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  • Beyond the Hype of Lab-Grown Diamonds
    https://earther.gizmodo.com/beyond-the-hype-of-lab-grown-diamonds-1834890351

    Billions of years ago when the world was still young, treasure began forming deep underground. As the edges of Earth’s tectonic plates plunged down into the upper mantle, bits of carbon, some likely hailing from long-dead life forms were melted and compressed into rigid lattices. Over millions of years, those lattices grew into the most durable, dazzling gems the planet had ever cooked up. And every so often, for reasons scientists still don’t fully understand, an eruption would send a stash of these stones rocketing to the surface inside a bubbly magma known as kimberlite.

    There, the diamonds would remain, nestled in the kimberlite volcanoes that delivered them from their fiery home, until humans evolved, learned of their existence, and began to dig them up.

    The epic origin of Earth’s diamonds has helped fuel a powerful marketing mythology around them: that they are objects of otherworldly strength and beauty; fitting symbols of eternal love. But while “diamonds are forever” may be the catchiest advertising slogan ever to bear some geologic truth, the supply of these stones in the Earth’s crust, in places we can readily reach them, is far from everlasting. And the scars we’ve inflicted on the land and ourselves in order to mine diamonds has cast a shadow that still lingers over the industry.

    Some diamond seekers, however, say we don’t need to scour the Earth any longer, because science now offers an alternative: diamonds grown in labs. These gems aren’t simulants or synthetic substitutes; they are optically, chemically, and physically identical to their Earth-mined counterparts. They’re also cheaper, and in theory, limitless. The arrival of lab-grown diamonds has rocked the jewelry world to its core and prompted fierce pushback from diamond miners. Claims abound on both sides.

    Growers often say that their diamonds are sustainable and ethical; miners and their industry allies counter that only gems plucked from the Earth can be considered “real” or “precious.” Some of these assertions are subjective, others are supported only by sparse, self-reported, or industry-backed data. But that’s not stopping everyone from making them.

    This is a fight over image, and when it comes to diamonds, image is everything.
    A variety of cut, polished Ada Diamonds created in a lab, including smaller melee stones and large center stones. 22.94 carats total. (2.60 ct. pear, 2.01 ct. asscher, 2.23 ct. cushion, 3.01 ct. radiant, 1.74 ct. princess, 2.11 ct. emerald, 3.11 ct. heart, 3.00 ct. oval, 3.13 ct. round.)
    Image: Sam Cannon (Earther)
    Same, but different

    The dream of lab-grown diamond dates back over a century. In 1911, science fiction author H.G. Wells described what would essentially become one of the key methods for making diamond—recreating the conditions inside Earth’s mantle on its surface—in his short story The Diamond Maker. As the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) notes, there were a handful of dubious attempts to create diamonds in labs in the late 19th and early 20th century, but the first commercial diamond production wouldn’t emerge until the mid-1950s, when scientists with General Electric worked out a method for creating small, brown stones. Others, including De Beers, soon developed their own methods for synthesizing the gems, and use of the lab-created diamond in industrial applications, from cutting tools to high power electronics, took off.

    According to the GIA’s James Shigley, the first experimental production of gem-quality diamond occurred in 1970. Yet by the early 2000s, gem-quality stones were still small, and often tinted yellow with impurities. It was only in the last five or so years that methods for growing diamonds advanced to the point that producers began churning out large, colorless stones consistently. That’s when the jewelry sector began to take a real interest.

    Today, that sector is taking off. The International Grown Diamond Association (IGDA), a trade group formed in 2016 by a dozen lab diamond growers and sellers, now has about 50 members, according to IGDA secretary general Dick Garard. When the IGDA first formed, lab-grown diamonds were estimated to represent about 1 percent of a $14 billion rough diamond market. This year, industry analyst Paul Zimnisky estimates they account for 2-3 percent of the market.

    He expects that share will only continue to grow as factories in China that already produce millions of carats a year for industrial purposes start to see an opportunity in jewelry.
    “I have a real problem with people claiming one is ethical and another is not.”

    “This year some [factories] will come up from 100,000 gem-quality diamonds to one to two million,” Zimnisky said. “They already have the infrastructure and equipment in place” and are in the process of upgrading it. (About 150 million carats of diamonds were mined last year, according to a global analysis of the industry conducted by Bain & Company.)

    Production ramp-up aside, 2018 saw some other major developments across the industry. In the summer, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reversed decades of guidance when it expanded the definition of a diamond to include those created in labs and dropped ‘synthetic’ as a recommended descriptor for lab-grown stones. The decision came on the heels of the world’s top diamond producer, De Beers, announcing the launch of its own lab-grown diamond line, Lightbox, after having once vowed never to sell man-made stones as jewelry.

    “I would say shock,” Lightbox Chief Marketing Officer Sally Morrison told Earther when asked how the jewelry world responded to the company’s launch.

    While the majority of lab-grown diamonds on the market today are what’s known as melee (less than 0.18 carats), the tech for producing the biggest, most dazzling diamonds continues to improve. In 2016, lab-grown diamond company MiaDonna announced its partners had grown a 6.28 carat gem-quality diamond, claimed to be the largest created in the U.S. to that point. In 2017, a lab in Augsburg University, Germany that grows diamonds for industrial and scientific research applications produced what is thought to be the largest lab-grown diamond ever—a 155 carat behemoth that stretches nearly 4 inches across. Not gem quality, perhaps, but still impressive.

    “If you compare it with the Queen’s diamond, hers is four times heavier, it’s clearer” physicist Matthias Schreck, who leads the group that grew that beast of a jewel, told me. “But in area, our diamond is bigger. We were very proud of this.”

    Diamonds can be created in one of two ways: Similar to how they form inside the Earth, or similar to how scientists speculate they might form in outer space.

    The older, Earth-inspired method is known as “high temperature high pressure” (HPHT), and that’s exactly what it sounds like. A carbon source, like graphite, is placed in a giant, mechanical press where, in the presence of a catalyst, it’s subjected to temperatures of around 1,600 degrees Celsius and pressures of 5-6 Gigapascals in order to form diamond. (If you’re curious what that sort of pressure feels like, the GIA describes it as similar to the force exerted if you tried to balance a commercial jet on your fingertip.)

    The newer method, called chemical vapor deposition (CVD), is more akin to how diamonds might form in interstellar gas clouds (for which we have indirect, spectroscopic evidence, according to Shigley). A hydrocarbon gas, like methane, is pumped into a low-pressure reactor vessel alongside hydrogen. While maintaining near-vacuum conditions, the gases are heated very hot—typically 3,000 to 4,000 degrees Celsius, according to Lightbox CEO Steve Coe—causing carbon atoms to break free of their molecular bonds. Under the right conditions, those liberated bits of carbon will settle out onto a substrate—typically a flat, square plate of a synthetic diamond produced with the HPHT method—forming layer upon layer of diamond.

    “It’s like snow falling on a table on your back porch,” Jason Payne, the founder and CEO of lab-grown diamond jewelry company Ada Diamonds, told me.

    Scientists have been forging gem-quality diamonds with HPHT for longer, but today, CVD has become the method of choice for those selling larger bridal stones. That’s in part because it’s easier to control impurities and make diamonds with very high clarity, according to Coe. Still, each method has its advantages—Payne said that HPHT is faster and the diamonds typically have better color (which is to say, less of it)—and some companies, like Ada, purchase stones grown in both ways.

    However they’re made, lab-grown diamonds have the same exceptional hardness, stiffness, and thermal conductivity as their Earth-mined counterparts. Cut, they can dazzle with the same brilliance and fire—a technical term to describe how well the diamond scatters light like a prism. The GIA even grades them according to the same 4Cs—cut, clarity, color, and carat—that gemologists use to assess diamonds formed in the Earth, although it uses a slightly different terminology to report the color and clarity grades for lab-grown stones.

    They’re so similar, in fact, that lab-grown diamond entering the larger diamond supply without any disclosures has become a major concern across the jewelry industry, particularly when it comes to melee stones from Asia. It’s something major retailers are now investing thousands of dollars in sophisticated detection equipment to suss out by searching for minute differences in, say, their crystal shape or for impurities like nitrogen (much less common in lab-grown diamond, according to Shigley).

    Those differences may be a lifeline for retailers hoping to weed out lab-grown diamonds, but for companies focused on them, they can become another selling point. The lack of nitrogen in diamonds produced with the CVD method, for instance, gives them an exceptional chemical purity that allows them to be classified as type IIa; a rare and coveted breed that accounts for just 2 percent of those found in nature. Meanwhile, the ability to control everything about the growth process allows companies like Lightbox to adjust the formula and produce incredibly rare blue and pink diamonds as part of their standard product line. (In fact, these colored gemstones have made up over half of the company’s sales since launch, according to Coe.)

    And while lab-grown diamonds boast the same sparkle as their Earthly counterparts, they do so at a significant discount. Zimnisky said that today, your typical one carat, medium quality diamond grown in a lab will sell for about $3,600, compared with $6,100 for its Earth-mined counterpart—a discount of about 40 percent. Two years ago, that discount was only 18 percent. And while the price drop has “slightly tapered off” as Zimnisky put it, he expects it will fall further thanks in part to the aforementioned ramp up in Chinese production, as well as technological improvements. (The market is also shifting in response to Lightbox, which De Beers is using to position lab-grown diamonds as mass produced items for fashion jewelry, and which is selling its stones, ungraded, at the controversial low price of $800 per carat—a discount of nearly 90 percent.)

    Zimnisky said that if the price falls too fast, it could devalue lab-grown diamonds in the eyes of consumers. But for now, at least, paying less seems to be a selling point. A 2018 consumer research survey by MVI Marketing found that most of those polled would choose a larger lab-grown diamond over a smaller mined diamond of the same price.

    “The thing [consumers] seem most compelled by is the ability to trade up in size and quality at the same price,” Garard of IGDA said.

    Still, for buyers and sellers alike, price is only part of the story. Many in the lab-grown diamond world market their product as an ethical or eco-friendly alternative to mined diamonds.

    But those sales pitches aren’t without controversy.
    A variety of lab-grown diamond products arrayed on a desk at Ada Diamonds showroom in Manhattan. The stone in the upper left gets its blue color from boron. Diamonds tinted yellow (top center) usually get their color from small amounts of nitrogen.
    Photo: Sam Cannon (Earther)
    Dazzling promises

    As Anna-Mieke Anderson tells it, she didn’t enter the diamond world to become a corporate tycoon. She did it to try and fix a mistake.

    In 1999, Anderson purchased herself a diamond. Some years later, in 2005, her father asked her where it came from. Nonplussed, she told him it came from the jewelry store. But that wasn’t what he was asking: He wanted to know where it really came from.

    “I actually had no idea,” Anderson told Earther. “That led me to do a mountain of research.”

    That research eventually led Anderson to conclude that she had likely bought a diamond mined under horrific conditions. She couldn’t be sure, because the certificate of purchase included no place of origin. But around the time of her purchase, civil wars funded by diamond mining were raging across Angola, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia, fueling “widespread devastation” as Global Witness put it in 2006. At the height of the diamond wars in the late ‘90s, the watchdog group estimates that as many as 15 percent of diamonds entering the market were conflict diamonds. Even those that weren’t actively fueling a war were often being mined in dirty, hazardous conditions; sometimes by children.

    “I couldn’t believe I’d bought into this,” Anderson said.

    To try and set things right, Anderson began sponsoring a boy living in a Liberian community impacted by the blood diamond trade. The experience was so eye-opening, she says, that she eventually felt compelled to sponsor more children. Selling conflict-free jewelry seemed like a fitting way to raise money to do so, but after a great deal more research, Anderson decided she couldn’t in good faith consider any diamond pulled from the Earth to be truly conflict-free in either the humanitarian or environmental sense. While diamond miners were, by the early 2000s, getting their gems certified “conflict free” according to the UN-backed Kimberley Process, the certification scheme’s definition of a conflict diamond—one sold by rebel groups to finance armed conflicts against governments—felt far too narrow.

    “That [conflict definition] eliminates anything to do with the environment, or eliminates a child mining it, or someone who was a slave, or beaten, or raped,” Anderson said.

    And so she started looking into science, and in 2007, launching MiaDonna as one of the world’s first lab-grown diamond jewelry companies. The business has been activism-oriented from the get-go, with at least five percent of its annual earnings—and more than 20 percent for the last three years—going into The Greener Diamond, Anderson’s charity foundation which has funded a wide range of projects, from training former child soldiers in Sierra Leone to grow food to sponsoring kids orphaned by the West African Ebola outbreak.

    MiaDonna isn’t the only company that positions itself as an ethical alternative to the traditional diamond industry. Brilliant Earth, which sells what it says are carefully-sourced mined and lab-created diamonds, also donates a small portion of its profits to supporting mining communities. Other lab-grown diamond companies market themselves as “ethical,” “conflict-free,” or “world positive.” Payne of Ada Diamonds sees, in lab-grown diamonds, not just shiny baubles, but a potential to improve medicine, clean up pollution, and advance society in countless other ways—and he thinks the growing interest in lab-grown diamond jewelry will help propel us toward that future.

    Others, however, say black-and-white characterizations when it comes to social impact of mined diamonds versus lab-grown stones are unfair. “I have a real problem with people claiming one is ethical and another is not,” Estelle Levin-Nally, founder and CEO of Levin Sources, which advocates for better governance in the mining sector, told Earther. “I think it’s always about your politics. And ethics are subjective.”

    Saleem Ali, an environmental researcher at the University of Delaware who serves on the board of the Diamonds and Development Initiative, agrees. He says the mining industry has, on the whole, worked hard to turn itself around since the height of the diamond wars and that governance is “much better today” than it used to be. Human rights watchdog Global Witness also says that “significant progress” has been made to curb the conflict diamond trade, although as Alice Harle, Senior Campaigner with Global Witness told Earther via email, diamonds do still fuel conflict, particularly in the Central African Republic and Zimbabwe.

    Most industry observers seems to agree that the Kimberley Process is outdated and inadequate, and that more work is needed to stamp out other abuses, including child labor and forced labor, in the artisanal and small-scale diamond mining sector. Today, large-scale mining operations don’t tend to see these kinds of problems, according to Julianne Kippenberg, associate director for children’s rights at Human Rights Watch, but she notes that there may be other community impacts surrounding land rights and forced resettlement.

    The flip side, Ali and Levin-Nally say, is that well-regulated mining operations can be an important source of economic development and livelihood. Ali cites Botswana and Russia as prime examples of places where large-scale mining operations have become “major contributors to the economy.” Dmitry Amelkin, head of strategic projects and analytics for Russian diamond mining giant Alrosa, echoed that sentiment in an email to Earther, noting that diamonds transformed Botswana “from one of the poorest [countries] in the world to a middle-income country” with revenues from mining representing almost a third of its GDP.

    In May, a report commissioned by the Diamond Producers Association (DPA), a trade organization representing the world’s largest diamond mining companies, estimated that worldwide, its members generate nearly $4 billion in direct revenue for employees and contractors, along with another $6.8 billion in benefits via “local procurement of goods and services.” DPA CEO Jean-Marc Lieberherr said this was a story diamond miners need to do a better job telling.

    “The industry has undergone such changes since the Blood Diamond movie,” he said, referring to the blockbuster 2006 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio that drew global attention to the problem of conflict diamonds. “And yet people’s’ perceptions haven’t evolved. I think the main reason is we have not had a voice, we haven’t communicated.”

    But conflict and human rights abuses aren’t the only issues that have plagued the diamond industry. There’s also the lasting environmental impact of the mining itself. In the case of large-scale commercial mines, this typically entails using heavy machinery and explosives to bore deep into those kimberlite tubes in search of precious stones.

    Some, like Maya Koplyova, a geologist at the University of British Columbia who studies diamonds and the rocks they’re found in, see this as far better than many other forms of mining. “The environmental footprint is the fThere’s also the question of just how representative the report’s energy consumption estimates for lab-grown diamonds are. While he wouldn’t offer a specific number, Coe said that De Beers’ Group diamond manufacturer Element Six—arguably the most advanced laboratory-grown diamond company in the world—has “substantially lower” per carat energy requirements than the headline figures found inside the new report. When asked why this was not included, Rick Lord, ESG analyst at Trucost, the S&P global group that conducted the analysis, said it chose to focus on energy estimates in the public record, but that after private consultation with Element Six it did not believe their data would “materially alter” the emissions estimates in the study.

    Finally, it’s important to consider the source of the carbon emissions. While the new report states that about 40 percent of the emissions associated with mining a diamond come from fossil fuel-powered vehicles and equipment, emissions associated with growing a diamond come mainly from electric power. Today, about 68 percent of lab-grown diamonds hail from China, Singapore, and India combined according to Zimnisky, where the power is drawn from largely fossil fuel-powered grids. But there is, at least, an opportunity to switch to renewables and drive that carbon footprint way down.
    “The reality is both mining and manufacturing consume energy and probably the best thing we could do is focus on reducing energy consumption.”

    And some companies do seem to be trying to do that. Anderson of MiaDonna says the company only sources its diamonds from facilities in the U.S., and that it’s increasingly trying to work with producers that use renewable energy. Lab-grown diamond company Diamond Foundry grows its stones inside plasma reactors running “as hot as the outer layer of the sun,” per its website, and while it wouldn’t offer any specific numbers, that presumably uses more energy than your typical operation running at lower temperatures. However, company spokesperson Ye-Hui Goldenson said its Washington State ‘megacarat factory’ was cited near a well-maintained hydropower source so that the diamonds could be produced with renewable energy. The company offsets other fossil fuel-driven parts of its operation by purchasing carbon credits.

    Lightbox’s diamonds currently come from Element Six’s UK-based facilities. The company is, however, building a $94-million facility near Portland, Oregon, that’s expected to come online by 2020. Coe said he estimates about 45 percent of its power will come from renewable sources.

    “The reality is both mining and manufacturing consume energy and probably the best thing we could do is focus on reducing energy consumption,” Coe said. “That’s something we’re focused on in Lightbox.”

    In spite of that, Lightbox is somewhat notable among lab-grown diamond jewelry brands in that, in the words of Morrison, it is “not claiming this to be an eco-friendly product.”

    “While it is true that we don’t dig holes in the ground, the energy consumption is not insignificant,” Morrison told Earther. “And I think we felt very uncomfortable promoting on that.”
    Various diamonds created in a lab, as seen at the Ada Diamonds showroom in Manhattan.
    Photo: Sam Cannon (Earther)
    The real real

    The fight over how lab-grown diamonds can and should market themselves is still heating up.

    On March 26, the FTC sent letters to eight lab-grown and diamond simulant companies warning them against making unsubstantiated assertions about the environmental benefits of their products—its first real enforcement action after updating its jewelry guides last year. The letters, first obtained by JCK news director Rob Bates under a Freedom of Information Act request, also warned companies that their advertising could falsely imply the products are mined diamonds, illustrating that, even though the agency now says a lab-grown diamond is a diamond, the specific origin remains critically important. A letter to Diamond Foundry, for instance, notes that the company has at times advertised its stones as “above-ground real” without the qualification of “laboratory-made.” It’s easy to see how a consumer might miss the implication.

    But in a sense, that’s what all of this is: A fight over what’s real.
    “It’s a nuanced reality that we’re in. They are a type of diamond.”

    Another letter, sent to FTC attorney Reenah Kim by the nonprofit trade organization Jewelers Vigilance Committee on April 2, makes it clear that many in the industry still believe that’s a term that should be reserved exclusively for gems formed inside the Earth. The letter, obtained by Earther under FOIA, urges the agency to continue restricting the use of the terms “real,” “genuine,” “natural,” “precious,” and “semi-precious” to Earth-mined diamonds and gemstones. Even the use of such terms in conjunction with “laboratory grown,” the letter argues, “will create even more confusion in an already confused and evolving marketplace.”

    JVC President Tiffany Stevens told Earther that the letter was a response to a footnote in an explanatory document about the FTC’s recent jewelry guide changes, which suggested the agency was considering removing a clause about real, precious, natural and genuine only being acceptable modifiers for gems mined from the Earth.

    “We felt that given the current commercial environment, that we didn’t think it was a good time to take that next step,” Stevens told Earther. As Stevens put it, the changes the FTC recently made, including expanding the definition of diamond and tweaking the descriptors companies can use to label laboratory-grown diamonds as such, have already been “wildly misinterpreted” by some lab-grown diamond sellers that are no longer making the “necessary disclosures.”

    Asked whether the JVC thinks lab-grown diamonds are, in fact, real diamonds, Stevens demurred.

    “It’s a nuanced reality that we’re in,” she said. “They are a type of diamond.”

    Change is afoot in the diamond world. Mined diamond production may have already peaked, according to the 2018 Bain & Company report. Lab diamonds are here to stay, although where they’re going isn’t entirely clear. Zimnisky expects that in a few years—as Lightbox’s new facility comes online and mass production of lab diamonds continues to ramp up overseas—the price industry-wide will fall to about 80 percent less than a mined diamond. At that point, he wonders whether lab-grown diamonds will start to lose their sparkle.

    Payne isn’t too worried about a price slide, which he says is happening across the diamond industry and which he expects will be “linear, not exponential” on the lab-grown side. He points out that lab-grown diamond market is still limited by supply, and that the largest lab-grown gems remain quite rare. Payne and Zimnisky both see the lab-grown diamond market bifurcating into cheaper, mass-produced gems and premium-quality stones sold by those that can maintain a strong brand. A sense that they’re selling something authentic and, well, real.

    “So much has to do with consumer psychology,” Zimnisky said.

    Some will only ever see diamonds as authentic if they formed inside the Earth. They’re drawn, as Kathryn Money, vice president of strategy and merchandising at Brilliant Earth put it, to “the history and romanticism” of diamonds; to a feeling that’s sparked by holding a piece of our ancient world. To an essence more than a function.

    Others, like Anderson, see lab-grown diamonds as the natural (to use a loaded word) evolution of diamond. “We’re actually running out of [mined] diamonds,” she said. “There is an end in sight.” Payne agreed, describing what he sees as a “looming death spiral” for diamond mining.

    Mined diamonds will never go away. We’ve been digging them up since antiquity, and they never seem to lose their sparkle. But most major mines are being exhausted. And with technology making it easier to grow diamonds just as they are getting more difficult to extract from the Earth, the lab-grown diamond industry’s grandstanding about its future doesn’t feel entirely unreasonable.

    There’s a reason why, as Payne said, “the mining industry as a whole is still quite scared of this product.” ootprint of digging the hole in the ground and crushing [the rock],” Koplyova said, noting that there’s no need to add strong acids or heavy metals like arsenic (used in gold mining) to liberate the gems.

    Still, those holes can be enormous. The Mir Mine, a now-abandoned open pit mine in Eastern Siberia, is so large—reportedly stretching 3,900 feet across and 1,700 feet deep—that the Russian government has declared it a no-fly zone owing to the pit’s ability to create dangerous air currents. It’s visible from space.

    While companies will often rehabilitate other land to offset the impact of mines, kimberlite mining itself typically leaves “a permanent dent in the earth’s surface,” as a 2014 report by market research company Frost & Sullivan put it.

    “It’s a huge impact as far as I’m concerned,” said Kevin Krajick, senior editor for science news at Columbia University’s Earth Institute who wrote a book on the discovery of diamonds in far northern Canada. Krajick noted that in remote mines, like those of the far north, it’s not just the physical hole to consider, but all the development required to reach a previously-untouched area, including roads and airstrips, roaring jets and diesel-powered trucks.

    Diamonds grown in factories clearly have a smaller physical footprint. According to the Frost & Sullivan report, they also use less water and create less waste. It’s for these reasons that Ali thinks diamond mining “will never be able to compete” with lab-grown diamonds from an environmental perspective.

    “The mining industry should not even by trying to do that,” he said.

    Of course, this is capitalism, so try to compete is exactly what the DPA is now doing. That same recent report that touted the mining industry’s economic benefits also asserts that mined diamonds have a carbon footprint three times lower than that of lab-grown diamonds, on average. The numbers behind that conclusion, however, don’t tell the full story.

    Growing diamonds does take considerable energy. The exact amount can vary greatly, however, depending on the specific nature of the growth process. These are details manufacturers are typically loathe to disclose, but Payne of Ada Diamonds says he estimates the most efficient players in the game today use about 250 kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity per cut, polished carat of diamond; roughly what a U.S. household consumes in 9 days. Other estimates run higher. Citing unnamed sources, industry publication JCK Online reported that a modern HPHT run can use up to 700 kWh per carat, while CVD production can clock in north of 1,000 kWh per carat.

    Pulling these and several other public-record estimates, along with information on where in the world today’s lab diamonds are being grown and the energy mix powering the producer nations’ electric grids, the DPA-commissioned study estimated that your typical lab-grown diamond results in some 511 kg of carbon emissions per cut, polished carat. Using information provided by mining companies on fuel and electricity consumption, along with other greenhouse gas sources on the mine site, it found that the average mined carat was responsible for just 160 kg of carbon emissions.

    One limitation here is that the carbon footprint estimate for mining focused only on diamond production, not the years of work entailed in developing a mine. As Ali noted, developing a mine can take a lot of energy, particularly for those sited in remote locales where equipment needs to be hauled long distances by trucks or aircraft.

    There’s also the question of just how representative the report’s energy consumption estimates for lab-grown diamonds are. While he wouldn’t offer a specific number, Coe said that De Beers’ Group diamond manufacturer Element Six—arguably the most advanced laboratory-grown diamond company in the world—has “substantially lower” per carat energy requirements than the headline figures found inside the new report. When asked why this was not included, Rick Lord, ESG analyst at Trucost, the S&P global group that conducted the analysis, said it chose to focus on energy estimates in the public record, but that after private consultation with Element Six it did not believe their data would “materially alter” the emissions estimates in the study.

    Finally, it’s important to consider the source of the carbon emissions. While the new report states that about 40 percent of the emissions associated with mining a diamond come from fossil fuel-powered vehicles and equipment, emissions associated with growing a diamond come mainly from electric power. Today, about 68 percent of lab-grown diamonds hail from China, Singapore, and India combined according to Zimnisky, where the power is drawn from largely fossil fuel-powered grids. But there is, at least, an opportunity to switch to renewables and drive that carbon footprint way down.
    “The reality is both mining and manufacturing consume energy and probably the best thing we could do is focus on reducing energy consumption.”

    And some companies do seem to be trying to do that. Anderson of MiaDonna says the company only sources its diamonds from facilities in the U.S., and that it’s increasingly trying to work with producers that use renewable energy. Lab-grown diamond company Diamond Foundry grows its stones inside plasma reactors running “as hot as the outer layer of the sun,” per its website, and while it wouldn’t offer any specific numbers, that presumably uses more energy than your typical operation running at lower temperatures. However, company spokesperson Ye-Hui Goldenson said its Washington State ‘megacarat factory’ was cited near a well-maintained hydropower source so that the diamonds could be produced with renewable energy. The company offsets other fossil fuel-driven parts of its operation by purchasing carbon credits.

    Lightbox’s diamonds currently come from Element Six’s UK-based facilities. The company is, however, building a $94-million facility near Portland, Oregon, that’s expected to come online by 2020. Coe said he estimates about 45 percent of its power will come from renewable sources.

    “The reality is both mining and manufacturing consume energy and probably the best thing we could do is focus on reducing energy consumption,” Coe said. “That’s something we’re focused on in Lightbox.”

    In spite of that, Lightbox is somewhat notable among lab-grown diamond jewelry brands in that, in the words of Morrison, it is “not claiming this to be an eco-friendly product.”

    “While it is true that we don’t dig holes in the ground, the energy consumption is not insignificant,” Morrison told Earther. “And I think we felt very uncomfortable promoting on that.”
    Various diamonds created in a lab, as seen at the Ada Diamonds showroom in Manhattan.
    Photo: Sam Cannon (Earther)
    The real real

    The fight over how lab-grown diamonds can and should market themselves is still heating up.

    On March 26, the FTC sent letters to eight lab-grown and diamond simulant companies warning them against making unsubstantiated assertions about the environmental benefits of their products—its first real enforcement action after updating its jewelry guides last year. The letters, first obtained by JCK news director Rob Bates under a Freedom of Information Act request, also warned companies that their advertising could falsely imply the products are mined diamonds, illustrating that, even though the agency now says a lab-grown diamond is a diamond, the specific origin remains critically important. A letter to Diamond Foundry, for instance, notes that the company has at times advertised its stones as “above-ground real” without the qualification of “laboratory-made.” It’s easy to see how a consumer might miss the implication.

    But in a sense, that’s what all of this is: A fight over what’s real.
    “It’s a nuanced reality that we’re in. They are a type of diamond.”

    Another letter, sent to FTC attorney Reenah Kim by the nonprofit trade organization Jewelers Vigilance Committee on April 2, makes it clear that many in the industry still believe that’s a term that should be reserved exclusively for gems formed inside the Earth. The letter, obtained by Earther under FOIA, urges the agency to continue restricting the use of the terms “real,” “genuine,” “natural,” “precious,” and “semi-precious” to Earth-mined diamonds and gemstones. Even the use of such terms in conjunction with “laboratory grown,” the letter argues, “will create even more confusion in an already confused and evolving marketplace.”

    JVC President Tiffany Stevens told Earther that the letter was a response to a footnote in an explanatory document about the FTC’s recent jewelry guide changes, which suggested the agency was considering removing a clause about real, precious, natural and genuine only being acceptable modifiers for gems mined from the Earth.

    “We felt that given the current commercial environment, that we didn’t think it was a good time to take that next step,” Stevens told Earther. As Stevens put it, the changes the FTC recently made, including expanding the definition of diamond and tweaking the descriptors companies can use to label laboratory-grown diamonds as such, have already been “wildly misinterpreted” by some lab-grown diamond sellers that are no longer making the “necessary disclosures.”

    Asked whether the JVC thinks lab-grown diamonds are, in fact, real diamonds, Stevens demurred.

    “It’s a nuanced reality that we’re in,” she said. “They are a type of diamond.”

    Change is afoot in the diamond world. Mined diamond production may have already peaked, according to the 2018 Bain & Company report. Lab diamonds are here to stay, although where they’re going isn’t entirely clear. Zimnisky expects that in a few years—as Lightbox’s new facility comes online and mass production of lab diamonds continues to ramp up overseas—the price industry-wide will fall to about 80 percent less than a mined diamond. At that point, he wonders whether lab-grown diamonds will start to lose their sparkle.

    Payne isn’t too worried about a price slide, which he says is happening across the diamond industry and which he expects will be “linear, not exponential” on the lab-grown side. He points out that lab-grown diamond market is still limited by supply, and that the largest lab-grown gems remain quite rare. Payne and Zimnisky both see the lab-grown diamond market bifurcating into cheaper, mass-produced gems and premium-quality stones sold by those that can maintain a strong brand. A sense that they’re selling something authentic and, well, real.

    “So much has to do with consumer psychology,” Zimnisky said.

    Some will only ever see diamonds as authentic if they formed inside the Earth. They’re drawn, as Kathryn Money, vice president of strategy and merchandising at Brilliant Earth put it, to “the history and romanticism” of diamonds; to a feeling that’s sparked by holding a piece of our ancient world. To an essence more than a function.

    Others, like Anderson, see lab-grown diamonds as the natural (to use a loaded word) evolution of diamond. “We’re actually running out of [mined] diamonds,” she said. “There is an end in sight.” Payne agreed, describing what he sees as a “looming death spiral” for diamond mining.

    Mined diamonds will never go away. We’ve been digging them up since antiquity, and they never seem to lose their sparkle. But most major mines are being exhausted. And with technology making it easier to grow diamonds just as they are getting more difficult to extract from the Earth, the lab-grown diamond industry’s grandstanding about its future doesn’t feel entirely unreasonable.

    There’s a reason why, as Payne said, “the mining industry as a whole is still quite scared of this product.”

    #dimants #Afrique #technologie #capitalisme

  • ‘Prejudiced’ Home Office refusing visas to African researchers

    Academics invited to the UK are refused entry on arbitrary and ‘insulting’ grounds.

    The Home Office is being accused of institutional racism and damaging British research projects through increasingly arbitrary and “insulting” visa refusals for academics.

    In April, a team of six Ebola researchers from Sierra Leone were unable to attend vital training in the UK, funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of a £1.5m flagship pandemic preparedness programme. At the LSE Africa summit, also in April, 24 out of 25 researchers were missing from a single workshop. Shortly afterwards, the Save the Children centenary events were marred by multiple visa refusals of key guests.

    There are echoes of the wider #hostile_environment across the Home Office, with MPs on a parliamentary inquiry into visa refusals hearing evidence that there is “an element of systemic prejudice against applicants”. In a letter in today’s Observer 70 senior leaders from universities and research institutes across the UK warn that “visa refusals for African cultural, development and academic leaders … [are] undermining ‘Global Britain’s’ reputation as well as efforts to tackle global challenges”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/08/home-office-racist-refusing-research-visas-africans
    #visas #UK #Angleterre #université #conférences #racisme

    Une sorte de #censure... je vais ajouter à cette métaliste :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/784716

  • Sierra Leone : heurts mortels autour des plantations Socfin
    http://www.lequotidien.lu/a-la-une/sierra-leone-deux-morts-et-des-milliers-de-deplaces-autour-des-plantatio

    Deux morts, des villageois battus par les forces de l’ordre et des milliers d’autres fuyant leurs domiciles dans le chefferie de Sahn Malen, dans le sud-est de la #Sierra_Leone : ces événements d’une extrême gravité se sont déroulés le lundi 21 janvier dans les villages riverains d’une plantation de #palmiers_à_huile exploitée par SAC, une filiale de la multinationale luxembourgeoise Socfin dont les deux principaux actionnaires sont l’homme d’affaires belge Hubert #Fabri (50,2% du capital) et le groupe français Bolloré (38,7%), contrôlé par le milliardaire Vincent #Bolloré. Outre l’huile de palme, un marché en pleine expansion, Socfin est également spécialisée dans la culture de l’#hévéa dont est extrait le caoutchouc naturel.

    Selon une vingtaine d’organisations de la société civile, la répression à Sahn Malen est intervenue après le déclenchement d’une grève pour protester contre les mauvaises #conditions_de_travail et les faibles rémunérations des employés de SAC. Ce mouvement s’inscrit dans un conflit plus large sur l’occupation des terres, soit plus de 18 000 hectares, dont Maloa, une association de défense des riverains, juge qu’elles ont été accaparées par la multinationale. « Avant, nous avions de quoi cultiver et nous pouvions nourrir nos familles, ça allait plutôt bien. Maintenant, nos villages sont dans la #plantation, Socfin a pris nos terres, nous ne pouvons plus cultiver, nous n’avons plus de nourriture. Nous dépendons entièrement de Socfin pour le travail », témoignait en octobre dernier une représentante des riverains, invitée au Luxembourg par un collectif d’ONG (lire ci-dessous). L’élection du président Julius Maada Bio, en mars 2018, leur avait pourtant fait espérer une résolution du conflit foncier.

    #terres #alimentation #meurtres

  • Detainees Evacuated out of Libya but Resettlement Capacity Remains Inadequate

    According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (#UNHCR) 262 migrants detained in Libya were evacuated to Niger on November 12- the largest evacuation from Libya carried out to date. In addition to a successful airlift of 135 people in October this year, this brings the total number of people evacuated to more than 2000 since December 2017. However Amnesty International describes the resettlement process from Niger as slow and the number of pledges inadequate.

    The evacuations in October and November were the first since June when the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) centre in Niger reached its full capacity of 1,536 people, which according to Amnesty was a result of a large number of people “still waiting for their permanent resettlement to a third country.”

    57,483 refugees and asylum seekers are registered by UNHCR in Libya; as of October 2018 14,349 had agreed to Voluntary Humanitarian Return. Currently 3,886 resettlement pledges have been made by 12 states, but only 1,140 have been resettled.

    14,595 people have been intercepted by the Libyan coast guard and taken back to Libya, however it has been well documented that their return is being met by detention, abuse, violence and torture. UNHCR recently declared Libya unsafe for returns amid increased violence in the capital, while Amnesty International has said that “thousands of men, women and children are trapped in Libya facing horrific abuses with no way out”.

    In this context, refugees and migrants are currently refusing to disembark in Misrata after being rescued by a cargo ship on November 12, reportedly saying “they would rather die than be returned to land”. Reuters cited one Sudanese teenager on board who stated “We agree to go to any place but not Libya.”

    UNHCR estimates that 5,413 refugees and migrants remain detained in #Directorate_for_Combatting_Illegal_Migration (#DCIM) centres and the UN Refugee Agency have repetedly called for additional resettlement opportunities for vulnerable persons of concern in Libya.

    https://www.ecre.org/detainees-evacuated-out-of-libya-but-resettlement-capacity-remains-inadequate
    #réinstallation #Niger #Libye #évacuation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #HCR #détention #centres_de_détention #Emergency_Transit_Mechanism (#ETM)

    • ET DES INFORMATIONS PLUS ANCIENNES DANS LE FIL CI-DESSOUS

      Libya: evacuations to Niger resumed – returns from Niger begun

      After being temporarily suspended in March as the result of concerns from local authorities on the pace of resettlement out of Niger, UNHCR evacuations of vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers from Libya through the Emergency Transit Mechanism has been resumed and 132 vulnerable migrants flown to the country. At the same time the deportation of 132 Sudanese nationals from Niger to Libya has raised international concern.

      Niger is the main host for refugees and asylum seekers from Libya evacuated by UNHCR. Since the UN Refugee Agency began evacuations in cooperation with EU and Libyan authorities in November 2017, Niger has received 1,152 of the 1,474 people evacuated in total. While UNHCR has submitted 475 persons for resettlement a modest 108 in total have been resettled in Europe. According to UNHCR the government in Niger has now offered to host an additional 1,500 refugees from Libya through the Emergency Transit Mechanism and upon its revival and the first transfer of 132 refugees to Niger, UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation, Vincent Cochetel stated: “We now urgently need to find resettlement solutions for these refugees in other countries.”

      UNHCR has confirmed the forced return by authorities in Niger of at least 132 of a group of 160 Sudanese nationals arrested in the migrant hub of Agadez, the majority after fleeing harsh conditions in Libya. Agadez is known as a major transit hub for refugees and asylum seekers seeking passage to Libya and Europe but the trend is reversed and 1,700 Sudanese nationals have fled from Libya to Niger since December 2017. In a mail to IRIN News, Human Rights Watch’s associate director for Europe and Central Asia, Judith Sunderland states: “It is inhuman and unlawful to send migrants and refugees back to Libya, where they face shocking levels of torture, sexual violence, and forced labour,” with reference to the principle of non-refoulement.

      According to a statement released by Amnesty International on May 16: “At least 7,000 migrants and refugees are languishing in Libyan detention centres where abuse is rife and food and water in short supply. This is a sharp increase from March when there were 4,400 detained migrants and refugees, according to Libyan officials.”

      https://www.ecre.org/libya-evacuations-to-niger-resumed-returns-from-niger-begun

    • Libya: return operations running but slow resettlement is jeopardizing the evacuation scheme

      According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) 15.000 migrants have been returned from Libya to their country of origin and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has assisted in the evacuation of more than 1,300 refugees from Libya thereby fulfilling the targets announced at the AU-EU-UN Taskforce meeting in December 2017. However, a modest 25 of the more than 1000 migrants evacuated to Niger have been resettled to Europe and the slow pace is jeopardizing further evacuations.

      More than 1000 of the 1300 migrants evacuated from Libya are hosted by Niger and Karmen Sakhr, who oversees the North Africa unit at the UNHCR states to the EU Observer that the organisation: “were advised that until more people leave Niger, we will no longer be able to evacuate additional cases from Libya.”

      During a meeting on Monday 5 March with the Civil Liberties Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee MEPs, members of the Delegation for relations with Maghreb countries, Commission and External Action Service representatives on the mistreatment of migrants and refugees in Libya, and arrangements for their resettlement or return, UNHCR confirmed that pledges have been made by France, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Malta as well as unspecified non-EU countries but that security approvals and interviewing process of the cases is lengthy resulting in the modest number of resettlements, while also warning that the EU member states need to put more work into resettlement of refugees, and that resettlement pledges still fall short of the needs. According to UNHCR 430 pledges has been made by European countries.

      An estimated 5000 people are in government detention and an unknown number held by private militias under well documented extreme conditions.

      https://www.ecre.org/libya-return-operations-running-but-slow-resettlement-is-jeopardizing-the-evac

    • Libya: migrants and refugees out by plane and in by boat

      The joint European Union (EU), African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) Task Force visited Tripoli last week welcoming progress made evacuating and returning migrants and refugees out of Libya. EU has announced three new programmes, for protecting migrants and refugees in Libya and along the Central Mediterranean Route, and their return and reintegration. Bundestag Research Services and NGOs raise concerns over EU and Member State support to Libyan Coast Guard.

      Representatives of the Task Force, created in November 2017, met with Libyan authorities last week and visited a detention centres for migrants and a shelter for internally displaced people in Tripoli. Whilst they commended progress on Voluntary Humanitarian Returns, they outlined a number of areas for improvement. These include: comprehensive registration of migrants at disembarkation points and detention centres; improving detention centre conditions- with a view to end the current system of arbitrary detention; decriminalizing irregular migration in Libya.

      The three new programmes announced on Monday, will be part of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. €115 million will go towards evacuating 3,800 refugees from Libya, providing protection and voluntary humanitarian return to 15,000 migrants in Libya and will support the resettlement of 14,000 people in need of international protection from Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Burkina Faso. €20 million will be dedicated to improving access to social and protection services for vulnerable migrants in transit countries in the Sahel region and the Lake Chad basin. €15 million will go to supporting sustainable reintegration for Ethiopian citizens.

      A recent report by the Bundestag Research Services on SAR operations in the Mediterranean notes the support for the Libyan Coast Guard by EU and Member States in bringing refugees and migrants back to Libya may be violating the principle of non-refoulement as outlined in the Geneva Convention: “This cooperation must be the subject of proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights, because the people who are being forcibly returned with the assistance of the EU are being inhumanely treated, tortured or killed.” stated Andrej Hunko, European policy spokesman for the German Left Party (die Linke). A joint statement released by SAR NGO’s operating in the Mediterranean calls on the EU institutions and leaders to stop the financing and support of the Libyan Coast Guard and the readmissions to a third country which violates fundamental human rights and international law.

      According to UNHCR, there are currently 46,730 registered refugees and asylum seekers in Libya. 843 asylum seekers and refugees have been released from detention so far in 2018. According to IOM 9,379 people have been returned to their countries of origin since November 2017 and 1,211 have been evacuated to Niger since December 2017.

      https://www.ecre.org/libya-migrants-and-refugees-out-by-plane-and-in-by-boat

      Complément de Emmanuel Blanchard (via la mailing-list Migreurop):

      Selon le HCR, il y aurait actuellement environ 6000 personnes détenues dans des camps en Libye et qui seraient en attente de retour ou de protection (la distinction n’est pas toujours très claire dans la prose du HCR sur les personnes à « évacuer » vers le HCR...). Ces données statistiques sont très fragiles et a priori très sous-estimées car fondées sur les seuls camps auxquels le HCR a accès.

    • First group of refugees evacuated from new departure facility in Libya

      UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in coordination with Libyan authorities, evacuated 133 refugees from Libya to Niger today after hosting them at a Gathering and Departure Facility (GDF) in Tripoli which opened on Tuesday.

      Most evacuees, including 81 women and children, were previously detained in Libya. After securing their release from five detention centres across Libya, including in Tripoli and areas as far as 180 kilometres from the capital, they were sheltered at the GDF until the arrangements for their evacuation were concluded.

      The GDF is the first centre of its kind in Libya and is intended to bring vulnerable refugees to a safe environment while solutions including refugee resettlement, family reunification, evacuation to emergency facilities in other countries, return to a country of previous asylum, and voluntary repatriation are sought for them.

      “The opening of this centre, in very difficult circumstances, has the potential to save lives. It offers immediate protection and safety for vulnerable refugees in need of urgent evacuation, and is an alternative to detention for hundreds of refugees currently trapped in Libya,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

      The centre is managed by the Libyan Ministry of Interior, UNHCR and UNHCR’s partner LibAid. The initiative is one of a range of measures needed to offer viable alternatives to the dangerous boat journeys undertaken by refugees and migrants along the Central Mediterranean route.

      With an estimated 4,900 refugees and migrants held in detention centres across Libya, including 3,600 in need of international protection, the centre is a critical alternative to the detention of those most vulnerable.

      The centre, which has been supported by the EU and other donors, has a capacity to shelter up to 1,000 vulnerable refugees identified for solutions out of Libya.

      At the facility, UNHCR and partners are providing humanitarian assistance such as accommodation, food, medical care and psychosocial support. Child friendly spaces and dedicated protection staff are also available to ensure that refugees and asylum-seekers are adequately cared for.

      https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2018/12/5c09033a4/first-group-refugees-evacuated-new-departure-facility-libya.html

    • Migration : à Niamey, des migrants rapatriés de Libye protestent contre leurs conditions de séjour

      Les manifestants protestent contre leur détention de vie qu’ils jugent « déplorables » et pour amplifier leurs mouvements, ils ont brandi des pancartes sur lesquelles ils ont écrit leurs doléances. Les migrants manifestant s’indignent également de leur séjour qui ne cesse de se prolonger, sans véritable alternatives ou visibilité sur leur situation. « Ils nous ont ramené de la Libye pour nous laisser à nous-mêmes ici », « on ne veut pas rester ici, laisser nous partir là où on veut », sont entre autres les slogans que les migrants ont scandés au cours de leur sit-in devant les locaux de l’agence onusienne. Plusieurs des protestataires sont venus à la manifestation avec leurs bagages et d’autres avec leurs différents papiers, qui attestent de leur situation de réfugiés ou demandeurs d’asiles.

      La situation, quoique déplorable, n’a pas manqué de susciter divers commentaires. Il faut dire que depuis le début de l’opération de rapatriement des migrants en détresse de Libye, ils sont des centaines à vivre dans la capitale mais aussi à Agadez où des centres d’accueil sont mis à leurs dispositions par les agences onusiennes (UNHCR, OIM), avec la collaboration des autorités nigériennes. Un certain temps, leur présence de plus en plus massive dans divers quartiers de la capitale où des villas sont mises à leur disposition, a commencé à inquiéter les habitants sur d’éventuels risques sécuritaires.

      Le gouvernement a signé plusieurs accords et adopté des lois pour lutter contre l’immigration clandestine. Il a aussi signé des engagements avec certains pays européens notamment la France et l’Italie, pour l’accueil temporaire des réfugiés en provenance de la Libye et en transit en attendant leur réinstallation dans leur pays ou en Europe pour ceux qui arrivent à obtenir le sésame pour l’entrée. Un geste de solidarité décrié par certaines ONG et que les autorités regrettent presque à demi-mot, du fait du non-respect des contreparties financières promises par les bailleurs et partenaires européens. Le pays fait face lui-même à un afflux de réfugiés nigérians et maliens sur son territoire, ainsi que des déplacés internes dans plusieurs régions, ce qui complique davantage la tâche dans cette affaire de difficile gestion de la problématique migratoire.

      Le Niger accueille plusieurs centres d’accueil pour les réfugiés et demandeurs d’asiles rapatriés de Libye. Le 10 décembre dernier, l’OFPRA français a par exemple annoncé avoir achevé une nouvelle mission au Niger avec l’UNHCR, et qui a concerné 200 personnes parmi lesquelles une centaine évacuée de Libye. En novembre dernier, le HCR a également annoncé avoir repris les évacuations de migrants depuis la Libye, avec un contingent de 132 réfugiés et demandeurs d’asiles vers le Niger.

      Depuis novembre 2017, le HCR a assuré avoir effectué vingt-trois (23) opérations d’évacuation au départ de la Libye et ce, « malgré d’importants problèmes de sécurité et les restrictions aux déplacements qui ont été imposées ». En tout, ce sont 2.476 réfugiés et demandeurs d’asile vulnérables qui ont pu être libérés et acheminés de la Libye vers le Niger (2.069), l’Italie (312) et la Roumanie (95).


      https://www.actuniger.com/societe/14640-migration-a-niamey-des-migrants-rapatries-de-libye-protestent-contr

      Je découvre ici que les évacuations se sont faites aussi vers l’#Italie et... la #Roumanie !

    • Destination Europe: Evacuation. The EU has started resettling refugees from Libya, but only 174 have made it to Europe in seven months

      As the EU sets new policies and makes deals with African nations to deter hundreds of thousands of migrants from seeking new lives on the continent, what does it mean for those following dreams northwards and the countries they transit through? From returnees in Sierra Leone and refugees resettled in France to smugglers in Niger and migrants in detention centres in Libya, IRIN explores their choices and challenges in this multi-part special report, Destination Europe.

      Four years of uncontrolled migration starting in 2014 saw more than 600,000 people cross from Libya to Italy, contributing to a populist backlash that is threatening the foundations of the EU. Stopping clandestine migration has become one of Europe’s main foreign policy goals, and last July the number of refugees and migrants crossing the central Mediterranean dropped dramatically. The EU celebrated the reduced numbers as “good progress”.

      But, as critics pointed out, that was only half the story: the decline, resulting from a series of moves by the EU and Italy, meant that tens of thousands of people were stuck in Libya with no way out. They faced horrific abuse, and NGOs and human rights organisations accused the EU of complicity in the violations taking place.

      Abdu is one who got stuck. A tall, lanky teenager, he spent nearly two years in smugglers’ warehouses and official Libyan detention centres. But he’s also one of the lucky ones. In February, he boarded a flight to Niger run (with EU support) by the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, to help some of those stranded in Libya reach Europe. Nearly 1,600 people have been evacuated on similiar flights, but, seven months on, only 174 have been resettled to Europe.

      The evacuation programme is part of a €500-million ($620-million) effort to resettle 50,000 refugees over the next two years to the EU, which has a population of more than 500 million people. The target is an increase from previous European resettlement goals, but still only represents a tiny fraction of the need – those chosen can be Syrians in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon as well as refugees in Libya, Egypt, Niger, Chad, Sudan, and Ethiopia – countries that combined host more than 6.5 million refugees.

      The EU is now teetering on the edge of a fresh political crisis, with boats carrying people rescued from the sea being denied ports of disembarkation, no consensus on how to share responsibility for asylum seekers and refugees within the continent, and increasing talk of further outsourcing the management of migration to African countries.

      Against this backdrop, the evacuation and resettlement programme from Libya is perhaps the best face of European policy in the Mediterranean. But, unless EU countries offer more spots for refugees, it is a pathway to safety for no more than a small handful who get the luck of the draw. As the first evacuees adjust to their new lives in Europe, the overwhelming majority are left behind.

      Four months after arriving in Niger, Abdu is still waiting to find out if and when he will be resettled to Europe. He’s still in the same state of limbo he was in at the end of March when IRIN met him in Niamey, the capital of Niger. At the time, he’d been out of the detention centre in Libya for less than a month and his arms were skeletally thin.

      “I thought to go to Europe [and] failed. Now, I came to Niger…. What am I doing here? What will happen from here? I don’t know,” he said, sitting in the shade of a canopy in the courtyard of a UNHCR facility. “I don’t know what I will be planning for the future because everything collapsed; everything finished.”
      Abdu’s story

      Born in Eritrea – one of the most repressive countries in the world – Abdu’s mother sent him to live in neighbouring Sudan when he was only seven. She wanted him to grow up away from the political persecution and shadow of indefinite military service that stifled normal life in his homeland.

      But Sudan, where he was raised by his uncle, wasn’t much better. As an Eritrean refugee, he faced discrimination and lived in a precarious legal limbo. Abdu saw no future there. “So I decided to go,” he said.

      Like so many other young Africans fleeing conflict, political repression, and economic hardship in recent years, he wanted to try to make it to Europe. But first he had to pass through Libya.

      After crossing the border from Sudan in July 2016, Abdu, then 16 years old, was taken captive and held for 18 months. The smugglers asked for a ransom of $5,500, tortured him while his relatives were forced to listen on the phone, and rented him out for work like a piece of equipment.

      Abdu tried to escape, but only found himself under the control of another smuggler who did the same thing. He was kept in overflowing warehouses, sequestered from the sunlight with around 250 other people. The food was not enough and often spoiled; disease was rampant; people died from malaria and hunger; one woman died after giving birth; the guards drank, carried guns, and smoked hashish, and, at the smallest provocation, spun into a sadistic fury. Abdu’s skin started crawling with scabies, his cheeks sank in, and his long limbs withered to skin and bones.

      One day, the smuggler told him that, if he didn’t find a way to pay, it looked like he would soon die. As a courtesy – or to try to squeeze some money out of him instead of having to deal with a corpse – the smuggler reduced the ransom to $1,500.

      Finally, Abdu’s relatives were able to purchase his freedom and passage to Europe. It was December 2017. As he finally stood on the seashore before dawn in the freezing cold, Abdu remembered thinking: “We are going to arrive in Europe [and] get protection [and] get rights.”

      But he never made it. After nearly 24 hours at sea, the rubber dinghy he was on with around 150 other people was intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard, which, since October 2016, has been trained and equipped by the EU and Italy.

      Abdu was brought back to the country he had just escaped and put in another detention centre.

      This one was official – run by the Libyan Directorate for Combating Irregular Migration. But it wasn’t much different from the smuggler-controlled warehouses he’d been in before. Again, it was overcrowded and dirty. People were falling sick. There was no torture or extortion, but the guards could be just as brutal. If someone tried to talk to them about the poor conditions “[they are] going to beat you until you are streaming blood,” Abdu said.

      Still, he wasn’t about to try his luck on his own again in Libya. The detention centre wasn’t suitable for human inhabitants, Abdu recalled thinking, but it was safer than anywhere he’d been in over a year. That’s where UNHCR found him and secured his release.

      The lucky few

      The small village of Thal-Marmoutier in France seems like it belongs to a different world than the teeming detention centres of Libya.

      The road to the village runs between gently rolling hills covered in grapevines and winds through small towns of half-timbered houses. About 40 minutes north of Strasbourg, the largest city in the region of Alsace, bordering Germany, it reaches a valley of hamlets that disrupt the green countryside with their red, high-peaked roofs. It’s an unassuming setting, but it’s the type of place Abdu might end up if and when he is finally resettled.

      In mid-March, when IRIN visited, the town of 800 people was hosting the first group of refugees evacuated from Libya.

      It was unseasonably cold, and the 55 people housed in a repurposed section of a Franciscan convent were bundled in winter jackets, scarves, and hats. Thirty of them had arrived from Chad, where they had been long-time residents of refugee camps after fleeing Boko Haram violence or conflict in the Sudanese region of Darfur. The remaining 25 – from Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan – were the first evacuees from Libya. Before reaching France, they, like Abdu, had been flown to Niamey.

      The extra stop is necessary because most countries require refugees to be interviewed in person before offering them a resettlement spot. The process is facilitated by embassies and consulates, but, because of security concerns, only one European country (Italy) has a diplomatic presence in Libya.

      To resettle refugees stuck in detention centres, UNHCR needed to find a third country willing to host people temporarily, one where European resettlement agencies could carry out their procedures. Niger was the first – and so far only – country to volunteer.

      “For us, it is an obligation to participate,” Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s influential interior minister, said when interviewed by IRIN in Niamey. Niger, the gateway between West Africa and Libya on the migration trail to Europe, is the top recipient of funds from the EU Trust Fund for Africa, an initiative launched in 2015 to “address the root causes of irregular migration”.

      “It costs us nothing to help,” Bazoum added, referring to the evacuation programme. “But we gain a sense of humanity in doing so.”

      ‘Time is just running from my life’

      The first evacuees landed in Niamey on 12 November. A little over a month later, on 19 December, they were on their way to France.

      By March, they had been in Thal-Marmoutier for three months and were preparing to move from the reception centre in the convent to individual apartments in different cities.

      Among them, several families with children had been living in Libya for a long time. But most of the evacuees were young women who had been imprisoned by smugglers and militias, held in official detention centres, or often both.

      “In Libya, it was difficult for me,” said Farida, a 24-year-old aspiring runner from Ethiopia. She fled her home in 2016 because of the conflict between the government and the Oromo people, an ethnic group.

      After a brief stay in Cairo, she and her husband decided to go to Libya because they heard a rumour that UNHCR was providing more support there to refugees. Shortly after crossing the border, Farida and her husband were captured by a militia and placed in a detention centre.

      “People from the other government (Libya has two rival governments) came and killed the militiamen, and some of the people in the prison also died, but we got out and were taken to another prison,” she said. “When they put me in prison, I was pregnant, and they beat me and killed the child in my belly.”

      Teyba, a 20-year-old woman also from Ethiopia, shared a similar story: “A militia put us in prison and tortured us a lot,” she said. “We stayed in prison for a little bit more than a month, and then the fighting started…. Some people died, some people escaped, and some people, I don’t know what happened to them.”

      Three months at the reception centre in Thal-Marmoutier had done little to ease the trauma of those experiences. “I haven’t seen anything that made me laugh or that made me happy,” Farida said. “Up to now, life has not been good, even after coming to France.”

      The French government placed the refugees in the reception centre to expedite their asylum procedures, and so they could begin to learn French.

      Everyone in the group had already received 10-year residency permits – something refugees who are placed directly in individual apartments or houses usually wait at least six months to receive. But many of them said they felt like their lives had been put on pause in Thal-Marmoutier. They were isolated in the small village with little access to transportation and said they had not been well prepared to begin new lives on their own in just a few weeks time.

      “I haven’t benefited from anything yet. Time is just running from my life,” said Intissar, a 35-year-old woman from Sudan.

      A stop-start process

      Despite their frustrations with the integration process in France, and the still present psychological wounds from Libya, the people in Thal-Marmoutier were fortunate to reach Europe.

      By early March, more than 1,000 people had been airlifted from Libya to Niger. But since the first group in December, no one else had left for Europe. Frustrated with the pace of resettlement, the Nigerien government told UNHCR that the programme had to be put on hold.

      “We want the flow to be balanced,” Bazoum, the interior minister, explained. “If people arrive, then we want others to leave. We don’t want people to be here on a permanent basis.”

      Since then, an additional 148 people have been resettled to France, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, and other departures are in the works. “The situation is improving,” said Louise Donovan, a UNHCR communications officer in Niger. “We need to speed up our processes as much as possible, and so do the resettlement countries.”

      A further 312 people were evacuated directly to Italy. Still, the total number resettled by the programme remains small. “What is problematic right now is the fact that European governments are not offering enough places for resettlement, despite continued requests from UNHCR,” said Matteo de Bellis, a researcher with Amnesty International.
      Less than 1 percent

      Globally, less than one percent of refugees are resettled each year, and resettlement is on a downward spiral at the moment, dropping by more than 50 percent between 2016 and 2017. The number of refugees needing resettlement is expected to reach 1.4 million next year, 17 percent higher than in 2018, while global resettlement places dropped to just 75,000 in 2017, UNHCR said on Monday.

      The Trump administration’s slashing of the US refugee admissions programme – historically the world’s leader – means this trend will likely continue.

      Due to the limited capacity, resettlement is usually reserved for people who are considered to be the most vulnerable.

      In Libya alone, there are around 19,000 refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan registered with UNHCR – a number increasing each month – as well as 430,000 migrants and potential asylum seekers from throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Many have been subjected to torture, sexual violence, and other abuses. And, because they are in Libya irregularly, resettlement is often the only legal solution to indefinite detention.

      In the unlikely scenario that all the sub-Saharan refugees in Libya were to be resettled, they would account for more than one third of the EU’s quota for the next two years. And that’s not taking into account people in Libya who may have legitimate grounds to claim asylum but are not on the official radar. Other solutions are clearly needed, but given the lack of will in the international community, it is unclear what those might be.

      “The Niger mechanism is a patch, a useful one under the circumstance, but still a patch,” de Bellis, the Amnesty researcher, said. “There are refugees… who cannot get out of the detention centres because there are no resettlement places available to them.”

      It is also uncertain what will happen to any refugees evacuated to Niger that aren’t offered a resettlement spot by European countries.

      UNHCR says it is considering all options, including the possibility of integration in Niger or return to their countries of origin – if they are deemed to be safe and people agree to go. But resettlement is the main focus. In April, the pace of people departing for Europe picked up, and evacuations from Libya resumed at the beginning of May – ironically, the same week the Nigerien government broke new and dangerous ground by deporting 132 Sudanese asylum seekers who had crossed the border on their own back to Libya.

      For the evacuees in Niger awaiting resettlement, there are still many unanswered questions.

      As Abdu was biding his time back in March, something other than the uncertainty about his own future weighed on him: the people still stuck in the detention centres in Libya.

      He had started his travels with his best friend. They had been together when they were first kidnapped and held for ransom. But Abdu’s friend was shot in the leg by a guard who accused him of stealing a cigarette. When Abdu tried to escape, he left his friend behind and hasn’t spoken to him or heard anything about him since.

      “UNHCR is saying they are going to find a solution for me; they are going to help me,” Abdu said. “It’s okay. But what about the others?”

      https://www.irinnews.org/special-report/2018/06/26/destination-europe-evacuation

    • Hot Spots #1 : Niger, les évacués de l’enfer libyen

      Fuir l’enfer libyen, sortir des griffes des trafiquants qui séquestrent pendant des mois leurs victimes dans des conditions inhumaines. C’est de l’autre côté du désert, au Niger, que certains migrants trouvent un premier refuge grâce à un programme d’#évacuation d’urgence géré par les Nations Unies depuis novembre 2017.

      https://guitinews.fr/video/2019/03/12/hot-spots-1-niger-les-evacues-de-lenfer-libyen

      Lien vers la #vidéo :

      « Les gens qu’on évacue de la Libye, ce sont des individus qui ont subi une profonde souffrance. Ce sont tous des victimes de torture, des victimes de violences aussi sexuelles, il y a des femmes qui accouchent d’enfants fruits de cette violences sexuelles. » Alexandra Morelli, Représentante du HCR au Niger.

      https://vimeo.com/323299304

      ping @isskein @karine4

  • Pays basque, la nouvelle route de l’exil

    De plus en plus de migrants entrent en Europe par l’Espagne et franchissent la frontière dans le Sud-Ouest. Reportage.

    Le car est à peine garé le long du trottoir que, déjà, ils se pressent à ses portes. Ils regardent avec anxiété la batterie de leur téléphone, elle est presque à plat, il faut qu’elle tienne quelques minutes encore, le temps de présenter le billet. Quatre jeunes filles s’inquiètent, leur ticket affiche un prénom masculin, le chauffeur les laissera-t-il passer ? Ou vont-elles perdre les 100, 200 ou 300 euros qu’elles ont déboursés à des « frères » peu scrupuleux - la valeur officielle est de 35 euros - pour acquérir ce précieux sésame vers Paris ? Chaque soir depuis quelques semaines, le même scénario se répète au terminus des « bus Macron » sur la place des Basques, à #Bayonne. Une centaine de jeunes, pour la plupart originaires d’Afrique francophone, plus rarement du Maghreb, monte par petits groupes dans les cars en partance pour Bordeaux ou Paris, dernière étape d’un périple entamé depuis des mois. Ils ont débarqué la veille d’Irun, en Espagne, à 40 kilomètres plus au sud, après un bref passage par la ville frontalière d’Hendaye.

    De #Gibraltar, ils remontent vers le nord de l’Espagne

    Les arrivées ont commencé au compte-gouttes au printemps, elles se sont accélérées au cours de l’été. Depuis que l’Italie se montre intraitable, l’Espagne est devenue le principal point d’entrée en Europe, avec 48 000 nouveaux exilés depuis le début de l’année. Croisés à Irun ou à Hendaye, qu’ils viennent de Guinée-Conakry, de Côte d’Ivoire ou du Mali, ils racontent la même histoire. Thierno est guinéen, il a 18 ans. Il a tenté la traversée par la Libye, sans succès, il a poursuivi par l’Algérie et le Maroc, puis fini par franchir le détroit de Gibraltar en bateau après deux échecs. Tous évoquent la difficulté à travailler et à se faire payer au Maroc, les violences, parfois, aussi. Puis ils parlent de l’Espagne, d’Algesiras, Cadix ou Malaga, en experts de la géographie andalouse. Parfois, la Croix-Rouge espagnole, débordée au Sud, les a envoyés en bus vers ses centres de Madrid ou Bilbao, leur assurant une partie de leur voyage. Aboubacar, 26 ans, est, lui, remonté en voiture, avec des « frères ».

    Personne n’en parle, les réseaux sont pourtant bien là, à prospérer sur ces flux si lucratifs. On estime à 1500 euros le prix de la traversée à Gibraltar, 100 ou 200 euros le passage de la frontière française depuis #Irun. Tous n’ont qu’un objectif, rejoindre la #France, comme cette femme, sénégalaise, qui demande qu’on l’emmène en voiture et suggère, si on se fait contrôler, de dire qu’elle est notre bonne. La quasi-totalité veut quitter l’Espagne. Parce qu’ils n’en parlent pas la langue et qu’ils ont souvent en France sinon de la famille, au moins des connaissances. Parce qu’il est plus difficile de travailler dans la péninsule ibérique, où le taux de chômage reste de 15 %. Parce qu’enfin ceux qui envisagent de demander l’asile ont intérêt à effectuer les démarches en France, où 40 575 protections ont été accordées en 2017, plutôt qu’en Espagne (4 700 statuts délivrés).

    Alors, ils essaient, une fois, deux fois, trois fois, dans un absurde jeu du chat et de la souris avec les policiers français. Les 150 agents de la #police_aux_frontières (#PAF) en poste à #Hendaye tentent, avec l’aide d’une compagnie de #CRS, de contrôler tant bien que mal les cinq points de passage. Depuis le début de 2018, 5600 réadmissions ont été effectuées vers l’Espagne, contre 3520 en 2017, mais, de l’aveu même d’un officiel, « ça passe et ça passe bien, même ». Si l’autoroute est gardée quasiment toute la journée, il reste un créneau de deux heures durant lequel elle ne l’est pas faute d’un effectif suffisant. Chaque nuit, des taxis espagnols en profitent et déposent des gens sur la place des Basques à Bayonne. La surveillance des deux ponts qui enjambent la #Bidassoa et séparent Irun d’Hendaye est aléatoire. A certaines heures, le passage à pied se fait sans difficulté. Il ne reste plus ensuite aux migrants qu’à se cacher jusqu’au prochain passage du bus 816, qui les conduira à Bayonne en un peu plus d’une heure.

    Les agents de la Paf ne cachent pas leur lassitude. Même si la loi antiterroriste de 2017 autorise des contrôles renforcés dans la zone frontière, même si des accords avec l’Espagne datant de 2002 leur permettent de renvoyer sans grande formalité les personnes contrôlées sans papiers dans un délai de quatre heures, ils ont le sentiment d’être inutiles. Parce qu’ils ne peuvent pas tout surveiller. Parce que l’Espagne ne reprend que contrainte et forcée les « réadmis », les laissant libres de franchir la frontière dès qu’ils le souhaiteront. Certains policiers ne prennent même plus la peine de raccompagner les migrants à la frontière. Gare d’Hendaye, un après-midi, le TGV pour Paris est en partance. Des policiers fouillent le train, ils trouvent trois jeunes avec billets mais sans papiers, ils les font descendre, puis les laissent dans la gare. « De toute façon, ça ne sert à rien d’aller jusqu’à la frontière, dans deux heures, ils sont de nouveau là. Ça ne sert qu’à grossir les chiffres pour que nos chefs puissent faire de jolis camemberts », lâche, avec aigreur, l’un des agents.

    La compassion l’emporte sur le rejet

    L’amertume n’a pas encore gagné le reste de la population basque. Au contraire. Dans cette zone où l’on joue volontiers à saute-frontière pour aller acheter des cigarettes à moins de cinq euros ou du gasoil à 1,1 euro, où il est fréquent, le samedi soir, d’aller boire un verre sur le littoral espagnol à San Sebastian ou à Fontarrabie, où près de 5000 Espagnols habitent côté français, où beaucoup sont fils ou petits-fils de réfugiés, la compassion l’emporte sur le rejet. Même le Rassemblement national, qui a diffusé un communiqué mi-août pour dénoncer « une frontière passoire », doit reconnaître que son message peine à mobiliser : « Les gens commencent à se plaindre, mais je n’ai pas entendu parler de débordements, ni rien d’avéré », admet François Verrière, le délégué départemental du parti. Kotte Ecenarro, le maire socialiste d’Hendaye, n’a pas eu d’écho de ses administrés : « Pour l’instant, les habitants ne disent rien, peut-être parce qu’ils ne les voient pas. » Lui, grand joggeur, les aperçoit lorsqu’il va courir tôt le matin et qu’ils attendent le premier bus pour Bayonne, mais aucun ne s’attarde dans la zone frontière, trop risquée.

    Chaque soir, place des Basques à Bayonne, des migrants embarquent dans les bus pour Paris.

    Le car est à peine garé le long du trottoir que, déjà, ils se pressent à ses portes. Ils regardent avec anxiété la batterie de leur téléphone, elle est presque à plat, il faut qu’elle tienne quelques minutes encore, le temps de présenter le billet. Quatre jeunes filles s’inquiètent, leur ticket affiche un prénom masculin, le chauffeur les laissera-t-il passer ? Ou vont-elles perdre les 100, 200 ou 300 euros qu’elles ont déboursés à des « frères » peu scrupuleux - la valeur officielle est de 35 euros - pour acquérir ce précieux sésame vers Paris ? Chaque soir depuis quelques semaines, le même scénario se répète au terminus des « bus Macron » sur la place des Basques, à Bayonne. Une centaine de jeunes, pour la plupart originaires d’Afrique francophone, plus rarement du Maghreb, monte par petits groupes dans les cars en partance pour Bordeaux ou Paris, dernière étape d’un périple entamé depuis des mois. Ils ont débarqué la veille d’Irun, en Espagne, à 40 kilomètres plus au sud, après un bref passage par la ville frontalière d’Hendaye.
    Des dizaines de bénévoles se succèdent pour apporter et servir des repas aux migrants, place des Basques, à Bayonne.

    Des dizaines de bénévoles se succèdent pour apporter et servir des repas aux migrants, place des Basques, à Bayonne.

    Les arrivées ont commencé au compte-gouttes au printemps, elles se sont accélérées au cours de l’été. Depuis que l’Italie se montre intraitable, l’Espagne est devenue le principal point d’entrée en Europe, avec 48 000 nouveaux exilés depuis le début de l’année. Croisés à Irun ou à Hendaye, qu’ils viennent de Guinée-Conakry, de Côte d’Ivoire ou du Mali, ils racontent la même histoire. Thierno est guinéen, il a 18 ans. Il a tenté la traversée par la Libye, sans succès, il a poursuivi par l’Algérie et le Maroc, puis fini par franchir le détroit de Gibraltar en bateau après deux échecs. Tous évoquent la difficulté à travailler et à se faire payer au Maroc, les violences, parfois, aussi. Puis ils parlent de l’Espagne, d’Algesiras, Cadix ou Malaga, en experts de la géographie andalouse. Parfois, la Croix-Rouge espagnole, débordée au Sud, les a envoyés en bus vers ses centres de Madrid ou Bilbao, leur assurant une partie de leur voyage. Aboubacar, 26 ans, est, lui, remonté en voiture, avec des « frères ».

    Personne n’en parle, les réseaux sont pourtant bien là, à prospérer sur ces flux si lucratifs. On estime à 1500 euros le prix de la traversée à Gibraltar, 100 ou 200 euros le passage de la frontière française depuis Irun. Tous n’ont qu’un objectif, rejoindre la France, comme cette femme, sénégalaise, qui demande qu’on l’emmène en voiture et suggère, si on se fait contrôler, de dire qu’elle est notre bonne. La quasi-totalité veut quitter l’Espagne. Parce qu’ils n’en parlent pas la langue et qu’ils ont souvent en France sinon de la famille, au moins des connaissances. Parce qu’il est plus difficile de travailler dans la péninsule ibérique, où le taux de chômage reste de 15 %. Parce qu’enfin ceux qui envisagent de demander l’asile ont intérêt à effectuer les démarches en France, où 40 575 protections ont été accordées en 2017, plutôt qu’en Espagne (4 700 statuts délivrés).

    Un migrant traverse le pont de St Jacques à Irun en direction de la France.

    Alors, ils essaient, une fois, deux fois, trois fois, dans un absurde jeu du chat et de la souris avec les policiers français. Les 150 agents de la police aux frontières (PAF) en poste à Hendaye tentent, avec l’aide d’une compagnie de CRS, de contrôler tant bien que mal les cinq points de passage. Depuis le début de 2018, 5600 réadmissions ont été effectuées vers l’Espagne, contre 3520 en 2017, mais, de l’aveu même d’un officiel, « ça passe et ça passe bien, même ». Si l’autoroute est gardée quasiment toute la journée, il reste un créneau de deux heures durant lequel elle ne l’est pas faute d’un effectif suffisant. Chaque nuit, des taxis espagnols en profitent et déposent des gens sur la place des Basques à Bayonne. La surveillance des deux ponts qui enjambent la Bidassoa et séparent Irun d’Hendaye est aléatoire. A certaines heures, le passage à pied se fait sans difficulté. Il ne reste plus ensuite aux migrants qu’à se cacher jusqu’au prochain passage du bus 816, qui les conduira à Bayonne en un peu plus d’une heure.
    Un groupe des migrants se fait arrêter à Behobie, côté français, après avoir traversé la frontière depuis Irun en Espagne.

    Un groupe des migrants se fait arrêter à #Behobie, côté français, après avoir traversé la frontière depuis Irun en Espagne.

    La compassion l’emporte sur le rejet

    L’amertume n’a pas encore gagné le reste de la population basque. Au contraire. Dans cette zone où l’on joue volontiers à saute-frontière pour aller acheter des cigarettes à moins de cinq euros ou du gasoil à 1,1 euro, où il est fréquent, le samedi soir, d’aller boire un verre sur le littoral espagnol à #San_Sebastian ou à #Fontarrabie, où près de 5000 Espagnols habitent côté français, où beaucoup sont fils ou petits-fils de réfugiés, la compassion l’emporte sur le rejet. Même le Rassemblement national, qui a diffusé un communiqué mi-août pour dénoncer « une frontière passoire », doit reconnaître que son message peine à mobiliser : « Les gens commencent à se plaindre, mais je n’ai pas entendu parler de débordements, ni rien d’avéré », admet François Verrière, le délégué départemental du parti. Kotte Ecenarro, le maire socialiste d’Hendaye, n’a pas eu d’écho de ses administrés : « Pour l’instant, les habitants ne disent rien, peut-être parce qu’ils ne les voient pas. » Lui, grand joggeur, les aperçoit lorsqu’il va courir tôt le matin et qu’ils attendent le premier bus pour Bayonne, mais aucun ne s’attarde dans la zone frontière, trop risquée.

    Des migrants sont accueillis en face de la mairie d’Irun par des associations de bénévoles.

    Le flux ne se tarissant pas, la solidarité s’est organisée des deux côtés de la #Bidassoa. A Irun, un collectif de 200 citoyens a répondu aux premiers besoins durant l’été, les autorités jugeant alors qu’organiser de l’aide était inutile puisque les migrants ne rêvaient que d’aller en France. Elles ont, depuis, changé d’avis. Mi-octobre, un centre de la Croix-Rouge proposait 70 places et un hôpital, 25. « Ils peuvent rester cinq jours dans chaque. Dix jours, en général, ça suffit pour passer », note Ion, un des piliers du collectif. Dans la journée, ils chargent leurs téléphones dans un coin de la gare ou patientent, en doudounes et bonnets, dans un campement installé face à la mairie. Dès qu’ils le peuvent, ils tentent le passage vers la France.

    A Bayonne aussi, l’improvisation a prévalu. Le réseau d’hébergeurs solidaires mis en place depuis 2016 n’était pas adapté à cette situation d’urgence, à ces gens qui n’ont besoin que d’une ou deux nuits à l’abri avant de filer vers Paris. Chaque soir, il a fallu organiser des maraudes avec distribution de repas et de vêtements, il a fallu trouver des bénévoles pour loger les plus vulnérables - des femmes avec de jeunes enfants sont récemment apparues. Sous la pression de plusieurs collectifs, la mairie vient de mandater une association locale, Atherbea, pour organiser l’aide. A proximité du terminal des bus, vont être installés toilettes, douches, lits, repas et prises de téléphone - un équipement indispensable à ces exilés, pour qui le portable est l’ultime lien avec leurs proches. La municipalité a promis des financements, mais jusqu’à quand ?

    Longtemps discret sur la situation, le gouvernement affiche désormais son volontarisme. Depuis quelques semaines, des unités en civil ont été déployées afin d’identifier les filières de passeurs. Dans son premier entretien comme ministre de l’Intérieur au JDD, Christophe Castaner a dit s’inquiéter de la pression exercée dans la zone et promis un « coordonnateur sécurité ». Les policiers espèrent, eux, surtout des renforts. « Il faudrait 30 à 40 agents de la police aux frontières de plus », juge Patrice Peyruqueou, délégué syndical Unité SGP Police. Ils comptent sur la nomination de Laurent Nuñez comme secrétaire d’Etat au ministère de l’Intérieur pour se faire entendre. L’homme n’a-t-il pas été sous-préfet de Bayonne ? N’a-t-il pas consacré son premier déplacement officiel au Pays Basque, le vendredi 19 octobre ? Mais déjà les voies de passage sont en train de bouger. De nouvelles routes se dessinent, à l’intérieur des Pyrénées, via Roncevaux, le tunnel du Somport ou la quatre-voies qui relie Saragosse, Pau et Toulouse, des accès moins surveillés qu’Irun et Hendaye. Le jeu du chat et de la souris ne fait que commencer.

    https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/pays-basque-la-nouvelle-route-de-l-exil_2044337.html

    #pays_basque #asile #migrations #réfugiés #routes_migratoires #parcours_migratoires #Espagne #frontières #solidarité #contrôles_frontaliers

    via @isskein

    • Entre l’Espagne et la France, la nouvelle route migratoire prend de l’ampleur

      L’Espagne est devenue la principale porte d’entrée en Europe pour des personnes originaires d’Afrique de l’Ouest qui tentent de gagner la France.

      L’Espagne est devenue la principale porte d’entrée en Europe en 2018. La majorité des personnes qui arrivent sont originaires d’Afrique de l’Ouest et tentent de gagner la France.

      Emmitouflé dans un manteau, la tête abritée sous un bonnet, Boris disparaît dans la nuit, sous la pluie. Ce Camerounais de 33 ans, qui parle un français parfait, « traîne » à Irun de puis un mois. Dans cette petite commune du pays basque espagnol, il attend de pouvoir traverser la frontière et rejoindre la France, à quelques mètres de là. L’aventure a trop peu de chances de réussir s’il la tente à pied, et il n’a pas l’argent pour se payer un passage en voiture. Il aimerait rejoindre Paris. Mais il doute : « On me dit que c’est saturé. C’est vrai ? Est-ce qu’il y a des ONG ? Vous connaissez Reims ? »

      Parti depuis un an de son pays, Boris a traversé le Nigeria, le Niger, l’Algérie et le Maroc avant de gagner l’Europe par la mer. Comme de plus en plus de personnes, il a emprunté la route dite de la Méditerranée occidentale, qui passe par le détroit de Gibraltar. Le passage par la Libye, privilégié ces dernières années, est devenu « trop dangereux » et incertain, dit-il.

      En 2018, l’Espagne est devenue la principale porte d’entrée en Europe. Quelque 50 000 personnes migrantes sont arrivées sur les côtes andalouses depuis le début de l’année, en provenance du Maroc, ce qui représente près de la moitié des entrées sur le continent.

      Sous l’effet de la baisse des départs depuis la Libye et des arrivées en Italie, les routes migratoires se redessinent. Et bien que les flux soient sans commune mesure avec le pic de 2015, lorsque 1,8 million d’arrivées en Europe ont été enregistrées, ils prennent de court les autorités et en particulier en France, qui apparaît comme la destination privilégiée par ces nouveaux arrivants originaires majoritairement d’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Maghreb.

      80 à 100 arrivées quotidiennes

      A Irun, Txema Pérez observe le passage en nombre de ces migrants et il le compare à l’exil des réfugiés espagnols lors de la guerre civile en 1939 : « On n’a pas vu ça depuis la Retirada », lâche le président de la Croix-Rouge locale.

      Face à cet afflux, l’organisation humanitaire a ouvert cet été plusieurs centres d’accueil temporaire sur l’itinéraire des migrants, dans plusieurs communes du Pays-Basque mais aussi à Barcelone à l’autre extrémité des Pyrénées, où ils font étape quelques jours avant de tenter de gagner la France.

      Cette semaine, une trentaine de personnes ont dormi dans l’auberge de la Croix-Rouge d’Irun. « Ils reprennent des forces et disparaissent, constate Txema Perez. Ils finissent tous par passer la frontière. 90 % d’entre eux parlent français. Et ils voient Paris comme un paradis. »

      Sur le chemin qui mène ces personnes jusqu’à une destination parfois très incertaine, Bayonne et en particulier la place des Basques dans le centre-ville, s’est transformée dans le courant de l’été en point de convergence. C’est là qu’arrivaient les bus en provenance d’Espagne et en partance pour le nord de la France. Si, au début, une dizaine de personnes seulement transitaient par la ville chaque jour, aujourd’hui la mairie parle de 80 à 100 arrivées quotidiennes. Et autant de départs. « C’est la première fois qu’on constate un tel afflux », reconnaît David Tollis, directeur général adjoint des services à la mairie.

      « Ils sont en majorité originaires de Guinée et il y a notamment beaucoup de gamins qui se disent mineurs. On a l’impression que le pays se vide », confie Alain Larrea, avocat en droit des étrangers à Bayonne. « Les jeunes hommes évoquent la pauvreté qui a explosé mais aussi les risques d’arrestations et d’enfermements arbitraires, ajoute Julie Aufaure, de la Cimade. Les femmes fuient aussi les risques d’excision. »

      « Je ne sais pas encore ce que je vais faire »

      Face à l’augmentation des arrivées et à la dégradation des conditions météorologiques, la municipalité a commencé à s’organiser il y a une dizaine de jours. « Je ne me pose pas la question du régime juridique dont ces personnes relèvent. Simplement, elles sont dans une situation de fragilité et il faut leur venir en aide, justifie Jean-René Etchegaray, le maire UDI de Bayonne. Nous avons dans l’urgence tenté de les mettre à l’abri ». Après avoir mis à disposition un parking puis, le week-end dernier, une école, la municipalité a ouvert, lundi 29 octobre, les locaux désaffectés d’un ancien centre communal d’action sociale. Des douches y ont été installées, des couvertures et des repas y sont fournis. Dans le même temps, la mairie a déplacé les arrêts des bus aux abords de ce lieu, sur les quais qui longent l’Adour.

      Mercredi 31 octobre, plusieurs dizaines de personnes faisaient la queue à l’heure de la distribution du déjeuner. Parmi elles, Lamine, un Guinéen de 19 ans, raconte son voyage vers l’Europe entamé il y a trois ans : « Je suis resté trois mois au Mali, le temps de réunir l’argent pour pouvoir ensuite aller en Algérie. » En Algérie, il travaille encore deux ans sur des chantiers. « On avait entendu qu’il fallait environ 2 000 euros pour passer du Maroc à l’Espagne », poursuit-il.

      A la frontière entre l’Algérie et le Maroc, il dit s’être fait confisquer 1 000 euros par des Touaregs. Arrivé à Rabat, il travaille à nouveau sur un chantier de construction, payé 100 dirhams (environ neuf euros) par jour, pour réunir les 1 000 euros manquants au financement de sa traversée de la Méditerranée. Il y reste presque un an. En octobre, il part pour Nador, une ville côtière au nord-est du pays. « On est resté caché une semaine dans la forêt avant de prendre le bateau, témoigne-t-il. On était 57 à bord. Des Maliens, des Guinées, des Ivoiriens. Un bateau de la Croix Rouge nous a porté secours au bout de quatre heures de navigation ».

      Comme la plupart de ceux qui arrivent sur les côtes espagnoles, Lamine s’est vu remettre un document par les autorités du pays, lui laissant un mois pour régulariser sa situation. Le jeune homme a ensuite rejoint en car, Madrid puis Bilbao et Irun. Il tente une première fois le passage de la frontière en bus mais se fait renvoyer par la police française. La deuxième fois, en échange de 50 euros, il trouve une place dans une voiture et parvient à gagner la France. « Je ne sais pas encore ce que je vais faire, reconnait-il. Je n’ai pas de famille qui finance mon voyage et je ne connais personne ici ».

      10 500 refus d’entrée prononcés en 2018

      Face à l’augmentation des traversées, les autorités françaises ont renforcé les contrôles aux frontières. Depuis le début de l’année 2018, 10 500 refus d’entrée ont été prononcés à la frontière franco-espagnole, soit une augmentation de 20 % par rapport à 2017. « La pression la plus forte est observée dans le département des Pyrénées-Atlantiques, où les non-admissions sont en hausse de 62 % », explique-t-on au ministère de l’intérieur. Dans les Pyrénées-Orientales, l’autre voie d’entrée majeure en France depuis l’Espagne, le nombre de non-admissions est reparti à la hausse depuis l’été, mais dans une moindre mesure.

      « Beaucoup de monde arrive par ici, assure Jacques Ollion, un bénévole de la Cimade basé à Perpignan. Les gares et les trains sont contrôlés parfois jusqu’à Narbonne. Et les cars internationaux aussi, au péage du Boulou (à une dizaine de kilomètres de la frontière). Ça, c’est la pêche miraculeuse. »

      Le nombre de non-admissions reste toutefois très inférieur à celui remonté de la frontière franco-italienne. En Catalogne comme au Pays basque, tout le monde s’accorde à dire que la frontière reste largement poreuse. Mais certains s’inquiètent d’une évolution possible à moyen terme. « Dès qu’il y a une fermeture, cela démultiplie les réseaux de passeurs et les lieux de passage, met en garde Corinne Torre, cheffe de mission France à Médecins sans frontières (MSF). Dans les Pyrénées, il y a énormément de chemins de randonnée ». Des cas d’arrivée par les cols de montagne commencent à être rapportés.

      Dans le même temps, les réseaux de passeurs prospèrent face aux renforcements des contrôles. « Comme les migrants ne peuvent pas traverser à pied, ils se retournent vers les passeurs qui les font traverser en voiture pour 150 à 350 euros », témoigne Mixel Bernadet, un militant de l’association basque Solidarité migrants - Etorkinekin.

      Une fois qu’ils sont parvenus à rejoindre le territoire, à Bayonne, Paris ou ailleurs, ces migrants n’en sont pas moins en situation irrégulière et confrontés à une difficulté de taille : enregistrés en Espagne au moment de leur arrivée en Europe, ils ne peuvent pas demander l’asile ailleurs que dans l’Etat par lequel ils sont entrés, en tout cas pas avant une période allant de six à dix-huit mois. Ils sont donc voués à être renvoyés en Espagne ou, plus vraisemblablement, à errer des mois durant, en France.

      Julia Pascual (Bayonne et Irun – Espagne –, envoyée spéciale)

      Poursuivi pour avoir aidé une migrante sur le point d’accoucher, le parquet retient « l’immunité humanitaire ». Le parquet de Gap a annoncé vendredi 2 novembre avoir abandonné les poursuites engagées contre un homme qui avait porté secours à une réfugiée enceinte, durant l’hiver à la frontière franco-italienne. Le 10 mars, Benoît Ducos, un des bénévoles aidant les migrants arrivant dans la région de Briançon, était tombé sur une famille nigériane, un couple et ses deux jeunes enfants, et deux autres personnes ayant porté la femme, enceinte de huit mois et demi, durant leur marche dans le froid et la neige. Avec un autre maraudeur, il avait alors décidé de conduire la mère en voiture à l’hôpital de Briançon. En chemin, celle-ci avait été prise de contractions et à 500 mètres de la maternité, ils avaient été arrêtés par un contrôle des douanes ayant retardé la prise en charge médicale selon lui, ce que la préfecture avait contesté. Le bébé était né dans la nuit par césarienne, en bonne santé. Une enquête avait ensuite été ouverte pour « aide à l’entrée et à la circulation d’un étranger en situation irrégulière ».

      https://mobile.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2018/11/03/entre-l-espagne-et-la-france-la-nouvelle-route-migratoire-prend-de-l-

    • #SAA, un collectif d’accueil et d’accompagnement des migrants subsahariens aux frontières franco-espagnoles

      Dans ce nouveau numéro de l’émission “Café des libertés”, la web radio du RAJ “Voix de jeunes” a reçu sur son plateau deux activistes du sud de la France plus exactement à Bayonne, il s’agit de Marie cosnay et Vincent Houdin du collectif SAA qui porte le prénom d’un jeun migrant guinéen décédé durant sa traversé de l’Espagne vers la France.
      Nos invités nous ont parlé de la création du collectif SAA, ses objectifs et son travail d’accueil et d’accompagnement des migrants subsahariens qui traversent la frontière franco-espagnole dans l’objectif d’atteindre les pays du Nord telle que l’Allemagne.
      Ils sont revenus également sur les difficultés que posent les politiques migratoires dans la région notamment celle de l’union européenne marquées par une approche purement sécuritaire sans se soucier de la question du respect des droits et la dignité des migrants.
      Ils ont aussi appelé au renforcement des liens de solidarité entre les peuples dans le monde entier.

      https://raj-dz.com/radioraj/2018/11/11/saa-collectif-daccueil-daccompagnement-migrants-subsahariens-aux-frontieres-

    • France : 19 migrants interpellés dans un bus en provenance de Bayonne et assignés à résidence

      Des douaniers français ont interpellé 19 personnes, dont un mineur, en situation irrégulière lundi dans un car au péage de #Bénesse-Maremne, dans les #Landes. L’adolescent de 17 ans a été pris en charge par le département, les autres ont reçu une #obligation_de_quitter_le_territoire (#OQTF) et sont assignés à résidence dans le département.

      Lors d’un contrôle lundi 12 novembre au péage de Bénesse-Maremne, sur l’autoroute A6 (dans les Landes), un car de la compagnie #Flixbus a été intercepté par des douaniers français. Après avoir effectué un contrôle d’identité à l’intérieur du véhicule, les autorités ont interpellé 19 personnes en situation irrégulière, dont une femme et un adolescent de 17 ans.

      Les migrants, originaires d’Afrique de l’ouest, ont été envoyés dans différentes #casernes de gendarmerie de la région (#Castets, #Tarnos, #Tartas, #Lit-et-Mixe) puis libérés quelques heures plus tard. Le mineur a quant à lui été pris en charge par le département.

      En attendant de trouver un #accord_de_réadmission avec l’Espagne, la préfecture des Landes a notifié aux 18 migrants majeurs une obligation de quitter le territoire français (OQTF). Ils sont également assignés à résidence dans le département des Landes et doivent pointer au commissariat trois fois par semaine.

      Un #accord signé entre la France et l’Espagne prévoit de renvoyer tout migrant se trouvant sur le territoire français depuis moins de quatre heures. Mais selon Jeanine de la Cimade à Mont-de-Marsan (à quelques kilomètres de Bayonne), ce n’est pas le cas de ces 18 migrants. « Ils ne peuvent pas être renvoyés en Espagne car ils ont passé quatre jours à Bayonne avant d’être arrêtés au péage », précise-t-elle à InfoMigrants.

      Les migrants sont assistés d’avocats du barreau de Dax, dans les Landes, et un bénévole de la Cimade est aussi à leurs côtés selon France Bleu.

      Cette opération des douanes a été menée le même jour que la visite du ministre français de l’Intérieur à la frontière franco-espagnole. Christophe Castaner s’est alors dit inquiet de « mouvements migratoires forts sur les Pyrénées » et a annoncé une coopération accrue avec l’Espagne.

      http://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/13368/france-19-migrants-interpelles-dans-un-bus-en-provenance-de-bayonne-et
      #assignation_à_résidence

      –------

      Commentaire :
      On peut lire dans l’article :
      "Un accord signé entre la France et l’Espagne prévoit de renvoyer tout migrant se trouvant sur le territoire français depuis moins de quatre heures. »
      --> c’est quoi cet accord ? Quand est-ce qu’il a été signé ? Quelqu’un a plus d’information ?

      C’est l’équivalent de l’accord bilatéral de réadmission entre la Suisse et l’Italie (signé en 2000 : https://www.admin.ch/opc/fr/classified-compilation/20022507/index.html) et qui a été « repêché » par la Suisse à partir de 2016 ?
      Ou comme celui qui a été apparemment signé entre la France et l’Italie récemment ?
      https://www.agi.it/estero/migranti_francia_salvini_respingimento_concordato-4511176/news/2018-10-20

      #accord_de_réadmission #accord_bilatéral

    • A Bayonne, nouvelle porte d’entrée des migrants, « l’urgence fait exploser les frontières politiques »

      Une fois la frontière franco-espagnole franchie, des migrants affluent par milliers à Bayonne. Là, le maire de centre-droit et des militants de gauche ont bricolé, main dans la main, un hébergement d’urgence sous le nez du préfet. Les exilés s’y reposent des violences subies au Maghreb, avant de sauter dans un bus et de se disperser aux quatre coins de France. Reportage dans les #Pyrénées.

      https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1075002126915518464/L_aQEp7o?format=jpg&name=600x314

      https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/181218/bayonne-nouvelle-porte-d-entree-des-migrants-l-urgence-fait-exploser-les-f

    • A Bayonne, nouvelle route migratoire, l’impressionnante #solidarité des habitants malgré les carences de l’État

      La route de la Libye et de l’Italie étant coupée, de plus en plus de migrants arrivent en Europe via le Maroc et l’Espagne. Certains passent ensuite par le Pays Basque. En deux mois, 2500 réfugiés ont déjà transité par un centre d’accueil ouvert à Bayonne. La démarche, d’abord spontanée, bénéficie désormais du soutien de la mairie. L’État a quant à lui exercé des pressions sur les chauffeurs de taxi ou les compagnies d’autobus, en exigeant notamment l’identité des voyageurs. Basta ! a passé la nuit du 31 décembre au 1er janvier aux côtés des bénévoles de la « Pausa », et des réfugiés qui appréhendent un avenir incertain.

      A peine investi, il a fallu trouver un nom au lieu. « Ça fait un peu stalag », remarque Joël dans un sourire navré [1]. Planté dans la cour de ce bâtiment désaffecté de la Légion, sous les lumières aveuglantes qui semblent plonger depuis des miradors invisibles, le salarié d’astreinte hésite encore à proposer aux migrants l’entrée d’un édifice tout en grillage et en barreaux. Sur le parvis goudronné, encadré par de hauts murs et surplombé par la citadelle militaire de Bayonne, l’ombre fuyante des lignes ferroviaires prolonge ce décor figé par le froid. Cependant, le panneau « Terrain militaire - défense de pénétrer » est déjà égayé d’une série colorée d’autocollants antifascistes, et de bienvenue aux migrants. A l’intérieur, derrière les vitres polies, la lumière se fait aussi plus chaleureuse.

      Le lieu s’appellera finalement « Pausa », la pause en basque. Comme le premier bâtiment d’accueil, à vingt mètres de là, trop exigu et qu’il a fallu abandonner aux premiers jours de décembre. Mais aussi comme cette authentique pause, au milieu d’un périple exténuant qui dure parfois plusieurs années. Bayonne est devenue en 2018 une nouvelle étape essentielle sur les chemins de l’exil vers la France ou le nord de l’Europe. Une porte d’entrée en terre promise. C’est ici qu’aura lieu, ce soir, le nouvel an des réfugiés. Comme un symbole d’espoir, celui d’une vie dans laquelle il serait enfin possible de se projeter, laissant de côté les embûches de la route déjà accomplie.

      Un répit salutaire de trois jours

      Kébé vient de Guinée, comme beaucoup d’arrivants ces dernières semaines. Au milieu des préparatifs de la fête, il lit, imperturbable dans sa couverture, le récit autobiographique d’un jeune footballeur camerounais qui rêve de gloire sportive mais ne connaît que désillusions. Kébé ne veut pas être footballeur. Ainé d’une famille nombreuse restée à Conakry, il voudrait reprendre l’école et apprendre le métier de coiffeur à Bayonne. Parce que, dit-il, « c’est une ville très jolie et d’importance moyenne ». Il a déjà commencé un dossier pour faire valoir sa minorité et prétendre à une scolarité. Mais le temps lui est compté au centre d’accueil des réfugiés, où l’on s’efforce de ne garder les migrants que trois jours. Le temps d’un répit salutaire pour faire le point, quand le quotidien des migrants n’est fait que de recherche d’argent, de nourriture, de transport, d’hébergement, de passeurs, de policiers, ou bien pire. Initialement en route pour Paris, sans rien connaître de la capitale et sans contact, il a trouvé, juge-t-il, sa destination.

      C’est aussi le cas d’Ibrahim, parti de Sierra Leone il y a deux ans, qui fixe les premiers spots colorés de la soirée, comme une célébration de son arrivée à bon port. « Ici on est bien accueilli », constate-t-il. Lui aussi a 17 ans. Sa vie n’est que succession de petits boulots pour financer des kilomètres vers l’Europe. Il a appris le français en route, et ne souhaitait pas rester en Espagne, « à cause du problème de la langue ». Il continue d’explorer, sur son smartphone, les possibilités sans doute infinies que lui promet sa nouvelle vie, en suivant avec intérêt les préparatifs de la fête.

      Internet, ce fil de vie qui relie les continents

      Les bénévoles ne ménagent pas leur peine pour faire de cette soirée de réveillon une réussite : pâtisserie, riz à la piperade, bisap à gogo, sono, lumières, ballons... seront de la partie. Un « Bonne année 2019 » gonflable barre l’allée centrale du vaste dortoir, et s’achève vers un minuscule renfoncement aménagé en salle de prière. Les affiches de la Légion n’ont pas disparu. Elles indiquent par exemple le lieu où devaient être soigneusement pliées les « chemises arktis sable ». Mais l’ordre militaire a largement été chamboulé. La pièce principale sert à la fois de dortoir, de réfectoire, de cuisine, de magasin de produits d’hygiène, de bureau.

      Une borne wifi assure le flux Internet, précieux fil de vie durant un voyage au long cours. La nouvelle connexion déleste au passage les bénévoles, auparavant contraints de connecter une flopée d’appareils sur leurs propres smartphones, pour improviser des partages de connexion. Les écrans des téléphones sont autant de lueurs qui recréent des foyers dans les recoins les plus sombres de ce camping chauffé. Des gamins jouent au foot dans la cour, et la musique résonne jusque sur le quai de l’Adour. L’avantage, c’est que chacun peut programmer sa musique et la défendre sur le dance floor, avant de retourner tenir salon dans la semi-pénombre ou disparaître sous une couverture. Le temps de quelques sourires, sur des masques d’inquiétude.

      Près de 450 bénévoles, militants aguerris ou nouveaux venus

      Les bénévoles ont trouvé le bon tempo, après avoir essuyé les plâtres des arrivées massives. Aux premiers jours d’ouverture de ce nouveau centre, début décembre, il fallait encore faire le tour complet d’une cuisine chaotique pour servir un seul café aux réfugiés qui arrivaient affamés et par paquets, jusqu’au milieu de la nuit. A Bayonne, on sent le sac et le ressac de la Méditerranée pourtant lointaine, et le tempo des traversées se prolonge au Pausa, au gré de la météo marine du détroit de Gibraltar. Les bénévoles ont intégré le rythme. Ils sont désormais près de 450, regroupés au sein de l’association Diakité, mélange improbable de militants associatifs aguerris et de présences spontanées, gérant l’urgence avec la seule pratique de l’enthousiasme.

      Cet attelage bigarré s’est formé à la fin de l’été 2017. Les premiers bayonnais ont commencé à descendre spontanément des gamelles et des vêtements sur la Place des Basques, de l’autre côté du fleuve. C’est là que se faisait le départ des bus long-courriers, avant que le vaste chantier du Tram’bus ne les déplace sur le quai de Lesseps. Puis l’automne est arrivé et les maraudes ont commencé, pour réchauffer les corps congelés et organiser, dans l’improvisation, un accueil d’urgence, qui prenait la forme d’un fil WhatsApp paniqué. Les bayonnais ont ouvert leurs portes, les dons de vêtements ont afflué, submergeant les bénévoles qui n’en demandaient pas tant.

      Le maire UDI de Bayonne, Jean-René Etchegaray, est entré dans la danse, arrondissant les angles jusqu’à ouvrir, dès le mois de novembre, un premier bâtiment municipal promis à destruction. L’évêque est arrivé bon dernier, et s’est fait éconduire par des bénévoles peu indulgents avec ses positions traditionalistes, notamment sur l’avortement ou les droits LGBT. Dommage pour le parc immobilier du clergé, que les bayonnais présument conséquent. Mais il y avait ce vaste entrepôt de l’armée, dans l’alignement du quai, qui sera bientôt entièrement requalifié. Sa capacité de 300 lits fait régulièrement le plein, et impose aux bénévoles une organisation rigoureuse, notamment pour assurer des présences la nuit et le matin.
      Pressions de l’État sur les compagnies de bus

      L’inquiétude courrait pourtant en cette fin d’année : les bénévoles risquaient la démobilisation et le centre promettait d’être bondé. En période de vacances scolaires, les prix des billets de bus s’envolent, clouant certains migrants à quai. Dans les dernières heures de 2018 en revanche, les tarifs chutent brutalement et les voyageurs fauchés en profitent pour s’éclipser. Cette nuit du 31 décembre, 40 migrants ont repris la route, laissant le centre investi par près de 140 pensionnaires et une tripotée de volontaires soucieux de porter la fête dans ce lieu du marasme et de la convalescence. Vers 23h, les candidats au départ sont regroupés. Le bus est en bas, la troupe n’a que quelques mètres à faire. L’équipe de nuit accompagne les migrants.

      Il y a quelques semaines, la tension est montée d’un cran lorsque les chauffeurs de la compagnie Flixbus ont exigé les identités des voyageurs, après qu’une vingtaine de sans-papiers aient aussi été débarqués d’un autocar par les forces de l’ordre, au premier péage après Bayonne. Le maire de la ville, Jean-René Etchegaray, est monté au créneau, sur place, pour s’insurger contre ces pratiques. Cet avocat de profession a dénoncé une discrimination raciale, constatant un contrôle qui ne concernait que les personnes de couleur. Il a aussi laissé les bénévoles stupéfaits, voyant leur maire de centre-droit ériger une barricade de poubelles pour barrer la route au bus récalcitrant. La direction de la compagnie a dû dénoncer les faits, et le climat s’est apaisé.

      N’en déplaise au préfet des Pyrénées-Atlantiques qui maintient la pression sur les professionnels, notamment les chauffeurs de taxi, en promettant amende, prison et confiscation de véhicule pour qui aide à la circulation des « irréguliers ». Mais les chauffeurs de bus connaissent leurs droits, et même certains bénévoles, à force de passages tous les deux ou trois jours. En cette soirée du nouvel an, les chauffeurs sont espagnols, et semblent assurés que le monde contemporain est suffisamment inquiétant pour qu’eux mêmes ne se mettent en prime à contrôler les identités. Fraternité, salutations, départ. Les migrants, après quelques sourires gratifiants, replongent inquiets dans leurs téléphones. Retour au chaud et à la fête, qui cette fois, bat son plein.
      « Et c’est peut-être cela qui m’empêche de dormir la nuit »

      Le camping a toutefois des allures d’hôpital de campagne, avec sa piste de danse bordée de lits de camps occupés. Les migrants arrivent souvent épuisés, et la présence d’enceintes à quelques mètres de leurs couvertures ne décourage pas certains à s’y enrouler. Les femmes, plus discrètes, regagnent un dortoir séparé qui leur offre une intimité bienvenue. Dans les lumières tournoyantes, bénévoles et migrants se mêlent en musique. Jessica est venue avec sa jeune fille, après plusieurs jours sans avoir pu se libérer pour donner un coup de main. Aziz est avec sa famille, en visiteur du quartier. Saidou, Baldé, Ibrahima, exultent en suivant les convulsions d’une basse ragga.

      Cyril, bénévole de la première heure, est attablé un peu plus loin et se repasse le film des derniers mois dans le répit de la liesse. Peut-être pense t-il à l’enfant récupéré sous un pont de Saint-Jean-de-Luz, dans une nuit glaciale et sous des trombes d’eau, que les bras de sa mère protégeaient avec peine. Aux trois filles prostrées, qui voyageaient ensemble depuis trois ans et dont deux étaient mystérieusement enceintes. Ou aux trois guinéennes stupéfaites, atterrées et terrorisées, qu’il a fallu convaincre longtemps, dans une nuit glacée, pour enrouler une couverture sur leurs épaules. A celle qui a dû abandonner ses enfants en Guinée et finit par « bénévoler » de ses propres ailes dans le centre, rayonnante dans sa responsabilité retrouvée. A celui qui a perdu sa femme, enceinte, dans les eaux noires de la méditerranée « et c’est peut-être cela qui m’empêche de dormir la nuit », dit-il. Et à tous ceux qui se perdent sur cette route sans fin.
      L’appui de la mairie, qui change tout sur le terrain

      Sur la piste de danse, Nathalie rayonne. Elle a débarqué il y a quelques jours de Narbonne, avec une fourgonnette pleine de matériel de première nécessité. Le problème des réfugiés lui tordait le ventre. Elle a organisé une collecte et souhaitait livrer Gap, dans les Hautes-Alpes, avant d’entendre parler de Bayonne et d’avaler 450 km pour sonner au centre, le 25 décembre, avec des couvertures, de la nourriture, des produits d’hygiène. Elle y est devenue bénévole à temps plein, pendant une semaine, avant de regagner ses théâtres où elle est costumière et perruquière. Mais elle note tout et promet un compte rendu complet aux structures militantes de sa région, à l’autre bout des Pyrénées. Notamment du côté de Perpignan où, dit-elle, « un jour ou l’autre ils arriveront et je ne suis pas sûre qu’ils seront accueillis de la même manière ». « Émerveillée par la solidarité des basques », elle relève surtout l’appui de la mairie aux bénévoles, qui change tout sur le terrain. « Vous êtes extraordinaire » a t-elle lancé au maire quelques jours auparavant.

      Jean-René Etchegaray, maire de Bayonne et président de la Communauté d’agglomération Pays Basque, est aussi venu saluer les migrants ce 31 décembre. Il est justement question qu’il tisse des liens avec d’autres maires qui s’investissent dans l’accueil des migrants, tel Mathieu Carême (écologiste) à Grande-Synthe. Un accompagnement politique qui est aussi, du point de vue de certains habitants, un gage de sécurité et de tranquillité publique. Si Jean-René Etchegaray reconnait avoir reçu « quelques lettres anonymes sur un ton plutôt FN », sourit-il, il constate aussi que, depuis que le centre a ouvert, les plaintes des habitants se sont tues. L’accueil organisé des migrants leur fournit un point de chute, aidant à les soustraire aux circuits de passeurs ou aux appétits mafieux, et à assurer leur propre sécurité. Le contraire de cette « jungle de Calais » que les premiers détracteurs de l’accueil brandissaient, un peu vite, comme une menace.
      Un soutien financier de la communauté d’agglomération, en attendant celui de l’État ?

      Au-delà de la solidarité pour « des gens qui arrivent escroqués et épuisés » et « doivent bien s’habiller quelque part », le premier magistrat de la commune et de l’agglomération se tourne aussi vers l’État pour la prise en charge de ces exilés. Il dénonce une forme de « sous-traitance » de la politique migratoire et de « démantèlement de l’autorité de l’État », tant à travers les pressions exercées à l’encontre des professionnels du transport, que dans le manque de moyens utilisés pour faire face à cette crise. La police se contente bien souvent de raccompagner, en douce, les migrants derrière la frontière, à 30 km de là, comme en attestent de multiples témoignages ainsi que des images de la télévision publique basque ETB. La Communauté d’agglomération Pays Basque a voté à l’unanimité une aide de 70 000 euros par mois pour soutenir le centre Pausa, en particulier pour financer l’équipe de sept salariés recrutée parmi les bénévoles, et fournir un repas quotidien. « Mais il faudra bien que l’État nous aide », prévient Jean-René Etchegaray.

      Dans cette attente, l’édile continue ses tournées d’inspection quotidienne du centre Pausa. Il commence par l’accueil, demande le nombre d’arrivées et de départs, s’assure que le petit bureau d’information sur les départs fonctionne, puis se rend dans la pièce principale, scrutant les lits disponibles, l’état des couvertures, s’assurant que tout fonctionne, échangeant avec les bénévoles et les voyageurs, « des gens remarquables » dit-il, et suivant des yeux, amusé, les évolutions d’un petit groupe de migrants qui passe le balais, preuve que « tout se régule », sourit-il. Au-delà des problèmes de logistique, prestement résolus, Jean-René Etchegaray est en première ligne pour réclamer aux grandes enseignes de sa circonscription des vêtements, des couvertures, de la nourriture ou de petites urgences ponctuelles, comme des gants et des bonnets. Et assurer la fluidité de cette solidarité qui s’organise encore, et prend de l’ampleur chaque jour.
      2500 réfugiés ont déjà transité par la Pausa

      Pour l’heure, le temps s’arrête sur un compte à rebours déniché sur Internet. 3 - 2 - 1 - 0 ! Tout le monde s’embrasse dans la salle, au milieu d’autres corps terrés sous une masse de couvertures. Un élan qui mêle réfugiés et bénévoles pour conjurer le mauvais sort, valider le travail abouti, triompher de cette année qui a bouleversé Bayonne, et appréhender un avenir incertain où, d’un côté comme de l’autre, rien n’est gagné. Mais l’étape est belle. 2500 réfugiés ont transité par le centre Pausa en deux mois. La route du Maroc et de l’Espagne a été empruntée par plus de 50 000 personnes en 2018, à mesure que celle de la Libye se ferme sur des milliers de morts et d’exactions, et l’évacuation de 17 000 personnes par l’Office internationale des migrations.

      Le dispositif du Centre d’accueil de Bayonne est prévu jusqu’au mois d’août 2019, mais rien ne dit que le flux humain tarira. Le maire est en train de prévoir l’ouverture d’une annexe dans le bâtiment militaire voisin. Un stalag II, railleront les bénévoles, qui lui redonneront tout de même un nom plus reposant, des couleurs, et tout ce qui peut revigorer les âmes sans tanière sur leur route incertaine.

      https://www.bastamag.net/A-Bayonne-nouvelle-route-migratoire-l-impressionnante-solidarite-des-habit

  • The Vulnerability Contest

    Traumatized Afghan child soldiers who were forced to fight in Syria struggle to find protection in Europe’s asylum lottery.

    Mosa did not choose to come forward. Word had spread among the thousands of asylum seekers huddled inside Moria that social workers were looking for lone children among the general population. High up on the hillside, in the Afghan area of the chaotic refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, some residents knew someone they suspected was still a minor. They led the aid workers to Mosa.

    The boy, whose broad and beardless face mark him out as a member of the Hazara ethnic group, had little reason to trust strangers. It was hard to persuade him just to sit with them and listen. Like many lone children, Mosa had slipped through the age assessment carried out on first arrival at Moria: He was registered as 27 years old. With the help of a translator, the social worker explained that there was still time to challenge his classification as an adult. But Mosa did not seem to be able to engage with what he was being told. It would take weeks to establish trust and reveal his real age and background.

    Most new arrivals experience shock when their hopes of a new life in Europe collide with Moria, the refugee camp most synonymous with the miserable consequences of Europe’s efforts to contain the flow of refugees and migrants across the Aegean. When it was built, the camp was meant to provide temporary shelter for fewer than 2,000 people. Since the European Union struck a deal in March 2016 with Turkey under which new arrivals are confined to Greece’s islands, Moria’s population has swollen to 9,000. It has become notorious for overcrowding, snowbound tents, freezing winter deaths, violent protests and suicides by adults and children alike.

    While all asylum systems are subjective, he said that the situation on Greece’s islands has turned the search for protection into a “lottery.”

    Stathis Poularakis is a lawyer who previously served for two years on an appeal committee dealing with asylum cases in Greece and has worked extensively on Lesbos. While all asylum systems are subjective, he said that the situation on Greece’s islands has turned the search for protection into a “lottery.”

    Asylum claims on Lesbos can take anywhere between six months and more than two years to be resolved. In the second quarter of 2018, Greece faced nearly four times as many asylum claims per capita as Germany. The E.U. has responded by increasing the presence of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and broadening its remit so that EASO officials can conduct asylum interviews. But the promises that EASO will bring Dutch-style efficiency conceal the fact that the vast majority of its hires are not seconded from other member states but drawn from the same pool of Greeks as the national asylum service.

    Asylum caseworkers at Moria face an overwhelming backlog and plummeting morale. A serving EASO official describes extraordinary “pressure to go faster” and said there was “so much subjectivity in the system.” The official also said that it was human nature to reject more claims “when you see every other country is closing its borders.”

    Meanwhile, the only way to escape Moria while your claim is being processed is to be recognized as a “vulnerable” case. Vulnerables get permission to move to the mainland or to more humane accommodation elsewhere on the island. The term is elastic and can apply to lone children and women, families or severely physically or mentally ill people. In all cases the onus is on the asylum seeker ultimately to persuade the asylum service, Greek doctors or the United Nations Refugee Agency that they are especially vulnerable.

    The ensuing scramble to get out of Moria has turned the camp into a vast “vulnerability contest,” said Poularakis. It is a ruthless competition that the most heavily traumatized are often in no condition to understand, let alone win.

    Twice a Refugee

    Mosa arrived at Moria in October 2017 and spent his first night in Europe sleeping rough outside the arrivals tent. While he slept someone stole his phone. When he awoke he was more worried about the lost phone than disputing the decision of the Frontex officer who registered him as an adult. Poularakis said age assessors are on the lookout for adults claiming to be children, but “if you say you’re an adult, no one is going to object.”

    Being a child has never afforded Mosa any protection in the past: He did not understand that his entire future could be at stake. Smugglers often warn refugee children not to reveal their real age, telling them that they will be prevented from traveling further if they do not pretend to be over 18 years old.

    Like many other Hazara of his generation, Mosa was born in Iran, the child of refugees who fled Afghanistan. Sometimes called “the cursed people,” the Hazara are followers of Shia Islam and an ethnic and religious minority in Afghanistan, a country whose wars are usually won by larger ethnic groups and followers of Sunni Islam. Their ancestry, traced by some historians to Genghis Khan, also means they are highly visible and have been targets for persecution by Afghan warlords from 19th-century Pashtun kings to today’s Taliban.

    In recent decades, millions of Hazara have fled Afghanistan, many of them to Iran, where their language, Dari, is a dialect of Persian Farsi, the country’s main language.

    “We had a life where we went from work to home, which were both underground in a basement,” he said. “There was nothing (for us) like strolling the streets. I was trying not to be seen by anyone. I ran from the police like I would from a street dog.”

    Iran hosts 950,000 Afghan refugees who are registered with the U.N. and another 1.5 million undocumented Afghans. There are no official refugee camps, making displaced Afghans one of the largest urban refugee populations in the world. For those without the money to pay bribes, there is no route to permanent residency or citizenship. Most refugees survive without papers on the outskirts of cities such as the capital, Tehran. Those who received permits, before Iran stopped issuing them altogether in 2007, must renew them annually. The charges are unpredictable and high. Mostly, the Afghan Hazara survive as an underclass, providing cheap labor in workshops and constructions sites. This was how Mosa grew up.

    “We had a life where we went from work to home, which were both underground in a basement,” he said. “There was nothing (for us) like strolling the streets. I was trying not to be seen by anyone. I ran from the police like I would from a street dog.”

    But he could not remain invisible forever and one day in October 2016, on his way home from work, he was detained by police for not having papers.

    Sitting in one of the cantinas opposite the entrance to Moria, Mosa haltingly explained what happened next. How he was threatened with prison in Iran or deportation to Afghanistan, a country in which he has never set foot. How he was told that that the only way out was to agree to fight in Syria – for which they would pay him and reward him with legal residence in Iran.

    “In Iran, you have to pay for papers,” said Mosa. “If you don’t pay, you don’t have papers. I do not know Afghanistan. I did not have a choice.”

    As he talked, Mosa spread out a sheaf of papers from a battered plastic wallet. Along with asylum documents was a small notepad decorated with pink and mauve elephants where he keeps the phone numbers of friends and family. It also contains a passport-sized green booklet with the crest of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is a temporary residence permit. Inside its shiny cover is the photograph of a scared-looking boy, whom the document claims was born 27 years ago. It is the only I.D. he has ever owned and the date of birth has been faked to hide the fact that the country that issues it has been sending children to war.

    Mosa is not alone among the Hazara boys who have arrived in Greece seeking protection, carrying identification papers with inflated ages. Refugees Deeply has documented the cases of three Hazara child soldiers and corroborated their accounts with testimony from two other underage survivors. Their stories are of childhoods twice denied: once in Syria, where they were forced to fight, and then again after fleeing to Europe, where they are caught up in a system more focused on hard borders than on identifying the most damaged and vulnerable refugees.

    From Teenage Kicks to Adult Nightmares

    Karim’s descent into hell began with a prank. Together with a couple of friends, he recorded an angsty song riffing on growing up as a Hazara teenager in Tehran. Made when he was 16 years old, the song was meant to be funny. His band did not even have a name. The boys uploaded the track on a local file-sharing platform in 2014 and were as surprised as anyone when it was downloaded thousands of times. But after the surprise came a creeping sense of fear. Undocumented Afghan refugee families living in Tehran usually try to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Karim tried to have the song deleted, but after two months there was a knock on the door. It was the police.

    “I asked them how they found me,” he said. “I had no documents but they knew where I lived.”

    Already estranged from his family, the teenager was transported from his life of working in a pharmacy and staying with friends to life in a prison outside the capital. After two weeks inside, he was given three choices: to serve a five-year sentence; to be deported to Afghanistan; or to redeem himself by joining the Fatemiyoun.

    According to Iranian propaganda, the Fatemiyoun are Afghan volunteers deployed to Syria to protect the tomb of Zainab, the granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammad. In reality, the Fatemiyoun Brigade is a unit of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, drawn overwhelmingly from Hazara communities, and it has fought in Iraq and Yemen, as well as Syria. Some estimates put its full strength at 15,000, which would make it the second-largest foreign force in support of the Assad regime, behind the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah.

    Karim was told he would be paid and given a one-year residence permit during leave back in Iran. Conscripts are promised that if they are “martyred,” their family will receive a pension and permanent status. “I wasn’t going to Afghanistan and I wasn’t going to prison,” said Karim. So he found himself forced to serve in the #Fatemiyoun.

    His first taste of the new life came when he was transferred to a training base outside Tehran, where the recruits, including other children, were given basic weapons training and religious indoctrination. They marched, crawled and prayed under the brigade’s yellow flag with a green arch, crossed by assault rifles and a Koranic phrase: “With the Help of God.”

    “Imagine me at 16,” said Karim. “I have no idea how to kill a bird. They got us to slaughter animals to get us ready. First, they prepare your brain to kill.”

    The 16-year-old’s first deployment was to Mosul in Iraq, where he served four months. When he was given leave back in Iran, Karim was told that to qualify for his residence permit he would need to serve a second term, this time in Syria. They were first sent into the fight against the so-called Islamic State in Raqqa. Because of his age and physique, Karim and some of the other underage soldiers were moved to the medical corps. He said that there were boys as young as 14 and he remembers a 15-year-old who fought using a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

    “One prisoner was killed by being hung by his hair from a tree. They cut off his fingers one by one and cauterized the wounds with gunpowder.”

    “I knew nothing about Syria. I was just trying to survive. They were making us hate ISIS, dehumanizing them. Telling us not to leave one of them alive.” Since media reports revealed the existence of the Fatemiyoun, the brigade has set up a page on Facebook. Among pictures of “proud volunteers,” it shows stories of captured ISIS prisoners being fed and cared for. Karim recalls a different story.

    “One prisoner was killed by being hung by his hair from a tree. They cut off his fingers one by one and cauterized the wounds with gunpowder.”

    The casualties on both sides were overwhelming. At the al-Razi hospital in Aleppo, the young medic saw the morgue overwhelmed with bodies being stored two or three to a compartment. Despite promises to reward the families of martyrs, Karim said many of the bodies were not sent back to Iran.

    Mosa’s basic training passed in a blur. A shy boy whose parents had divorced when he was young and whose father became an opium addict, he had always shrunk from violence. He never wanted to touch the toy guns that other boys played with. Now he was being taught to break down, clean and fire an assault rifle.

    The trainees were taken three times a day to the imam, who preached to them about their holy duty and the iniquities of ISIS, often referred to as Daesh.

    “They told us that Daesh was the same but worse than the Taliban,” said Mosa. “I didn’t listen to them. I didn’t go to Syria by choice. They forced me to. I just needed the paper.”

    Mosa was born in 2001. Before being deployed to Syria, the recruits were given I.D. tags and papers that deliberately overstated their age: In 2017, Human Rights Watch released photographs of the tombstones of eight Afghan children who had died in Syria and whose families identified them as having been under 18 years old. The clerk who filled out Mosa’s forms did not trouble himself with complex math: He just changed 2001 to 1991. Mosa was one of four underage soldiers in his group. The boys were scared – their hands shook so hard they kept dropping their weapons. Two of them were dead within days of reaching the front lines.

    “I didn’t even know where we were exactly, somewhere in the mountains in a foreign country. I was scared all the time. Every time I saw a friend dying in front of my eyes I was thinking I would be next,” said Mosa.

    He has flashbacks of a friend who died next to him after being shot in the face by a sniper. After the incident, he could not sleep for four nights. The worst, he said, were the sudden raids by ISIS when they would capture Fatemiyoun fighters: “God knows what happened to them.”

    Iran does not release figures on the number of Fatemiyoun casualties. In a rare interview earlier this year, a senior officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard suggested as many as 1,500 Fatemiyoun had been killed in Syria. In Mashhad, an Iranian city near the border with Afghanistan where the brigade was first recruited, video footage has emerged of families demanding the bodies of their young men believed to have died in Syria. Mosa recalls patrols in Syria where 150 men and boys would go out and only 120 would return.

    Escaping Syria

    Abbas had two weeks left in Syria before going back to Iran on leave. After 10 weeks in what he describes as a “living hell,” he had begun to believe he might make it out alive. It was his second stint in Syria and, still only 17 years old, he had been chosen to be a paramedic, riding in the back of a 2008 Chevrolet truck converted into a makeshift ambulance.

    He remembers thinking that the ambulance and the hospital would have to be better than the bitter cold of the front line. His abiding memory from then was the sound of incoming 120mm shells. “They had a special voice,” Abbas said. “And when you hear it, you must lie down.”

    Following 15 days of nursing training, during which he was taught how to find a vein and administer injections, he was now an ambulance man, collecting the dead and wounded from the battlefields on which the Fatemiyoun were fighting ISIS.

    Abbas grew up in Ghazni in Afghanistan, but his childhood ended when his father died from cancer in 2013. Now the provider for the family, he traveled with smugglers across the border into Iran, to work for a tailor in Tehran who had known his father. He worked without documents and faced the same threats as the undocumented Hazara children born in Iran. Even more dangerous were the few attempts he made to return to Ghazni. The third time he attempted to hop the border he was captured by Iranian police.

    Abbas was packed onto a transport, along with 23 other children, and sent to Ordugah-i Muhaceran, a camplike detention center outside Mashhad. When they got there the Shia Hazara boys were separated from Sunni Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group, who were pushed back across the border. Abbas was given the same choice as Karim and Mosa before him: Afghanistan or Syria. Many of the other forced recruits Abbas met in training, and later fought alongside in Syria, were addicts with a history of substance abuse.

    Testimony from three Fatemiyoun child soldiers confirmed that Tramadol was routinely used by recruits to deaden their senses, leaving them “feeling nothing” even in combat situations but, nonetheless, able to stay awake for days at a time.

    The Fatemiyoun officers dealt with withdrawal symptoms by handing out Tramadol, an opioid painkiller that is used to treat back pain but sometimes abused as a cheap alternative to methadone. The drug is a slow-release analgesic. Testimony from three Fatemiyoun child soldiers confirmed that it was routinely used by recruits to deaden their senses, leaving them “feeling nothing” even in combat situations but, nonetheless, able to stay awake for days at a time. One of the children reiterated that the painkiller meant he felt nothing. Users describe feeling intensely thirsty but say they avoid drinking water because it triggers serious nausea and vomiting. Tramadol is addictive and prolonged use can lead to insomnia and seizures.

    Life in the ambulance had not met Abbas’ expectations. He was still sent to the front line, only now it was to collect the dead and mutilated. Some soldiers shot themselves in the feet to escape the conflict.

    “We picked up people with no feet and no hands. Some of them were my friends,” Abbas said. “One man was in small, small pieces. We collected body parts I could not recognize and I didn’t know if they were Syrian or Iranian or Afghan. We just put them in bags.”

    Abbas did not make it to the 12th week. One morning, driving along a rubble-strewn road, his ambulance collided with an anti-tank mine. Abbas’ last memory of Syria is seeing the back doors of the vehicle blasted outward as he was thrown onto the road.

    When he awoke he was in a hospital bed in Iran. He would later learn that the Syrian ambulance driver had been killed and that the other Afghan medic in the vehicle had lost both his legs. At the time, his only thought was to escape.

    The Toll on Child Soldiers

    Alice Roorda first came into contact with child soldiers in 2001 in the refugee camps of Sierra Leone in West Africa. A child psychologist, she was sent there by the United Kingdom-based charity War Child. She was one of three psychologists for a camp of more than 5,000 heavily traumatized survivors of one of West Africa’s more brutal conflicts.

    “There was almost nothing we could do,” she admitted.

    The experience, together with later work in Uganda, has given her a deep grounding in the effects of war and post-conflict trauma on children. She said prolonged exposure to conflict zones has physical as well as psychological effects.

    “If you are chronically stressed, as in a war zone, you have consistently high levels of the two basic stress hormones: adrenaline and cortisol.”

    Even after reaching a calmer situation, the “stress baseline” remains high, she said. This impacts everything from the immune system to bowel movements. Veterans often suffer from complications related to the continual engagement of the psoas, or “fear muscle” – the deepest muscles in the body’s core, which connect the spine, through the pelvis, to the femurs.

    “With prolonged stress you start to see the world around you as more dangerous.” The medial prefrontal cortex, the section of the brain that interprets threat levels, is also affected, said Roorda. This part of the brain is sometimes called the “watchtower.”

    “When your watchtower isn’t functioning well you see everything as more dangerous. You are on high alert. This is not a conscious response; it is because the stress is already so close to the surface.”

    Psychological conditions that can be expected to develop include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Left untreated, these stress levels can lead to physical symptoms ranging from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME) to high blood pressure or irritable bowel syndrome. Also common are heightened sensitivity to noise and insomnia.

    The trauma of war can also leave children frozen at the point when they were traumatized. “Their life is organized as if the trauma is still ongoing,” said Roorda. “It is difficult for them to take care of themselves, to make rational well informed choices, and to trust people.”

    The starting point for any treatment of child soldiers, said Roorda, is a calm environment. They need to release the tension with support groups and physical therapy, she said, and “a normal bedtime.”

    The Dutch psychologist, who is now based in Athens, acknowledged that what she is describing is the exact opposite of the conditions at #Moria.

    Endgame

    Karim is convinced that his facility for English has saved his life. While most Hazara boys arrive in Europe speaking only Farsi, Karim had taught himself some basic English before reaching Greece. As a boy in Tehran he had spent hours every day trying to pick up words and phrases from movies that he watched with subtitles on his phone. His favorite was The Godfather, which he said he must have seen 25 times. He now calls English his “safe zone” and said he prefers it to Farsi.

    When Karim reached Greece in March 2016, new arrivals were not yet confined to the islands. No one asked him if he was a child or an adult. He paid smugglers to help him escape Iran while on leave from Syria and after crossing through Turkey landed on Chios. Within a day and a half, he had passed through the port of Piraeus and reached Greece’s northern border with Macedonia, at Idomeni.

    When he realized the border was closed, he talked to some of the international aid workers who had come to help at the makeshift encampment where tens of thousands of refugees and migrants waited for a border that would not reopen. They ended up hiring him as a translator. Two years on, his English is now much improved and Karim has worked for a string of international NGOs and a branch of the Greek armed forces, where he was helped to successfully apply for asylum.

    The same job has also brought him to Moria. He earns an above-average salary for Greece and at first he said that his work on Lesbos is positive: “I’m not the only one who has a shitty background. It balances my mind to know that I’m not the only one.”

    But then he admits that it is difficult hearing and interpreting versions of his own life story from Afghan asylum seekers every day at work. He has had problems with depression and suffered flashbacks, “even though I’m in a safe country now.”

    Abbas got the help he needed to win the vulnerability contest. After he was initially registered as an adult, his age assessment was overturned and he was transferred from Moria to a shelter for children on Lesbos. He has since been moved again to a shelter in mainland Greece. While he waits to hear the decision on his protection status, Abbas – like other asylum seekers in Greece – receives 150 euros ($170) a month. This amount needs to cover all his expenses, from food and clothing to phone credit. The money is not enough to cover a regular course of the antidepressant Prozac and the sleeping pills he was prescribed by the psychiatrist he was able to see on Lesbos.

    “I save them for when it gets really bad,” he said.

    Since moving to the mainland he has been hospitalized once with convulsions, but his main worry is the pain in his groin. Abbas underwent a hernia operation in Iran, the result of injuries sustained as a child lifting adult bodies into the ambulance. He has been told that he will need to wait for four months to see a doctor in Greece who can tell him if he needs another operation.

    “I would like to go back to school,” he said. But in reality, Abbas knows that he will need to work and there is little future for an Afghan boy who can no longer lift heavy weights.

    Walking into an Afghan restaurant in downtown Athens – near Victoria Square, where the people smugglers do business – Abbas is thrilled to see Farsi singers performing on the television above the door. “I haven’t been in an Afghan restaurant for maybe three years,” he said to explain his excitement. His face brightens again when he catches sight of Ghormeh sabzi, a herb stew popular in Afghanistan and Iran that reminds him of his mother. “I miss being with them,” he said, “being among my family.”

    When the dish arrives he pauses before eating, taking out his phone and carefully photographing the plate from every angle.

    Mosa is about to mark the end of a full year in Moria. He remains in the same drab tent that reminds him every day of Syria. Serious weight loss has made his long limbs – the ones that made it easier for adults to pretend he was not a child – almost comically thin. His skin is laced with scars, but he refuses to go into detail about how he got them. Mosa has now turned 18 and seems to realize that his best chance of getting help may have gone.

    “Those people who don’t have problems, they give them vulnerability (status),” he said with evident anger. “If you tell them the truth, they don’t help you.”

    Then he apologises for the flash of temper. “I get upset and angry and my body shakes,” he said.

    Mosa explained that now when he gets angry he has learned to remove himself: “Sometimes I stuff my ears with toilet paper to make it quiet.”

    It is 10 months since Mosa had his asylum interview. The questions he expected about his time in the Fatemiyoun never came up. Instead, the interviewers asked him why he had not stayed in Turkey after reaching that country, having run away while on leave in Iran.

    The questions they did ask him point to his likely rejection and deportation. Why, he was asked, was his fear of being persecuted in Afghanistan credible? He told them that he has heard from other Afghan boys that police and security services in the capital, Kabul, were arresting ex-combatants from Syria.

    Like teenagers everywhere, many of the younger Fatemiyoun conscripts took selfies in Syria and posted them on Facebook or shared them on WhatsApp. The images, which include uniforms and insignia, can make him a target for Sunni reprisals. These pictures now haunt him as much as the faces of his dead comrades.

    Meanwhile, the fate he suffered two tours in Syria to avoid now seems to be the most that Europe can offer him. Without any of his earlier anger, he said, “I prefer to kill myself here than go to Afghanistan.”

    #enfants-soldats #syrie #réfugiés #asile #migrations #guerre #conflit #réfugiés_afghans #Afghanistan #ISIS #EI #Etat_islamique #trauma #traumatisme #vulnérabilité

    ping @isskein

  • 15 personnes poursuivies pour avoir tenté d’empêcher le décollage d’un charter de 57 expulsés (Ghana et Nigeria) en se couchant sur le tarmac (voir End Deportation latest newsletter : https://us16.campaign-archive.com/?u=ae35278d38818677379a2546a&id=6be6b043c3)
    –-> reçu via la mailing-list Migreurop par Claire Rodier.

    #Stansted_15 : Amnesty to observe trial amid concerns for anti-deportation activists

    Amnesty considers the 15 to be human rights defenders

    ‘We’re concerned the authorities are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut with this case’ - Kate Allen

    Amnesty International will be observing the trial of 15 human rights defenders set to go on trial at Chelmsford Crown Court next week (Monday 1 October) relating to their attempt to prevent what they believed was the unlawful deportation of a group of people at Stansted airport.

    The protesters - known as the “#Stansted 15” - are facing lengthy jail sentences for their non-violent intervention in March last year.

    Amnesty is concerned that the serious charge of “endangering safety at aerodromes” may have been brought to discourage other activists from taking non-violent direct action in defence of human rights. The organisation has written to the Director of the Crown Prosecution Service and the Attorney General calling for this disproportionate charge to be dropped.

    The trial is currently expected to last for approximately six weeks.

    Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK’s Director, said:

    “We’re concerned the authorities are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut with this case.

    “Public protest and non-violent direct action can often be a key means of defending human rights, particularly when victims have no way to make their voices heard and have been denied access to justice.

    “Human rights defenders are currently coming under attack in many countries around the world, with those in power doing all they can to discourage people from taking injustice personally. The UK must not go down that path.”

    https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/stansted-15-amnesty-observe-trial-amid-concerns-anti-deportation-activis

    #avion #déportation #renvois #expulsions #UK #Angleterre #résistance #procès #migrations #asile #réfugiés #frontières

    –---

    voir aussi la métaliste sur la #résistance de #passagers (mais aussi de #pilotes) aux #renvois_forcés :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/725457

    • The Stansted protesters saved me from wrongful deportation. They are heroes

      The ‘Stansted 15’ face jail for stopping my flight from taking off. They helped me see justice – and the birth of my daughter

      I’ll never forget the moment I found out that a group of people had blocked a charter deportation flight leaving Stansted airport on 28 March 2017, because I was one of the people that had a seat on the plane and was about to be removed from Britain against my will. While most of those sitting with me were whooping with joy when they heard the news, I was angry. After months in detention, the thought of facing even just one more day in that purgatory filled me with terror. And, crucially, I had no idea then of what I know now: that the actions of those activists, who became known as the Stansted 15, would help me see justice, and save my life in Britain.
      Stansted 15 convictions a ‘crushing blow for human rights in UK’
      Read more

      I first arrived in Britain in 2004 and, like so many people who come here from abroad, built a life here. As I sat in that plane in Stansted last year I was set to be taken “back” to a country that I had no links to. Indeed there is no doubt in my mind that had I been deported I would have been destitute and homeless in Nigeria – I was terrified.

      Imagine it. You’ve lived somewhere for 13 years. Your mum, suffering with mobility issues, lives there. Your partner lives there. Two of your children already live there, and the memory of your first-born, who died at just seven years old, resides there too. Your next child is about to be born there. That was my situation as we waited on the asphalt – imagining my daughter being born in a country where I’d built a life, while I was exiled to Nigeria and destined to meeting my newborn for the first time through a screen on a phone.

      My story was harsh, but it’s no anomaly. Like many people facing deportation from the United Kingdom, my experience with the immigration authorities had lasted many years – and for the last seven years of living here I had been in a constant state of mental detention. A cycle of Home Office appeals and its refusal to accept my claims or make a fair decision based on the facts of my case saw me in and out of detention and permanently waiting for my status to be settled. Though the threat of deportation haunted me, it was the utter instability and racial discrimination that made me feel like I was going mad. That’s why the actions of the Stansted 15 first caused me to be angry. I simply didn’t believe that their actions would be anything more than a postponement of further pain.

      My view isn’t just shaped by my own experience. My life in Britain has seen me rub along with countless people who find themselves the victims of the government’s “hostile environment” for migrants and families who aren’t white. Migration and deportation targets suck humanity from a system whose currency is the lives of people who happen to be born outside the UK. Such is the determination to look “tough” on the issue that people are rounded up in the night and put on to brutal, secretive and barely legal charter flights. Most take off away from the public eye – 60 human beings shackled and violently restrained on each flight, with barely a thought about the life they are dragged away from, nor the one they face upon arrival.
      Stansted 15 activists vow to overcome ‘dark, dark day for the right to protest’
      Read more

      I was one of the lucky few. My removal from the plane gave me two life-changing gifts. The first was a chance to appeal to the authorities over my deportation – a case that I won on two separate occasions, following a Home Office counter-appeal. But more importantly the brave actions of the Stansted 15 gave me something even more special: the chance to be by my partner’s side as she gave birth to our daughter, and to be there for them as they both needed extensive treatment after a complicated and premature birth. Without the Stansted 15 I wouldn’t have been playing football with my three-year-old in the park this week. It’s that simple. We now have a chance to live together as a family in Britain – and that is thanks to the people who lay down in front of the plane.

      On Monday the Stansted 15 were found guilty of breaching a barely used terror law. Though the jury were convinced that their actions breached this legislation, there’s no doubt in my mind that these 15 brave people are heroes, not criminals. For me a crime is doing something that is evil, shameful or just wrong – and it’s clear that it is the actions of the Home Office that tick all of these boxes; the Stansted 15 were trying to stop the real crime being committed. As the Stansted 15 face their own purgatory – awaiting sentences in the following weeks – I will be praying that they are shown leniency. Without their actions I would have missed my daughter’s birth, and faced the utter injustice of being deported from this country without having my (now successful) appeal heard. My message to them today is to fight on. Your cause is just, and history will absolve you of the guilt that the system has marked you with.

      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/10/stansted-15-protesters-deportation

    • Regno Unito, quindici attivisti rischiano l’ergastolo per aver bloccato la deportazione di migranti

      La criminalizzazione della solidarietà non riguarda solo l’Italia, con la martellante campagna contro le Ong che salvano vite nel Mediterraneo. In Francia sette attivisti rischiano 10 anni di carcere e 750mila euro di multa per “associazione a delinquere finalizzata all’immigrazione clandestina”. Nel Regno Unito altri quindici rischiano addirittura l’ergastolo per aver bloccato nella notte del 28 marzo 2017 nell’aeroporto di Stansted la deportazione di un gruppo di migranti caricati in segreto su un aereo diretto in Nigeria.

      Attivisti appartenenti ai gruppi End Deportations, Plane Stupid e Lesbian and Gays Support the Migrants hanno circondato l’aereo, impedendone il decollo. Come risultato della loro azione undici persone sono rimaste nel Regno Unito mentre la loro domanda di asilo veniva esaminata e due hanno potuto restare nel paese. Nonostante il carattere nonviolento dell’azione, il gruppo che ha bloccato l’aereo è finito sotto processo con accuse basate sulla legge anti-terrorismo e se giudicato colpevole rischia addirittura l’ergastolo. Il verdetto è atteso la settimana prossima.

      Membri dei movimenti pacifisti, antirazzisti e ambientalisti si sono uniti per protestare contro l’iniquità delle accuse. Amnesty International ha espresso la preoccupazione che siano state formulate per scoraggiare altri attivisti dall’intraprendere azioni dirette nonviolente in difesa dei diritti umani. Il vescovo di Chelmsford, la cittadina dove si tiene il processo, si è presentato in tribunale per esprimere il suo appoggio agli imputati. La primavera scorsa oltre 50 personalità, tra cui la leader dei Verdi Caroline Lucas, la scrittrice e giornalista Naomi Klein, il regista Ken Loach e l’attrice Emma Thompson hanno firmato una lettera in cui chiedono il ritiro delle accuse contro i “Quindici di Stansted” e la fine dei voli segreti di deportazione.

      Nel Regno Unito questa pratica è iniziata nel 2001. Molte delle persone deportate hanno vissuto per anni nel paese; vengono portate via dai posti di lavoro, in strada o dalle loro case, rinchiuse in centri di detenzione, caricate in segreto su voli charter notturni e inviate in paesi che spesso non conoscono e dove rischiano persecuzioni e morte. Alcuni non vengono preavvisati in tempo per ricorrere in appello contro la deportazione. “Il nostro è stato un atto di solidarietà umana, di difesa e resistenza contro un regime sempre più brutale” ha dichiarato un’attivista.


      https://www.pressenza.com/it/2018/12/regno-unito-quindici-attivisti-rischiano-lergastolo-per-aver-bloccato-la-
      #UK #Angleterre #solidarité #délit_de_solidarité #criminalisation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #expulsions

    • Activists convicted of terrorism offence for blocking Stansted deportation flight

      Fifteen activists who blocked the takeoff of an immigration removal charter flight have been convicted of endangering the safety of Stansted airport, a terrorism offence for which they could be jailed for life.

      After nearly three days of deliberations, following a nine-week trial, a jury at Chelmsford crown court found the defendants guilty of intentional disruption of services at an aerodrome under the 1990 Aviation and Maritime Security Act, a law passed in response to the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

      The court had heard how members of the campaign group End Deportations used lock-on devices to secure themselves around a Titan Airways Boeing 767 chartered by the Home Office, as the aircraft waited on the asphalt at the airport in Essex to remove undocumented immigrants to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

      The prosecution argued that their actions, which led to a temporary shutdown of Stansted, had posed a grave risk to the safety of the airport and its passengers.

      The verdict came after the judge Christopher Morgan told the jury to disregard all evidence put forward by the defendants to support the defence that they acted to stop human rights abuses, instructing jurors to only consider whether there was a “real and material” risk to the airport.

      In legal arguments made without the jury present, which can now be reported, defence barristers had called for the jury to be discharged after Morgan gave a summing up which they said amounted to a direction to convict. The judge had suggested the defendants’ entry to a restricted area could be considered inherently risky.

      Human rights organisations and observers had already expressed concerns over the choice of charge, which Kate Allen, the UK director of Amnesty International, likened to “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut”. Responding to the verdict on Monday, Gracie Bradley, policy and campaigns manager at Liberty, called the verdict a “grave injustice” and a “malicious attack” on the right to peaceful protest.

      Dr Graeme Hayes, reader in political sociology at Aston University, was one of a team of academics who observed the trial throughout. The only previous use of the 1990 law he and colleagues were able to find was in 2002 when a pilot was jailed for three years after flying his helicopter straight at a control tower.

      “This is a law that’s been brought in concerning international terrorism,” he said. “But for the last 10 weeks [of the trial], we’ve heard what amounts to an extended discussion of health and safety, in which the prosecution has not said at any point what the consequences of their actions might have been.”

      In a statement released by End Deportations after the verdict, the defendants said: “We are guilty of nothing more than intervening to prevent harm. The real crime is the government’s cowardly, inhumane and barely legal deportation flights and the unprecedented use of terror law to crack down on peaceful protest.

      The protest took place on the night of 28 March 2017. The activists cut a hole in the airport’s perimeter fence, the court heard. Jurors were shown footage from CCTV cameras and a police helicopter of four protesters arranging themselves around the front landing gear of the aircraft and locking their arms together inside double-layered pipes filled with expanding foam.

      Further back, a second group of protesters erected a two-metre tripod from scaffolding poles behind the engine on the left wing on which one of them perched while others locked themselves to the base to prevent it from being moved, the videos showed. In the moments before police arrived, they were able to display their banners, one of which said: “No one is illegal.”

      Helen Brewer, Lyndsay Burtonshaw, Nathan Clack, Laura Clayson, Mel Evans, Joseph McGahan, Benjamin Smoke, Jyotsna Ram, Nicholas Sigsworth, Alistair Temlit, Edward Thacker, Emma Hughes, May McKeith, Ruth Potts and Melanie Stickland, aged 27 to 44, had all pleaded not guilty.

      They will be sentenced at a later date.


      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/10/activists-convicted-of-terror-offence-for-blocking-stansted-deportation

    • Stansted 15: no jail for activists convicted of terror-related offences

      Judge says group ‘didn’t have a grievous intent as some may who commit this type of crime’.

      Fifteen activists convicted of a terrorism-related offence for chaining themselves around an immigration removal flight at Stansted airport have received suspended sentences or community orders.

      The judge decided not to imprison them after he accepted they were motivated by “genuine reasons”.

      Amid an outcry over what human rights defenders branded a heavy-handed prosecution, the group, who have become known as the Stansted 15, were convicted last December of endangering the safety of an aerodrome.

      They had broken into Stansted airport’s “airside” area in March 2017 and chained themselves together around a Boeing 767 chartered by the Home Office to deport 60 people to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. After a 10-week trial a jury found them guilty of the charge – an offence that carries a potential life sentence.
      We in the Stansted 15 have been treated like terrorists
      Emma Hughes
      Read more

      At Chelmsford crown court on Wednesday, Judge Christopher Morgan QC, dismissed submissions in mitigation that the group should receive conditional discharges for the direct action protest, which briefly paralysed the airport, saying they did not reflect the danger that had been presented by their actions.

      He said such action would “ordinarily result in custodial sentences”, but that they “didn’t have a grievous intent as some may do who commit this type of crime”. The mood in the court had lightened considerably at the start of the hearing when Morgan said that he did not consider the culpability of any of the defendants passed the threshold of an immediate custodial sentence.

      The heaviest sentences were reserved for three of the group who had been previously convicted of aggravated trespass at Heathrow airport in 2016.

      Alistair Tamlit and Edward Thacker were sentenced on Wednesday to nine months in jail suspended for 18 months, along with 250 hours of unpaid work. Melanie Strickland was sentenced to nine months suspended for 18 months, with 100 hours of unpaid work.

      Benjamin Smoke, Helen Brewer, Lyndsay Burtonshaw, Nathan Clack, Laura Clayson, Mel Evans, Joseph McGahan, Jyotsna Ram, Nicholas Sigsworth, Emma Hughes and Ruth Potts were each given 12-month community orders with 100 hours of unpaid work, while May McKeith received a 12-month community order with 20 days of rehabilitation.

      In mitigation, Dexter Dias QC said it should be taken into account that all acted to try to help individuals they perceived to be in danger. “The reason they wanted to prevent [the flight’s] departure is that they believed the welfare and safety of some of the people on that flight was at risk,” he said.
      Guardian Today: the headlines, the analysis, the debate - sent direct to you
      Read more

      “In those circumstances the court historically in this country have considered that conscientious motivations offer quite significant mitigation.”

      Dias pointed out that 11 of those who had been due to be deported to west Africa that night remain in the country, including two of whom there were reasons to believe were victims of human trafficking, and two who were subsequently found to have been victims of human trafficking. “One of them had been raped and forced into sex work in several European cities,” he said.

      Kirsty Brimelow QC, who appeared to have been specially recruited for the mitigation after not acting for any defendant during the trial, told Morgan he must balance the defendants’ rights to protest and free association against the harm their actions caused the airport.

      Brimelow last year acted for three fracking protesters whose sentences were overturned by the court of appeal as “manifestly excessive”. She continually referred to that case as she told Morgan that he must consider the “proportionality” of the sentences.

      The defendants emerged from the court to a rousing reception from hundreds of supporters who had spent the day protesting outside. Tamlit said he was “relieved that’s over”.

      “It’s been a gruelling process,” he said. “The flight that went this morning [to Jamaica] put things in perspective. We might have been in jail tonight but people could have visited us and we would have eventually been released.

      “Not going to jail is a partial victory but we are going to keep campaigning to end charter flights, immigration detention and the hostile environment.”

      McKeith’s mother, Ag, said she was pleased at the relatively lenient sentence. But, she said she felt they ought not to have been convicted at all. “Despite the judge’s stern account, it’s simply not true that they endangered anybody at the airport,” she said. “The only people who were in danger were the people on the plane. I watched the trial all the way through and watched the prosecution trying to spin straw into gold, and they didn’t convince me.”

      Graeme Hayes, reader in political sociology at Aston University, who observed the entire trial, said: “Although the defendants have not got the custodial sentence, the bringing of a terrorism-related charge against non-violent protesters is a very worrying phenomenon. It’s so far the only case [of its type] in the UK, and points to a chilling of legitimate public dissent.”

      The defendants have already filed an appeal against their convictions. Raj Chada, of Hodge, Jones & Allen, represented most of them. “We will be studying the judgment carefully to review whether there are any issues that need to be brought up in the appeal,” he said.

      “It’s striking that nowhere was there any endangerment of individuals identified.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/feb/06/stansted-15-rights-campaigners-urge-judge-to-show-leniency?CMP=Share_An

    • Stansted deportation flight protesters have convictions quashed

      Group of 15 activists were prosecuted under anti-terror laws for blocking immigration removal flight in 2017

      Fifteen anti-deportation activists who were prosecuted under counter-terror legislation for blocking the takeoff of an immigration removal flight from Stansted airport have had their convictions quashed.

      In a judgment handed down by the court of appeal on Friday afternoon, the lord chief justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, said: “The appellants should not have been prosecuted for the extremely serious offence under section 1(2)(b) of the 1990 Act because their conduct did not satisfy the various elements of the offence.

      “There was, in truth, no case to answer.”

      The ruling came more than two years after the 15 protesters were convicted following a nine-week trial of endangering the safety of an aerodrome, an offence under the 1990 Aviation and Maritime Security Act that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

      It was the first time the terror-related offence, passed in 1990 in response to the Lockerbie bombing, had been used against peaceful protesters.

      The defendants said they were relieved by the decision. May MacKeith, 35, said that the time from their arrest in 2017 to Friday’s ruling put into perspective the experiences of people caught in the UK’s hostile environment immigration system.

      “It was frightening,” she said. “But all along, despite the draconian charge, we knew that our actions were justified. We’ve never doubted that the people on that plane should never have been treated that way by our government.” Of those due to be deported on the flight, 11 were still in the UK, with three granted leave to remain.

      In their appeal, lawyers for the defence argued the legislation used to convict the group was not only rarely used but also was not intended for the kinds of peaceful actions undertaken by their clients. They said the prosecution stretched the meaning of the law by characterising the lock-on equipment they used to blockade the runway as devices used to endanger life.

      Weighing the argument, Burnett said in his judgment: “The closure of the runway was undoubtedly disruptive and expensive, but there was no evidence that it resulted in likely endangerment to the safety of the aerodrome or of persons there.

      “The [deployment] of an unspecified number of police officers when the terrorist threat was severe may have increased the risks within the terminal, but there was no evidence to enable an inference to be drawn that endangerment was likely.

      “There may have been a slightly enhanced risk of a police officer slipping en route to the aircraft, but it would stretch both language and common sense to say that there was likely endangerment, both in terms of the probability of this happening and the seriousness of the consequences if it did happen.”

      Burnett added: “Both the crown’s case and the summing-up collapsed the distinction between risk and likely danger and treated the offence as if it were akin to a health and safety provision.”

      The defendants, all members of the group Stop Deportations, had taken part in a peaceful action that stopped a chartered deportation flight to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone from taking off on 28 March 2017. Members of the group cut a hole in the airport’s perimeter fence before rushing on to the apron at Stansted.

      Four protesters arranged themselves around the front landing gear of the aircraft, locking their arms together inside double-layered pipes filled with expanding foam. Further back, a second group of protesters erected a 2-metre tripod from scaffolding poles behind the engine on the left wing. One of them perched on top of the makeshift structure, while others locked themselves to the base to prevent it from being moved.

      In the moments before police arrived they were able to display banners, including one that said: “No one is illegal.”

      Although members of the group received suspended sentences or community orders, UN human rights experts wrote to the UK government expressing concern over the application of “security and terrorism-related legislation to prosecute peaceful political protesters and critics of state policy”.

      On Friday, rights groups including Amnesty International and Liberty welcomed the ruling. But Raj Chada of Hodge Jones & Allen, who represented the defendants, said questions remained as to why the then attorney general, Jeremy Wright, had authorised the use of the charge in the first place.

      He said: “It does make me uncomfortable that a British cabinet minister has authorised a terror charge against political opponents, that the lord chief justice has decided is completely inappropriate. The appellants should be told, why was this charge used in this way? What information did the attorney general have?”

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/29/stansted-deportation-flight-protesters-have-convictions-quashed

    • Stansted 15: Activists who stopped migrant deportation flight have convictions overturned

      Lord Chief Justice says demonstrators have ‘no case to answer’ for offences they were charged with

      A group of activists who stopped a deportation flight leaving Stansted airport have had their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal.

      They had been prosecuted following a protest in March 2017, where they ultimately prevented a charter flight that was due to deport 60 individuals to Africa.

      The group, known as the Stansted 15, were initially charged with aggravated trespass but the charge was changed to endangering safety at a public airport.

      All defendants denied the offence at trial, and said they were “guilty of nothing more than intervening to prevent harm” to migrants on board the plane.

      On Friday, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett, sitting with Mr Justice Jay and Ms Justice Whipple, overturned all 15 demonstrators’ convictions.

      Lord Burnett said the protesters “should not have been prosecuted for the extremely serious offence ... because their conduct did not satisfy the various elements of the offence. There was, in truth, no case to answer.”

      The judgment said the offence they were charged with was intended for “conduct of a different nature” after the campaigners’ lawyers told the Court of Appeal the offence used was related to terrorism and had been created in the wake of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

      May MacKeith, a member of the Stansted 15, said almost four years of legal proceedings “should never have happened”.

      “But for many people caught up in the UK immigration system the ordeal lasts much, much longer,” she added.

      “The nightmare of this bogus charge, a 10 week trial and the threat of prison has dominated our lives for four years. Despite the draconian response we know our actions were justified.”

      Raj Chada of Hodge Jones and Allen Solicitors, who represented the Stansted 15, said the case should be a matter of “great shame” to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and attorney general.

      “Both have questions to answer as to why they authorised such an unprecedented charge,” he added.

      “Amnesty International adopted the 15 as human rights defenders, Liberty intervened in the case and even the UN, through their special rapporteurs, expressed concern, yet the case went forward.”

      In March 2017, the defendants cut through the perimeter fence of Stansted airport in Essex and used pipes to lock themselves together around a plane.

      The Boeing 767 had been chartered by the Home Office to remove 60 people to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, and was stationary on the airport’s apron.

      The trial heard the defendants believed the deportees were at risk of death, persecution and torture if they were removed from Britain, and many were asylum seekers.

      Campaigners said that 11 of the 60 passengers remain in the UK, and included victims of human trafficking.

      The protesters, who all pleaded not guilty, were convicted in December 2018 of the intentional disruption of services at an aerodrome under the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990.

      A judge at Chelmsford Crown Court handed three defendants, who had previous convictions for aggravated trespass at airports, suspended prison terms and gave 12 defendants community sentences.

      Judge Christopher Morgan said alleged human rights abuses, immigration policy and proportionality did not have “any relevance” to whether a criminal offence had been committed.

      “In normal circumstances only a custodial sentence would have been justified in this case, but I accept that your intentions were to demonstrate.”

      United Nations human rights experts raised concern over the case and warned the British government against using security-related laws against protesters and critics.

      “We are concerned about the application of disproportional charges for what appears to be the exercise of the rights to peaceful and non-violent protest and freedom of expression,” a statement said in February 2019.

      “It appears that such charges were brought to deter others from taking similar peaceful direct action to defend human rights, and in particular the protection of asylum seekers.”

      The group received high-profile support from MPs and public figures, including the Bishop of Chelmsford.

      An open letter signed by dozens of politicians and academics in September condemned the practice of “secret deportation flights”, which came into renewed focus following the Windrush scandal.

      Amnesty International said the case was part of a Europe-wide trend of volunteers and activists being criminalised for helping migrants.

      Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK’s director, said the Court of Appeal ruling was a “good day for justice”.

      “The Stansted 15 will take their place in the history books as human rights defenders who bravely brought injustices perpetrated by the state into the light,” she added.

      “This case should never have been brought and there must be lessons learnt for how we treat human rights defenders in this country.”

      Lana Adamou, a lawyer for the Liberty human rights group, called the charges “an attack on our right to express dissent”.

      “All too often it is the most marginalised in society, and those acting in solidarity with them, who bear the brunt of over-zealous policing and crackdowns on protest, making it even more important for the government to take steps to facilitate protest and ensure these voices are heard, rather than find ways to suppress them,” she added.

      At November’s Court of Appeal hearing, lawyers for the activists told the court the legislation used to convict the 15 is rarely used and not intended for a protest case.

      In documents before the court, the Stansted 15’s barristers argued it was intended to deal with violence of the “utmost seriousness”, such as terrorism, rather than risks of “a health and safety-type nature” posed by those who have trespassed at an airport.

      Lawyers for the group also argued that the attorney general – who is required to sign off on the use of the legislation – should not have granted consent for the law to be used in this case, that the crown court judge made errors in summing up the case and in directions given to the jury.

      Barristers representing the CPS had said the convictions are safe and that the trial judge was correct.

      Tony Badenoch QC told the court: “We don’t accept that the act is constrained to terrorism and nothing else.”

      A CPS spokesperson said: “We will consider the judgment carefully in the next 28 days.”

      The 15 are: #Helen_Brewer, 31; #Lyndsay_Burtonshaw, 30; #Nathan_Clack, 32; #Laura_Clayson, 30; #Melanie_Evans, 37; #Joseph_McGahan, 37; #Benjamin_Smoke, 21; #Jyotsna_Ram, 35; #Nicholas_Sigsworth, 31; #Melanie_Strickland, 37; #Alistair_Tamlit, 32; #Edward_Thacker, 31; #Emma_Hughes, 40; #May_McKeith, 35; and #Ruth_Potts, 46.

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/stansted-15-deportation-flight-convictions-appeal-b1794757.html

  • Autour des #gardes-côtes_libyens... et de #refoulements en #Libye...

    Je copie-colle ici des articles que j’avais mis en bas de cette compilation (qu’il faudrait un peu mettre en ordre, peut-être avec l’aide de @isskein ?) :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/705401

    Les articles ci-dessous traitent de :
    #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Méditerranée #push-back #refoulement #externalisation #frontières

    • Pour la première fois depuis 2009, un navire italien ramène des migrants en Libye

      Une embarcation de migrants secourue par un navire de ravitaillement italien a été renvoyée en Libye lundi 30 juillet. Le HCR a annoncé mardi l’ouverture d’une enquête et s’inquiète d’une violation du droit international.

      Lundi 30 juillet, un navire battant pavillon italien, l’Asso Ventotto, a ramené des migrants en Libye après les avoir secourus dans les eaux internationales – en 2012 déjà l’Italie a été condamnée par la Cour européenne des droits de l’Homme pour avoir reconduit en Libye des migrants secourus en pleine mer en 2009.

      L’information a été donnée lundi soir sur Twitter par Oscar Camps, le fondateur de l’ONG espagnole Proactiva Open Arms, avant d’être reprise par Nicola Fratoianni, un député de la gauche italienne qui est actuellement à bord du bateau humanitaire espagnol qui sillonne en ce moment les côtes libyennes.

      Selon le quotidien italien La Repubblica, 108 migrants à bord d’une embarcation de fortune ont été pris en charge en mer Méditerranée par l’Asso Ventotto lundi 30 juillet. L’équipage du navire de ravitaillement italien a alors contacté le MRCC à Rome - centre de coordination des secours maritimes – qui les a orienté vers le centre de commandement maritime libyen. La Libye leur a ensuite donné l’instruction de ramener les migrants au port de Tripoli.

      En effet depuis le 28 juin, sur décision européenne, la gestion des secours des migrants en mer Méditerranée dépend des autorités libyennes et non plus de l’Italie. Concrètement, cela signifie que les opérations de sauvetage menées dans la « SAR zone » - zone de recherche et de sauvetage au large de la Libye - sont désormais coordonnées par les Libyens, depuis Tripoli. Mais le porte-parole du Conseil de l’Europe a réaffirmé ces dernières semaines qu’"aucun navire européen ne peut ramener des migrants en Libye car cela serait contraire à nos principes".

      Violation du droit international

      La Libye ne peut être considérée comme un « port sûr » pour le débarquement des migrants. « C’est une violation du droit international qui stipule que les personnes sauvées en mer doivent être amenées dans un ‘port sûr’. Malgré ce que dit le gouvernement italien, les ports libyens ne peuvent être considérés comme tels », a déclaré sur Twitter le député Nicola Fratoianni. « Les migrants se sont vus refuser la possibilité de demander l’asile, ce qui constitue une violation des accords de Genève sur les sauvetages en mer », dit-il encore dans le quotidien italien La Stampa.

      Sur Facebook, le ministre italien de l’Intérieur, Matteo Salvini, nie toutes entraves au droit international. « La garde-côtière italienne n’a ni coordonné, ni participé à cette opération, comme l’a faussement déclarée une ONG et un député de gauche mal informé ».

      Le Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés (HCR) a de son côté annoncé mardi 31 juillet l’ouverture d’une enquête. « Nous recueillons toutes les informations nécessaires sur le cas du remorqueur italien Asso Ventotto qui aurait ramené en Libye 108 personnes sauvées en Méditerranée. La Libye n’est pas un ‘port sûr’ et cet acte pourrait constituer une violation du droit international », dit l’agence onusienne sur Twitter.

      http://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/10995/pour-la-premiere-fois-depuis-2009-un-navire-italien-ramene-des-migrant

    • Nave italiana soccorre e riporta in Libia 108 migranti. Salvini: «Nostra Guardia costiera non coinvolta»

      L’atto in violazione della legislazione internazionale che garantisce il diritto d’asilo e che non riconosce la Libia come un porto sicuro. Il vicepremier: «Nostre navi non sono intervenute nelle operazioni». Fratoianni (LeU): «Ci sono le prove della violazione»

      http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2018/07/31/news/migranti_nave_italiana_libia-203026448/?ref=RHPPLF-BH-I0-C8-P1-S1.8-T1
      #vos_thalassa #asso_28

      Commentaire de Sara Prestianni, via la mailing-list de Migreurop:

      Le navire commerciale qui opere autour des plateformes de pétrole, battant pavillon italien - ASSO 28 - a ramené 108 migrants vers le port de Tripoli suite à une opération de sauvetage- Les premiers reconstructions faites par Open Arms et le parlementaire Fratoianni qui se trouve à bord de Open Arms parlent d’une interception en eaux internationales à la quelle a suivi le refoulement. Le journal La Repubblica dit que les Gardes Cotes Italiennes auraient invité Asso28 à se coordonner avec les Gardes Cotes Libyennes (comme font habituellement dans les derniers mois. Invitation déclinés justement par les ong qui opèrent en mer afin de éviter de proceder à un refoulement interdit par loi). Le Ministre de l’Interieur nie une implication des Gardes Cotes Italiens et cyniquement twitte “Le Garde cotes libyenne dans les derniers heures ont sauvé et ramené à terre 611 migrants. Les Ong protestent les passeurs font des affaires ? C’est bien. Nous continuons ainsi”

    • Départs de migrants depuis la Libye :

      Libya : outcomes of the sea journey

      Migrants intercepted /rescued by the Libyan coast guard

      Lieux de désembarquement :


      #Italie #Espagne #Malte

      –-> Graphiques de #Matteo_Villa, posté sur twitter :
      source : https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1036892919964286976

      #statistiques #chiffres #2016 #2017 #2018

      cc @simplicissimus

    • Libyan Coast Guard Takes 611 Migrants Back to Africa

      Between Monday and Tuesday, the Libyan Coast Guard reportedly rescued 611 migrants aboard several dinghies off the coast and took them back to the African mainland.

      Along with the Libyan search and rescue operation, an Italian vessel, following indications from the Libyan Coast Guard, rescued 108 migrants aboard a rubber dinghy and delivered them back to the port of Tripoli. The vessel, called La Asso 28, was a support boat for an oil platform.

      Italian mainstream media have echoed complaints of NGOs claiming that in taking migrants back to Libya the Italian vessel would have violated international law that guarantees the right to asylum and does not recognize Libya as a safe haven.

      In recent weeks, a spokesman for the Council of Europe had stated that “no European ship can bring migrants back to Libya because it is contrary to our principles.”

      Twenty days ago, another ship supporting an oil rig, the Vos Thalassa, after rescuing a group of migrants, was preparing to deliver them to a Libyan patrol boat when an attempt to revolt among the migrants convinced the commander to reverse the route and ask the help of the Italian Coast Guard. The migrants were loaded aboard the ship Diciotti and taken to Trapani, Sicily, after the intervention of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.

      On the contrary, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has declared Tuesday’s operation to be a victory for efforts to curb illegal immigration. The decision to take migrants back to Africa rather than transporting them to Europe reflects an accord between Italy and Libya that has greatly reduced the numbers of African migrants reaching Italian shores.

      Commenting on the news, Mr. Salvini tweeted: “The Libyan Coast Guard has rescued and taken back to land 611 immigrants in recent hours. The NGOs protest and the traffickers lose their business? Great, this is how we make progress,” followed by hashtags announcing “closed ports” and “open hearts.”

      Parliamentarian Nicola Fratoianni of the left-wing Liberi and Uguali (Free and Equal) party and secretary of the Italian Left, presently aboard the Spanish NGO ship Open Arms, denounced the move.

      “We do not yet know whether this operation was carried out on the instructions of the Italian Coast Guard, but if so it would be a very serious precedent, a real collective rejection for which Italy and the ship’s captain will answer before a court,” he said.

      “International law requires that people rescued at sea must be taken to a safe haven and the Libyan ports, despite the mystification of reality by the Italian government, cannot be considered as such,” he added.

      The United Nations immigration office (UNHCR) has threatened Italy for the incident involving the 108 migrants taken to Tripoli, insisting that Libya is not a safe port and that the episode could represent a breach of international law.

      “We are collecting all the necessary information,” UNHCR tweeted.

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/santiago-anti-abortion-women-stabbed-chile-protest-a8469786.html
      #refoulements #push-back

    • Libya rescued 10,000 migrants this year, says Germany

      Libyan coast guards have saved some 10,000 migrants at sea since the start of this year, according to German authorities. The figure was provided by the foreign ministry during a debate in parliament over what the Left party said were “inhumane conditions” of returns of migrants to Libya. Libyan coast guards are trained by the EU to stop migrants crossing to Europe.

      https://euobserver.com/tickers/142821

    • UNHCR Flash Update Libya (9 - 15 November 2018) [EN/AR]

      As of 14 November, the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) has rescued/intercepted 14,595 refugees and migrants (10,184 men, 2,147 women and 1,408 children) at sea. On 10 November, a commercial vessel reached the port of Misrata (187 km east of Tripoli) carrying 95 refugees and migrants who refused to disembark the boat. The individuals on board comprise of Ethiopian, Eritrean, South Sudanese, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Somali nationals. UNHCR is closely following-up on the situation of the 14 individuals who have already disembarked and ensuring the necessary assistance is provided and screening is conducted for solutions. Since the onset, UNHCR has advocated for a peaceful resolution of the situation and provided food, water and core relief items (CRIs) to alleviate the suffering of individuals onboard the vessel.

      https://reliefweb.int/report/libya/unhcr-flash-update-libya-9-15-november-2018-enar
      #statistiques #2018 #chiffres

    • Rescued at sea, locked up, then sold to smugglers

      In Libya, refugees returned by EU-funded ships are thrust back into a world of exploitation.

      The Souq al Khamis detention centre in Khoms, Libya, is so close to the sea that migrants and refugees can hear waves crashing on the shore. Its detainees – hundreds of men, women and children – were among 15,000 people caught trying to cross the Mediterranean in flimsy boats in 2018, after attempting to reach Italy and the safety of Europe.

      They’re now locked in rooms covered in graffiti, including warnings that refugees may be sold to smugglers by the guards that watch them.


      This detention centre is run by the UN-backed Libyan government’s department for combatting illegal migration (DCIM). Events here over the last few weeks show how a hardening of European migration policy is leaving desperate refugees with little room to escape from networks ready to exploit them.

      Since 2014, the EU has allocated more than €300 million to Libya with the aim of stopping migration. Funnelled through the Trust Fund for Africa, this includes roughly €40 million for the Libyan coast guard, which intercepts boats in the Mediterranean. Ireland’s contribution to the trust fund will be €15 million between 2016 and 2020.

      Scabies

      One of the last 2018 sea interceptions happened on December 29th, when, the UN says, 286 people were returned to Khoms. According to two current detainees, who message using hidden phones, the returned migrants arrived at Souq al Khamis with scabies and other health problems, and were desperate for medical attention.


      On New Year’s Eve, a detainee messaged to say the guards in the centre had tried to force an Eritrean man to return to smugglers, but others managed to break down the door and save him.

      On Sunday, January 5th, detainees said, the Libyan guards were pressurising the still-unregistered arrivals to leave by beating them with guns. “The leaders are trying to push them [to] get out every day,” one said.

      https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/rescued-at-sea-locked-up-then-sold-to-smugglers-1.3759181

    • Migranti, 100 persone trasferite su cargo e riportate in Libia. Alarm Phone: “Sono sotto choc, credevano di andare in Italia”

      Dopo l’allarme delle scorse ore e la chiamata del premier Conte a Tripoli, le persone (tra cui venti donne e dodici bambini, uno dei quali potrebbe essere morto di stenti) sono state trasferite sull’imbarcazione che batte bandiera della Sierra Leone in direzione Misurata. Ma stando alle ultime informazioni, le tensioni a bordo rendono difficoltoso lo sbarco. Intanto l’ong Sea Watch ha salvato 47 persone e chiede un porto dove attraccare

      https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/01/21/migranti-100-persone-trasferite-su-cargo-e-riportate-in-libia-alarm-phone-sono-sotto-choc-credevano-di-andare-in-italia/4911794

    • Migrants calling us in distress from the Mediterranean returned to Libya by deadly ‘refoulement’ industry

      When they called us from the sea, the 106 precarious travellers referred to their boat as a white balloon. This balloon, or rubber dinghy, was meant to carry them all the way to safety in Europe. The people on board – many men, about 20 women, and 12 children from central, west and north Africa – had left Khoms in Libya a day earlier, on the evening of January 19.

      Though they survived the night at sea, many of passengers on the boat were unwell, seasick and freezing. They decided to call for help and used their satellite phone at approximately 11am the next day. They reached out to the Alarm Phone, a hotline operated by international activists situated in Europe and Africa, that can be called by migrants in distress at sea. Alongside my work as a researcher on migration and borders, I am also a member of this activist network, and on that day I supported our shift team who received and documented the direct calls from the people on the boat in distress.

      The boat had been trying to get as far away as possible from the Libyan coast. Only then would the passengers stand a chance of escaping Libya’s coastguard. The European Union and Italy struck a deal in 2017 to train the Libyan coastguard in return for them stopping migrants reaching European shores. But a 2017 report by Amnesty International highlighted how the Libyan authorities operate in collusion with smuggling networks. Time and again, media reports suggest they have drastically violated the human rights of escaping migrants as well as the laws of the sea.

      The migrant travellers knew that if they were detected and caught, they would be abducted back to Libya, or illegally “refouled”. But Libya is a dangerous place for migrants in transit – as well as for Libyan nationals – given the ongoing civil conflict between several warring factions. In all likelihood, being sent back to Libya would mean being sent to detention centres described as “concentration-camp like” by German diplomats.

      The odds of reaching Europe were stacked against the people on the boat. Over the past year, the European-Libyan collaboration in containing migrants in North Africa, a research focus of mine, has resulted in a decrease of sea arrivals in Italy – from about 119,000 in 2017 to 23,000 in 2018. Precisely how many people were intercepted by the Libyan coastguards last year is unclear but the Libyan authorities have put the figure at around 15,000. The fact that this refoulement industry has led to a decrease in the number of migrant crossings in the central Mediterranean means that fewer people have been able to escape grave human rights violations and reach a place of safety.
      Shifting responsibility

      In repeated conversations, the 106 people on the boat made clear to the Alarm Phone activists that they would rather move on and endanger their lives by continuing to Europe than be returned by the Libyan coastguards. The activists stayed in touch with them, and for transparency reasons, the distress situation was made public via Twitter.

      Around noon, the situation on board deteriorated markedly and anxiety spread. With weather conditions worsening and after a boy had fallen unconscious, the people on the boat expressed for the first time their immediate fear of dying at sea and demanded Alarm Phone to alert all available authorities.

      The activists swiftly notified the Italian coastguards. But both the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, and in turn the Maltese authorities, suggested it was the Libyan coastguard’s responsibility to handle the distress call. And yet, eight different phone numbers of the Libyan coastguards could not be reached by the activists.

      In the afternoon, the situation had come across the radar of the Italian media. When the Alarm Phone activists informed the people on board that the public had also been made aware of the situation by the media one person succinctly responded: “I don’t need to be on the news, I need to be rescued.”

      And yet media attention catapulted the story into the highest political spheres in Italy. According to a report in the Italian national newspaper Corriere della Sera, the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, took charge of the situation, stating that the fate of the migrant boat could not be left to Alarm Phone activists. Conte instructed the Italian foreign intelligence service to launch rapid negotiations with the Libyan coastguards. It took some time to persuade them, but eventually, the Libyans were convinced to take action.

      In the meantime, the precarious passengers on the boat reported of water leaking into their boat, of the freezing cold, and their fear of drowning. The last time the Alarm Phone reached them, around 8pm, they could see a plane in the distance but were unable to forward their GPS coordinates to the Alarm Phone due to the failing battery of their satellite phone.
      Sent back to Libya

      About three hours later, the Italian coastguards issued a press release: the Libyans had assumed responsibility and co-ordinated the rescue of several boats. According to the press release, a merchant vessel had rescued the boat and the 106 people would be returned to Libya.

      According to the survivors and Médecins Sans Frontières who treated them on arrival, at least six people appeared to have drowned during the voyage – presumably after the Alarm Phone lost contact with them. Another boy died after disembarkation.

      A day later, on January 21, members of a second group of 144 people called the Alarm Phone from another merchant vessel. Just like the first group, they had been refouled to Libya, but they were still on board. Some still believed that they would be brought to Europe.

      Speaking on the phone with the activists, they could see land but it was not European but Libyan land. Recognising they’d been returned to their place of torment, they panicked, cried and threatened collective suicide. The women were separated from the men – Alarm Phone activists could hear them shout in the background. In the evening, contact with this second group of migrants was lost.

      During the evening of January 23, several of the women of the group reached out to the activists. They said that during the night, Libyan security forces boarded the merchant vessel and transported small groups into the harbour of Misrata, where they were taken to a detention centre. They said they’d been beaten when refusing to disembark. One of them, bleeding, feared that she had already lost her unborn child.

      On the next day, the situation worsened further. The women told the activists that Libyan forces entered their cell in the morning, pointing guns at them, after some of the imprisoned had tried to escape. Reportedly, every man was beaten. The pictures they sent to the Alarm Phone made it into Italian news, showing unhygienic conditions, overcrowded cells, and bodies with torture marks.

      Just like the 106 travellers on the “white balloon”, this second group of 144 people had risked their lives but were now back in their hell.
      Profiteering

      It’s more than likely that for some of these migrant travellers, this was not their first attempt to escape Libya. The tens of thousands captured at sea and returned over the past years have found themselves entangled in the European-Libyan refoulement “industry”. Due to European promises of financial support or border technologies, regimes with often questionable human rights records have wilfully taken on the role as Europe’s frontier guards. In the Mediterranean, the Libyan coastguards are left to do the dirty work while European agencies – such as Frontex, Eunavfor Med as well as the Italian and Maltese coastguards – have withdrawn from the most contentious and deadly areas of the sea.

      It’s sadly not surprising that flagrant human rights violations have become the norm rather than the exception. Quite cynically, several factions of the Libyan coastguards have profited not merely from Europe’s financial support but also from playing a “double game” in which they continue to be involved in human smuggling while, disguised as coastguards, clampdown on the trade of rival smuggling networks. This means that the Libyan coastguards profit often from both letting migrant boats leave and from subsequently recapturing them.

      The detention camps in Libya, where torture and rape are everyday phenomena, are not merely containment zones of captured migrants – they form crucial extortion zones in this refoulement industry. Migrants are turned into “cash cows” and are repeatedly subjected to violent forms of extortion, often forced to call relatives at home and beg for their ransom.

      Despite this systematic abuse, migrant voices cannot be completely drowned out. They continue to appear, rebelliously, from detention and even from the middle of the sea, reminding us all about Europe’s complicity in the production of their suffering.

      https://theconversation.com/migrants-calling-us-in-distress-from-the-mediterranean-returned-to-

    • Libya coast guard detains 113 migrants during lull in fighting

      The Libyan coast guard has stopped 113 migrants trying to reach Italy over the past two days, the United Nations said on Wednesday, as boat departures resume following a lull in fighting between rival forces in Libya.

      The western Libyan coast is a major departure point for mainly African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty and trying to reach Italy across the Mediterranean Sea with the help of human traffickers.

      Smuggling activity had slowed when forces loyal to military commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to take the capital Tripoli, home to Libya’s internationally recognized government.

      But clashes eased on Tuesday after a push by Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) back by artillery failed to make inroads toward the center.

      Shelling audible in central Tripoli was less intense on Wednesday than on previous days. Three weeks of clashes had killed 376 as of Tuesday, the World Health Organization said.

      The Libyan coast guard stopped two boats on Tuesday and one on Wednesday, carrying 113 migrants in all, and returned them to two western towns away from the Tripoli frontline, where they were put into detention centers, U.N. migration agency IOM said.

      A coast guard spokesman said the migrants were from Arab and sub-Saharan African countries as well as Bangladesh.

      Human rights groups have accused armed groups and members of the coast guard of being involved in human trafficking.

      Officials have been accused in the past of mistreating detainees, who are being held in their thousands as part of European-backed efforts to curb smuggling. A U.N. report in December referred to a “terrible litany” of violations including unlawful killings, torture, gang rape and slavery.

      Rights groups have also accused the European Union of complicity in the abuse as Italy and France have provided boats for the coast guard to step up patrols. That move has helped to reduce migrant departures.

      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-security/libya-coast-guard-detains-113-migrants-during-lull-in-fighting-idUSKCN1S73R

    • Judgement in Italy recognizes that people rescued by #Vos_Thalassa acted lawfully when opposed disembarkation in #Libya. Two men spent months in prison, as Italian government had wished, till a judge established that they had acted in legitimate defence.
      Also interesting that judge argues that Italy-Libya Bilateral agreement on migration control must be considered illegitimate as in breach of international, EU and domestic law.

      https://dirittopenaleuomo.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/GIP-Trapani.pdf

      Reçu via FB par @isskein :
      https://www.facebook.com/isabelle.saintsaens/posts/10218154173470834?comment_id=10218154180551011&notif_id=1560196520660275&n
      #justice

    • The Commission and Italy tie themselves up in knots over Libya

      http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-344-Commission-and-Italy-tie-themselves-up-in-knots-over-libya.pdf

      –-> analyse de #Yasha_Maccanico sur la polémique entre Salvini et la Commission quand il a déclaré en mars que la Commission était tout a fait d’accord avec son approche (le retour des migrants aux champs logiques), la Commission l’a démenti et puis a sorti la lettre de Mme. Michou (JAI Commission) de laquelle provenaient les justifications utilisées par le ministre, qui disait à Leggeri que la collaboration avec la garde côtière libyenne des avions européennes était legale. Dans la lettre, elle admit que les italiens et la mission de Frontex font des activités qui devrait être capable de faire la Libye, si sa zone SAR fuisse authentique et pas une manière pour l’UE de se débarrasser de ses obligations légales et humanitaires. C’est un acte de auto-inculpation pour l’UE et pour l’Italie.

    • Returned to War and Torture: Malta and Frontex coordinate push-back to Libya

      On Saturday, 14 March 2020, RCC Malta coordinated a push-back operation from the Maltese Search and Rescue (SAR) zone to Libya in cooperation with the EU border agency Frontex and the so-called Libyan coastguards.[1] Similar to the events we documented on 18 October 2019, the Maltese authorities instructed the so-called Libyan coastguards to enter a European SAR zone in order to abduct about 49 people and force them back to Libya.[2] Instead of complying with refugee and human rights conventions, the Maltese authorities coordinated a grave violation of international law and of the principle of non-refoulment, as the rescued must be disembarked in a safe harbour.[3] Clearly, Libya is not a safe harbour but a place of war and systemic human rights abuses. Every week, the Alarm Phone receives testimonies of torture, rape and other forms of violence against migrants detained in Libyan camps and prisons.

      On the same day, we alerted the Armed Forces of Malta to a second boat in distress in the Maltese SAR zone with 112 people on board.[4] Before their eventual rescue, the people spent about 48 hours at sea. Malta delayed the rescue for more than 18 hours, putting 112 lives at severe risk. Non-assistance, delays, and pushbacks are becoming the norm in the Central Mediterranean, causing trauma in survivors, disappearances and deaths, both at sea and in Libya.

      Europe continues to delegate border enforcement to the Libyan authorities to evade their responsibility to rescue the distressed to Europe. We hold Europe accountable for the abuses and suffering inflicted on migrants at sea and in Libya. We condemn the role of European institutions and member states, including Malta and Italy, in these human rights violations through bilateral agreements as well as the financing, equipping, and training of the so-called Libyan coastguards.

      Summary of the push-back by proxy case:

      On Saturday 14 March 2020, at 15:33h CET, the Alarm Phone received a distress call from 49 people, including one pregnant woman and three children, who were trying to escape from the war in Libya. They had left Tripoli the evening before on a white fiberglass boat. They shared their GPS position with us, which clearly showed them within the Maltese SAR zone (34° 26′ 39 ” N, 14° 07′ 86″ E, at 15:33h). The people on board told us that they had lost their engine and that water was entering the boat. We immediately informed RCC Malta and the Italian coastguard via email. We received updated GPS positions from the people in distress at 16:22h (34° 26 81′ N, 014° 08′ 56″ E) and at 17:07h (N 34° 27′ 12″, E 014° 09′ 37″), both confirming once more that they were drifting within the Maltese SAR zone.

      At 17:42h, RCC Malta confirmed via phone that they had sent two patrol boats for the two SAR events in the Maltese SAR zone to which we had alerted them: one for the boat of 49 people and another one for the rubber boat with 112 people on board. Soon after, at 17:45h, we talked to the 49 people on the boat who told us that they could see a boat heading in their direction. Unfortunately, the conversation broke off and we were not able to clarify further details. This was our last contact to the people in distress after which we could not reach them any longer. Since then, we have tried to obtain further details from RCC Malta, but they claim to not have any information.

      However, confidential sources have informed us that a Frontex aerial asset had spotted the migrant boat already at 6:00h when it was still in the contested Libyan SAR zone. At 18.04h, the Libyan coastguard vessel Ras Al Jadar intercepted the boat in the Maltese SAR zone at the position N34° 26’, E 14° 07’. This means that the European border agency Frontex, MRCC Rome as well as RCC Malta were all aware of this boat in distress and colluded with the Libyan authorities to enter Maltese SAR and intercept the migrant boat.

      On Sunday 15 March 2020, at 7:00h, we were called by relatives of the people on board who told us that the people in distress had just informed them that they had been abducted by a Libyan vessel from within the Maltese SAR zone and returned to Libya, where, according to their testimonies, they were imprisoned and battered. In the afternoon, we were called by the people who were on the boat, and they testified that before the push-back occurred they saw a helicopter circling above them. About 30 minutes later, according to their testimonies, a vessel of the so-called Libyan coastguard arrived on scene. The people stated that the Libyan officers behaved brutally toward them, beating them repeatedly. They also stated that they were prevented from filming and documenting these abuses as their phones were confiscated. Moreover, the people reported that they had travelled together with another boat, a white rubber boat with around 60 people on board (including 7 women and 1 woman with a nine-month-old infant). Also this second boat[5] was intercepted and returned to Libya and its passengers experienced similar forms of violence and abuse.

      https://alarmphone.org/en/2020/03/15/returned-to-war-and-torture/?post_type_release_type=post

    • l’article relié est pris d’ici :

      https://www.sapiens.org/culture/globalization-downfall-gladstone-australia

      [...]

      Needless to say, there is a great deal of diversity in both the kinds of change being experienced in these places and the local reactions. To some, change offers job opportunities, peace, and improved infrastructure; to others, it means pollution, eviction, and a loss of livelihood. What all residents have in common is a loss of political autonomy. The decisions shaping their lives are being made further and further away from the specific locales where they live.

      One example from our research is a town in the Peruvian Andes where water was becoming scarce a few years ago. The locals suspected that a new mine was using their water, and they went to complain. However, the mining representatives claimed that it was not their fault and blamed global climate change for the erratic water supply. The question of who to blame and what to do suddenly became insurmountable for the townspeople. What could they do—send a worried email to then U.S. President Barack Obama and the Chinese government, urging them to curb greenhouse gas emissions? The gap was, naturally, too dizzying. Instead, some of them resorted to traditional healing rituals to placate the spirits regulating rain and meltwater. They trusted Pachamama, the goddess of Earth, more than their government or distant international organizations.

      Meanwhile in Lunsar, Sierra Leone, people were looking forward to job opportunities in a new mine (which, in any event, never opened) and a biofuel plantation (which did open). Globalization had brought them many benefits, notably an improved infrastructure. They relished the fact that, for the first time, they could buy bread from a roadside vendor that wasn’t covered in dust, since the road had finally been paved. But even in the midst of some positive outcomes, rapid change is creating discontent and frictions, not least over property rights. In traditional African societies, land was not considered property and could not be traded: It was allocated by the chief, used as a common resource available to all, or cultivated according to customary law. More recently, land has been privatized and turned into a form of capital, and suddenly, boundaries need to be drawn in an unequivocal way. Needless to say, these boundaries are contested.
      Various stakeholders try to work out a land dispute near Lunsar, Sierra Leone, in connection with a mining project.

      [...]

      In the mid-1800s, when Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto, capitalists were easily identifiable. They were typically men, and the property owner was the proverbial man in the top hat, with his waistcoat, paunch, cigar, and gold watch. Today, the situation is far more complicated since ownership structures are transnational, corporate, and complex. Even in democratic countries, where political leaders are elected, there is a widespread feeling that the “powers that be” are further away and less approachable than before, and that there is nowhere to go with your complaints. In other words, both the economy and politics are less manageable, more difficult to understand, and harder to effectively react to.

      There are alternatives to the current situation of powerlessness. One way to counter globalized power is to globalize the response by forging alliances between local community groups and transnational organizations that are capable of putting pressure on governments, public opinion, and corporations. This has been a successful strategy among feminists, trade unionists, and environmentalists in the recent past. Another option—an opposite yet complementary strategy—is to resist the forces that threaten to overrun and disempower local communities. One of the most striking examples of this strategy is the burgeoning support for locally grown food.

      Gladstone is unique compared to previously traditional societies in that it is enmeshed in the economic globalization, which makes the little man and woman even smaller than they used to be. The city’s rise to prosperity was indeed a result of globalization. Yet, the same forces may well cause its downfall. Crucially dependent on fossil fuels, the city may once again become a dusty backwater should the world find better energy solutions.

      Signs of the city’s vulnerability are already evident: Since coal and gas prices began largely declining in 2013, and then a major construction project ended in 2015, the city has seen an unprecedented rise in unemployment and a steep fall in real estate prices.

      [...]

  • La clé des champs
    http://www.laviedesidees.fr/La-cle-des-champs.html

    En Inde et au Sierra Leone, en Europe et au Mexique, dans la France des années 1970 et jusque dans la Tunisie révolutionnaire, partout on cherche à s’échapper de #prison. Comment se pense l’évasion, comment se prévoit-elle et que signifie-t-elle, pour celui qui la vit comme pour ceux qui la rêvent ?

    #Recensions

    / prison, #système_carcéral

  • It’s 34,361 and rising: how the List tallies Europe’s migrant bodycount.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/20/the-list-europe-migrant-bodycount

    30/04/18 2 N.N. (2 men) unknown bodies recovered in Gasr Garabulli (aka Castelverde) (LY) IOM Libya
    30/04/18 1 N.N. (woman) unknown body recovered on Tajoura beach (LY) IOM Libya
    30/04/18 6 N.N. (1 baby; 5 men) unknown bodies recovered in Zuwara (LY) IOM Libya
    30/04/18 1 N.N. (man) Algeria drowned trying to swim across the Kolpa River on Croatian-Slovenian border; 7 intercepted by police IOM Slovenia/TotSloveniaNews
    29/04/18 19 N.N. (1 man) Africa 16 drowned in shipwreck off Cap Falcon, Oran (DZ) on way to Spain; 3 missing, 19 rescued ObsAlgerie/Caminando/EFE/Réf/QUOTI/IOM
    25/04/18 17 N.N. Sub-Saharan Africa 5 drowned afer boat sank between Morocco and Spain near Alboran Island; 12 missing, 17 rescued ElDiario/Caminando/SalvaM/EuroPress
    22/04/18 11 N.N. (1 boy; 10 men) unknown drowned when rubber dinghy overturned in the Mediterranean Sea near Sabratha (LY); 83 rescued MEE/Reu./IOM Libya/JapanTimes
    20/04/18 1 N.N. (boy, 6 months) Eritrea strangled by desperate mother who hanged herself afterwards in Eckolstädt asylum centre (DE) Berliner Ztg/FR-th/OTZ
    20/04/18 1 Snaid Tadese (woman, 19) Eritrea suicide, strangled her baby and hanged herself out of despair in Eckolstädt asylum centre (DE) Berliner Ztg/FR-th/OTZ
    20/04/18 1 N.N. (man, 30) unknown electrocuted when he climbed on roof of freight train in depot outside Thessaloniki (GR) AP/NYTimes/MailOnline
    19/04/18 2 N.N. unknown died in accident in Horasan (TR) when smuggler driving their truck saw control point and panicked HurriyetDN/PrensaLat
    14/04/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown died of cardiac arrest, body found near border fence in Anyera in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (ES) FaroCeuta/APDHA/CeutaTV/IOM
    13/04/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown died of cardiac arrest, body found near border fence in Anyera in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (ES) FaroCeuta/APDHA/IOM/CeutaTV
    10/04/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown drowned in the Kolpa River near Črnomelj (SI) on border with Croatia IOM Slovenia/AFP
    09/04/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown drowned in the Kolpa River near Črnomelj (SI) on border with Croatia DELO/IOM Slovenia
    09/04/18 36 N.N. unknown 6 presumed drowned off coast of Houara 20 km south of Tangiers (MA); 30 missing, 10 survived EFE/Caminando/El Diario/IOM
    06/04/18 1 Omar “Susi” (boy, 16) Maghreb deliberately crushed by truck near Port of Ceuta (ES) after driver chased after refugees El Faro de Ceuta/Ceuta Actualidad/IOM
    06/04/18 1 N.N. (woman) unknown drowned, found on Jabonera beach in Tarifa, Cádiz (ES) Diario de Cádiz/IOM/EPress/EFE
    02/04/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown presumed drowned, body found 6 nautical miles northwest of Port of Bouzedjar in Ain Témouchent (DZ) Liberté/Ouest Tribune/IOM
    01/04/18 11 N.N. (1 man) unknown 4 drowned after boat capsized between Tangier (MA) and Tarifa (ES); 7 missing, 1 rescued Watch TheMed/IOM Spain/SalvaM/HinduTimes
    01/04/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown presumed drowned, body found near Habibas Islands off coast of Ain Témouchent (DZ) Réf/DK/OuestT/IOM
    01/04/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown presumed drowned, body found off coast of Al Hoceima (MA) EFE/IOM/YABI
    31/03/18 1 N.N. unknown presumed drowned, body found west of Sbiaat beach in Ain Témouchent (DZ) Réf/DK/OuestT/IOM
    30/03/18 17 N.N. unknown died in vehicle accident in province of Igdir province (TR) near border with Armenia; 33 survivors Reu./LV/IOM
    29/03/18 7 N.N. (7 men) unknown presumed drowned, unspecified location in the Strait of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain Caminando/IOM
    28/03/18 1 N.N. (boy, 16) Eritrea died in hospital in Lille after jumping from truck on motorway near Port of Calais (FR) CMS/Parisien/VoixDuNord/IOM
    24/03/18 1 N.N. (woman) unknown died of lack of access to medicines in hospital in Turin (IT) after being turned away on Italian-French border CDS/FrSoir/IOM
    22/03/18 1 N.N. (man, 22) Algeria stowaway, got stuck between 2 vehicles at Zeebrugge port (BE) while trying to get to Great Britain CMS
    20/03/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown presumed drowned, body found on shore of Tripoli (LY) IOM Libya
    18/03/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown drowned, body recovered on beach in Rota, Cádiz (ES) GuardiaCivil/EPress/IOM
    17/03/18 2 N.N. unknown died in vehicle acccident on highway near Xanthi (GR) near Bulgarian border; 7 survivors Reu./AP/IOM/ChNewsAsia
    17/03/18 19 N.N. (9 children) Afghanistan, Iraq 16 drowned after migrant boat capsized off coast of Agathonisi (GR); 3 missing, 3 rescued HellCoastG/IOM Greece/Reu./AP/ChNewsAsia
    16/03/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown presumed drowned, body found on beach in Tinajo, Lanzarote, Canary Islands (ES) EFE/La Provincia/IOM/VozDeL
    15/03/18 1 Mame Mbaye Ndiaye (man, 35) Senegal died of heart attack after police chased street vendor through Madrid (ES) until he collapsed LocalES/AfricaNews/TeleSur
    14/03/18 1 N.N. unknown went missing during rescue operation in the sea near Tangiers (MA); 9 rescued Watch TheMed
    13/03/18 1 Tesfalidet “Segen” Tesfon (man, 22) Eritrea died of tuberculosis and malnutrition after being rescued from boat; had been trapped in Libya for 18 months Proactiva/IOM/ANSA/Reu./LocalIT/HRW
    12/03/18 1 N.N. (man, ±30) unknown found dead in delta of the Evros River on Turkish-Greek border AP/MENAFN/IOM
    12/03/18 12 N.N. unknown found dead on sinking boat in the Alboran Sea between Morocco and Spain; 22 rescued Caminando Fronteras/IOM
    08/03/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown drowned, body recovered on beach in Rota, Cádiz, (ES) Guardia Civil/EPress/IOM
    06/03/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown drowned in the Evros River near Edirne (TR) near Greek border IOM Turkey/HurriyetDN
    03/03/18 23 N.N. (2 babies; 4 women; 17 men) Sub-Saharan Africa 2 found dead on boat, presumed drowned off coast of Libya; 21 missing, 30 survivors SOSMed/IOM/Reu.
    03/03/18 3 N.N. (2 women; 1 man) unknown drowned, bodies found off coast of Benzú in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (ES); 2 survivors UNHCR/Caminando Fronteras/IOM/El Periódico
    01/03/18 1 Lamin (man, 20) Sierra Leone died due to lack of medical care in Passau (DE), had previously been deported to Italy despite severe illness Matteo
    28/02/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown found dead by coast guard near Bouzedjar beach in Ain Témouchent (DZ) RadioAlg/IOM
    27/02/18 6 N.N. (4 children; 1 woman; 1 man) unknown died of hypothermia near the Mergasur River (IQ) close to Turkish border; 4 survivors Kurdistan24/DailySabah/IOM/Rudaw
    26/02/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown died of cardiac arrest, body found in Tarifa, Cádiz (ES) EPress/IOM/JuntaAndalucía
    25/02/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown presumed drowned, body found at Levante beach in Cádiz (ES) EPress/AndalucíaInfo/IOM/CostaCádiz
    21/02/18 2 N.N. (1 woman; 1 man) unknown presumed drowned, bodies found 25 nautical miles north of Béni-Saf in Ain Témouchent (DZ) SoirAlgerie/Algérie360/IOM/Réf
    18/02/18 2 N.N. unknown presumed drowned, bodies found 8 nautical miles north of Bouzedjar beach in Ain Témouchent DZ) Réflexion/IOM Algeria
    17/02/18 1 N.N. unknown drowned, body found 10 km off coast of Benabdelmalek Ramdane in Mostaganem (DZ) IOM Algeria/TheHuff
    16/02/18 1 N.N. unknown presumed drowned, body retrieved in Zawiyah (LY) IOM Libya
    16/02/18 1 N.N. unknown presumed drowned, body retrieved in Tripoli (LY) IOM Libya
    16/02/18 1 N.N. unknown presumed drowned, body found on Madagh beach, Aïn El Kerma, west of Oran (DZ) ElW/Réf/IOM
    15/02/18 11 N.N. unknown presumed drowned, bodies retrieved in Zuwara (LY) IOM Libya
    15/02/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown presumed drowned, body found on Bouzedjar beach in Ain Témouchent (DZ) AlgériePresse/QUOTI/Réf/IOM
    15/02/18 2 N.N. (2 men) unknown presumed drowned, bodies found on Andalouses beach, Bousfer, west of Oran (DZ) ElW/Réf/IOM
    14/02/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown presumed drowned, body found on Sbiaat beach in El Messaid, Ain Témouchent (DZ) RadioAlg/QUOTI/Réf/IOM
    14/02/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown presumed drowned, body found on Sassel beach near Ouled Boudjemaa, Ain Témouchent (DZ) RadioAlg/QUOTI/Réf/IOM
    14/02/18 19 N.N. (4 children; 1 woman; 14 men) Somalia, Eritrea died in vehicle accident 60 km southeast of Bani Walid (LY); 159 survivors DTM/NationalAE/Reu./MENAFN/IOM Libya
    13/02/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown drowned, body found at Sidi Mejdoub beach, west of Mostaganem (DZ) Alg24/IOM Algeria
    13/02/18 1 Ayse Abdulrezzak (woman, 37) Turkey drowned when boat sunk in the Evros River on Turkish-Greek border; teacher fleeing crackdown in Turkey Reu./TDEMD/IOMTurkey/TurkeyPurge/TRMinute
    13/02/18 1 Ibrahim Selim (boy, 3) Turkey missing after boat sunk in the Evros River on Turkish-Greek border; was fleeing post-coup crackdown in Turkey Reu./TDEMD/IOM Turkey/TurkeyPurge/TRMinute
    13/02/18 1 Aslı Doğan (woman, 27) Turkey missing after boat sunk in the Evros River on Turkish-Greek border; was fleeing post-coup crackdown in Turkey Reu./TDEMD/IOM Turkey/TurkeyPurge/TRMinute
    13/02/18 1 Fahrettin Dogan (man, 29) Turkey missing after boat sunk in the Evros River on Turkish-Greek border; was fleeing post-coup crackdown in Turkey Reu./TDEMD/IOM Turkey/TurkeyPurge/TRMinute
    13/02/18 1 Ugur Abdulrezzak (man, 39) Turkey missing after boat sunk in the Evros River on Turkish-Greek border; was fleeing post-coup crackdown in Turkey Reu./TDEMD/IOM Turkey/TurkeyPurge/TRMinute
    13/02/18 1 Halil Munir Abdulrezzak (boy, 3) Turkey drowned when boat sunk in the Evros River on Turkish-Greek border; son of teacher fleeing crackdown in Turkey Reu./TDEMD/IOM Turkey/TurkeyPurge/TRMinute
    13/02/18 1 Enes Abdulrezzak (boy, 11) Turkey drowned when boat sunk in the Evros River on Turkish-Greek border; son of teacher fleeing crackdown in Turkey Reu./TDEMD/IOM Turkey/TurkeyPurge/TRMinute
    12/02/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown drowned, body found near Port of Cabopino in Málaga (ES) Hoy/LV/Onda/IOM
    12/02/18 1 N.N. (girl) unknown presumed drowned, unspecified location in the Strait of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain Caminando/IOM
    11/02/18 5 N.N. unknown drowned, bodies found 22 miles off Cape of Three Forks in Nador (MA); 29 survivors Caminando/EPress/IOM
    11/02/18 1 N.N. unknown drowned, body found off Bahara beach, Ouled Boughalem, 90 km east of Mostaganem (DZ) ElW/AlgériePresse/IOM
    10/02/18 1 N.N. (man) unknown drowned, body found at Zeralda beach, near Algiers (DZ) Alg24/IOMAlgeria
    09/02/18 3 N.N. (3 men) unknown died of hypothermia, 27 miles off Alboran Island in Alboran Sea between Morocco and Spain; 32 survivors SalvaM/Caminando/IOM
    09/02/18 7 N.N. unknown presumed drowned, bodies retrieved in Zuwara (LY) IOM Libya
    08/02/18 1 N.N. unknown drowned, body found off Kaf Lasfer beach, between Sidi Lakhdar and Hadjadj, 36 km east of Mostaganem (DZ) ElW/Réf/IOM

  • Des tranchées de 1914 à Notre-Dame-des-Landes, gaz lacrymogène, des larmes en or, par Anna Feigenbaum (@mdiplo, mai 2018) https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2018/05/FEIGENBAUM/58627

    (…) Autre débouché prometteur pour l’industrie de la « douleur aveuglante et suffocante » : les colonies. En novembre 1933, sir Arthur Wauchope, le Haut-Commissaire britannique en Palestine, réclame sa part du produit miracle. Dans un courrier au bureau des colonies, il plaide : « Je considère que le gaz lacrymogène serait un agent hautement utile entre les mains des forces de police en Palestine pour disperser les rassemblement illégaux et les foules émeutières, particulièrement dans les rues tortueuses et étroites des vieux quartiers de la ville, où l’usage d’armes à feu peut provoquer des ricochets conduisant à des pertes disproportionnées en vies humaines. »

    Une demande similaire émane en 1935 de la Sierra Leone, où les administrateurs coloniaux sont confrontés à des grèves pour des augmentations de salaire. Puis c’est au tour de Ceylan, le futur Sri Lanka. Instruction est donnée au nouveau secrétaire d’État aux colonies britannique, Malcolm MacDonald, d’élaborer une politique globale du gaz lacrymogène. À cette fin, il dispose d’une liste recensant les lieux où cette arme a fait la preuve de son efficacité : en Allemagne, où elle a servi contre les grévistes de Hambourg en 1933 ; en Autriche, où elle a excellé contre les communistes en 1929 ; en Italie, où elle vient d’être incorporée à l’équipement de base des forces de l’ordre ; ou encore en France, où son usage est déjà banalisé.

    Durant cette période, le gaz lacrymogène devient pour les États un moyen privilégié de faire obstacle aux demandes de changement. Sa fonction bifide, à la fois physique (dispersion) et psychologique (démoralisation), paraît idéale pour contenir les tentatives de résistance aux mesures impopulaires. Comme, de surcroît, on peut désormais gazer en toute légalité des manifestants pacifiques ou passifs, les autorités n’ont plus à s’inquiéter des luttes collectives non violentes. Le « lacrymo » s’est imposé comme une arme multifonction capable non seulement de stopper une manifestation, mais aussi de saper toute forme de désobéissance civile.

    Cette fonction politique a perduré jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Alors que l’usage de toutes les armes chimiques est interdit par les traités internationaux dans le cadre des guerres, les forces de l’ordre restent, au niveau national, plus que jamais autorisées à déployer du gaz toxique sur les individus ou les cortèges de leur choix. Un policier peut ainsi arborer un atomiseur de gaz lacrymogène à sa ceinture, tandis qu’un militaire n’en a pas le droit. L’acceptation quasi unanime de cette incohérence contribue pour beaucoup à la florissante prospérité de l’industrie du maintien de l’ordre — et aux larmes des contestataires du monde entier.

  • No food, no water: African migrants recount terrifying Atlantic crossing

    Men rescued off Brazil after 35 days at sea tell of harrowing 3,000km journey on which some drank urine to survive.

    In the days after the food and water had run out, as the catamaran drifted helplessly in the Atlantic with a snapped mast and broken motor, there was nothing left to do but pray, said Muctarr Mansaray, 27.

    “I pray every day. I pray a lot at that particular moment. I don’t sleep at night,” he said.

    Mansaray and 24 other African migrants had set out from the African nation of Cape Verde in April, on what they were told by the two Brazilian crewmen would be a relatively quick and easy voyage to a new country where they hoped to find work.

    This weekend, they were rescued by fishermen 80 miles off the coast of Brazil, after an incredible 3,000km (1,864-mile) journey across the Atlantic.

    The men, from Senegal, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau had been at sea for 35 days – the last few days without food and water.

    Details have now begun to emerge of the men’s terrifying and chaotic voyage in a 12-metre catamaran barely big enough for them to squeeze on. When food and water ran out, some even drank sea water and urine.

    “After 35 days of journey in these conditions it is really lucky that nobody died,” said Luis Almeida, head of the federal police’s immigration department in São Luís, the capital of Maranhão state.

    “There was not a cabin for all of them, so they were exposed to a lot of sun and solar radiation during these 35 days,” he said. The rescued men were disorientated, dehydrated and some had problems seeing after so long exposed to the glare of sun reflected on the waves.

    Almeida said the case was unprecedented: African stowaways have been found on cargo ships in Maranhão ports before, but this was the first time a boatload of migrants had arrived in the state. The two Brazilians also on the boat were arrested for promoting illegal immigrations.

    The journey began in the island nation of Cape Verde, 400 miles west of Senegal.

    Mansaray, a Muslim from Freetown in Sierra Leone, had moved there five years ago to study science and technology with hopes of becoming a teacher. He studied for two years but was struggling to pay his university fees and working as a cellphone repairman.

    “They called me the cellphone doctor,” he told the Guardian by phone from São Luís.

    A friend who is a student in São Paulo told him he could study for free in Brazil’s biggest city and would be able to send money home to his elderly parents and sister in Freetown. “I said, cool, that’s why I got that boat,” he said.

    He said he had been introduced to a Brazilian on the street and then paid $700 (£521) for what he was told would be a 22-day passage.

    He became scared when he saw the size of the vessel he was about to cross the Atlantic on.

    “I am the last to arrive, when I enter on the boat, a lot of guys, oh my God, is this going to be safe all of us?” he said. “How can I do this journey? Because I am already in, I cannot discourage other people, so I find courage and go.”
    ‘The motor broke, and the sail broke’

    Others had paid more on the promise that they would be given food, but within 10 days the food had run out, so the men survived on two biscuits or a few spoonfuls of food each day. One day, one man caught a fish with a rope.

    “We boiled a fish, and everybody eat,” Mansaray said.

    But the mast snapped when one of the boat’s crew was trying to tie it to the other side of the boat, he said, and the motor would not work because the crew had mixed kerosene and diesel. A storm came as a relief because at least there was rainwater to drink.

    Elhadji Mountakha Beye, 36, was hit on the head when the mast broke and has been left with a scar. The mechanic from Dakar in Senegal had previously lived in Cape Verde, and paid €1,000 (£877) for his passage in the hope of finding work in Brazil where he hoped to meet up with a Senegalese friend in São Paulo. “There is better work there than in Senegal,” he said.

    He described a hellish journey.

    “It was tiring, there was no food, the food ran out, the water ran out,” he said. “Just on that sea. The motor broke, and the sail broke. Now just wait for someone to help us.”

    Just as the situation was becoming dire, the men aboard the drifting vessel spotted a fishing boat and signalled that they were in distress. The fishermen, from nearby Ceará state, towed the catamaran to the nearby port of São José de Ribamar.

    “The next day someone would have died,” Moisés dos Santos, one of the fishermen, told reporters when the men landed. “They said they ate two biscuits a day. They even drank urine, that’s what they say, they told us. We felt very honoured to save the lives of a lot of people.”

    The men were met by a medical team from the Maranhão state government’s secretariat of human rights, taken to a health post for checks and then housed in a local gymnasium.

    “All of them said life was precarious in their origin countries and they all have relatives or people they know living in Brazil. They were looking for a better life and to work in Brazil,” said Jonata Galvão, the state’s adjunct secretary for human rights.

    Federal police said they were now evaluating a “migratory solution” for the men to stay in Brazil.

    “We are not criminals. We are hard-working guys. So I believe that the government will help us to do that,” Mantsaray said. “It is my dream, and I believe my dream will come true with the help of God, and I can support my family back home.”

    This story was amended on 23 May 2018 to correct the length of the journey across the Atlantic. It is 3,000km, not 3,000 miles.


    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/22/african-migrant-brazil-boat-rescue-atlantic-crossing

    #parcours_migratoires #océan_atlantique #atlantique #Afrique #Afrique_de_l'Ouest #Brésil
    via @isskein

  • Les #gaz_lacrymogènes : dangereux pour la #santé, mais... silence d’#État !
    https://reporterre.net/Les-gaz-lacrymogenes-dangereux-pour-la-sante-mais-silence-d-Etat

    L’usage de ces gaz lacrymogènes a été interdit en temps de guerre par la Convention internationale sur les armes chimiques de #Genève, en 1993. Quoique bannie des conflits militaires, cette arme reste curieusement autorisée contre les manifestants #civils, pour mater des #conflits intérieurs, en situation de guerre sociale « domestique ». En France, en avril 2015, le Défenseur des droit relevait dans un rapport que « la police allemande n’utilise pas de gaz lacrymogène, considérant que des personnes non agressives ou non violentes pourraient en subir les effets indûment ».

    Un article paru en 2016 dans les Annales de la New York Academy of Sciences explique que des études prouvent que le gaz lacrymogène peut « occasionner des dégâts durables, pulmonaires, cutanés et oculaires, avec des risques élevés de complications pour les individus affectés par des morbidités chroniques ». L’étude souligne que par manque de financement public, très peu de recherches épidémiologiques ont été menées sur le spectre des effets sanitaires occasionnés par cette arme antiémeute. Ce qui « handicape la connaissance médicale des effets à long terme et le développement de traitements et contre-mesures ». L’article qui s’attache principalement aux lacrymogènes utilisés aux États-Unis fait état de grenades type composées de 45 % d’agent CS, de 30 % de chlorate de potassium, de 14 % de résine époxy, de 7 % anhydride maléique, 3 % d’anhydride méthylnadique, et de 0,03 % de mélange résiduel. Rien ne dit que les fabricants français Nobel Spsrt et Alsetex livrent le même cocktail, mais on serait en droit de la savoir.

    • https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2018/05/FEIGENBAUM/58627
      "Dispersion et démoralisation
      Une demande similaire émane en 1935 de la Sierra Leone, où les administrateurs coloniaux sont confrontés à des grèves pour des augmentations de salaire. Puis c’est au tour de Ceylan, le futur Sri Lanka. Instruction est donnée au nouveau secrétaire d’État aux colonies britannique, Malcolm MacDonald, d’élaborer une politique globale du gaz lacrymogène. À cette fin, il dispose d’une liste recensant les lieux où cette arme a fait la preuve de son efficacité : en Allemagne, où elle a servi contre les grévistes de Hambourg en 1933 ; en Autriche, où elle a excellé contre les communistes en 1929 ; en Italie, où elle vient d’être incorporée à l’équipement de base des forces de l’ordre ; ou encore en France, où son usage est déjà banalisé.

      Durant cette période, le gaz lacrymogène devient pour les États un moyen privilégié de faire obstacle aux demandes de changement. Sa fonction bifide, à la fois physique (dispersion) et psychologique (démoralisation), paraît idéale pour contenir les tentatives de résistance aux mesures impopulaires. Comme, de surcroît, on peut désormais gazer en toute légalité des manifestants pacifiques ou passifs, les autorités n’ont plus à s’inquiéter des luttes collectives non violentes. Le « lacrymo » s’est imposé comme une arme multifonction capable non seulement de stopper une manifestation, mais aussi de saper toute forme de désobéissance civile.

      Cette fonction politique a perduré jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Alors que l’usage de toutes les armes chimiques est interdit par les traités internationaux dans le cadre des guerres, les forces de l’ordre restent, au niveau national, plus que jamais autorisées à déployer du gaz toxique sur les individus ou les cortèges de leur choix. Un policier peut ainsi arborer un atomiseur de gaz lacrymogène à sa ceinture, tandis qu’un militaire n’en a pas le droit. L’acceptation quasi unanime de cette incohérence contribue pour beaucoup à la florissante prospérité de l’industrie du maintien de l’ordre — et aux larmes des contestataires du monde entier."

  • Nouveau manuel d’histoire pour l’#Afrique_de_l’ouest

    Aujourd’hui est lancé à Banjul (Gambie) un nouveau manuel d’histoire pour les élèves anglophones ouest-africains qui passent l’examen du certificat de fin d’études secondaires d’Afrique de l’Ouest (WASSCE). Que ce soit en Gambie, au Ghana, au Liberia, au Nigeria ou en Sierra Leone, tous les élèves ont en commun la moitié du programme scolaire d’histoire, l’autre partie étant réservée à l’histoire nationale de chaque pays.

    http://libeafrica4.blogs.liberation.fr/2018/03/25/nouveau-manuel-dhistoire-pour-lafrique-de-louest

    #manuel_d'histoire #histoire #éducation #historicisation #Afrique

    • History #Textbook. West African Senior School Certificate Examination

      This website hosts a textbook aimed at West African students taking West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) History Paper 1, “West Africa and the Wider World from Earliest Times to 2000”. This free resource covers all the current syllabus, as well as including two chapters (11. Women, Gender and Political Authority; 12. The Environment in West African History) which – it is hoped – might be later added. The authors hope that this content will allow secondary school students to gain a good overview of West African history as their syllabus defines it, and at the same time contribute to new debates.


      https://wasscehistorytextbook.wordpress.com

  • Du Macron à toutes les pages !
    Du Macron à tous les étages
    http://dive.blogs.sudouest.fr/archive/2018/03/07/du-macron-a-toutes-les-pages-1063434.html

    Une lecture attentive du « Monde » de ce soir donne un bon aperçu de la place que tient Emmanuel Macron dans l’actualité. C’est bien simple : on le retrouve à presque toutes les rubriques.

    Après un « appel de une » sur « le plan Macron pour désengorger les prisons », on apprend en page internationale que le « Macron de Sierra Leone » est « en lice pour le pouvoir » (page 6).

    Dans la double page politique, pourtant consacrée à Marine Le Pen et aux sondages (peu flatteurs) qui la concernent, les partisans du président réussissent à se faufiler : il s’avère que « les marcheurs bousculent les structures de l’opinion » (page 8).

    Puis arrive une autre double page (12 et 13), cette fois consacrée au « plan Macron pour réformer le recours à la prison », suite aux annonces faites la veille à Agen par le chef de l’Etat.

    Rien en page sportive, dominée par les déboires du PSG. Macron ne peut pas lutter avec la cheville de Neymar. On pourrait donc croire que c’est terminé, mais non !

    En page Culture, grande interview de Stéphane Bern, chargé par Macron d’une mission sur le patrimoine. Et petit article sur « le chantier du président », qui a décidé de réhabiliter le château de Villers-Cotterêts pour en faire un haut-lieu de la francophonie (page 18).

    Même en page Style, notre jeune président trouve encore le moyen d’apparaitre. « Devine qui était au dîner des Macron » est le titre d’un article consacré à la réception de créateurs de mode par le couple présidentiel (page 22). Plus modeste que Le Figaro, qui a consacré une pleine page, avec grande photo, à ce dîner.

    L’éditorial (page 25) est bien entendu consacré à « la nécessaire réforme des prisons » de Macron.

    A lire ou à simplement regarder tous ces articles, on ne peut que donner raison à Nicolas Sarkozy, dont un petit encadré rapporte en page politique (page 10) qu’il « met en garde Macron » sur la réforme constitutionnelle : « On parlait, me concernant, de l’omniprésident, ironisait-il devant les sénateurs qui le recevaient mardi. Apparemment, j’ai fait école ».

    Bruno Dive

  • No 24 months in this camp ! Stop deportations ! #Deggendorf transit camp protest 20 Dec 2017

    Demonstration 20 December 2017, Deggendorf transit camp
    Bavaria, Germany

    No 24 months in this camp! Stop deportations! No to racism and torture of migrants!

    On Friday 15th December 2017 around 200 people from Sierra Leone – women, men and children – started a ’strike of closed doors’ in the Deggendorf transit camp against the inhumane conditions and against rejections and deportations. On Wednesday 20th December their protest was joined by other refugees/migrants in the Deggendorf camp, refugees/migrants from other Bavarian camps – of different West African, Arab and Caucasian nationalities – and by activist groups.

    The peaceful protest marched across the town of Deggendorf in six hours, visiting key institutions: The BAMF (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees), via the Landratsamt (Foreigners’ Office), town hall, city center, the Caritas office and police station.

    The protesters objected the ongoing deportations and massive rejections of their asylum applications and the lack of medical care, the miserable hygienic conditions, lack of privacy and the bad quality of the food in the camp as well as the denial of normal schooling and work permits. They refused the new policy to keep people in the transit camp for up to 24 months.

    Since July 2017 a new German law (#Gesetz_zur_besseren_Durchsetzung_der_Ausreisepflicht) has given the Bavarian state the possibility to imprison people in integrated „reception“ and deportation facilities under one roof. In these factual deportation camps Bavaria accomodates asylum seekers from countries with less than 50 % approval rate, that is, from most countries of origin. Basic rights violations in these camps include: Inhabitants are not allowed to leave the town limits without a special permission, not allowed to work nor study, nor are entitled to social support or normal medical care. This system of segregation and quasi-imprisonment has sparked several protests in the Bavarian camps.

    The initial group of Sierra Leoneans in Deggendorf had gone on hunger strike on Saturday 16th December, after starting the ’strike of closed doors’ on Friday 15th December. In protest, the children and young people were refusing to attend the German class in the camp as access to regular educational institutions was denied from them. Adults stayed in the accommodation and refused to work in the 80 cents jobs. The protest began after the violent deportation of a man from Sierra Leone on the morning of 15th December, which had been stopped in the last minute at the airport.

    https://vimeo.com/248613638


    #camp_de_transit #centre_de_transit #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Allemagne #démonstration #manifestation #résistance #Sierra_Leone #camps #détention_administrative #rétention #renvois #expulsions #grève_de_la_faim

    v. aussi :
    http://cultureofdeportation.org/2017/12/24/en-no-24-months

  • Mortalité infantile en Norvège comparée à celle de Centrafrique : une illustration de l’énormité des écarts de développement (géographie du vide, géographie du plein aussi dans une certaine mesure)

    La mortalité infantile (enfants de moins de un an) au Tchad, Centrafrique, Sierra Leone, Centrafrique, Lesotho et RDC est en 2017 (environ 80 pour 1 000) au même niveau que celui de la Norvège en 1900

    Source : https://www.ssb.no/helse/artikler-og-publikasjoner/100-aar-med-redusert-spedbarnsdodelighet - 100 år med redusert spedbarnsdødelighet (Un siècle de réduction de la mortalité infantile)

    #santé #démographie #mortalité_infantile #inégalité

  • 10 reasons why borders should be opened | #François_Gemenne | TEDxLiège
    https://www.youtube.com/embed/RRcZUzZwZIw
    #frontières #ouverture_des_frontières #migrations #asile #réfugiés #libre_circulation

    Les raisons :
    1. raisons humanitaires
    2. raison pragmatique pour combattre les passeurs et les trafiquants
    3. car les fermer, c’est inutile et inefficace
    4. raison économique
    5. pour contrer la migration illégale
    6. raison sociale : moins de travailleurs travaillant en dessous du minimum salarial
    7. raison financière : les frontières fermées sont un gaspillage d’argent
    8. raison #éthique : déclaration universellle des droits de l’homme (art. 13) —>jamais implementé à cause des frontières fermées... c’est quoi le point de quitter un pays si on ne peut pas entrer dans un autre ? En ouvrant les frontières, on reconnaîtrait que la migration est un droit humain —> c’est un projet de #liberté
    9. raison éthique : #injustice dans le fait que le destin d’une personne est déterminée par l’endroit où elle est née —> ouverture des frontières = projet d’#égalité
    10. raison éthique : nous sommes coincés par un « paradigme d’immobilité » (migration est un phénomène structurel et fondamental dans un monde globalisé). On continue à penser aux frontières comme à un manière de séparer « nous » de « eux » comme si ils n’étaient pas une humanité, mais seulement une addition de « nous » et « eux » #cosmopolitisme #fraternité #TedX

    • zibarre cte article !

      Exemple : moins de travailleurs travaillant en dessous du minimum salarial  ? ? ? ? ? ?
      L’exemple des travailleurs détachés, travaillant en dessous du minimum salarial, en France c’est bien la conséquence de l’ouverture des frontières ! Non ?

      L’importation d’#esclaves étrangers n’était pas suffisante pour l’#union_européenne.

      Je suppose que pour #François_Gemenne la fraude fiscale internationale est une bonne chose. L’importation des #OGM, des médicaments frelatés, et autres #glyphosates, aussi.

    • Ouvrir les frontières aux humains, une évidence. Comparer ça aux effets de la directive Bolkestein est scandaleux et amoral. #seenthis permet l’effacement des messages, n’hésitez pas.

    • Sur cette question d’ouverture de frontières, il y a aussi un livre d’éthique que je recommande :


      http://www.ppur.org/produit/810/9782889151769

      Dont voici un extrait en lien avec la discussion ci-dessus :

      « La discussion sur les bienfaits économiques de l’immigration est souvent tronquée par le piège du gâteau. Si vous invitez plus de gens à votre anniversaire, la part moyenne du gâteau va rétrécir. De même, on a tendance à penser que si plus de participants accèdent au marché du travail, il en découlera forcément une baisse des salaires et une réduction du nombre d’emplois disponible.
      Cette vision repose sur une erreur fondamentale quant au type de gâteau que représente l’économie, puisque, loin d’être de taille fixe, celui-ci augmente en fonction du nombre de participants. Les immigrants trouvant un travail ne osnt en effet pas seulement des travailleurs, ils sont également des consommateurs. Ils doivent se loger, manger, consommer et, à ce titre, leur présence stimule la croissance et crée de nouvelles opportunités économiques. Dans le même temps, cette prospérité économique provoque de nouvelles demandes en termes de logement, mobilité et infrastructure.
      L’immigration n’est donc pas comparable à une fête d’anniversaire où la part de gâteau diminuerait sans cesse. La bonne image serait plutôt celle d’un repas canadien : chacun apporte sa contribution personnelle, avant de se lancer à la découverte de divers plats et d’échanger avec les autres convives. Assis à cette table, nous sommes à la fois contributeurs et consommateurs.
      Cette analogie du repas canadien nous permet d’expliquer pourquoi un petit pays comme la Suisse n’a pas sombré dans la pauvreté la plus totale suite à l’arrivée de milliers d’Européens. Ces immigrants n’ont pas fait diminuer la taille du gâteau, ils ont contribué à la prospérité et au festin commun. L’augmentation du nombre de personnes actives sur le marché du travail a ainsi conduit à une forte augmentation du nombre d’emplois à disposition, tout en conservant des salaires élevés et un taux de chômage faible.
      Collectivement, la Suisse ressort clairement gagnante de cette mobilité internationale. Ce bénéfice collectif ’national’ ne doit cependant pas faire oublier les situations difficiles. Les changements induits par l’immigration profitent en effet à certains, tandis que d’autres se retrouvent sous pression. C’est notamment le cas des travailleurs résidents dont l’activité ou les compétences sont directement en compétition avec les nouveaux immigrés. Cela concerne tout aussi bien des secteurs peu qualifiés (par exemple les anciens migrants actifs dans l’hôtellerie) que dans les domaines hautement qualifiés (comme le management ou la recherche).
      Sur le plan éthique, ce constat est essentiel car il fait clairement apparaître deux questions distinctes. D’une part, si l’immigration profite au pays en général, l’exigence d’une répartition équitable des effets positifs et négatifs de cette immigration se pose de manière aiguë. Au final, la question ne relève plus de la politique migratoire, mais de la redistribution des richesses produites. Le douanier imaginaire ne peut donc se justifier sous couvert d’une ’protection’ générale de l’économie.
      D’autre part, si l’immigration met sous pression certains travailleurs résidents, la question de leur éventuelle protection doit être posée. Dans le débat public, cette question est souvent présentée comme un choix entre la défense de ’nos pauvres’ ou de ’nos chômeurs’ face aux ’immigrés’. Même si l’immigration est positive pour la collectivité, certains estiment que la protection de certains résidents justifierait la mise en œuvre de politiques migratoires restrictives. »

    • « Bart De Wever a raison : il faut discuter de l’ouverture des frontières », pour François Gemenne

      La tribune publiée ce mercredi dans De Morgen par le président de la N-VA est intéressante – stimulante, oserais-je dire – à plus d’un titre. En premier lieu parce qu’elle fait de l’ouverture des frontières une option politique crédible. Jusqu’ici, cette option était gentiment remisée au rayon des utopies libérales, des droits de l’Homme laissés en jachère. En l’opposant brutalement et frontalement à la préservation de la sécurité sociale, Bart De Wever donne une crédibilité nouvelle à l’ouverture des frontières comme projet politique. Surtout, elle place la question de la politique migratoire sur le terrain idéologique, celui d’un projet de société articulé autour de la frontière.

      La tribune publiée ce mercredi dans De Morgen par le président de la N-VA est intéressante – stimulante, oserais-je dire – à plus d’un titre. En premier lieu parce qu’elle fait de l’ouverture des frontières une option politique crédible. Jusqu’ici, cette option était gentiment remisée au rayon des utopies libérales, des droits de l’Homme laissés en jachère. En l’opposant brutalement et frontalement à la préservation de la sécurité sociale, Bart De Wever donne une crédibilité nouvelle à l’ouverture des frontières comme projet politique. Surtout, elle place la question de la politique migratoire sur le terrain idéologique, celui d’un projet de société articulé autour de la frontière.
      L’ouverture des frontières menace-t-elle la sécurité sociale ?

      Bart De Wever n’a pas choisi De Morgen, un quotidien de gauche, par hasard : pour une partie de la gauche, les migrations restent perçues comme des chevaux de Troie de la mondialisation, qui annonceraient le démantèlement des droits et acquis sociaux. Et l’ouverture des frontières est dès lors vue comme un projet néo-libéral, au seul bénéfice d’un patronat cupide à la recherche de main-d’œuvre bon marché. En cela, Bart De Wever, au fond, ne dit pas autre chose que Michel Rocard, qui affirmait, le 3 décembre 1989 dans l’émission Sept sur Sept, que « nous ne pouvons pas héberger toute la misère du monde » (1). Ce raisonnement, qui semble a priori frappé du sceau du bon sens, s’appuie en réalité sur deux erreurs, qui le rendent profondément caduc.

      Tout d’abord, les migrants ne représentent pas une charge pour la sécurité sociale. Dans une étude de 2013 (2) qui fait référence, l’OCDE estimait ainsi que chaque ménage immigré rapportait 5560 euros par an au budget de l’Etat. Dans la plupart des pays de l’OCDE, les migrants rapportent plus qu’ils ne coûtent : en Belgique, leur apport net représente 0.76 % du PIB. Et il pourrait être encore bien supérieur si leur taux d’emploi se rapprochait de celui des travailleurs nationaux : le PIB belge bondirait alors de 0.9 %, selon l’OCDE. Si l’immigration rapporte davantage qu’elle ne coûte, c’est avant tout parce que les migrants sont généralement beaucoup plus jeunes que la population qui les accueille. Il ne s’agit pas de nier ici le coût immédiat qu’a pu représenter, ces dernières années, l’augmentation du nombre de demandeurs d’asile, qui constituent une catégorie de particulière de migrants. Mais ce coût doit être vu comme un investissement : à terme, une vraie menace pour la sécurité sociale, ce serait une baisse drastique de l’immigration.
      Lien entre migration et frontière

      La deuxième erreur du raisonnement de Bart De Wever est hélas plus répandue : il postule que les frontières sont un instrument efficace de contrôle des migrations, et que l’ouverture des frontières amènerait donc un afflux massif de migrants. Le problème, c’est que les migrations ne dépendent pas du tout du degré d’ouverture ou de fermeture des frontières : croire cela, c’est méconnaître profondément les ressorts de la migration. Jamais une frontière fermée n’empêchera la migration, et jamais une frontière ouverte ne la déclenchera. Mais le fantasme politique est tenace, et beaucoup continuent à voir dans la frontière l’instrument qui permet de réguler les migrations internationales. C’est un leurre absolu, qui a été démonté par de nombreux travaux de recherche, à la fois sociologiques, historiques et prospectifs (3). L’Europe en a sous les yeux la démonstration éclatante : jamais ses frontières extérieures n’ont été aussi fermées, et cela n’a pas empêché l’afflux de migrants qu’elle a connu ces dernières années. Et à l’inverse, quand les accords de Schengen ont ouvert ses frontières intérieures, elle n’a pas connu un afflux massif de migrants du Sud vers le Nord, ni de l’Est vers l’Ouest, malgré des différences économiques considérables. L’ouverture des frontières n’amènerait pas un afflux massif de migrations, ni un chaos généralisé. Et à l’inverse, la fermeture des frontières n’empêche pas les migrations : elle les rend plus coûteuses, plus dangereuses et plus meurtrières. L’an dernier, ils ont été 3 116 à périr en Méditerranée, aux portes de l’Europe. Ceux qui sont arrivés en vie étaient 184 170 : cela veut dire que presque 2 migrants sur 100 ne sont jamais arrivés à destination.
      La frontière comme projet

      Ce qui est à la fois plus inquiétant et plus intéressant dans le propos de Bart De Wever, c’est lorsqu’il définit la frontière comme une « communauté de responsabilité », le socle de solidarité dans une société. En cela, il rejoint plusieurs figures de la gauche, comme Hubert Védrine ou Régis Debray, qui fut le compagnon de route de Che Guevara.

      Nous ne sommes plus ici dans la logique managériale « entre humanité et fermeté » qui a longtemps prévalu en matière de gestion des migrations, et dont le seul horizon était la fermeture des frontières. Ici, c’est la frontière elle-même qui définit le contour du projet de société.

      En cela, le propos de Bart De Wever épouse une fracture fondamentale qui traverse nos sociétés, qui divise ceux pour qui les frontières représentent les scories d’un monde passé, et ceux pour qui elles constituent une ultime protection face à une menace extérieure. Cette fracture, c’est la fracture entre souverainisme et cosmopolitisme, qu’a parfaitement incarnée la dernière élection présidentielle française, et dont la frontière est devenue le totem. Ce clivage entre souverainisme et cosmopolitisme dépasse le clivage traditionnel entre gauche et droite, et doit aujourd’hui constituer, à l’évidence, un axe de lecture complémentaire des idéologies politiques.

      La question des migrations est un marqueur idéologique fondamental, parce qu’elle interroge notre rapport à l’autre : celui qui se trouve de l’autre côté de la frontière est-il un étranger, ou est-il l’un des nôtres ?

      La vision du monde proposée par le leader nationaliste flamand est celle d’un monde où les frontières sépareraient les nations, et où les migrations seraient une anomalie politique et un danger identitaire. Cette vision est le moteur du nationalisme, où les frontières des territoires correspondraient à celles des nations.

      En face, il reste un cosmopolitisme à inventer. Cela nécessitera d’entendre les peurs et les angoisses que nourrit une partie de la population à l’égard des migrations, et de ne pas y opposer simplement des chiffres et des faits, mais un projet de société. Un projet de société qui reconnaisse le caractère structurel des migrations dans un 21ème siècle globalisé, et qui reconnaisse l’universalisme comme valeur qui puisse rassembler la gauche et la droite, de Louis Michel à Alexis Deswaef.

      Et on revient ici à l’ouverture des frontières, qui constitue à mon sens l’horizon possible d’un tel projet. Loin d’être une utopie naïve, c’est le moyen le plus pragmatique et rationnel de répondre aux défis des migrations contemporaines, de les organiser au bénéfice de tous, et de mettre un terme à la fois aux tragédies de la Méditerranée et au commerce sordide des passeurs.

      Mais aussi, et surtout, c’est un projet de liberté, qui matérialise un droit fondamental, la liberté de circulation. C’est aussi un projet d’égalité, qui permet de réduire (un peu) l’injustice fondamentale du lieu de naissance. Et c’est enfin un projet de fraternité, qui reconnaît l’autre comme une partie intégrante de nous-mêmes.

      (1) La citation n’est pas apocryphe : la suite de la phrase a été ajoutée bien plus tard. (2) « The fiscal impact of immigration in OECD countries », International Migration Outlook 2013, OCDE.

      (3) Voir notamment le projet de recherche MOBGLOB : http://www.sciencespo.fr/mobglob

      http://plus.lesoir.be/136106/article/2018-01-25/bart-de-wever-raison-il-faut-discuter-de-louverture-des-frontieres-pour-
      #sécurité_sociale #frontières

    • "Fermer les frontières ne sert à rien"

      Est-il possible de fermer les frontières ? Dans certains discours politiques, ce serait la seule solution pour mettre à l’immigration illégale. Mais dans les faits, est-ce réellement envisageable, et surtout, efficace ? Soir Première a posé la question à François Gemenne, chercheur et enseignant à l’ULG et à Science Po Paris, ainsi qu’à Pierre d’Argent, professeur de droit international à l’UCL.

      Pour François Gemenne, fermer les frontières serait un leurre, et ne servirait à rien : « Sauf à tirer sur les gens à la frontière, dit-il, ce n’est pas ça qui ralentirait les migrations. Les gens ne vont pas renoncer à leur projet de migration parce qu’une frontière est fermée. On en a l’illustration sous nos yeux. Il y a des centaines de personnes à Calais qui attendent de passer vers l’Angleterre alors que la frontière est fermée. L’effet de la fermeture des frontières, ça rend seulement les migrations plus coûteuses, plus dangereuses, plus meurtrières. Et ça crée le chaos et la crise politique qu’on connait actuellement ».

      Pour lui, c’est au contraire l’inverse qu’il faudrait envisager, c’est-à-dire les ouvrir. « C’est une question qu’on n’ose même plus aborder dans nos démocraties sous peine de passer pour un illuminé, et pourtant il faut la poser ! L’ouverture des frontières permettrait à beaucoup de personnes qui sont en situation administrative irrégulière, c’est-à-dire les sans-papiers, de rentrer chez eux. Ca permettrait beaucoup plus d’aller-retour, mais aussi, paradoxalement, de beaucoup mieux contrôler qui entre et qui sort sur le territoire ». Il explique également que cela neutraliserait le business des passeurs : « C’est parce que les gens sont prêts à tout pour franchir les frontières que le business des passeurs prospère. Donc, il y a une grande hypocrisie quand on dit qu’on veut lutter contre les passeurs, et qu’en même temps on veut fermer les frontières ».
      Des frontières pour rassurer ceux qui vivent à l’intérieur de celles-ci

      Pierre d’Argent rejoint François Gemenne dans son analyse. Mais sur la notion de frontière, il insiste un point : « Les frontières servent aussi, qu’on le veuille ou non, à rassurer des identités collectives au niveau interne. La frontière définit un corps collectif qui s’auto-détermine politiquement, et dire cela, ce n’est pas nécessairement rechercher une identité raciale ou autre. Dès lors, la suppression des frontières permettrait d’éliminer certains problèmes, mais en créerait peut-être d’autres. Reconnaissons que la vie en société n’est pas une chose évidente. Nous sommes dans des sociétés post-modernes qui sont très fragmentés. Il y a des sous-identités, et on ne peut manquer de voir que ces soucis qu’on appelle identitaires, et qui sont exprimés malheureusement dans les urnes, sont assez naturels à l’être humain. La manière dont on vit ensemble en société dépend des personnes avec qui on vit. Et si, dans une société démocratique comme la nôtre, il y a une forme d’auto-détermination collective, il faut pouvoir poser ces questions ».
      Ouvrir les frontières : quel impact sur les migrations ?

      François Gemenne en est persuadé : si l’on ouvrait les frontières, il n’y aurait pas forcément un flux migratoire énorme : « Toutes les études, qu’elles soient historiques, sociologiques ou prospectives, montrent que le degré d’ouverture d’une frontière ne joue pas un rôle dans le degré de la migration. Par exemple, quand on a établi l’espace Schengen, on n’a pas observé de migration massive de la population espagnole ou d’autres pays du sud de l’Europe vers le nord de l’Europe ».

      Pour Pierre d’Argent, il est cependant difficile de comparer l’ouverture de frontières en Europe avec l’ouverture des frontières entre l’Afrique et l’Europe, par exemple. Pour lui, il est très difficile de savoir ce qui pourrait arriver.

      https://www.rtbf.be/info/dossier/la-prem1ere-soir-prem1ere/detail_fermer-les-frontieres-ne-sert-a-rien?id=9951419

    • Migrants : l’#irrationnel au pouvoir ?

      Très loin du renouveau proclamé depuis l’élection du président Macron, la politique migratoire du gouvernement Philippe se place dans une triste #continuité avec celles qui l’ont précédée tout en franchissant de nouvelles lignes rouges qui auraient relevé de l’inimaginable il y a encore quelques années. Si, en 1996, la France s’émouvait de l’irruption de policiers dans une église pour déloger les grévistes migrant.e.s, que de pas franchis depuis : accès à l’#eau et distributions de #nourriture empêchés, tentes tailladées, familles traquées jusque dans les centres d’hébergement d’urgence en violation du principe fondamental de l’#inconditionnalité_du_secours.

      La #loi_sur_l’immigration que le gouvernement prépare marque l’emballement de ce processus répressif en proposant d’allonger les délais de #rétention administrative, de généraliser les #assignations_à_résidence, d’augmenter les #expulsions et de durcir l’application du règlement de #Dublin, de restreindre les conditions d’accès à certains titres de séjour, ou de supprimer la garantie d’un recours suspensif pour certain.e.s demandeur.e.s d’asile. Au-delà de leur apparente diversité, ces mesures reposent sur une seule et même idée de la migration comme « #problème ».

      Cela fait pourtant plusieurs décennies que les chercheurs spécialisés sur les migrations, toutes disciplines scientifiques confondues, montrent que cette vision est largement erronée. Contrairement aux idées reçues, il n’y a pas eu d’augmentation drastique des migrations durant les dernières décennies. Les flux en valeur absolue ont augmenté mais le nombre relatif de migrant.e.s par rapport à la population mondiale stagne à 3 % et est le même qu’au début du XXe siècle. Dans l’Union européenne, après le pic de 2015, qui n’a par ailleurs pas concerné la France, le nombre des arrivées à déjà chuté. Sans compter les « sorties » jamais intégrées aux analyses statistiques et pourtant loin d’être négligeables. Et si la demande d’asile a connu, en France, une augmentation récente, elle est loin d’être démesurée au regard d’autres périodes historiques. Au final, la mal nommée « #crise_migratoire » européenne est bien plus une crise institutionnelle, une crise de la solidarité et de l’hospitalité, qu’une crise des flux. Car ce qui est inédit dans la période actuelle c’est bien plus l’accentuation des dispositifs répressifs que l’augmentation de la proportion des arrivées.

      La menace que représenteraient les migrant.e.s pour le #marché_du_travail est tout autant exagérée. Une abondance de travaux montre depuis longtemps que la migration constitue un apport à la fois économique et démographique dans le contexte des sociétés européennes vieillissantes, où de nombreux emplois sont délaissés par les nationaux. Les économistes répètent qu’il n’y a pas de corrélation avérée entre #immigration et #chômage car le marché du travail n’est pas un gâteau à taille fixe et indépendante du nombre de convives. En Europe, les migrant.e.s ne coûtent pas plus qu’ils/elles ne contribuent aux finances publiques, auxquelles ils/elles participent davantage que les nationaux, du fait de la structure par âge de leur population.

      Imaginons un instant une France sans migrant.e.s. L’image est vertigineuse tant leur place est importante dans nos existences et les secteurs vitaux de nos économies : auprès de nos familles, dans les domaines de la santé, de la recherche, de l’industrie, de la construction, des services aux personnes, etc. Et parce qu’en fait, les migrant.e.s, c’est nous : un.e Français.e sur quatre a au moins un.e parent.e ou un.e grand-parent immigré.e.

      En tant que chercheur.e.s, nous sommes stupéfait.e.s de voir les responsables politiques successifs asséner des contre-vérités, puis jeter de l’huile sur le feu. Car loin de résoudre des problèmes fantasmés, les mesures, que chaque nouvelle majorité s’est empressée de prendre, n’ont cessé d’en fabriquer de plus aigus. Les situations d’irrégularité et de #précarité qui feraient des migrant.e.s des « fardeaux » sont précisément produites par nos politiques migratoires : la quasi-absence de canaux légaux de migration (pourtant préconisés par les organismes internationaux les plus consensuels) oblige les migrant.e.s à dépenser des sommes considérables pour emprunter des voies illégales. La #vulnérabilité financière mais aussi physique et psychique produite par notre choix de verrouiller les frontières est ensuite redoublée par d’autres pièces de nos réglementations : en obligeant les migrant.e.s à demeurer dans le premier pays d’entrée de l’UE, le règlement de Dublin les prive de leurs réseaux familiaux et communautaires, souvent situés dans d’autres pays européens et si précieux à leur insertion. A l’arrivée, nos lois sur l’accès au séjour et au travail les maintiennent, ou les font basculer, dans des situations de clandestinité et de dépendance. Enfin, ces lois contribuent paradoxalement à rendre les migrations irréversibles : la précarité administrative des migrant.e.s les pousse souvent à renoncer à leurs projets de retour au pays par peur qu’ils ne soient définitifs. Les enquêtes montrent que c’est l’absence de « papiers » qui empêche ces retours. Nos politiques migratoires fabriquent bien ce contre quoi elles prétendent lutter.

      Les migrant.e.s ne sont pas « la misère du monde ». Comme ses prédécesseurs, le gouvernement signe aujourd’hui les conditions d’un échec programmé, autant en termes de pertes sociales, économiques et humaines, que d’inefficacité au regard de ses propres objectifs.

      Imaginons une autre politique migratoire. Une politique migratoire enfin réaliste. Elle est possible, même sans les millions utilisés pour la rétention et l’expulsion des migrant.e.s, le verrouillage hautement technologique des frontières, le financement de patrouilles de police et de CRS, les sommes versées aux régimes autoritaires de tous bords pour qu’ils retiennent, reprennent ou enferment leurs migrant.e.s. Une politique d’#accueil digne de ce nom, fondée sur l’enrichissement mutuel et le respect de la #dignité de l’autre, coûterait certainement moins cher que la politique restrictive et destructrice que le gouvernement a choisi de renforcer encore un peu plus aujourd’hui. Quelle est donc sa rationalité : ignorance ou électoralisme ?

      http://www.liberation.fr/debats/2018/01/18/migrants-l-irrationnel-au-pouvoir_1623475
      #Karen_Akoka #Camille_Schmoll #France #répression #asile #migrations #réfugiés #détention_administrative #renvois #Règlement_Dublin #3_pourcent #crise_Des_réfugiés #invasion #afflux #économie #travail #fermeture_des_frontières #migrations_circulaires #réalisme #rationalité

    • Karine et Camille reviennent sur l’idée de l’économie qui ne serait pas un gâteau...
      #Johan_Rochel a très bien expliqué cela dans son livre
      Repenser l’immigration. Une boussole éthique
      http://www.ppur.org/produit/810/9782889151769

      Il a appelé cela le #piège_du_gâteau (#gâteau -vs- #repas_canadien) :

      « La discussion sur les bienfaits économiques de l’immigration est souvent tronquée par le piège du gâteau. Si vous invitez plus de gens à votre anniversaire, la part moyenne du gâteau va rétrécir. De même, on a tendance à penser que si plus de participants accèdent au marché du travail, il en découlera forcément une baisse des salaires et une réduction du nombre d’emplois disponible.
      Cette vision repose sur une erreur fondamentale quant au type de gâteau que représente l’économie, puisque, loin d’être de taille fixe, celui-ci augmente en fonction du nombre de participants. Les immigrants trouvant un travail ne osnt en effet pas seulement des travailleurs, ils sont également des consommateurs. Ils doivent se loger, manger, consommer et, à ce titre, leur présence stimule la croissance et crée de nouvelles opportunités économiques. Dans le même temps, cette prospérité économique provoque de nouvelles demandes en termes de logement, mobilité et infrastructure.
      L’immigration n’est donc pas comparable à une fête d’anniversaire où la part de gâteau diminuerait sans cesse. La bonne image serait plutôt celle d’un repas canadien : chacun apporte sa contribution personnelle, avant de se lancer à la découverte de divers plats et d’échanger avec les autres convives. Assis à cette table, nous sommes à la fois contributeurs et consommateurs.
      Cette analogie du repas canadien nous permet d’expliquer pourquoi un petit pays comme la Suisse n’a pas sombré dans la pauvreté la plus totale suite à l’arrivée de milliers d’Européens. Ces immigrants n’ont pas fait diminuer la taille du gâteau, ils ont contribué à la prospérité et au festin commun. L’augmentation du nombre de personnes actives sur le marché du travail a ainsi conduit à une forte augmentation du nombre d’emplois à disposition, tout en conservant des salaires élevés et un taux de chômage faible.
      Collectivement, la Suisse ressort clairement gagnante de cette mobilité internationale. Ce bénéfice collectif ’national’ ne doit cependant pas faire oublier les situations difficiles. Les changements induits par l’immigration profitent en effet à certains, tandis que d’autres se retrouvent sous pression. C’est notamment le cas des travailleurs résidents dont l’activité ou les compétences sont directement en compétition avec les nouveaux immigrés. Cela concerne tout aussi bien des secteurs peu qualifiés (par exemple les anciens migrants actifs dans l’hôtellerie) que dans les domaines hautement qualifiés (comme le management ou la recherche).
      Sur le plan éthique, ce constat est essentiel car il fait clairement apparaître deux questions distinctes. D’une part, si l’immigration profite au pays en général, l’exigence d’une répartition équitable des effets positifs et négatifs de cette immigration se pose de manière aiguë. Au final, la question ne relève plus de la politique migratoire, mais de la redistribution des richesses produites. Le douanier imaginaire ne peut donc se justifier sous couvert d’une ’protection’ générale de l’économie.
      D’autre part, si l’immigration met sous pression certains travailleurs résidents, la question de leur éventuelle protection doit être posée. Dans le débat public, cette question est souvent présentée comme un choix entre la défense de ’nos pauvres’ ou de ’nos chômeurs’ face aux ’immigrés’. Même si l’immigration est positive pour la collectivité, certains estiment que la protection de certains résidents justifierait la mise en œuvre de politiques migratoires restrictives » (Rochel 2016 : 31-33)

    • Migrants : « Ouvrir les frontières accroît à la fois la liberté et la sécurité »

      Alors que s’est achevé vendredi 29 juin au matin un sommet européen sur la question des migrations, le chercheur François Gemenne revient sur quelques idées reçues. Plutôt que de « résister » en fermant les frontières, mieux vaut « accompagner » les migrants par plus d’ouverture et de coopération.

      Le nombre de migrations va-t-il augmenter du fait des changements climatiques ?

      Non seulement elles vont augmenter, mais elles vont changer de nature, notamment devenir de plus en plus contraintes. De plus en plus de gens vont être forcés de migrer. Et de plus en plus de gens, les populations rurales les plus vulnérables, vont être incapables de migrer, parce que l’émigration demande beaucoup de ressources.

      Les gens vont se déplacer davantage, car les facteurs qui les poussent à migrer s’aggravent sous l’effet du changement climatique. Les inégalités sont le moteur premier des migrations, qu’elles soient réelles ou perçues, politiques, économiques ou environnementales.

      On est face à un phénomène structurel, mais on refuse de le considérer comme tel. On préfère parler de crise, où la migration est vue comme un problème à résoudre.

      Pourquoi les inégalités sont-elles le moteur des migrations ?

      Les gens migrent parce qu’ils sont confrontés chez eux à des inégalités politiques, économiques, environnementales. Ils vont quitter un endroit où ils sont en position de faiblesse vers un endroit qu’ils considèrent, ou qu’ils espèrent meilleur.

      Une réduction des inégalités de niveau de vie entre les pays du Nord et les pays du Sud serait-elle de nature à réduire l’immigration ?

      À long terme, oui. Pas à court terme. La propension à migrer diminue à partir du moment où le revenu moyen des personnes au départ atteint environ 15.000 $ annuels.

      Dans un premier temps, plus le niveau de la personne qui est en bas de l’échelle sociale augmente, plus la personne va avoir de ressources à consacrer à la migration. Et, tant qu’il demeure une inégalité, les gens vont vouloir migrer. Si on augmente massivement l’aide au développement des pays du Sud, et donc le niveau de revenus des gens, cela va les conduire à migrer davantage. Du moins, jusqu’à ce qu’on arrive au point d’égalité.

      L’essentiel des migrations aujourd’hui proviennent de pays un peu plus « développés ». Les migrants arrivent peu de Centrafrique ou de la Sierra Leone, les pays les plus pauvres d’Afrique. Ceux qui peuvent embarquer et payer des passeurs sont des gens qui ont économisé pendant plusieurs années.

      D’un point de vue cynique, pour éviter les migrations, il faut donc soit que les gens restent très pauvres, soit qu’ils parviennent à un niveau de richesse proche du nôtre.

      Non seulement à un niveau de richesse, mais à un niveau de droit, de sécurité, de protection environnementale proches du nôtre. Ce qui est encore très loin d’arriver, même si cela peut constituer un horizon lointain. Il faut donc accepter que, le temps qu’on y arrive, il y ait de façon structurelle davantage de migrations. On entre dans un siècle de migrations.

      Mais plutôt que de se dire « essayons de faire face à cette réalité, de l’accompagner et de l’organiser au mieux », on reste dans une logique de repli. Alors que vouloir « résister » à ce phénomène, à travers des camps au bord de l’Europe, au bord de nos villes, est une bataille perdue d’avance.

      Quand j’étais lycéen, au milieu des années 1990, nos professeurs tenaient le même discours vis-à-vis d’Internet. On organisait des grands débats au lycée — « Est-ce qu’Internet est une bonne ou une mauvaise chose ? Internet une opportunité ou un danger ? » Ce sont exactement les mêmes débats que ceux qui nous animent aujourd’hui sur les migrations !

      Et Internet s’est imposé, sans qu’on puisse l’empêcher.

      Nous avons tous accepté qu’Internet transforme tous les aspects de notre vie et de l’organisation de la société. Personne ou presque n’aurait l’idée de brider Internet. On tente d’en maximiser les opportunités et d’en limiter les dangers. Mais pour les migrations, on n’est pas encore dans cet état d’esprit.

      À très long terme, il faut donc équilibrer les niveaux de vie. À court terme que peut-on faire ?

      Il faut essayer d’organiser les choses, pour que cela se passe le mieux possible dans l’intérêt des migrants, dans l’intérêt des sociétés de destination et dans celui des sociétés d’origine.

      Parce qu’aujourd’hui, notre posture de résistance et de fermeture des frontières crée le chaos, crée cette impression de crise, crée ces tensions dans nos sociétés, du racisme, du rejet et potentiellement des violences.

      Il faut permettre des voies d’accès sûres et légales vers l’Europe, y compris pour les migrants économiques, pour mettre fin aux naufrages des bateaux et aux réseaux des passeurs. Il faut également mutualiser les moyens et l’organisation : la compétence de l’immigration doit être transférée à un niveau supranational, par exemple à une agence européenne de l’asile et de l’immigration. Et il faut davantage de coopération au niveau international, qui ne soit pas de la sous-traitance avec des pays de transit ou d’origine, comme on le conçoit volontiers dans les instances européennes.

      Paradoxalement, cette question qui, par essence, demande une coopération internationale est celle sur laquelle il y en a le moins. Les États sont convaincus qu’ils gèreront mieux la question dans le strict cadre de leurs frontières.

      À plus long terme, la plus rationnelle et la plus pragmatique des solutions, c’est simplement d’ouvrir les frontières. On en est loin. Les gouvernements et une grande partie des médias véhiculent l’idée que la frontière est l’instrument du contrôle des migrations. Si vous fermez une frontière, les gens s’arrêteraient de venir. Et si vous ouvrez la frontière, tout le monde viendrait.

      Or, toutes les recherches montrent que le degré d’ouverture ou de fermeture d’une frontière joue un rôle marginal dans la décision de migrer. Les gens ne vont pas se décider à abandonner leur famille et leur pays juste parce qu’une frontière, là-bas, en Allemagne, est ouverte. Et, des gens qui sont persécutés par les bombes qui leur tombent dessus en Syrie ne vont pas y rester parce que la frontière est fermée. À Calais, même si la frontière est complètement fermée avec le Royaume-Uni, les migrants tenteront cent fois, mille fois de la franchir.

      Par contre, le degré d’ouverture de la frontière va déterminer les conditions de la migration, son coût, son danger. Ouvrir les frontières ne veut pas dire les faire disparaître. Les États restent là. On ne supprime pas les passeports, on supprime simplement les visas. Cela permet aussi de mieux contrôler les entrées et les sorties, car les États savent exactement qui entre sur le territoire et qui en sort. Cette solution accroit à la fois la liberté et la sécurité.

      Est-ce qu’il y a des régions où cela se passe bien ?

      Il y a plein d’endroits en France où cela se passe très bien, au niveau local. Les fers de lance de l’accueil des migrants sont souvent les maires : Juppé à Bordeaux, Piolle à Grenoble, Hidalgo à Paris, Carême à Grande-Synthe.

      Au niveau d’un pays, la Nouvelle-Zélande développe une politique d’accueil relativement ouverte, qui fonctionne bien. Il y a des pays paradoxaux, comme l’Inde, qui a une frontière complètement ouverte avec le Népal, bouddhiste, et une frontière complètement fermée avec le Bangladesh, musulman. Ce cas illustre le caractère raciste de nos politiques migratoires. Ce qui nous dérange en Europe, ce ne sont pas les Belges comme moi qui émigrent. La plupart des gens sont convaincus que les Africains partent directement de leur pays pour traverser la Méditerranée et pour arriver en Europe. Or, 55 % des migrations internationales depuis l’Afrique de l’Ouest vont vers l’Afrique de l’Ouest.

      Les migrants qui arrivent de Libye vers l’Europe sont généralement classés comme des migrants économiques parce qu’ils sont noirs. Or, ils migrent avant tout parce qu’ils sont persécutés en Libye, violentés et vendus en esclaves sur les marchés. Par contre, les Syriens sont classés comme des réfugiés politiques parce que nous voyons les images de la guerre en Syrie, mais pour la plupart, ils migrent avant tout pour des raisons économiques. Ils n’étaient pas persécutés en Turquie, au Liban ou en Jordanie, mais ils vivaient dans des conditions de vie misérables. Ils migrent en Europe pour reprendre leur carrière ou pour leurs études.

      Quel rôle joue le facteur démographique dans les migrations ? Car la transition démographique ne se fait pas en Afrique, le continent va passer de 1 milliard d’habitants à 3 milliards d’ici 2050.

      Le meilleur moyen de contrôler la natalité d’Afrique serait de faire venir toute l’Afrique en Europe (rires) ! Toutes les études montrent que, dès la deuxième génération, le taux de natalité des Africaines s’aligne strictement sur celui de la population du pays d’accueil.

      Ces taux de natalité créent une peur chez nous, on craint le péril démographique en Afrique, qui va se déplacer vers l’Europe. Les gens restent dans une identité relativement figée, où l’on conçoit l’Europe comme blanche. La réalité est que nous sommes un pays métissé.

      La France black, blanche, beur, c’était il y a vingt ans ! Maintenant, le Rassemblement national et aussi la droite mettent en avant les racines et la tradition chrétienne de la France.

      Ils veulent rester catholiques, blancs. Le problème est qu’aucun autre parti n’assume la position inverse.

      Parce que cela semble inassumable politiquement, ainsi que les solutions que vous proposez. Pour le moment, l’inverse se produit : des gouvernements de plus en plus réactionnaires, de plus en plus xénophobes. Cela fait un peu peur pour l’avenir.

      C’est encore très optimiste d’avoir peur. J’ai acté que l’Europe serait bientôt gouvernée par l’extrême droite. Je suis déjà à l’étape d’après, où s’organisent des petites poches de résistance qui accueillent clandestinement des migrants.

      En Belgique, malgré un gouvernement d’extrême droite, dans un parc au nord de Bruxelles, il y a un grand mouvement de solidarité et d’accueil des migrants pour éviter qu’ils passent la nuit dehors. Près de 45.000 personnes sont organisées avec un compte Facebook pour se relayer. Ce mouvement de solidarité devient de plus en plus un mouvement politique de résistance face à un régime autoritaire.

      Les démocraties, celles pour qui la question des droits humains compte encore un peu, sont en train de devenir minoritaires en Europe ! Il nous faut organiser d’autres formes de résistance. C’est une vision de l’avenir assez pessimiste. J’espère me tromper, et que l’attitude du gouvernement espagnol va ouvrir une nouvelle voie en Europe, que les électeurs vont sanctionner positivement cette attitude d’accueil des migrants.

      https://reporterre.net/Migrants-Ouvrir-les-frontieres-accroit-a-la-fois-la-liberte-et-la-securi

    • There’s Nothing Wrong With Open Borders

      Why a brave Democrat should make the case for vastly expanding immigration.

      The internet expands the bounds of acceptable discourse, so ideas considered out of bounds not long ago now rocket toward widespread acceptability. See: cannabis legalization, government-run health care, white nationalism and, of course, the flat-earthers.

      Yet there’s one political shore that remains stubbornly beyond the horizon. It’s an idea almost nobody in mainstream politics will address, other than to hurl the label as a bloody cudgel.

      I’m talking about opening up America’s borders to everyone who wants to move here.

      Imagine not just opposing President Trump’s wall but also opposing the nation’s cruel and expensive immigration and border-security apparatus in its entirety. Imagine radically shifting our stance toward outsiders from one of suspicion to one of warm embrace. Imagine that if you passed a minimal background check, you’d be free to live, work, pay taxes and die in the United States. Imagine moving from Nigeria to Nebraska as freely as one might move from Massachusetts to Maine.

      https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/opinion/open-borders-immigration.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur

  • Finalement je ne me lève pas
    Au milieu de la nuit
    Pour lui envoyer un message

    Ou, plus exactement
    Je me lève, j’écris
    Mais je n’envoie pas

    Tu me manques
    Je sais c’est déraisonnable
    Et idiot

    Je ne suis finalement pas sûr
    De pouvoir jouer Just Friends avec toi
    En plus il n’est pas génial ce thème

    http://www.desordre.net/musique/evans_vanguard.mp3

    Et j’en ai un peu marre de jouer tout seul
    Solo donc, I Remember April
    Suis pas Bill Evans moi

    Peut-être c’est bien
    Si tu acceptes de me parler
    Un peu, prochainement.

    Bref, comme toi et moi on ne se ment pas
    Je ne peux pas te dire que cela ne m’a rien fait
    De revoir tes genoux, tes yeux magnifiques

    Et d’écouter cette voix
    (Tu as vraiment une très belle voix
    Très douce et très sensuelle)

    Je t’embrasse
    Philippe
    C’est rare que je signe Philippe

    Mais au milieu de la nuit
    Oui, je suis réveillé et je ne rêve pas
    Enfin si : qu’elle revienne !

    Et donc pas de rêve
    Pas de nouveau paragraphe
    Dans Les Anguilles les mains mouillées

    Garantie Obsèques :
    Un souci de moins
    Dès 3,75€ par mois

    Voilà le type peu sûr de lui que je suis
    Je relis Raffut avant un RDV avec Mathieu
    Et je suis soulagé : ça tient la route

    Une analyse de sang
    Et six citrons
    S’il vous plaît

    Isa me commande
    Quatre gâteaux de marron
    Mais pour le lait de poule elle peut aller…

    Ostie ! Échange amical de quelques
    Jurons québécois fameux
    Avec Martin. Par jeu. Crisse !

    La fin des haricots (verts)
    Deux pommes de terre, une carotte
    Mais quelle huile d’olive ! (merci B.)

    Laisse-moi tranquille !
    Tu lui intimes
    Comme si elle y pouvait quelque chose

    Le secret
    De la photographie

    Walker Evans

    Les voitures sont désormais plus nombreuses
    Qui remontent la rue Charles Bassée
    La saison des siestes est finie

    Die Schöne, Tage
    In Aranjuez
    Sind nun zu Ende

    Tentative de retrouver le récit du rêve
    De cette sieste, mais il ne me reste
    Entre les doigts que la queue du lézard

    Une conférencière
    Porte une robe mauve
    Qui se marie bien avec ses cheveux roux

    Une sieste
    Une douche
    Un café

    Fillon rejoint
    Des financiers français
    Aux méthodes peu conformistes

    Macron mise
    Sur les divisions
    Des pays d’ex-Europe de l’Est

    Sierra Leone :
    Après le désastre des coulées de boue
    Les victimes livrées à elles-mêmes

    Je passe tout de même
    De nombreuses heures à l’affût
    De ces petits poèmes en trois lignes

    Par malheur je me demande
    Si je ne leur prête pas quelques
    Petits pouvoirs magiques qu’ils n’ont pas

    La preuve
    Elle n’y répond pas
    Elle ne les entend pas

    Je ferais bien
    De me réveiller
    Et d’arrêter de rêver

    « ― Tu penses beaucoup à elle ?
    ― Oui ― Tu souffres ? ― Oui
    Mais du coup je suis inspiré ! »

    J’écoute le mauvais rap
    De mes filles pour tromper
    L’ennui. Et la solitude. Si elles savaient !

    Ma CRP repasse en dessous de 5,0 mg/l
    1,3 pour être exact. Antériorité 227 (08/08/2017)
    Quand les chiffres sont bons je les trouve beaux

    Je ne peux pas dire que cela n’a pas
    Une influence positive sur le moral
    Mais cela ne guérit pas la peine de cœur

    Deux kilogrammes de crème de marron
    Douze œufs, 400 grammes de beurre
    150°C pendant une heure et demie

    J’ai pleuré, la dernière fois
    Que j’ai préparé, en nombre
    De tels gâteaux, pour le rugby

    Je ne pleure plus
    Mais j’ai encore mal
    Au même endroit

    Salmojero
    Tomates, basilic, feta
    Conté à la moutarde de cassis

    Faire ami-ami
    Avec
    Soi

    N’avoir pas fait grand-chose
    De la journée, relire Raffut
    Pour se tranquilliser alors que…

    La Région sauvage
    D’Amat Escalante au Kosmos
    Perturbant, beau, dérangeant

    Cela faisait bien deux mois
    Que je n’étais pas monté au Kosmos
    Tel une extension de mon imaginaire

    Je sursaute chaque fois que je lis
    Le nom d’un personnage dans les sous-titres
    C’est un anagramme de son nom à elle

    #mon_oiseau_bleu

  • Ma vie professionnelle
    Dans tout son ennui gris
    Fait un retour remarqué dans mes rêves

    Dans mon rêve
    Je porte
    Un pantalon de flanelle !

    Mon inconscient
    Serait-il
    De droite ?

    Le premier rayon de soleil
    Sur le haut de la maison d’en face
    Comme sur la ligne de crête du Mont-Lozère

    Petit déjeuner
    Avec une vieille galette
    P. Motian / J.-F. Jenny-Clark / C. Brackeen

    Paul Motian
    Jean-François Jenny-Clark
    Charles Brackeen

    Est-il possible
    Que je n’ai plus entendu ce disque
    Depuis les Arts Déco ?

    En tout cas, à l’écouter ce matin
    C’est comme si je buvais mon café
    Avenue Daumesnil !

    La chambre de Zoé
    En matière de rangement
    Un Everest !

    Dans un placard
    De vieux pantalons, trop petits
    J’ai maigri, je parviens à les enfiler !

    Ai-je vraiment porté
    De tels pantalons ? Phil ne s’habille pas
    Il met des vêtements
    (L.L.de Mars)

    Je pensais retourner voir un peu le journal
    Ce qui fait la une : une lanceuse de poids
    Française gagne le bronze !

    Continuer
    De regarder
    Ailleurs

    Le rangement de la chambre de Zoé
    Est une telle montagne que j’ai procrastiné
    En pliant le linge, avec joie !

    Le rangement de la chambre de Zoé
    Est une telle montagne que j’ai procrastiné
    En nettoyant les toilettes du bas, avec joie !

    Le rangement de la chambre de Zoé
    Est une telle montagne que j’ai procrastiné
    J’ai commencé un chantier de bricolage !

    Sister Amoxiciline
    D’après la prescription, toi et moi
    C’est fini mercredi !

    Attentat au Burkina Faso :
    Au moins un Français tué

    Un Français ? alors, c’est grave

    Une enquête antiterroriste ouverte à Paris
    J’en déduis que les Burkinabés
    N’ont ni police ni enquêteurs

    J’attends le jour où une enquête antiterroriste
    Sera ouverte à Bobo-Dioulasso pour un attentat à Paris
    Ayant fait une victime originaire de Ouagadougou

    Mort de 64 enfants dans un hôpital indien
    Les autorités indiennes accusées
    D’" apathie criminelle « 

    Plus de 300 personnes emportées
    Par un glissement de terrain
    En Sierra Leone

    L’attaque de Charlottesville
    Qualifiée de » terrorisme « 
    Par le ministère de la justice américain

    Tout s’organise, tout s’arrange
    J’ai même trouvé un endroit
    Pour ranger le nouvel aspirateur

    Inondations meurtrières
    En Inde, au Népal
    Et au Bangladesh

    Mais. Dans l’entourage d’Emmanuel Macron,
    On précise que la crise nord-coréenne
    Est suivie de » très près " par le président

    Le petit tas des chaussettes orphelines
    Au fil des années, est devenue montagne :
    Opération dernière chance : douze paires réunifiées !

    Pudiquement
    Je vais taire à Zoé le sort
    Des cinquante orphelines (recyclage)

    Ma petite marche du jour plein Sud
    Je tourne autour des anciens ateliers Gaveau
    Rendez Gaveau aux musicos. Une bonne idée

    Les rues sont désertes
    Les maisons fermées
    Si peu de bruit. Août

    Je me demande si je ne croiserais pas
    Davantage de sangliers sur le chemin de Besses
    Que de personnes dans les rues de la ville. Août

    Aujourd’hui j’ai fait ce que je devais faire
    Depuis longtemps, sécuriser la prise de courant
    De mon respirateur. Refuser l’aléatoire ? Vieillir ?

    Bricoleur du dimanche
    Tous les jours de la semaine
    Poète le soir, pas tous les soirs

    La fenêtre ouverte sur la nuit
    Éclairage public en panne, on s’y croirait
    Mais bruits de la ville, manquent les sangliers

    Un seul coup de téléphone, mon vieux copain
    Pierre, ostéopathe, lumbago, un seul mail, une amie
    J’ai dit Bonjour à un passant aujourd’hui, un ours

    #mon_oiseau_bleu

  • For lessons on disaster preparedness, Sierra Leone could look to Cuba
    http://africasacountry.com/2017/09/cuba-disaster-sierra-leone

    On August 14th, Mudslides in Freetown, Sierra Leone killed 1,000 people, mostly inhabitants of the urban slums in the hills above the capital. Despite its portrayal as a natural disaster caused by days of heavy rain, “the tragedy was entirely man-made,” as writer Lansana Gberie states bluntly. The result of environmental degradation, lack of disaster preparedness…