2010-086 du 16 décembre 2010 relative à la lutte contre la traite des personnes au Niger. Ce même décret qui crée aussi l’Agence Nationale de Lutte contre la Traite des Personnes prévoit qu’un décret pris en conseil des Ministres déterminera l’organisation, la composition et le fonctionnement des ces deux institutions. C’est ainsi que les modalités d’organisation, la composition et le fonctionnement de ces deux organes ont été déterminés respectivement par le décret N°2012-082/PRN/MJ en date du 21 mars 2012 et le décret N°2012/PRN/MJ de la même année.

Ils ont une page FB : ▻https://www.facebook.com/agence.traitepersonnes
Mais je ne trouve pas de page web de l’association...

INTERVIEW DE LA DIRECTRICE GENERALE DE L’ANLTP | ANP
▻http://www.anp.ne/?q=article/interview-de-la-directrice-generale-de-l-anltp

Soumis par lawan le mer, 14/12/2016 - 16:24

c’est le décret 3 tu peux télécharger
▻http://www.justice.gouv.ne/?q=node/40

Un appui français à la coopération transfrontalière au Sahel
(programme ‘’ACTS’’ organisé à Niamey du 14 au 18 novembre 2016)

Cette série de rencontres s’est déroulée à Niamey, du 14 au 18 novembre 2016, sur le site de la ‘’Blue Zone Bolloré’’.

▻http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/dossiers-pays/niger/evenements/article/niger-lutte-contre-le-trafic-de-migrants-25-11-16

Signature de quatre (4) conventions de financement au Ministère des Finances - environ 46,3 milliards de FCFA en faveur de l’Agriculture et la lutte contre la criminalité organisée
▻https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/niger/22815/signature-de-quatre-4-conventions-de-financement-au-ministere-des-financ

J’ai oublié de mettre le mot magique #externalisation #contrôles_frontaliers #frontières

v. aussi cet article : ►https://lesjours.fr/obsessions/migrants/ep6-niger
signalé sur ce fil de discussion seenthis : ▻http://seen.li/deji

https://i.imgur.com/KTazMre.jpg

«Quando l’Ue crea delle barriere al protocollo di libera circolazione in Africa
#Niamey.»

▻https://www.facebook.com/isabelle.saintsaens/posts/10215636559852067

C’est apparemment, selon les dire de Sara, le même panneau que j’avais mis il y a quelques mois sur seenthis (début de ce fil), sauf que là il ne se tient plus tout droit...

A passage to Italy: The Libyan connection

An average of 30-40 Bangladeshis illegally enter Libya on a daily basis to cross the Mediterranean to Italy by boat

http://www.dhakatribune.com/assets/uploads/2017/06/Capture-30.jpg

Why are there fewer Bangladeshi migrants arriving in Italy in recent months?

In early 2017, Bangladeshis were the second largest nationality among the irregular migrants arriving in Italy from Libya, accounting for one out of every eight migrants taking the Central Mediterranean sea route. In recent months, they made up barely 4 per cent of all arrivals.

Frontex analysts tried to answer the question why nationals of Bangladesh, unlike nationals of other Asian countries with similar push factors, were able to make this journey in such numbers and why this happened almost exclusively on the Central Mediterranean route.

An analysis of intelligence gathered from migrants, as well as data from open sources, revealed a system of facilitated illegal migration based on work visas issued by Bangladeshi recruitment agencies.

Most of the interviewed Bangladeshi migrants, who continue to arrive to Italy from Libya, claimed to have travelled to Libya directly from Bangladesh, transiting Gulf countries or Turkey.

With a work visa in hand, the Bangladeshi migrants flew to Libya through the United Arab Emirates, Istanbul or Qatar. They paid some EUR 7000 for the trip to Libya.

After arriving in Libya, the migrants were immediately taken to safehouses by local people smugglers, who would make arrangements for the sea crossing. The same networks later provide facilitation services to the migrants on their way to the EU. Their passports taken away, the Bangladeshis were provided with temporary employment, at serious risk of abuse, while the preparations for the onward trips were made.

After more than 8000 Bangladeshis reached Italy in the first half of the year, their numbers fell considerably. This sharp drop in the number of Bangladeshi migrants could be linked to measures taken both in Bangladesh and Libya.

In May, Bangladeshi authorities stopped issuing work visas to Libya and announced that those, who will still travel to the country are assumed to do so illegally. Law enforcement agencies have stepped up their efforts to stop human trafficking and organised awareness campaigns to discourage people from travelling to Libya.

Another factor was a ban introduced by Libyan authorities issuing visas-on-arrival to people from Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Syria and Bangladesh at the Tripoli airport.

The reduced number of Bangladeshis arriving in Italy is also linked to the different factors reducing migration from Libya.

▻http://frontex.europa.eu/feature-stories/why-are-there-fewer-bangladeshi-migrants-arriving-in-italy-in-recent-

#visa #dissuasion #visas #aéroport #Tripoli

#mourir_aux_frontières #campement #résistance #jungle #Calais #solidarité #morts #décès #association_Salam #in/visibilité #invisibilité #Secours_Catholique #CRS #police #hygiène #dissuasion #douche #frontières #France #frontière_mobile #Utopia_56 #reportage #vidéo #film #aide_humanitaire #nourriture #L'auberge_des_migrants #errance #cache-cache #le_chat_et_la_souris #démantèlement #délit_de_solidarité #campement_diffus #destruction #migrations #asile #réfugiés

Nombre de migrants, présence de squats… Le point sur la situation à Calais

Combien les réfugiés sont-ils actuellement à Calais ? Quel est leur profil ? Y a-t-il des squats ou de nouvelles « jungles » dans la ville ? Les réponses, qui constituent de précieux indicateurs sur la situation actuelle, ne sont pas toujours évidentes.

▻http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/166575/article/2017-05-22/nombre-de-migrants-presence-de-squats-le-point-sur-la-situation-calais

A Calais, les migrants reviennent, la brutalité policière aussi

« L’essentiel est de tarir les flux d’arrivées. » C’est ainsi que le ministre de l’intérieur justifie l’envoi de renforts policiers à Calais, pour interdire les distributions bénévoles de nourriture aux migrants. Ces derniers reviennent à proximité de l’ancienne « jungle » pour tenter de passer en Angleterre. Reportage.

►https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/080617/calais-les-migrants-reviennent-la-brutalite-policiere-aussi
#dissuasion

A Calais, les réfugiés sont chassés la nuit et traqués le jour

Depuis son arrivée à Calais, Christian ne dort pas plus de 3h par nuit. Entre les lacrymos et l’interdiction des distributions de nourriture, compliqué de survivre. StreetPress te raconte l’histoire de ces réfugiés coincés aux portes de l’Angleterre

https://www.streetpress.com/sites/default/files/ph_3_1.jpg https://www.streetpress.com/sites/default/files/ph1_steetpress_1.jpg https://www.streetpress.com/sites/default/files/ph_2_streetpress_1.jpg https://www.streetpress.com/sites/default/files/ph_4_streetpress_1.jpg

Visite des services du #Défenseur_des_droits le lundi 12 juin à Calais

Le Défenseur des droits dénonce une nouvelle fois les conditions de vie inhumaines que subissent les exilés à Calais

►https://www.defenseurdesdroits.fr/node/23871

Calais : délit de solidarité, trente personnes poursuivies en un an et demi

Les poursuites à l’encontre des aidants solidaires à la frontière franco-italienne ont acquis une forte visibilité. Ceci s’explique notamment par une dynamique collective forte, une action publiquement assumée et une coordination du soutien. Ces éléments ont manqué à la frontière franco-britannique. Pourtant au moins trente personnes ont été soit poursuivies, soit enfermées en rétention et expulsées du territoire, pour leur engagement solidaire, pendant la seule durée du bidonville de Calais, soit en avril 2015 et novembre 2016. Ceci sans compter les « simples » placement en garde-à-vue, les multiples contraventions visant les véhicules des bénévoles et d’autres formes d’entrave et d’intimidation.

▻https://passeursdhospitalites.wordpress.com/2017/06/18/calais-delit-de-solidarite-trente-personnes-poursui

Calais : aspects du délit de solidarité

Avec des périodes plus ou moins tendues, des priorités qui peuvent varier, la #répression de la solidarité s’est installée de manière permanente dans le paysage calaisien.

▻https://passeursdhospitalites.wordpress.com/2017/06/21/calais-aspects-du-delit-de-solidarite

Accueil des migrants, loi antiterroriste : le Défenseur des droits passe à l’offensive

Ce matin, Guillaume Erner reçoit le Défenseur des droits, #Jacques_Toubon.

▻https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/linvite-des-matins/accueil-des-migrants-loi-antiterroriste-le-defenseur-des-droits-passe

Calais: Administrative court holds that conditions for migrants must be improved, but finds no legal obligation to open reception centre

The Administrative Court of Lille ruled this Monday that conditions for migrants sleeping rough in Calais must be improved. However, the ruling that followed an action brought by eleven non-governmental organisations working in the area but finds no legal obligation to open a reception centre in Calais.
The judgment outlines steps to be implemented by local authorities within ten days after its issuance. These steps include: the improvement of information of minors on their rights; the installation of several toilet facilities and water dispensers; the cessation of hindrances to organisations offering services to migrants in the region, including the serving of meals; and the transfer of migrants towards reception and orientation centres (#CAO). For each day of delay, a fine of 100 € will have to be paid.

▻https://www.ecre.org/calais-administrative-court-holds-that-conditions-for-migrants-must-be-improve

Le verdict de la cour de Lille ici:
Accueil des migrants à Calais

Dans ces conditions, le juge des référés a ordonné les mesures suivantes :

– renforcement des maraudes, à destination des mineurs, afin de procéder à un recensement et d’améliorer l’efficacité du dispositif de mise à l’abri déjà mis en œuvre par le département du Pas-de-Calais, en lien avec France Terre d’Asile ;

– création, selon des modalités qui restent à déterminer entre l’ensemble des acteurs concernés, de plusieurs points d’eau et de sanitaires, et renforcement du dispositif d’accès à des #douches, réservé jusqu’à présent aux personnes malades et en particulier à celles atteintes de la gale ;

– obligation de laisser les associations continuer à distribuer des #repas dans les conditions déjà fixées par le juge des référés (ordonnance du 22 mars 2017) ;

– organisation de départs vers les centres d’accueil et d’orientation (CAO), pour une mise à l’abri d’urgence.

Ces mesures doivent commencer à être exécutées dans un délai de dix jours.

▻http://lille.tribunal-administratif.fr/Actualites/Communiques/Accueil-des-migrants-a-Calais
#justice #mineurs #MNA #mineurs_non_accompagnés #enfants #enfance #transfert #toilettes #eau #repas #migrerrance

The Calais Jungle: Mediations of home
▻https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/14573958/Necsus_The_Calais_Jungle_Mediations_of_home.pdf

Calais after the jungle: migrant dispersal and the expulsion of humanitarianism

Eight months after their eviction from the Calais jungle, migrants are still a substantial presence in the city of Calais. What has happened to them over the course of those months, however, has been largely unexplored (by those in the UK at least). To gain a better sense of what has been happening on the ground, we set up the project “Mapping the dispersal of refugees evicted from Calais” at Swansea University with funding from cherish-de.uk. Our aim is to investigate how migrants’ lives – both on and off the move – are controlled and governed away from the ‘border spectacle’ and declared ’humanitarian emergencies’ that receive so much attention in the press.

▻https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/martina-tazzioli/calais-after-jungle-migrant-dispersal-and-expulsion-of-humanitarianis

https://i.imgur.com/9hbCuJO.jpg

#ancrage #errance #fixation #point_de_fixation

Après l’impossibilité de distribuer de la nourriture, après l’interdiction à des douches... voici l’interdiction pour la distribution de #bois :

Ce matin, la police nous a interdit de distribuer du bois sur un lieu de distribution, et a empêché les migrants de se réchauffer en éteignant leur feu de bois. L’argument : bois = décharge publique Il fait 5° aujourd’hui.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DTWgL-QWkAAb73T.jpg

Intervention de CRS sur un campement aujourd’hui. Un jeune réveillé à coups de pied et de gaz dans le visage. Un CRS jette des cailloux sur les exilés. Insultes, menaces. Et petit cadeau en repartant : urine sur les tentes. La grande classe.

https://i.imgur.com/cF9QY7Y.png

Migrants. À Calais, la #distribution_de_repas par l’État est un fiasco

Presque une semaine après la mise en place du dispositif, les acteurs de terrain dénoncent un système inadapté.

Pensant couper l’herbe sous le pied des associations, qu’il accusait au passage d’user de « mensonges » et de « manipulations », Emmanuel Macron avait annoncé, lors de sa venue à Calais, le 16 janvier, que l’État prendrait bientôt « à sa charge » la distribution des repas aux exilés. Depuis mardi 6 mars, le nouveau dispositif est en place. L’association la Vie active, qui s’en charge pour le compte de l’État, a été dotée de deux #food_trucks afin de rester mobile pour éviter, selon Michel Tournaire, sous-préfet de Calais, les « #points_de_fixation ». Mais le compte n’y est pas. Là où les bénévoles distribuaient quotidiennement plus de 1 200 repas, le prestataire officiel n’en prévoit que 350. Les associations de solidarité permettaient jusqu’ici aux exilés de s’approvisionner trois fois par jour dans cinq lieux différents. Le nouveau dispositif ne prévoit que deux endroits, encadrés par un important dispositif policier et entourés de fils barbelés, pour seulement deux repas quotidiens. La mise en place du nouveau dispositif s’accompagne, en outre, du démantèlement des infrastructures sanitaires – toilettes et points d’eau – précédemment mises en place.
Les exilés se débrouillent grâce aux solidaires

« Personne ne se déplace pour aller chercher ses repas, indique au téléphone, Messay, un jeune exilé éthiopien présent à Calais depuis quatre mois. Je m’excuse de dire ça mais le lieu de distribution ressemble à un camp de concentration. » En fin de compte, les exilés se débrouillent grâce aux solidaires qui continuent de leur apporter à manger en cachette. « On apporte des sacs avec de l’huile et de quoi cuisiner soi-même », explique Laurent Caffier, un citoyen solidaire régulièrement présent sur les campements de fortune du Calaisis. « Chaque fois qu’il y a quelque chose de nouveau, il y a de la méfiance. Il faut un temps d’adaptation », tempère Stéphane Duval, le responsable de la #Vie_active. Mais pour les associations comme Salam ou l’Auberge des migrants, présentes sur le terrain depuis de nombreuses années, les raisons sont ailleurs. « Les exilés ne comprennent pas que l’État leur distribue des repas alors qu’il continue de casser leurs abris, explique Christian Salomé, président de l’Auberge des migrants, qui a adressé, hier, un nouveau courrier au préfet. Comment veut-il gagner la confiance des gens quand, comme ça s’est passé mardi à l’entrée de Marc (village limitrophe de Calais), les CRS profitent qu’ils soient en train de manger pour détruire leur campement ? » En fin de compte, la distribution des repas par l’État pourrait bien n’être que le cache-sexe d’une logique gouvernementale toujours aussi hostile aux exilés, visant, en sus, à disqualifier les véritables acteurs de la solidarité.

https://www.humanite.fr/sites/default/files/styles/abonnez_vous/public/images/56279.HR.jpg?itok=X1YSNvh2#.jpg

▻https://www.humanite.fr/migrants-calais-la-distribution-de-repas-par-letat-est-un-fiasco-651756
#asile #migrations #réfugiés #destruction #confiance #fixation #ancrage

Des clôtures posées sur le lieu de distribution de repas aux migrants

Des clôtures sont actuellement érigées sur le #terrain_vague situé au bout de la #rue_des_Verrotières (#zone_industrielle des Dunes), propriété de la communauté d’agglomération Grand Calais. C’est là que se déroulent, chaque soir, les distributions de repas aux migrants.

▻http://lvdnena.rosselcdn.net/sites/default/files/dpistyles_v2/ena_16_9_extra_big/2017/06/14/node_177985/28884262/public/2017/06/14/B9712303905Z.1_20170614171511_000%2BGV698ER7D.2-0.jpg?itok=lt838e
▻http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/177985/article/2017-06-14/des-clotures-posees-sur-le-lieu-de-distribution-de-repas-aux-migrants

#calais #clôtures #barrières #frontières #France #asile #migrations #réfugiés
via @isskein

Calais mayor bans distribution of food to migrants

Natacha Bouchart says handing out of meals poses security threat, as city tries to stop establishment of new refugee camp

▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/02/calais-mayor-bans-distribution-of-food-to-migrants?CMP=share_btn_tw

#solidarité #nourriture #délit_de_solidarité #nourriture #Calais #asile #migrations #réfugiés #campement

Recent police attacks on distributions

In the last weeks the police have started to include attacks on support infrastructure in their campaign of violence and intimidation against people on the move in this city. Volunteers and supporters in Calais have been reporting police attacks during food distributions, traffic stops and fines when going out in association vehicles to do distributions, threats to seize vehicles, poisoning of water supplies, and the destruction of donations. This is in addition to the police violence which takes place daily in the jungles, at the parkings, and in the streets for which volunteers are not often present.

▻https://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/recent-police-attacks-on-distributions

Teargas, cold, no toilets: plight of refugees in Calais revealed

As woods in northern France once again house hundreds of people, many report police aggression and sparse supplies

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/934ff2f376394ecf3e69248eebda166b75fd055b/69_495_5657_3657/master/5657.jpg?w=1140&q=20&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&dpr=2&s=cb8a3d6581d6bb06cd2f7f015abe8e14#.jpg

Calais : la France doit fournir de l’eau potable et des services d’assainissement aux migrants (experts de l’ONU)

16 octobre 2017 – Trois experts des droits de l’homme de l’ONU exhortent la France à mettre en œuvre des mesures à long terme afin de fournir de l’eau potable et des services d’assainissement aux migrants résidant à Calais et dans d’autres régions de la côte nord du pays.

▻http://www.un.org/apps/newsFr/storyF.asp?NewsID=40370

Distribution hivernale pour les migrants de Calais et état des lieux sur les destructions des abris

Nous sommes en décembre, et malgré la trêve hivernale,
les exilés de Calais sont dépossédés quotidiennement des biens leur permettant de se protéger du froid.
Cette stratégie de harcèlement et d’épuisement n’est en réalité qu’un choix politique qui relève de la #maltraitance_institutionnelle. Cela n’est plus supportable.

▻https://www.secours-catholique.org/sites/scinternet/files/comm_presse/cp_destructions_des_abris.pdf
#destruction #couvertures #froid #hiver

Essay: Life After the Jungle, the Route That Will Not Close

On the anniversary of the demolition of the Calais Jungle camp, Behzad Yaghmaian reflects on the stories of the migrants who continue to flock to the area and who are taking riskier and more expensive journeys across the English Channel to the U.K.

►https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/community/2017/10/25/essay-life-after-the-jungle-the-route-that-will-not-close

v. aussi :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/675672
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/714308

The Jungle ‘#Performance’: Recreating a Refugee Camp on the Fly

Since the Calais Jungle was demolished in 2016, asylum seekers have returned, although any shelter they erect is destroyed. This leaves them performing a shadow camp in an absurd game with the police.

Most people associate asylum seekers in Calais with the notorious “Jungle.” It was a place of solidarity that appealed to the imagination, with its makeshift schools, mosques, restaurants and a church built by asylum seekers with the help of international volunteers. However, the Jungle was also rat-infested and filthy; it was a threatening, lawless place where people-smuggling networks thrived.

These conditions prompted one scathing headline after another, until French authorities razed the camp to the ground in October 2016. Its estimated 8,000 residents were sent to processing centers across France. With the disappearance of the Jungle, the issue of migrants at the Calais border largely disappeared from public discussion. The illusion that the problem had been solved was celebrated – and that illusion has endured.

In early 2017, just three months after the demolition of the Jungle, asylum seekers started to return to Calais. For the past year, there have been 400–700 migrants living informally in the area at any given time. Yet the Jungle has not reappeared.

There is no physical camp in Calais. Newcomers play an absurd game of cat and mouse with authorities, building makeshift shelters that are then destroyed by police. In response, volunteer humanitarians reclaim the camp in the only way they can: They publicly “perform” a recreation of the protective space that the Jungle provided for asylum seekers, challenging the police’s attempts to criminalize everybody involved.

In the early days of his presidency, France’s Emmanuel Macron committed to addressing the Calais migrant problem head-on. He would not allow the Jungle to be reestablished. Instead, a zero tolerance policy was introduced: Any attempted informal settlement would be systematically destroyed.

In August 2017, the authorities carried out 26 camp demolitions in Calais: 103 shelters were dismantled and 31 tonnes of material destroyed. Such massive action requires manpower, and in January 2018 Macron boasted of 1,130 police officers stationed in the area. That is close to two officers per asylum seeker.

Killing the Camp

Sleep has become a political matter in Calais; shelter is a constant uncertainty. The threat of destruction forces migrants to hide as best they can. They rest in sleeping bags in dark nooks under bridges, or in scattered encampments on the fringes of the city, out of sight in forests or on industrial waste sites.

Asylum seekers build shelters out of tarp and blankets, nestled in bushes. But police drones and constant detection operations make concealment nearly impossible. Migrants report that their makeshift shelters can be destroyed at any time of day or night. Shelters are slashed with knives, sleeping bags are tear-gassed, possessions are confiscated.

These interventions often go beyond destroying sleeping arrangements: Migrants complain of being tear-gassed at close quarters by police, of being intimidated, chased and beaten. The psychological effect is devastating. It is impossible to rest when you feel constantly under threat. The chance of hitching a lift unnoticed to the U.K. aboard a lorry only seems sweeter to the migrants suffering dehumanizing violence at the hands of the authorities.

The French police have been repeatedly condemned for the excessive use of violence in Calais over the past year. Human Rights Watch and the Refugee Rights Data Project are among the watchdogs that have gathered testimonies and incriminating footage.

The state itself recognized some of these accusations following an investigation by the national police watchdog (IGPN) in a report published in October 2017. Such violent policing isn’t restricted to Calais, and is characteristic of what is emerging across France as Macron’s way of pushing through his “efficient” neoliberal policies.

Performing the Camp

Despite the prevailing conditions, twice every day the camp is “performed” in Calais. Several organizations that formerly had a presence in the Jungle have adapted to the asylum seekers’ new, transitory situation. They have made their aid provisions mobile: Warm meals, water, clothing and items for rebuilding shelters are distributed from vans, which also offer Wi-Fi, electricity, information and legal aid.

The battered vans pull up at five sites around the city for 90-minute windows twice daily, despite being barely tolerated by the authorities. In these instances, humanitarian acts of care associated with the camp are performed by volunteers and fellow asylum seekers who take on the role of aid workers.

When distribution time is up, hoodies are pulled back up and asylum seekers disappear in groups of four or five. Just as quickly as the camp had emerged, it vanishes. Humanitarians and asylum seekers part ways until the next distribution comes around and the camp may again be recreated.

These brief moments humanize a group whose humanity is under attack. The “performance” of the camp offers a counternarrative to that of the asylum seeker as criminal. It makes the migrants’ life in Calais visible as a humanitarian crisis, challenging the policing that treats them as criminals.

A Race to the Bottom

Two years ago, the closure of the Jungle seemed like a step forward. Conditions in the makeshift camp were awful. Rebuilding a camp at the border is not a solution, but constantly chasing migrants and undermining their dignity is a dangerous alternative, which only deepens the breach of trust between asylum seekers and states across the European Union.

Instead of taking unified structural action, countries across Europe are engaged in a race to deter migrants from settling in their respective lands. Securitization supersedes the humanitarian imperative. If France wants to solve its “Calais problem,” it should take up its humanitarian responsibility and design an asylum process that does not criminalize newcomers, nor threaten them with a forced return to their first country of entry. Until then, the sight of Dover will keep drawing uninvited guests to Calais.

Moments such as those in which the camp is “performed” remind us of the duty of care that should drive European policies to respond to this ongoing crisis. On the ground, the absurdity of the situation is blatantly clear to everyone: those building the camp; those destroying it; and those “performing” it.

https://newsdeeply.imgix.net/20180907082202/Refugees_Daily_futuro_berg-0367.jpg?w=640&fit=max&q=60&dpr=2#.jpg

Septembre 2020
Calais : sur instruction de Gérald Darmanin, le préfet interdit la distribution de repas aux migrants par les associations non-mandatées
►https://seenthis.net/messages/875665

#détention_administrative #rétention #Australie #externalisation #dissuasion #film #documentaire #rétention #pacific_solution #Manus_island #nauru #rétention #clôture #tentes #liberté_de_mouvement #camp_de_réfugiés #détention_administrative #rétention #sécurité #camp_militarisé #suicide #dissuasion #attente #passeurs #santé #santé_mentale #infections #hygiène #droit_d'asile #lèvres #grèves_de_la_faim #dépression #traumatisme #sommeil #mineurs #enfants #abus_sexuels #propagande #mourir_en_mer #politique_migratoire #violence #émeutes #Reza_Barati #Hamid_Khazaei #Cambodge #viol #agressions_sexuelles #désobéissance #résistance #retour_au_pays #Rohingya #histoire #réfugiés_vietnamiens #corridors_humanitaires #voies_légales #Eva_Orner

Je l’ai regardé hier. Froid au dos.
Un petit commentaire sur comment la réalisatrice a voulu terminer le film : en faisant l’éloge à l’accueil des réfugiés par l’Europe, et surtout à l’Allemagne, comme si c’était un modèle à imiter pour les Australiens...
La voix off dit : « En Europe, les réfugiés peuvent arriver en bateau », et elle montre des images de personnes accueillies à bras ouvertes.
Ces des images qui servent sont propos pour condamner la politique australienne, mais bien loin du modèle idéal...

Sinon, une information qui est donnée dans le film :
Budget de dépense australiennes pour maintenir les centres de Manus et Nauru : 1,2 millards par année, soit 500’000 dollars par requérant d’asile et par an !

Les témoignages à visages découverts des très jeunes australiens (la vingtaine) qui ont été recrutés pour faire du bénévolat sur l’île, notamment par l’armée du salut, sont hallucinants ! Sans formation, deux jours après qu’ils aient demandé à l’armée du salut si ils pouvaient s’inscrire pour aller « aider les réfugiés », se retrouvent dans l’enfer de Manus island. Une jeune fille témoigne que le premier jour sur l’île, elle regarde les instructions pour le personnel, et elle voit que c’est marqué le lieu où se trouve un couteau. Elle demande des explications, et la personne lui répond : c’est pour couper les cordes des personnes qui se suicides...

v. aussi : ►http://seen.li/cgef
et : ►http://seen.li/as1y

Il y a un autre doc que je dois encore regarder sue le site de la RTS : « Les migrants ne savent pas nager » ▻https://www.rts.ch/play/tv/doc/video/les-migrants-ne-savent-pas-nager?id=8478515

#industrie_de_la_défense

Pour rappel, l’#initiative 1:12 :
▻http://seen.li/4410

Migrants: le #deal de l’UE avec l’Afghanistan

À la veille d’une conférence à Bruxelles consacrée au soutien économique et politique à l’Afghanistan, l’Union européenne a annoncé qu’elle avait signé un accord permettant le renvoi massif d’exilés déboutés du droit d’asile en Europe. Jusqu’à présent, la France évitait les expulsions vers ce pays où l’instabilité politique est chronique. Plus de 80 000 Afghans pourraient être concernés.

►https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/041016/migrants-le-deal-de-l-ue-avec-l-afghanistan

EU deportation of migrants ‘adds to Afghanistan’s instability’, says UN

UN human rights expert says economic hardship and violence mean Afghans flee their country by necessity – a view backed by UNHCR-World Bank report

▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/nov/01/eu-deportation-of-migrants-adds-to-afghanistans-instability-says-un-uni
#deal

Over 1 Million Afghan Refugees Return Home

In the largest influx of refugees returning to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2011, more than 1 million Afghans have returned home — one-fifth of them involuntarily — from neighboring Pakistan and Iran this year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Wednesday.

▻http://www.voanews.com/a/over-one-million-afghan-refugees-return-home/3598412.html

#Afghanistan Itself Is Now Taking In the Most Afghan Migrants

SAMARKHEL, Afghanistan — There is one country in the world that is now taking in more Afghan migrants than all the countries in Europe and South Asia put together this year.
That would be Afghanistan itself.

▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/world/asia/afghanistan-migrants.html?platform=hootsuite&_r=0

Young Afghans Returning From Europe Face Isolation And Fear Back Home

In the final part of “Afghans on the Migration Trail,” migration scholar Nassim Majidi examines the difficulties faced by asylum seekers sent back from Europe to Afghanistan as they try to start new lives.

▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/afghan-refugees-returning-from-europe_us_5835cc60e4b01ba68ac3d5d5?

RETURN OF UNDOCUMENTED AFGHANS

http://i.imgur.com/qW66WIf.png

Migrants : les #retours_volontaires vers l’Afghanistan multipliés par vingt en un an

Il y aurait donc eu un « effet Calais » sur les retours volontaires des migrants dans leur pays d’origine. Quelques mois passés dans la jungle auraient dégoûté de l’Europe plus d’un migrant. Deuxième nationalité à camper dans ce lieu insalubre, les Afghans ont été vingt fois plus nombreux en 2016 qu’en 2015 à choisir de rentrer chez eux.

S’il n’existe pas vraiment une typologie du migrant qui renonce à son projet, le directeur de l’Office français de l’immigration et de l’intégration (OFII), Didier Leschi, observe quand même que ceux qui sont repartis en 2016 souffraient d’un « profond épuisement ». « En général ils sont restés des mois à Calais et ont pris conscience que la fin de leur voyage ne signifiait pas la fin des difficultés », ajoute-t-il. Les équipes de M. Leschi qui aidaient les migrants dans leur démarche de retour, difficile pour eux parce que synonyme d’échec, ont souvent entendu raconter le cumul de la « difficulté d’apprentissage de la langue et des problèmes d’insertion économiques », rappelle le directeur.

Les nationalités qui enregistrent des augmentations importantes du nombre de départs étaient toutes présentes à Calais. Avec 529 départs en 2016 contre 27 l’année précédente, les Afghans ont été la première nationalité et aussi celle qui a connu la plus forte augmentation entre les deux années. Mais les Pakistanais (+ 55 %), les Iraniens (+ 194 %) et les Irakiens (+ 114 %) sont aussi souvent repartis après une expérience difficile.

4 774 départs aidés

L’augmentation de la prime de départ volontaire, mise en place pour aider à vider le bidonville aurait aussi fonctionné comme une aide à la décision, selon le directeur de l’OFII. Fixée à 1 000 euros, la prime avait été portée à 2 500 euros jusqu’à fin 2016. Certaines nationalités peuvent également bénéficier d’une aide à la réinsertion que 1 133 personnes ont obtenue (+70 %) en 2016. L’OFII se félicite ainsi d’avoir pu faire repartir, avec un projet, des ressortissants de plusieurs nationalités, dont la Moldavie et le Brésil, qui se retrouvaient victimes de réseaux.

Si les 4 774 départs aidés ne sont pas en hausse par rapport à 2015, Didier Leschi a joué la carte des « pays à visa ». Ses services se sont en effet concentrés sur les retours hors Union européenne (UE), estimant que c’était faire meilleur usage de l’argent public, car ces migrants avaient moins de chances de revenir que ceux qui résident en Europe. Sous le quinquennat Sarkozy, l’aide au retour octroyée aux Roumains avait défrayé la chronique, parce qu’elle avait créé un effet d’aubaine. Désormais la prise d’empreinte a mis fin à la possibilité de toucher plusieurs fois une aide au retour, et en plus, la politique de l’OFII s’est recentrée.

Ainsi, le bilan 2016, globalement étal, se sépare en fait en trois pôles. D’une part, les retours aidés vers l’Europe ont décru de 18 % ; les retours vers les pays dispensés de visas mais hors UE ont diminué de 25 % et ceux à destination des pays à visa ont, eux, augmenté de 16 %. Globalement, cette politique a coûté 6,23 millions d’euros. Soit 1 300 euros par départ. Ce qui est considérablement moins onéreux que les renvois forcés sous escorte policière et parfois précédés de plusieurs semaines en centre de rétention.

▻http://www.lemonde.fr/immigration-et-diversite/article/2017/01/19/migrants-les-retours-volontaires-vers-l-afghanistan-multiplies-par-vingt-ent
#retour_volontaire #dissuasion (quelle belle illusion !) #Calais

Il faudrait que les lecteurs du monde lisent aussi #Liza_Schuster :

Brutal, expensive, futile - the truth about deporting asylum seekers
►https://www.lacite.info/politiquetxt/2014/04/15/letrange-legende-allemande-du-retour-heureux-des-requerants-dasile
Traduit en français sur @vivre : ▻http://asile.ch/2013/12/05/liza-schuster-brutaux-couteux-et-futiles-la-verite-sur-les-renvois-des-requera

que je cite dans cet article publié dans @lacite

►https://www.lacite.info/politiquetxt/2014/04/15/letrange-legende-allemande-du-retour-heureux-des-requerants-dasile

Afghanistan: EU to sign a cooperation agreement on partnership and development

On 13 February 2017, the Council decided to sign a cooperation agreement on partnership and development between the EU and Afghanistan. The agreement will be signed on Friday, 17 February 2017 at 18.40 in Munich by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and the Minister of Finance of Afghanistan Eklil Ahmad Hakimi, in presence of President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani.

▻http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2017/02/13-afghanistan-cooperation-agreement

Afghans deported from Europe arrive home, to war and unemployment

wo more planes carrying Afghans deported from Europe landed in Kabul this week, failed asylum seekers sent back under an agreement between the European Union and Afghan government

▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-refugees-idUSKBN1721VJ

Cynicism Masquerading as Realism: A Response to Gerald Knaus

The ‘#Rome_plan’ to fast-track returns to West Africa will perpetuate restrictive refugee policies, argue Doctors Without Borders’ Louise Roland-Gosselin and Apostolis Fotiadis, a journalist contributing to Refugee Support in the Aegean.

▻https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/community/2017/07/27/cynicism-masquerading-as-realism-a-response-to-gerald-knaus
cc @i_s_

Open Letter: The European Parliament must immediately address the Joint Way Forward Agreement between the EU and Afghanistan

The Afghanistan donor conference that took place on October 4 and 5, 2016 brought together representatives from 75 countries and 26 international organizations. €13.6 billion was pledged – amongst other priorities – to “end violence and a political process towards lasting peace and reconciliation.”

http://i0.wp.com/www.ecre.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/kabul-airport.jpg?resize=1080%2C675

Europe can no longer pretend to respect human rights

Anger is building at the return of refugees from Europe to war zones and the EU’s deals with dictators and torturers to prevent refugees from leaving their own countries. In the first of two articles, Frances Webber looks at the EU’s deals with Afghanistan and Turkey. The second article will examine the deals with African states.

▻http://www.irr.org.uk/news/europe-can-no-longer-pretend-to-respect-human-rights/?platform=hootsuite
#droits_humains #droits_de_l'homme