#desert

#Alfie's_Home

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_alfie1.png

Alfie’s Home is a children’s picture book by Richard Cohen. The narrator of the story (probably Alfie) tells of how his seemingly perfect and happy family is not all it seems. His parents fight all the time. His father is rarely around, usually yelling at him and his emotionally distressed mother clings to the narrator for support. Lucky for him, his Uncle Pete listens to and spends time with him. Unluckily, Uncle Pete is in fact a Creepy Uncle, and molests his nephew. This leads to many psychological problems as the Narrator gets older.

This book is infamous for its many Unfortunate Implications, especially regarding homosexuality. Cracked named it the worst children’s book ever written.

https://allthetropes.fandom.com/wiki/Alfie%27s_Home

#livre #livre_pour_enfants

17 % des Parisiens ont fui la capitale à cause du Covid-19. Voici ce que cela dit d’eux
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/834871

Cette étude fait écho à ce communiqué de presse de l’INSERM : Les données des téléphones mobiles au service de la lutte contre la pandémie de Covid-19.
▻https://presse.inserm.fr/les-donnees-des-telephones-mobiles-au-service-de-la-lutte-contre-la-pandemie-de-covid-19/38831

Bienvenue dans les #déserts_médicaux

Les bourgeois ont quitté Paris, c’est le moment de faire la commune (idée d’Usul que je trouve bien bonne) . Surtout que les condés n’ont pas encore de masques (qu’ils aurons avant les soignantes).

On l’ajoute à la quatrième compilation :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/818991

#effondrement #collapsologie #catastrophe #fin_du_monde #it_has_begun #anthropocène #capitalocène

▻https://www.letemps.ch/monde/sahara-philippe-dudouit-photographie-lenvers-decor-djihadiste

« Mais, au fil de ses reportages, Philippe Dudouit comprend que, telles les dunes déplacées par le vent, les loyautés sont en train de changer. Après la chute de Mouammar #Kadhafi, en 2011, les #Touareg libyens reviennent dans le nord du Mali. Pour la plupart d’anciens militaires au service du colonel, ils ne rentrent pas les mains vides et offrent leur expérience et leur matériel à un nouveau groupe rebelle, le #MNLA. Le photographe est aux premières loges quand les Touareg déclarent l’indépendance de l’#Azawad, en 2012. Mais ils sont doublés par les groupes armés #djihadistes, provoquant ainsi l’intervention militaire française en 2013. »

Je sais pas si ça peut aider (les chiffres semblent bizarre par rapport aux tiens), Frontex, dans son rapport d’activité 2019 affirme avoir secouru 54800 personnes. Le pictogramme est une bouée, mais il n’est pas vraiment précisé « en mer ». Moi je m’interroge sur le cas Libyien : si le centre de coordination des secours en mer dit à Frontex de débarquer les migrants à Tripoli, difficile d’appeler cela un secours.
Régis

#Essais_nucléaires. Soixante ans après, l’Algérie n’oublie pas “l’autre visage de la barbarie coloniale”

►https://seenthis.net/messages/825957

Climat : 300 milliards $ pour stocker le #carbone dans le #sol et ralentir le réchauffement climatique pendant 20 ans
▻https://www.agenceecofin.com/gouvernance/2410-70427-climat-300-milliards-pour-stocker-le-carbone-dans-le-sol-et

https://www.agenceecofin.com/media/k2/items/cache/40a9b59a210b7e5e9199910dd4191712_M.jpg

Le financement requis est l’équivalent de [...] ce que dépense le monde pour les opérations militaires en deux mois.

#co2

On l’ajoute à la troisième compilation :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/680147

#effondrement #collapsologie #catastrophe #fin_du_monde #it_has_begun #Anthropocène #capitalocène

#France :  Une femme qui a eut du bol ...! Elle est ressortie des flics avec ses yeux ...! » emmanuel macron était là

Alors qu’il visitait mardi la plateforme téléphonique du 3919, Emmanuel Macron a constaté, en direct, le refus d’un gendarme d’escorter à son domicile une femme victime de violences conjugales. Avait-il réellement besoin d’un "ordre d’huissier" pour intervenir, comme l’a clamé le militaire ?

▻https://www.francetvinfo.fr/societe/violences-faites-aux-femmes/violences-conjugales-le-gendarme-critique-par-emmanuel-macron-a-t-il-fa

Dans la matinée du mardi 3 septembre, Emmanuel Macron s’est rendu au siège du 3919, la plateforme d’accueil téléphonique des victimes de violences conjugales. Une visite incognito, quelques heures avant le lancement par le gouvernement du Grenelle des violences conjugales . . . . . . .

Avant de rencontrer des victimes, Emmanuel Macron est invité à écouter un appel téléphonique passé par une victime. Elena, l’écoutante du 3919, décroche. Au bout du fil, une femme explique qu’elle vient de porter plainte contre son époux qui la frappe. Elle se trouve alors à la gendarmerie et souhaite qu’un gendarme l’accompagne à son domicile, où se trouve le conjoint violent, pour qu’elle puisse récupérer quelques affaires en sécurité. Mais le militaire refuse. . . . . . . .

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/image/75nkmxoy6-aae0/1200/450/19977991.jpg

Les ordres sont les ordres !

Et cet air d’#exotisme... avec les #chameaux et le #désert...
#publicité #image

La photo est O.O !!!
Moins médiatisé que le grenelle, hier ouvrait la première cours criminelle à Caen qui institue une correctionnalisation légal des viols et la sous-citoyenneté des femmes.
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/800249

#psychiatrie

#accès_aux_soins #France #Haute-Garonne #désert_médical

Tunisie, 2015
Refugees left behind in Tunisia’s desert:
►https://seenthis.net/messages/351913

Tunisie, 2019:
Tunisia - 36 persone deportate al confine con la Libia:
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/795935

Algérie, 2021
Près de 5,000 migrants expulsés du régime frontalier algérien en un mois :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/908723

Algérie, 2019 :
Refoulés par l’Algérie vers le Niger, des réfugiés seraient “en #détresse_absolue”, selon la LADDH :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/748393

Algérie, 2017
Un millier de migrants nigériens rapatriés d’Algérie :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/627118

Migrants subsahariens/ Début des expulsions aujourd’hui :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/619668

EuroMed Droits | A la frontière de l’inhumanité :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/594628

Algérie, 2016 :
Des centaines de migrants arrêtés à Alger et conduits dans le sud du pays :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/548367

Algérie, 2022 :
Le #Niger voit l’arrivée d’une nouvelle vague de plus de 600 migrants refoulés d’#Algérie
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/973793

#Libye, 2022:
Libya ’abandoning migrants without water’ in deserts
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/946565

Algérie/Niger, octobre 2022:

https://seenthis.net/local/cache-vignettes/L598xH600/OyURT8kpng-eee10-15f13.png

Novembre 2022 :
"On nous a abandonnés dans le désert à 2h du matin" : le calvaire des migrants refoulés de l’Algérie vers le Niger
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/980546
#Assamaka

Février-mars 2023 :
Algérie : près de 3 000 migrants renvoyés dans le désert en 10 jours
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/994629

Entre l’Algérie et le Niger, la #prison_à_ciel ouvert d’Assamaka

Depuis 2014, l’Algérie multiplie les expulsions vers le Niger de migrants subsahariens dans des convois plus ou moins officiels, et sans aucune humanité. Abandonnés dans le désert, ils doivent marcher plusieurs heures pour atteindre le village d’Assamaka, où, livrés à eux-mêmes, ils survivent comme ils peuvent.

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Des files de migrants s’étendent sur une centaine de mètres au milieu du désert nigérien. Ils attendent aux portes du commissariat d’Assamaka. Depuis une dizaine d’années, ce village proche de la frontière entre l’Algérie et le Niger est le réceptacle des migrants d’origine subsaharienne expulsés par l’Algérie. Ces derniers n’ont parfois d’autre choix que d’y rester sans aucune solution et d’errer dans les rues de cette petite localité perdue au milieu du désert. Entre le 1er janvier et le 1er avril 2023, l’ONG Alarme Phone Sahara, qui vient en aide aux migrants dans la zone sahélo-saharienne, a comptabilisé 11 336 personnes expulsées de l’Algérie vers le Niger. Début mai, plus de 5 000 d’entre elles étaient bloquées à Assamaka, selon les autorités nigériennes.

Depuis 2014, l’Algérie est devenue une machine à expulser
1
. Terre d’immigration pour de nombreux Subsahariens, ce pays a longtemps fermé les yeux sur un phénomène dont tout le monde semblait s’accommoder : ces migrants venaient faire les travaux dont ne voulaient plus les jeunes Algériens. Puis tout a changé après un drame : le 2 octobre 2013, 92 migrants (des Nigériens pour la plupart) sont retrouvés morts dans le désert, à quelques kilomètres de la frontière nigéro-algérienne. Ils faisaient partie d’un convoi de 112 personnes, dont une majorité de femmes et d’enfants venus de la région de Zinder, dans le sud du Niger
2
. Après cette découverte macabre, les deux États ont multiplié les contrôles sur la route et ont passé un accord (tacite) en décembre 2014 permettant à l’Algérie de renvoyer les femmes et les enfants nigériens entrés clandestinement sur son sol.

« Cet accord devait permettre à l’Algérie de renvoyer vers le Niger les citoyens nigériens se trouvant en situation d’irrégularité », rapporte l’ONG Alarme Phone Sahara. Mais la réalité est aujourd’hui bien différente. Si, durant les premières années qui ont suivi la signature de l’accord, la plupart des rapatriés étaient des femmes et des enfants (dont beaucoup étaient originaires de la région de Zinder), au fil du temps, les cibles de la police algérienne ont changé. Elle a commencé par expulser des hommes nigériens puis, à partir de 2017, des ressortissants d’autres pays que le Niger – des Ouest-Africains pour la plupart, mais aussi des Syriens, des Palestiniens ou encore des Bangladais. Beaucoup sont de jeunes hommes, voire des mineurs
3
, et certains d’entre eux ne devraient pas être expulsés – soit parce qu’ils sont en situation régulière en Algérie, soit parce qu’ils possèdent une attestation de réfugié délivrée par le Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés.

À partir de 2018, on assiste, selon les mots d’un responsable de l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM) en poste à Niamey à l’époque, à « une véritable chasse à l’homme noir » dans les villes algériennes. Le rapporteur spécial des Nations unies sur les droits de l’homme des migrants, Felipe González Morales, s’en inquiète en octobre 2018. À l’issue d’une mission au Niger, il dénonce le « mode opératoire » choisi par les autorités algériennes. « Ces expulsions collectives de l’Algérie vers le Niger constituent une violation flagrante du droit international, notamment du principe fondamental de non-refoulement et des garanties d’une procédure régulière, et doivent cesser immédiatement », assène-t-il. Sans suite. Les autorités nigériennes ont beau dénoncer la dérive d’Alger, rien n’y fait. En février 2017, l’actuel président, Mohamed Bazoum, alors ministre de l’Intérieur, demande à l’Algérie de cesser ces expulsions. Là aussi sans succès.
Une politique « raciste »

Le 12 février 2023, un convoi arrive au « Point zéro », un no man’s land situé à la frontière algéro-nigérienne où les autorités algériennes jettent les migrants, en plein désert. Sur les 899 personnes arrivées ce jour-là, Alarme Phone Sahara a recensé une majorité de Guinéens et de Maliens et une seule personne de nationalité nigérienne. Parmi eux, un grand nombre d’hommes, mais aussi des femmes parfois enceintes, des enfants et des personnes âgées. Certains ont été dépouillés de leurs biens lors de leur arrestation. Isolés au milieu du désert, parfois en pleine nuit, toutes et tous se retrouvent sans eau ni nourriture, et doivent parcourir 15 kilomètres à pied pour rejoindre le village d’Assamaka. Un chemin où l’on peut se perdre. En les abandonnant ainsi, le gouvernement algérien les met en danger de mort.

Comment expliquer qu’Alger profite de cet accord passé avec Niamey pour expulser tous les ressortissants d’Afrique subsaharienne ? « Même au niveau de l’Union africaine, personne ne fait rien, l’Algérie continue de faire ce qu’elle veut », déplore Moctar Dan Yaye, d’Alarme Phone Sahara. Ce dernier dénonce « une politique raciste » de l’Algérie qui cherche à « se débarrasser des Noirs dans le pays ». Une dynamique d’expulsion qui va en s’accentuant. « Selon les chiffres documentés par les lanceurs d’alerte d’Alarme Phone Sahara à Assamaka, au moins 24 250 personnes ont été expulsées d’Algérie au Niger avec des convois officiels et non officiels pendant l’année 2022 », relate l’ONG.

Face à cet afflux (+ 35 % de demandes d’assistance en 2022 par rapport à l’année précédente, selon le bureau de coordination des affaires humanitaires des Nations unies au Niger), les organisations d’aide aux migrants sont désemparées. L’OIM semble paralysée. Moctar Dan Yaye rapporte qu’elle a dû fermer ses portes aux nouveaux arrivants le temps de traiter les dossiers des migrants déjà sur place. Or c’est par cette organisation onusienne que doivent passer les rapatriés d’Algérie lorsqu’ils rejoignent Assamaka. Ils ont le choix entre retenter le passage vers l’Algérie (ou vers la Libye), demander l’asile au Niger, ou rentrer dans leur pays d’origine. Lorsqu’ils optent pour cette deuxième voie, ils doivent en faire la demande auprès du centre de l’OIM à Assamaka. Un centre aujourd’hui fermé aux nouvelles demandes car surchargé. « Depuis le début de l’année, nous avons remarqué un ralentissement dans l’organisation de ces convois de rapatriement. Du coup, les anciens qui étaient là sont restés sur place et les migrants continuent d’arriver. C’est ce qui crée le débordement », témoigne Boulama Elhadji Gori, responsable adjoint de programme pour le Niger au sein de l’ONG Médecins sans frontières (MSF). Fin mars, ni l’OIM ni l’État nigérien n’avaient mis en place de moyens afin de leur permettre de quitter le village. Contactés par Afrique XXI, ils n’ont pas donné suite.

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Les migrants ayant rejoint Assamaka sont donc condamnés à errer dans ses rues. Boulama Elhadji Gori estime aujourd’hui la population du village à 6 000 habitants alors qu’il n’en comptait que 1 000 il y a quelques années. Il parle d’une « crise humanitaire ». « Le village déborde, constate-t-il. Les migrants sont généralement installés dans le centre de santé ou aux abords avec des conditions d’hygiène inacceptables parce que le centre n’a jamais été préparé pour ça. » Dans cette zone, les habitants souffraient déjà d’un manque d’accès aux services publics avant l’afflux des exilés. En outre, ajoute Boulama Elhadji Gori, « ces personnes sont en situation de désespoir, elles s’exposent à plusieurs risques tels que l’extorsion, la prostitution, mais aussi à des conditions hygiéniques qui peuvent affecter leur santé ».
Une crise humanitaire et sociale

Moctar Dan Yaye est en contact avec des correspondants sur place. Ces derniers rapportent une situation devenue intenable. « Les migrants bloqués à Assamaka n’ont pas d’autre choix que de mendier toute la journée pour survivre, et de dormir dans les rues du village. Les personnes expulsées volent et abattent même des animaux pour se nourrir. Cela crée des tensions et des conflits supplémentaires », indique-t-il.

Pourtant, les autorités savent de quoi il ressort. En avril, Elhadj Magagi Maman Dada, le gouverneur de la région d’Agadez, a qualifié la situation de « crise humanitaire et sociale ». Dans le prolongement de ces déclarations, il a invité les chefs des structures institutionnelles et les représentants de la société civile à une réunion au cours de laquelle un groupe de travail a été créé afin de réfléchir à la problématique des conditions de vie des migrants sur place. Le ministre de l’Intérieur du Niger s’est également rendu au centre de l’OIM à Agadez, la grande ville du nord du pays, puis à Assamaka, située à environ 500 km d’Agadez.

Malgré ces avancées, Alarme Phone Sahara n’a jusque-là pas relevé de changement dans la prise en charge des migrants. Sur place, ces derniers dénoncent le comportement de l’OIM qui continue de ne pas prendre en charge les nouveaux arrivants.

Moctar Dan Yaye dénonce une volonté de fermer les yeux : « On est surpris par le silence des grandes puissances, alors qu’on tire la sonnette d’alarme depuis des années. » Le 21 mars, MSF a publié un communiqué appelant à protéger les migrants abandonnés dans le désert. L’ONG dénonce une situation sans précédent. « Il faudrait que des sanctions soient mises en place contre l’Algérie pour qu’elle arrête d’agir comme un État outlaw [hors-la-loi] », explique Moctar Dan Yaye. Mais, d’après lui, la mise en place de sanctions internationales paraît pourtant encore lointaine au vu des réactions de l’autre côté de la Méditerranée. Pour lui, la fermeture des frontières européennes n’offre que peu d’espoir quant à une réaction internationale. Il dénonce « la volonté de l’Occident de s’ériger en une forteresse en oubliant que sa propre histoire est faite de migrations ».

▻https://afriquexxi.info/Entre-l-Algerie-et-le-Niger-la-prison-a-ciel-ouvert-d-Assamaka

Migliaia di persone abbandonate e bloccate nel deserto nigerino dopo i respingimenti dall’Algeria

Le deportazioni delle autorità algerine continuano. Solo nel 2022 Alarm Phone Sahara ha censito 24.250 persone respinte ad Assamaka, piccolo villaggio nel Nord del Niger. Nel primo trimestre del 2023 sono già oltre 8mila. Intanto l’Asgi denuncia l’assenza di soluzioni per le persone evacuate dalla Libia e bloccate nel Paese

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Ad Assamaka, un piccolo villaggio nel Nord del Niger non lontano dal confine con l’Algeria, si sta consumando da mesi una crisi umanitaria, con migliaia di migranti respinti da Algeri e abbandonati nel deserto senza accesso a cure mediche, protezione, riparo o beni di prima necessità, e una sola forma di prima assistenza offerta dal Centro di salute integrata (Ihc) della stessa Assamaka.

I respingimenti e le espulsioni dall’Algeria verso il Niger sono iniziati nel 2014 a seguito di un accordo verbale tra i due governi che prevedeva la “riammissione” dei cittadini nigerini “irregolarmente presenti” in Algeria. Da allora le autorità algerine hanno cominciato a deportare i migranti provenienti dall’Africa sub-sahariana, identificati attraverso le loro caratteristiche somatiche, e non si sono più fermate: da settembre 2017 a maggio 2021 sarebbero state espulse almeno 40mila persone (secondo i dati dell’Organizzazione internazionale per le migrazioni, Iom); nel 2022 la Ong Alarm Phone Sahara ha censito 24.250 persone deportate ad Assamaka e nei primi tre mesi del 2023 ne ha contate ben 8.149 provenienti dal Niger ma anche da Benin, Burkina Faso, Camerun, Ciad, Congo, Costa d’Avorio, Costa Rica, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Equatoriale, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Togo e Yemen.

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Se per i cittadini nigerini sono previsti dei “convogli ufficiali” che li lasciano nei pressi di Assamaka, da dove poi vengono trasferiti ad Agadez o ad Arlit, per tutti gli altri i rimpatri vengono effettuati da “convogli non ufficiali”: avvengono di notte e non c’è alcun contatto con le autorità del Niger, le persone vengono semplicemente abbandonate al cosiddetto “Point zero” e da lì devono raggiungere a piedi, nel deserto, Assamaka. Che dista 15 chilometri. Non a caso, secondo le fonti di Alarm Phone Sahara, nel dicembre dello scorso anno è stata registrata la morte di una persona durante una di queste operazioni, mentre a ottobre è partito un convoglio dall’Algeria con a bordo 1.124 persone e al suo arrivo ad Assamaka solo 818 sono state registrate. Non è chiaro dove siano finite le 306 persone mancanti. Tra il 2020 e il 2021 sono stati identificati 38 corpi senza vita da Medici senza frontiere (Msf) che dal 2018 organizza regolarmente missioni di soccorso per aiutare coloro che si sono persi o sono stati abbandonati nel deserto.

Msf è attiva ad Assamaka dal 2017, dove effettua consulenze mediche gratuite e trasferimenti dei casi critici alla città di Agadez (distante centinaia di chilometri). Da mesi denuncia che le persone soccorse riportano ferite, alcune anche gravi, hanno subito stupri e violenze, e sono fortemente traumatizzate. Quasi il 70% degli assistiti ha dichiarato di aver patito violenze e trattamenti degradanti da parte delle forze di polizia algerine e libiche. Tra loro ci sono uomini, donne -anche incinte-, bambini e minori. “La gravità degli abusi commessi contro queste persone è indiscutibile -spiega Jamal Mrrouch, capo missione di Msf in Niger-. Le testimonianze dei nostri pazienti e le loro condizioni fisiche e mentali quando arrivano nelle nostre strutture sanitarie dimostrano l’inferno che hanno passato durante la loro espulsione dal territorio algerino e libico”. Basti pensare che nel 2021 l’organizzazione ha svolto oltre 47mila visite mediche, di cui 34.276 dedicate alla salute psicologica.

A causa di queste vere e proprie deportazioni di massa, la situazione ad Assamaka è diventata insostenibile: il villaggio normalmente conta 1.500 abitanti ma a marzo di quest’anno ospitava il quadruplo delle persone. Secondo quanto riferito da Alarm Phone Sahara, dal dicembre dello scorso anno il centro di accoglienza dell’Iom non registra nuovi migranti e le persone sono accampate ovunque senza nessun tipo di assistenza, una situazione che genera tensioni e insicurezza sociale.

“Tra l’11 gennaio e il 3 marzo sono arrivati a piedi 4.677 migranti, meno del 15% è riuscito ad avere un riparo o protezione al suo arrivo -dice Schemssa Kimana, responsabile del progetto di Msf ad Agadez-. Le persone dormono in ogni angolo della struttura, alcuni hanno montato tende di fortuna all’ingresso o nel cortile, altri si sono accampati davanti al reparto maternità, sul tetto o nell’area destinata ai rifiuti. Le temperature ad Assamaka possono raggiungere anche i 48 gradi, portando le persone a cercare un riparo dal caldo ovunque riescano a trovarlo. Alcuni dormono in aree insalubri, come le zone di scarico, rischiando malattie e infezioni cutanee”.

Del resto per i migranti che si trovano intrappolati in Niger le opzioni non sono molte. Spesso giungono nel Paese dopo che la traversata verso l’Europa è fallita, chi è rimpatriato dall’Algeria normalmente viene privato di documenti, denaro e ogni tipo di risorsa, chi riesce a scappare dalla Libia ha subito torture e trattamenti inumani e degradanti. Molti di loro, specie coloro che provengono da Paesi chiaramente instabili, tentano di presentare una domanda di protezione internazionale in Niger, nella speranza di accedere ai programmi di reinsediamento in Europa o in Nord America previsti dall’Alto commissariato Onu per rifugiati (Unhcr).

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Una speranza vana, dal momento che i posti messi a disposizione dai Paesi che dovrebbero accogliere i rifugiati sono pochi e si rivolgono al programma globale di resettlement dell’Unhcr. Anche il programma Etm, il Meccanismo di transito di emergenza rivolto a persone particolarmente vulnerabili evacuate dalla Libia (ne abbiamo scritto su Ae 235), ha mostrato nel tempo tutta la sua debolezza e la sua inefficacia, come è tornata a denunciare in una lettera aperta anche l’Associazione per gli studi giuridici sull’immigrazione (Asgi), che rappresenta una famiglia di quattro persone, di cui due minori e un giovane uomo, tutti provenienti dall’Eritrea e bloccati in Niger da quattro anni. Gli avvocati denunciano che “il procedimento di selezione delle persone che possono essere evacuate è gravato da un elevato livello di discrezionalità e non vi sono garanzie procedurali attivabili dai richiedenti”. Inoltre, “una volta evacuate -come emerge dalla situazione specifica degli assistiti in questione-, non si ha alcuna certezza di essere poi ricollocati, non sussiste infatti un obbligo ad accettare le domande di reinsediamento per i Paesi di destinazione, né di vedersi garantita alcuna forma di protezione in base alla normativa in vigore in Niger”.

Quello che si osserva è che a seguito dei rigetti della domanda di protezione e dei rifiuti da parte dei Paesi “ricchi” di accettare i resettlement, si va affermando la stabilizzazione di una “soluzione durevole” all’interno del Niger, che da Paese di transito si sta trasformando a Paese di asilo “de facto”, come spiega ancora l’Asgi. Una situazione paradossale dal momento che si tratta di uno dei Paesi più poveri al mondo, ultimo secondo l’Indice di sviluppo umano, dove la criminalizzazione della migrazione –voluta dall’Unione europea– ha fatto crescere esponenzialmente un clima di intolleranza e ostilità verso i migranti.

A chi si trova nel limbo nigerino resta a questo punto un’ultima opzione: il ritorno “volontario” nel proprio Paese. I programmi di Rimpatrio volontario assistito e alla reintegrazione (Avrr) sono gestiti dall’Iom all’interno del Migration response and resource mechanism (Mrrm), uno strumento attivo nel Paese dal 2015, e co-finanziati dall’Unione europea e dagli Stati membri: tra il 2016 e il luglio 2019 hanno coinvolto nel ritorno al proprio Paese d’origine oltre 50mila persone. Il programma è aperto a tutti i migranti ma, secondo un’indagine sul campo svolta da Asgi nel 2022, un numero consistente delle persone che vi aderiscono è costituito da coloro che sono stati rimpatriati o espulsi dall’Algeria. Ad Assamaka, e in generale nella regione di Agadez dove si trovano le persone che arrivano da Algeria e Libia, dopo le prime 48 ore l’Iom fornirebbe assistenza solo a chi decide di aderire ai programmi di rimpatrio volontario. La questione della “volontarietà” della decisione di rimpatriare era già stata sollevata nel 2019 da Felipe González Morales, Relatore speciale delle Nazioni unite per i diritti delle persone migranti, a seguito della sua missione in Niger.

Le persone intervistate nei centri di transito dell’Iom ad Agadez e nella capitale Niamey riferivano all’esperto indipendente Onu di aver deciso di tornare nel proprio Paese perché stanche dei soprusi subiti durante il viaggio o perché era l’unica forma di assistenza che era stata loro offerta. È vero che in questi centri lo staff fornisce informazioni sul diritto di chiedere protezione e segnala potenziali richiedenti asilo all’Unhcr, ma dalle informazioni ottenute da Asgi non ci sarebbe “un’obbligazione positiva di referral di persone individuate come potenziali richiedenti asilo o persone che dovrebbero ricevere una particolare tutela rispetto al rischio di refoulement da parte dell’Iom, la quale risponde semplicemente alle segnalazioni delle persone migranti che a seguito di informativa presentano esplicitamente la volontà di chiedere asilo. Grande enfasi è posta infatti sulla volontarietà dell’adesione al programma, che diventa un concetto chiave in relazione al ritorno e alla richiesta di protezione”.

Questo è particolarmente problematico dal momento che il rimpatrio volontario non contempla il principio di non-refoulement: non è previsto che ci siano Paesi “non sicuri” dove è vietato il rimpatrio dal momento che è volontario. Di nuovo l’Asgi evidenzia quanto questo possa essere rischioso, ad esempio nel caso di persone vittime di tratta: “Lo staff dell’Iom intervistato a Niamey nel corso della missione ha indicato che tra 2020 e il 2021 non è stata riferita all’Unhcr alcuna donna nigeriana vittima di tratta, ma la factsheet dell’Iom pubblicata a dicembre 2021, riporta che nel corso dell’anno 63 vittime di tratta sono state supportate nel fare ritorno nel loro Paese”.

▻https://altreconomia.it/migliaia-di-persone-abbandonate-e-bloccate-nel-deserto-nigerino-dopo-i-

Between 20 and 23/05/23, 2,038 people were expelled from Algeria to #Niger

▻https://seenthis.net/messages/1004799

Tunisie, 2023:

Alert: #Tunisia security forces abused & collectively expelled 20+ West/Central African nationals to a remote area at the Tunisia-#Libya border:

►https://seenthis.net/messages/1008817

Septembre-octobre 2023 :

Assamaka, Septembre et Octobre 2023 : Les expulsions régulières et massives d’Algérie au Niger continuent. Personnes expulsées piégées dans la misère.

Au moins 5012 personnes expulsées d’#Algérie au #Niger du 26 Juillet jusqu’au 18 Octobre 2023

https://seenthis.net/local/cache-vignettes/L450xH253/IMG-20230920ba2b-81ee6.jpg

About the situation at the border Tunisia-Algeria

Have you already seen this video? #Refugees who are stuck at the #Tunisian #Algerian border speak about their #pushback & the violence they suffer and call for help! According to friends in the region, still, there are people blocked, having nowhere to go. #freedomofmovement

Video and details here:

▻https://twitter.com/MigControl/status/1717547567804748233

Tunisie : le SOS de migrants ivoiriens expulsés vers le #désert libyen

Des dizaines de migrants ivoiriens arrêtés et conduits en plein désert libyen lancent un appel au secours sur les réseaux sociaux. Plusieurs associations tunisiennes ont dénoncé « une grave violation des droits des migrants ».

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/image/75nj005s1-8234/1200/450/19822215.jpg

« Aidez-nous ! S’il vous plaît, aidez-nous ! », c’est par ce cri détresse qu’un migrant ivoirien a conclu son appel au secours relayé le 4 août 2019 par le Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Economiques et Sociaux (FTDES) sur son compte Facebook. Des dizaines de migrants ivoiriens ont été arrêtés par les autorités tunisiennes et conduits en plein désert libyen, annonce l’association.
Une violation du droit des migrants

Dans un communiqué signé par plusieurs associations de défense des droits de l’homme, le FTDES a en effet révélé ce qu’il qualifie de « grave violation des droits des migrants » par les autorités tunisiennes.

Des hommes en uniforme ont arrêté samedi 3 août à 10 heures du matin, dans une maison de Sfax, 36 migrants ivoiriens dont onze femmes, l’une d’entre elles enceinte et 3 nourrissons, sous prétexte qu’ils s’apprêtaient à une migration clandestine.

Faux, se défendent-ils dans un témoignage vidéo racontant leur arrestation, diffusé par l’association tunisienne. Ils ne faisaient que préparer les festivités de la fête nationale ivoirienne (qui a lieu le 7 août NDLR) affirme la personne qui filme.

Ils ont été conduits à Médenine dans le sud, puis derrière la frontière libyenne, où ils ont été lâchés dans des conditions climatiques torrides. « Ils savent que la Libye est un pays dangereux, ils nous jettent en Libye », peut-on entendre sur la bande son.

« La situation ne fait qu’empirer. Avec le soleil, les enfants sont à bout de souffle, ils n’arrivent plus à tenir, ils sont tous faibles. Et nous aussi ! », témoigne un autre migrant sur un enregistrement audio diffusé également par le site Facebook du Forum.

« L’armée tunisienne, en face de nous, menace de nous abattre si on s’aventure vers la frontière. Donc on ne sait plus quoi faire. Nous sommes en danger, nous sommes sur le territoire libyen. Supposez que des Libyens tombent sur nous ici, on ne connaît pas la suite », ajoute-t-il terrorisé.
Les batteries des téléphones portables déchargées

Outre le FTDES, l’Association Tunisienne pour la défense des droits de l’homme, Tunisie terre d’Asile, Des avocats sans frontières et le Comité pour le respect des libertés et des droits de l’Homme sont également signataires d’un appel aux autorités tunisiennes.

Elles demandent le retour rapide des migrants sur le sol tunisien afin qu’ils soient pris en charge par des organisations humanitaires.

Mettant en garde contre les violations commises à l’encontre des migrants en Tunisie, elles réclament une modernisation du règlement juridique de l’immigration dans le pays, ainsi que sa mise en conformité avec la Constitution qui garantit les droits et les libertés et avec le droit international.

Aux dernières nouvelles communiquées par le FTDES, les migrants ivoiriens se trouvaient toujours le 5 août en territoire libyen à proximité de la frontière tunisienne et les batteries de leurs #téléphones_portables étaient pour la plupart totalement déchargées.

▻https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/europe/migrants/tunisie-le-sos-de-migrants-ivoiriens-expulses-vers-le-desert-libyen_356
#désert_libyen #smartphone

Quelques #cartes et #graphiques choisis (plein de choses intéressantes dans cet atlas), en vrac :

https://i.imgur.com/uM0Sa0v.png https://i.imgur.com/2Reln7A.png https://i.imgur.com/SWQHm9p.png https://i.imgur.com/whYeTon.png https://i.imgur.com/JPofcJu.png https://i.imgur.com/1XAYYCC.png https://i.imgur.com/0OGmmva.png https://i.imgur.com/gG9YQqX.png https://i.imgur.com/5Zm758p.png https://i.imgur.com/BSmGr2R.png https://i.imgur.com/Dt5vUAU.png https://i.imgur.com/yzCLeTY.png https://i.imgur.com/6YyYxjg.png https://i.imgur.com/EHMDRMY.png https://i.imgur.com/sJCr6bZ.png

Dictionnaire des migrations internationales
Armand Colin, 2015
▻https://m.armand-colin.com/dictionnaire-des-migrations-internationales-9782200250126

Le thème « Plant a Tree in Israel » est un des thèmes principaux de la propagande israélienne (greenwashing, faire fleurir le désert, avant il n’y avait rien, tout ça…). De temps en temps un acteur ou une actrice américaines s’affichent plantant un arbre en Israël (Naomi Watts et Liev Schreiber en 2009, Sharon Stone en 2006, Roseanne Barr en 2019, Greg Germann en 2011…).

Le Jewish National Fund est aussi évoqué dans le récent billet de B’Tselem référencé ici il y a quelques jours : Maintaining a Jewish majority : Jerusalem Municipality to demolish entire Palestinian neighborhood, leaving 550 people without a roof over their heads
►http://www.btselem.org/jerusalem/20190613_wadi_yasul

At the same time, the municipality and the JNF (Jewish National Fund) – the body in charge of managing the forest – gave their approval to settler organization El-Ad to move forward with plans for group campgrounds, including building the longest recreational zipline in Israel. Some of the facilities have already been built in the forest, without building permits. While the city did issue demolition orders against them, it has refrained from following through.

Merci @Nidal... as-tu par hasard des photos d’archives des actrices américaines qui plantent des arbres ?

Vu que je parle assez longuement de cet exemple dans mon cours de géographie culturelle sur le paysage... ces photos pourraient alimenter mon cours !
 :-)

Liev et Naomi, le JNF te propose la vidéo :
►https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVZeLgs2aTs

Sharon, toujours chez les mêmes, quelques vignettes :
▻http://usa.jnf.org/about-jnf/news/press-releases/2006/pr_sharon-stone-plants-a-tree-in.html

http://support.jnf.org/images/content/pagebuilder/50173.jpg http://support.jnf.org/images/content/pagebuilder/50166.jpg

Roseanne, vidéo et petite photo :
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9XkT2ja5H8

https://s19453.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/planting-435x580.jpg

Greg, une photo pas terrible :

http://k6s3v6r4.ssl.hwcdn.net/pictures/248/248975.jpg

#Merci @nidal !

Wie private Retter versuchen, Migranten aus der Todeszone zu holen

Die Routen werden gefährlicher, Hilfe wird kriminalisiert: Experten zufolge sterben in der Wüste mindestens doppelt so viele Flüchtlinge wie im Mittelmeer. Ein Lehrer aus Niger will das nicht hinnehmen.

Viel wird über die gefährliche Flucht über das Mittelmeer nach Europa gesprochen und gestritten, bei der immer wieder Menschen sterben. Es gibt jedoch eine Migrationsroute, die noch tödlicher ist: Die Sahara ist zum Massengrab für Migranten geworden.

Niemand weiß, wie viele Menschen genau auf ihrem Weg durch die Wüste sterben. Doch Organisationen wie die Internationale Organisation für Migration (IOM) gehen davon aus, dass es mindestens doppelt so viele sind wie im Mittelmeer. Über 30.000 Menschen seien zwischen 2014 und 2018 in der Wüste verschwunden, schätzt die IOM. Vermutlich sind die Zahlen noch höher, denn die meisten Leichen werden nie gefunden.

Die Sahara ist die größte Trockenwüste der Welt, etwa so groß wie die USA. Vom westafrikanischen Niger, dem Knotenpunkt für Migranten aus Westafrika, führen die Routen durch die Wüste über Algerien oder Libyen bis an die Mittelmeerküste. Die Gefahr, sich im endlosen Sand zu verirren oder in der Hitze zu verdursten, ist groß. Verschlimmert hat sich die Situation vor allem seit 2015 durch ein Gesetz, das Niger auf Druck der EU verabschiedete: das Verbot von Menschenschmuggel. Zuvor war es in dem Transitland ein normales Geschäft, Migranten von der Stadt Agadez - dem Tor zur Sahara - in Richtung Norden zu bringen.

Doch die EU zahlte Millionen dafür, dass Niger die Migration in Richtung Europa eindämmte, indem es den Transport von Migranten für illegal erklärte. Rund 1 Milliarde Euro an Entwicklungshilfe wurden der Regierung in Niamey bis 2020 zugesagt - dafür sollte sie ihre Grenzen dicht machen. Wer heute dabei erwischt wird, Migranten gegen Geld zu befördern, muss mit Gefängnisstrafen von bis zu 30 Jahren rechnen.

Dadurch sind zwar die offiziellen Zahlen derjenigen, die über Niger nach Nordafrika reisen, drastisch gesunken, laut IOM um etwa 79 Prozent. Aber: Verschwunden sind die Migranten nicht. Sie nehmen nur gefährlichere Wege, abseits der Grenzposten, weit entfernt von Dörfern und Wasserstellen. „Die Migranten kommen immer noch, aber sie nutzen alternative Wege, wo sie einem viel höheren Risiko ausgesetzt sind“, sagte eine IOM-Sprecherin dem SPIEGEL.

Um etwas gegen das Sterben in der Wüste zu tun, haben Menschenrechtler in der Region Anfang 2017 begonnen, ein Netzwerk von Helfern entlang der Migrationsroute aufzubauen. Ihre Idee: ein Notfalltelefon für Menschen, die sich in der Sahara verirren. „Alarmphone Sahara“ heißt die Initiative, die im Mai 2018 ein kleines Büro in der Wüstenstadt Agadez eröffnet hat. Azizou Chehou leitet seit Februar das Büro der Initiative, die Teil eines Netzwerks aus Menschenrechtsgruppen in Afrika und Europa ist. Im Interview erzählt er von seiner Arbeit.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Herr Chehou, Sie tragen ein Handy bei sich, das Migranten anrufen können, wenn sie in der Wüste in Not geraten. Wann hat es das letzte Mal geklingelt?

Chehou: Das war etwa vor einer Woche. Allerdings waren es nicht Migranten, die angerufen haben, sondern unser Kontaktmann in Assamaka. Er hatte eine Gruppe von Migranten in der Wüste gefunden. Einige von ihnen hatten alles verloren: ihr Geld, ihr Gepäck. Sie wollten, dass wir ihnen helfen.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Und was haben Sie gemacht?

Chehou: Viel konnten wir leider nicht tun, dazu fehlen uns generell die Ressourcen. Wir haben ein Netzwerk aus etwa 20 Leuten in mehreren Dörfern und Städten, die an den Migrationsrouten Richtung Algerien und Libyen vorbeiführen. Die verteilen dort Notfallnummern an Migranten, die auf ihrem Weg dort Halt machen. Damit sie sich melden können, wenn sie in der Wüste in Not geraten. Das geht natürlich nur, wenn sie überhaupt Empfang haben. Unser Mann in Assamaka hat auch ein Motorrad, damit fährt er durch die Gegend und sucht nach Menschen, die irgendwo gestrandet sind. Wenn er eine Gruppe in der Wüste findet, sagt er Soldaten oder NGOs in der Nähe Bescheid. Wir haben keine eigenen Fahrzeuge für den Transport. Deshalb sind wir darauf angewiesen, dass andere mit ihren Trucks kommen und die Migranten in den nächsten Ort bringen.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Was erzählen Ihnen die Menschen, wieso sie in der Wüste stranden?

Chehou: Viele werden von der algerischen Regierung abgeschoben. Soldaten bringen sie zum sogenannten Point Zero und setzen sie dort aus, manchmal mitten in der Nacht. Sie zeigen in eine Richtung und sagen: „Da ist der nächste Ort“. Die Migranten laufen los und verlieren auf dem Weg die Orientierung. Sie haben keine Kraft mehr oder verdursten. Oft sind auch Frauen und Kinder dabei.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Auch Fahrer setzen Migranten in der Wüste aus. Warum?

Chehou: Seitdem der Transport von Migranten kriminalisiert wurde, nehmen die Fahrer immer gefährlichere Routen. Wenn ihr Wagen auf der Strecke liegen bleibt, hauen viele ab und überlassen die Migranten sich selbst. Weil sie Angst haben, dass Soldaten sie finden und sie ins Gefängnis müssen. Als Lehrer bin ich vor einer Weile öfter in Dörfer in der Wüste gefahren, um dort Kinder zu unterrichten - auf dem Weg habe ich immer wieder Leichen von Menschen gesehen, die es nicht geschafft haben. Es ist eine Katastrophe.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Wer sind Ihre Kontaktleute in den Dörfern?

Chehou: Das sind ganz unterschiedliche Menschen: Händler zum Beispiel, die für ihre Arbeit viel herumfahren. Wir haben aber auch NGO-Mitarbeiter, jemanden vom Roten Kreuz. Oder lokale Autoritäten in den Ortskomitees. Ich bin Journalist und arbeite beim Radio, daher kenne ich viele Leute in der Region. Die versuche ich zu überzeugen, bei uns mitzumachen. Vor ein paar Monaten haben wir in Agadez einen Workshop mit ihnen organisiert, um sie dafür auszubilden, Migranten zu helfen und ihre Situation zu dokumentieren. Wir haben ihnen Telefone gegeben, damit sie uns informieren und Bilder machen, wenn sie an Rettungsaktionen beteiligt sind. Ich halte das dann in unserem Büro in Agadez und auf unserer Internetseite fest. Allerdings ist die Kommunikation mit den Kontaktleuten nicht einfach: Mal ist das Telefonguthaben leer, oder die Verbindung bricht ab. Unsere Initiative hat kaum Geld, und wir kämpfen mit vielen Problemen.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Was passiert mit den Migranten, die gerettet werden?

Chehou: Wenn sie in der Nähe der algerischen Grenze in den nächsten Ort gebracht werden, müssen sie dort ausharren, bis sie von der IOM zurück nach Agadez gebracht werden. Das kann manchmal Tage oder Wochen dauern. Und diese Menschen sind oft in einer schlimmen Verfassung: Sie sind tagelang ohne Wasser durch die Wüste geirrt, viele sind psychisch verwirrt. Neulich hatten wir eine Frau, die gerettet wurde und einfach wieder in die Wüste laufen wollte. Gerade in so kleinen Ortschaften wie Assamaka gibt es nicht genug Infrastruktur, um die Leute richtig zu versorgen. Unsere Freiwilligen versuchen dann, die Leute zu beruhigen, sie mit Wasser und Essen zu versorgen. Oder sich darum zu kümmern, dass Verletzte ins Krankenhaus gebracht werden. Wenn die Leute in Agadez ankommen, werden die meisten zurück in ihre Heimatländer geschickt.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Kommen die Migranten auf ihrem Weg Richtung Sahara auch zu Ihnen in das Büro in Agadez?

Chehou: Das war unser Plan, denn wir wollen die Menschen besser auf die Gefahren in der Wüste vorbereiten. Wir verteilen Flyer, auf denen zum Beispiel steht, wie viel Wasser man mit auf die Reise nehmen sollte. Oder dass die Menschen ihre Familien informieren sollen, wenn sie losfahren, damit jemand informiert ist, wenn sie plötzlich verschwinden. Allerdings kommen kaum mehr Migranten durch Agadez. Wegen der verschärften Migrationsgesetze haben sie Angst, verhaftet zu werden. Die Schmuggler bringen sie in geheimen Verstecken außerhalb der Stadt unter. Die neuen Gesetze machen auch unsere Arbeit als Alarmphone sehr schwer, weil alles, das irgendwie mit Migration zusammenhängt, verboten ist. Weil ich Migranten helfe, habe ich Angst, irgendwann selbst deswegen ins Gefängnis zu kommen.

▻https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/alarmphone-sahara-wie-private-retter-versuchen-migranten-aus-der-todeszone-z

ping @_kg_

Alarme Phone Sahara : un numéro d’appel d’urgence pour les migrants perdus dans le désert

Sans le réseau d’Alarme Phone Sahara, plus d’une vingtaine de migrants n’auraient sans doute pas survécu à la panne de leur véhicule en plein désert du Sahara, estime l’association Alarme Phone Sahara.

Le désert du Sahara fait partie des routes migratoires les plus dangereuses au monde. Il coûte la vie à tant de personnes que le Sahara a été baptisé « cimetière à ciel ouvert ». Selon les Nations unies, au moins 30 000 migrants ont disparu en le traversant entre 2014 et 2018. Le chiffre réel est sans doute encore plus élevé.

Face à cette situation, un groupe d’activistes nigériens a décidé il y a environ deux ans de mettre en place un numéro d’appel d’urgence pour les migrants perdus dans le désert. C’est l’Alarme Phone Sahara (APS). Le numéro de cette hotline démarre par +227, soit l’indicatif du Niger, pays où le projet est basé. Mais l’APS dispose aussi de personnel au Mali, au Burkina Faso, au Togo, au Maroc et même en Allemagne et en Autriche.

https://scd.infomigrants.net/media/resize/my_image_big/e69f68ca8513282e6f2502375dd1bb33d6892767.png

Lorsque quelqu’un appelle ce numéro gratuit, l’APS tente de faciliter l’opération de secours en alertant des personnes et des services de secours qui se trouvent à proximité ou du moins dans un périmètre qui permet d’aller à la rencontre du migrant en détresse.

L’APS assure également une mission de sensibilisation, en donnant des informations fiables sur la traversée du Sahara à ceux qui souhaitent se lancer. Le site internet dispose d’une rubrique « conseils aux migrants », qui dresse notamment la liste des adresses et numéros de téléphones d’organisations d’aide dans la région. Le réseau cherche aussi à rendre compte de la réalité de la traversée, en documentant des cas d’accidents, d’abus ou de décès dans le désert.
Les expulsions en Algérie

Alarme Phone Sahara reçoit notamment des appels concernant des personnes perdues dans le désert après avoir été expulsé par l’Algérie, explique Chehou Azizou, un journaliste et ancien enseignant qui pilote l’APS depuis le début de l’année.

Depuis l’Algérie, les migrants sont souvent emmenés vers un endroit appelé « point zéro », un lieu à la frontière avec le Niger. Les autorités algériennes les déposent parfois au milieu de la nuit, en leur pointant simplement du doigt la direction de la première localité nigérienne. Celle-ci s’appelle Assamaka et se trouve à environ 15 kilomètres, mais sous la chaleur étouffante et sans eau, la mission s’avère souvent mortelle.

Par ailleurs, depuis que le trafic et le transport de migrants sont devenus des crimes après le vote d’une loi au Niger en 2015, les conducteurs prennent des routes de plus en plus dangereuses. Et quand leur véhicule tombe en panne, beaucoup prennent simplement la fuite, selon Chehou Azizou. Les migrants sont alors livrés à eux-mêmes et pour beaucoup condamnés à mort par manque d’orientation, d’eau et de nourriture.

Ressources limitées

Alarme Phone Sahara dispose d’un réseau d’une vingtaine de personnes réparties dans différentes villes sur la route migratoire vers l’Algérie et la Libye. Celles-ci distribuent le numéro de la hotline aux migrants qui passent.

L’un des membres de l’APS utilise aussi sa moto pour tourner dans le désert, à la recherche de personnes en détresse. Quand il trouve des migrants, il alerte l’ONG la plus proche ou les autorités pour les secourir, car l’APS ne dispose pas de véhicules propres pour mener ces opérations de sauvetage.

Cette année, le réseau a organisé un atelier à Agadez pour former ses membres à aider les migrants et à rendre compte de ce qu’ils vivent. Les participants ont reçu des téléphones portables pour appeler l’APS et pour prendre des photos lorsqu’ils sont impliqués dans une opération de secours. Néanmoins, le système de communication reste un problème majeur. Les téléphones n’ont plus de crédit ou le réseau est mauvais, soit autant de problèmes qui pourraient être réglés avec davantage de moyens, mais le budget de l’APS est limité.

https://scd.infomigrants.net/media/resize/my_image_big/180a45bac539a1f7e0e1126612cab822fc795009.jpeg

La peur des poursuites

Au début, l’APS avait préparé des flyers pour les distribuer à Agadez. Ces dépliants comprenaient des informations sur les quantités d’eau à prévoir pour le voyage et le conseil de contacter sa famille avant de partir.

Mais d’après Chehou Azizou, quasiment plus personne ne passe par Agadez depuis que la loi anti-passeurs est entrée en vigueur au Niger. Les trafiquants cachent les migrants en dehors de la ville par peur de se faire arrêter par les autorités.

« Tout ce qui est lié d’une manière ou d’une autre à la migration » est désormais prohibé. Au mieux, estime Chehou Azizou, Alarme Phone Sahara va continuer à travailler dans des conditions difficiles. Au pire, il risque lui-même d’aller en prison.

>>Infos utiles : les numéros d’urgence de l’Alarme Phone Sahara sont +227 80 29 68 26 ou +227 85 75 2676

▻https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/21002/alarme-phone-sahara-un-numero-d-appel-d-urgence-pour-les-migrants-perd

Extending ’Zero Tolerance’ To People Who Help Migrants Along The Border

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Arrests of people for harboring, sheltering, leaving food and water or otherwise protecting migrants have been on the rise since 2017, when then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to prioritize cases covered under the harboring statute.

Scott Warren, a 36-year-old college geography instructor from Ajo, Ariz., works with a group called called No More Deaths or No Mas Muertes. The group’s volunteers leave water and food for migrants traversing the Arizona desert.

Warren was arrested in 2017 and faces three felony counts including conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants. In its complaint, the government claims Warren was seen talking to two migrants who sheltered in Ajo. He denies being part of any sheltering plan.

“It is scary to be intimidated like this and to be targeted but there really is no choice,” said Warren. He believes the government is violating his right to religious freedom by criminalizing his spiritual belief that mandates he help people in distress.

“For the government, it’s kind of been an expansion of the interpretation of what it means to harbor,” he suggested.

The stretch of desert near Ajo can be deadly. The Pima County Medical Examiner has documented 250 migrant deaths in the area since 2001. In the same time frame, thousands have died of dehydration and exposure in the Arizona borderlands.

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“It is life or death here. And a decision not to give somebody food or or water could lead to that person dying,” Warren said.

’Can I be compassionate?’

Nine and half hours away by car from Ajo, in the west Texas town of Marfa, another case is unfolding that pits the government against a four-time elected city and county attorney, Teresa Todd.

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She is under investigation for human smuggling after stopping to help three migrants alongside the road at night in February, 2019.

“I see a young man in a white shirt. He runs out toward the road where I am,” Todd recounted. She says the man was pleading for assistance. “I can’t just leave this guy on the side of the road. I have to go see if I can help.”

The young man told Todd that his sister, 18-year-old Esmeralda, was in trouble.

“I mean, she can hardly walk, she’s very dazed,” recalled Todd.

The migrants took shelter in Todd’s car while she called and texted a friend who is the legal counsel for the local U.S. Border Patrol, asking for advice. Before that friend could reply, a sheriff’s deputy showed up. The deputy called in the U.S. Border Patrol.

An agent was soon reading Todd her Miranda rights. Eight days later, a Department of Homeland Security investigator accompanied by a Texas Ranger arrived at Todd’s office with a search warrant for her cellphone. Todd says she was told she’d have the phone back in a matter of hours.

“It makes people have to question, ’Can I be compassionate’?”

Todd’s phone was returned 53 days later.

The sheriff of Presidio County, Danny Dominguez, whose deputy called the Border Patrol, defended the action against Todd. He said anyone with undocumented migrants in their car risks arrest.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the western district of Texas declined comment on Todd’s case.

Todd is unrepentant: “I feel like I did the right thing. I don’t feel I did anything wrong.”

Speaking by phone from the migrant detention center in Sierra Blanca, Texas, Esmeralda said of Todd, “I’m really grateful to her.” She said doctors told her she was on the brink of death by the time she got to the hospital.

Figures confirmed to NPR by TRAC, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, show that in fiscal year 2018 there were more than 4,500 people federally charged for bringing in and harboring migrants. That is a more than 30% increase since 2015, with the greatest rise coming after Sessions’ order to prioritize harboring cases.

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“With these prosecutions, the government is saying, ’we’re extending our zero tolerance policy to Good Samaritans,’” said Ranjana Natarajan, director of the Civil Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law. “People shouldn’t be helping migrants even if they might be at threat of death.”

Accused of human smuggling

Ana Adlerstein, a U.S. citizen and volunteer at a Mexican migrant shelter, has her own story to tell. Earlier this month, Adlerstein accompanied a migrant seeking asylum from Sonora, Mexico to the U.S. border crossing at Lukeville, Ariz. Adlerstein was present to observe the process. Instead, she says she was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers for several hours.

“I was accused of human smuggling,” she stated.

Border officials had been forewarned that a migrant seeking asylum was coming that day, accompanied by a U.S. citizen. Under current law, once a migrant steps onto U.S. soil, he or she can request asylum.

“If that’s not how you’re supposed to seek asylum at a port of entry, how are you supposed to seek asylum in this country?” Adlerstein asked.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined comment on Adlerstein’s specific claims. In an email, a CBP spokesperson added:

“All persons entering the country, including U.S. citizens, are subject to examination and search. CBP uses diverse factors to refer individuals for selected examinations and there are instances when this process may take longer than normal. CBP is committed to ensuring the agency is able to execute its missions while protecting the human rights, civil rights, and dignity of those with whom we come in contact.”

Adlerstein has not been charged but has received subsequent calls from a DHS investigator.

In Texas, Teresa Todd is waiting to find out if she will be indicted for human smuggling.

As for Scott Warren, he faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on all three felony counts, a prospect he can’t even contemplate.

▻https://www.npr.org/2019/05/28/725716169/extending-zero-tolerance-to-people-who-help-migrants-along-the-border?t=1559201
#statistiques #chiffres

Scott Warren Provided Food & Water to Migrants in Arizona; He Now Faces Up to 20 Years in Prison

An Arizona humanitarian aid volunteer goes to trial today for providing water, food, clean clothes and beds to two undocumented migrants crossing the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona. If convicted, Scott Warren could spend up to 20 years in prison. Warren, an activist with the Tucson-based No More Deaths, is charged with three felony counts of allegedly “harboring” undocumented immigrants. For years, No More Deaths and other humanitarian aid groups in southern Arizona have left water and food in the harsh Sonoran Desert, where the temperature often reaches three digits during summer, to help refugees and migrants survive the deadly journey across the U.S. border. Warren was arrested on January 17, 2018, just hours after No More Deaths released a report detailing how U.S. Border Patrol agents had intentionally destroyed more than 3,000 gallons of water left out for migrants crossing the border. The group also published a video showing border agents dumping out jugs of water in the desert. Hours after the report was published, authorities raided the Barn, a No More Deaths aid camp in Ajo, where they found two migrants who had sought temporary refuge. We speak with Scott Warren and his fellow No More Deaths volunteer and activist Catherine Gaffney in Tucson.

▻https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/29/scott_warren_provided_food_water_to

Daily Trial Updates

Day 3 – June 3, 2019

We began the day with a powerful press conference featuring immigrant justice advocates from across the country. Patty Miller (Arivaca, AZ,) spoke on behalf of People Helping People in the Border Zone and the Rural Border Communities Coalition, followed by James Cordero and Jacqueline Arellano from Border Angeles (San Diego), Ravi Ragbir of the New Sanctuary Coalition (NYC) and Kaji Douša, Senior Pastor at The Park Avenue Christian Church in Manhattan.
The prosecution continued to build their “case” against Scott, spending most of the day playing video recordings of the testimony given by the two undocumented Central American men–José and Kristian–who were arrested with Scott. (Note we will be using only the first names of deposed witnesses to respect privacy).
Prosecutors attempted to erase the hardships experienced by undocumented people crossing the borderlands. One of the two witnesses, Kristian, testified that he had been traveling since October 4th, 2017 from his home in El Salvador. By the time of the arrest, he had been traveling for over three months and walking in the desert for two days. This is very different from the government narrative which claims the men were traveling for mere hours before they encountered help.
During their journey, José and Kristian experienced the routine and deadly Border Patrol apprehension method known as chase and scatter–a practice in which Border Patrol agents pursue migrants in vehicles, on foot, or in helicopters, forcing them to scatter into the desert. In the chaos, the two men lost their belongings, including “food and two gallons of water.” The No More Deaths Abuse Documentation Working Group has provided extensive documentation of the lethal impacts of this deadly apprehension method in our report series, The Disappeared.
José and Kristian testified that after arriving at the Barn, Scott gave them food, water, blankets and a place to rest. There was no evidence that Scott made any plans to transport them, hide them from law enforcement, or instruct them on how to evade any Border Patrol checkpoints.
Border Patrol Forensic Phone Analyst Rogelio Velasco gave a rundown of the contents of Scott Warren’s phone–he summarized 14,000 pages of emails and texts into a one page report. One part of his analysis showed the day José and Kristian arrived at the barn, Scott called a nurse and a doctor on the No More Deaths medical team. When asked why Velasco didn’t review the myriad other emails and texts discussing Scott’s humanitarian work, he replied, “I was looking for elements of criminality. If it wasn’t relevant then I skipped it.”

Day 2 – May 30, 2019

We began the day with Pastor Allison Harrington of Southside Presbyterian Church sharing the poem “Imagine the Angels of Bread” by Martin Espada along with a morning prayer.
Court opened with Border Patrol Agent John Marquez being cross-examined by the defense. He made it abundantly clear that he relied on racial profiling to determine the two men at the barn were migrants, claiming “they matched the description” of two migrants BP was looking for. However, when pressed by the defense, Agent Marquez admitted that he did not know whether they were “short, tall, fat, skinny, bearded, young, old, or even male.” He stated “In my experience, they appeared to be “Other Than Mexican.”
Agent Marquez also stated that January 17, 2018 was the first time Border Patrol agents in Ajo set up surveillance at the Barn. This happened just hours after No More Deaths released a report called The Disappeared Part 2: Interference on Humanitarian and video of agents destroying humanitarian aid supplies.
Second to take the stand was Border Patrol Agent Brendan Burns, who was the one who first referred to the migrants as “toncs”.
According to Agent Burns, when he approached the Barn that day, defendant Scott Warren told him that it was private property and a humanitarian aid space. He also asked the Agents to leave the property. Burns ignored him because, according to his surveillance, “the aliens didn’t appear to be in need of humanitarian aid.” When asked by the defense whether he has any medical credentials, the agent admitted to having none.
Five days after the arrests, a search warrant was issued for the Barn. Evidence seized included a receipt for a cherry coke, banana nut muffin and chips, a fridge note saying “bagels from flagstaff!” and a list of supplies for a camping trip.

Day 1 – May 29, 2019

After a moving press conference in the morning, a jury was selected of 15 people — 12 jurors and 3 alternates.
In his opening argument this afternoon, US Attorney Nathaniel Walters claimed that “this case is not about humanitarian aid,” urging jurors to ignore the realities of death and disappearance happening in the desert surrounding Ajo, Arizona.
The prosecution’s entire case for the charge of “conspiracy to harbor and transport” undocumented migrants appeared to hinge on the fact that two undocumented men arrived at the Barn, “and then Scott showed up” a few hours later.
The prosecution also harped on the fact that the men had “eaten food” prior to arriving at the Barn, apparently arguing that because the two men split one burrito after walking for two days through the desert, they were not in need of food or water
Lawyers for the defense firmly asserted in their opening arguments that this case IS about humanitarian aid, and that Scott’s actions must be understood as a part of his deep knowledge of suffering throughout the desert and commitment to working to end it. “Scott intended one thing: to provide basic human kindness in the form of humanitarian aid.”
The government also argued that Scott was pointing out known landmarks to the two migrants. “Defendant appeared to be pointing out different features, lots of hand motions. I could not hear them but there were hand gestures, up and down, in wave motions, rolling hills, pointing to known points of interest.” However, as the defense firmly stated “orientation is just as much of a human right as is food, water, and shelter.” In the context of death and disappearance in the desert, knowing where you are can save your life.
The government called their first witness, Border Patrol Agent John Marquez. Marquez testified to setting up surveillance on the Barn on January 17, 2018 and seeing Scott speaking with two men, who he presumed were undocumented based on “ill-fitting clothing” and the fact that they were “scanning the horizon.” No evidence was presented that Scott intended to hide or conceal anyone. Judge Collins called an end to the day before the defense’s cross-examination of Marquez.

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Trial continued this afternoon with video testimony from José, the other material witness arrested with Scott, who confirmed that he and Kristian were both hungry, cold, and very tired when they arrived at the barn.

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José also described their experience of being scattered by the #BorderPatrol, and how most of the men in his group had to stop walking because they were so beat up from spending just one day in the desert.

Chase and scatter is just one of the deadly apprehension tactics used by BP which result in increased numbers of deaths and disappearances. “Prevention through Deterrence” is the name of the overall strategy of pushing migrants deep into the desert.

►https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Ux__uVfNA

▻https://twitter.com/NoMoreDeaths/status/1135690665399017473

In Scott Warren’s No More Deaths Trial, Prosecutors Attempt to Paint a Web of Conspiracy

For nearly a year and a half, U.S. government prosecutors in Arizona have sought to make an example out of Scott Warren. The 36-year-old geographer and border-based humanitarian aid volunteer was arrested with two undocumented migrants on January 17, 2018, and accused of providing the men with food, water, and a place to sleep over three days. A month later, a grand jury indicted him on two counts of harboring and one count of conspiracy, bringing the total amount time he could spend in prison — if convicted on all counts and sentenced to consecutive terms — to 20 years.

Warren’s trial began in Tucson on Wednesday, marking the start of the most consequential prosecution of an American humanitarian aid provider in at least a decade. On Monday, assistant U.S. attorneys Anna Wright and Nathaniel J. Walters, who together have spearheaded an aggressive and controversial prosecutorial campaign against immigrant rights defenders in the Sonoran Desert, called their final witness to the stand.

Over three and a half days of testimony, the prosecutors presented the jury with two Border Patrol agents who arrested Warren, a third who examined his phone, and some three hours of video-taped testimony from the young migrants he was arrested with, recorded before their deportations. The arresting agents provided little information beyond the bare facts of their operation as it unfolded, while the agent who testified about phone evidence seemed to paint a more incriminating picture of a man who was not charged in the case than he did of Warren. The migrants who were held as the government’s material witnesses described Warren as a figure who was hardly present during their short time in the U.S., beyond giving them permission to eat, sleep, and drink at a property he did not own, after they showed up with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

The conspiracy charge in particular has cast an ominous pall over Warren’s case. As a prosecutorial tool, conspiracy charges can afford government attorneys sweeping powers in criminal cases. While the U.S. attorney’s office in Arizona was secretive about the nature of its theory of conspiracy with respect to Warren following his grand jury indictment, The Intercept revealed last month that the government considered Irineo Mujica, a prominent immigrants right advocate, a co-conspirator in the case. A dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, Mujica is the head of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an immigrant rights organization known for its role in organizing the migrant caravans that have drawn President Trump’s outrage. He also operates a migrant shelter south of Ajo, the unincorporated community where Warren lives and works.

In opening arguments last week, Walters confirmed that the government considered Mujica a key figure in Warren’s alleged offenses. “They were in contact with Irineo Mujica,” the prosecutor told the jury, referring to 23-year-old Kristian Perez-Villanueva and 20-year-old Jose Arnaldo Sacaria-Goday, the Central American migrants, from El Salvador and Honduras, respectively, whom Warren was arrested with. Not only that, Walters said, Mujica had driven the pair to “the Barn,” a property used by humanitarian volunteers operating in the area. Warren’s relationship to Mujica was that of a “shared acquaintance,” Walters said, and cellphone evidence would show that the two were in contact before the migrants arrived at the Barn.

Mujica declined to comment for this story and has not been charged with a crime.

On Monday afternoon, Rogelio Velasco, a Border Patrol agent in the Tucson sector’s intelligence unit, testified about the government’s telephonic evidence, describing how his work excavating cellphones is used to support the agency’s high-priority cases, often executed by its plainclothes “Disrupt” units. “We try to look for bigger cases where more people are involved,” he testified. Warren was arrested by a Disrupt unit.

Wright and Walters’ interest in Warren and the humanitarian groups he volunteers with, particularly the faith-based organization No More Deaths, began in 2017, when the assistant U.S. attorneys brought federal misdemeanor charges against several members of the group — Warren included — for leaving water and other humanitarian aid supplies on public lands where migrants routinely die. Velasco explained how, after Warren’s arrest, the prosecutors directed him to focus on particular date ranges and communications included in Warren’s phone and a phone carried by Perez-Villanueva.

As the Border Patrol agent carried out the prosecutors’ request, he said he found a series of communications between Perez-Villanueva and Mujica, beginning in December 2017 and extending through January 2018, when he and Sacaria-Goday, along with Warren, were arrested in Ajo. According to Velasco’s testimony, the messages showed that when the young migrants entered the U.S. on January 14, Perez-Villanueva texted Mujica, “We’re here.” To which Mujica replied, “I’m on my way.”

The government’s efforts to tie alleged illegal activity between Mujica and Warren appeared to begin after Warren was taken into custody. Four months after Warren was indicted, Jarrett L. Lenker, a supervisory Border Patrol agent in the Tucson sector intelligence unit, submitted a search warrant affidavit for Warren’s iPhone, first uncovered by the Arizona Daily Star and obtained by The Intercept.

Mujica was a central figure in Lenker’s affidavit. The Border Patrol agent described “a total of 16 phone calls or WhatsApp messages” exchanged between Perez-Villanueva and Mujica in the month before his arrest. Lenker’s affidavit also revealed that, through subpoenas, law enforcement identified two phone numbers “associated with Warren’s Verizon account” following his arrest: one belonging to Warren and the other belonging to his partner.

In his testimony Monday, Velasco said that Mujica was a contact in Warren’s phone, and that the two had communications up through January 11, six days before his arrest. Warren also sent Mujica’s contact information to another person in his phone in the summer of 2017, Velasco testified.

Following Velasco’s testimony, the prosecution called Border Patrol agent Brendan Burns, one of the Disrupt unit members principally involved in Warren’s arrest, to the witness stand. Burns described an incident a week after Warren’s arrest, in which Mujica was pulled over at a Border Patrol checkpoint outside Ajo. He drove to the scene and observed that Mujica’s van was the same vehicle featured in a selfie Perez-Villanueva and Sacaria-Goday took after they made it to the U.S. Inside the van were a number of items associated with illegal border crossings, Burns testified, including water jugs and foreign identification cards. The same incident was also described in Lenker’s affidavit, which noted that the ID cards belonged to individuals who had been removed from the U.S. Lenker also recounted an incident the following month, in which Mujica was again stopped at the same Border Patrol checkpoint and his passenger was arrested for being in the country illegally.

Burns acknowledged having seen the photos of Perez-Villanueva and Sacaria-Goday in Mujica’s vehicle prior to his encounter with Mujica, and his knowledge that the vehicle belonged to Mujica. He testified that he did not, however, ask Mujica about the two young migrants, nor their alleged conspiracy with Scott Warren, nor did he place him under arrest.

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In opening statements last week, defense attorney Greg Kuykendall acknowledged that Warren had been in contact with Mujica days before his arrest, and that was because Mujica had information about a dead body outside Ajo. The remains of roughly 3,000 people have been recovered in the Arizona desert since 2000, the grim consequence of a government policy that deliberately funnels migrants into the most lethal areas of the U.S.-Mexico border. Since 2014, Warren has brought together a network of humanitarian groups working to confront the loss of life in the state’s deadliest region, the so-called west desert. Those efforts have yielded a historic increase in the number of bodies and human remains accounted for in the area.

On cross examination Monday, Kuykendall zeroed in on the evidence Velasco’s examination of Warren’s phone had uncovered. The defense attorney first established, with Velasco’s admission, that there were no communications recorded between Perez-Villanueva and Warren (Sacaria-Goday tossed his phone while the pair were in the desert). He then focused on Warren’s communications with Mujica.

“Are you aware that Scott and Irineo are involved in humanitarian aid efforts?” Kuykendall asked.

“I think I might’ve heard something,” Velasco replied. “But I’m not exactly sure.”

(Warren’s humanitarian aid work was noted in both internal Border Patrol reports and news accounts before and after his arrest — he and Mujica were featured in a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper series in 2017 detailing their efforts to find dead and lost migrants in the desert.)

Velasco admitted that he had no idea what Warren and Mujica discussed the week before Warren’s arrest, nor had he taken note of what Warren had Googled as soon as the pair got off the phone. Kuykendall informed the jury that those searches included information on backcountry areas south of Ajo, a news report on a humanitarian group conducting search and rescue operations in the region, and the English translation of a Spanish word for scratches. Following the Google searches, Kuykendall told the jury, Warren called Dr. Norma Price, a physician who has long provided medical advice to No More Deaths volunteers.

Kuykendall questioned Velasco about his testimony regarding Warren’s communications with a woman named “Susannah.” Velasco admitted that he did not know who Susannah was and that he “saw nothing that directly suggested” she and Warren were communicating about criminal activity. Instead, he testified, they were messaging one another about “providing water in different areas.” Moving along, Kuykendall asked if Velasco was aware that Perez-Villanueva worked for Mujica while staying at his shelter in Mexico — a potential explanation for their repeated communications in the winter of 2017. Velasco appeared uncertain, and acknowledged that from January 10 to the afternoon of January 14, when the migrants arrived in Ajo, there were no communications between Perez-Villanueva and Mujica.

“When he was crossing I didn’t come up with any messages,” Velasco testified.

In opening arguments last week, Kuykendall explained how, in the days leading up to his arrest, Warren spent his time training new humanitarian volunteers, assisting sheriff’s deputies in the search for a body, and performing his duties as a new instructor at Tohono O’odham Community College, a school for residents of the Native American reservation outside Ajo. In early January 2018, five new No More Deaths volunteers had arrived in Ajo. As the local expert, it was up to Warren to show them the ropes and familiarize them with the organization’s protocols — protocols, Kuykendall said, that are intended to ensure the group’s work is “effective, responsible, and legal.”

On Thursday, January 11, Warren was at home when Mujica called to inform him about the human remains he had heard about, Kuykendall said, noting that Warren had the experience and know-how to organize a grid search in the area. Efforts to coordinate a search were the extent of communications between Warren and Mujica, the defense attorney said. The following day, Warren took the new volunteers to a migrant shelter in Mexico, where they distributed “harm reduction” kits, consisting of chlorine to purify water, ointment for blisters, combs for removing cholla cactus spines, and lists of emergency numbers, including 911.

“No More Deaths’ role is to reduce the harm,” Kuykendall told the jury, not to encourage people to cross a desert that has claimed thousands of lives.

Warren spent much of the following weekend at home with the flu, Kuykendall said, coordinating rescue operations by phone and working to link up Pima County sheriff’s deputies with No More Deaths volunteers in the field. Warren’s responsibilities involved preparing new volunteers, operationally and emotionally, for the possibility of finding a dead body in the desert. On the night of Sunday, January 14, they also included making dinner for the new recruits at the Barn. Warren returned to the building with groceries that afternoon to find two young men — Perez-Villanueva and Sacaria-Goday — already inside.

“Scott’s spooked,” Kuykendall said of Warren’s reaction.

In the depositions played for the jury Monday, Perez-Villanueva and Sacaria-Goday described a harrowing journey through the desert that involved being chased by law enforcement and losing many of their supplies. Perez-Villanueva described fleeing problems in El Salvador and said that he had no intention to enter the U.S. until those problems cropped up in Mexico. The pair had crossed in a group of five but were quickly on their own, their companions slowed down by thorns in their feet. “Between the two of us, we made a good team,” Perez-Villanueva said. “We supported each other mutually.” The young men testified to crossing the desert and tossing their food and backpacks when they were chased by immigration agents. They eventually made it to a gas station outside Ajo, where “a gringo” drove them to second gas station in town.

Neither of the migrants identified the man who then drove to the Barn, though Perez-Villanueva testified that the man told them not to describe his role in delivering them there, and that he honored that request. The pair let themselves in through an unlocked door. Warren arrived approximately 40 minutes later. “They tell him that they’re hungry,” Kuykendall told the jury. “They tell him that they’re thirsty. They tell him that they’re tired.”

Warren grabbed a form No More Deaths uses to catalog medical evaluations of migrants encountered in the field, the defense attorney said. Warren, a certified wilderness first responder, found that Perez-Villanueva had blisters on his feet, a persistent cough, and signs of dehydration. Sacaria-Goday’s conditions were much the same, though he was also suffering from chest pain. In keeping with No More Deaths’ protocol, Warren called a nurse before starting dinner for the volunteers that were set to arrive — as well as their two new guests.

“He gives food to hungry men,” Kuykendall told the jury. “They share a meal with the volunteers.”

By phone, Dr. Price advised the two young migrants to stay off their feet for a couple days, to stay hydrated, and asked the volunteers to keep them under observation, Kuykendall told the jury. Warren came and went in the days that followed, as did other No More Deaths volunteers. “He hardly spent time there,” Sacaria-Goday testified. “I hardly spoke with him,” Perez-Villanueva said.

On Tuesday, January 16, Warren had his first day teaching at the community college. The following day, he worked from home. A group of high school students were scheduled to visit the Barn that night. Warren pulled up to the Barn in the afternoon, Kuykendall said, as Perez-Villanueva and Sacaria-Goday were preparing to leave. The three spoke outside. Across a desert wash, two plainclothes Border Patrol agents were conducting “covert surveillance,” in the words of Walters, the government prosecutor.

“Toncs at the barn,” agent Burns wrote in a group text, using a slang word for migrants known to reflect the sound a flashlight makes when it connects with a human skull.

The lead agent on the arrest operation was John Marquez. In his testimony last week, Marquez’s narrative began the afternoon of Warren’s arrest, though he acknowledged doing a bit of “background research,” in Kuykendall’s words, on Warren before taking him into custody. In fact, texts messages The Intercept has previously reported upon show Marquez repeatedly communicating with local Fish and Wildlife agents about Warren’s whereabouts and No More Deaths’ humanitarian activity in the run-up to his arrest. In a report he filed after Warren was taken into custody, Marquez described him as a “recruiter” for the organization, who regularly comments publicly on immigration issues.

Under questioning from the prosecution, Marquez highlighted hand gestures Warren allegedly made while standing outside with Perez-Villanueva and Sacaria-Goday as evidence that he was providing them directions north. Upon cross examination, however, he acknowledged that this apparently important detail was not included in his arrest report. Perez-Villanueva and Sacaria-Goday, meanwhile, both testified that Warren did not provide them directions for their journey. He never advised them to hide in the Barn, they said, and they were free to come and go as they pleased.

Marquez and Burns descended on the Barn with backup provided by a law enforcement caravan that had mustered at a hotel down the road. Warren, Perez-Villanueva, and Sacaria-Goday were all placed under arrest. The migrants were held in government custody for several weeks before providing their testimony and being deported to their home countries.

“There is one question in this case,” Kuykendall told the jury considering Warren’s actions in the days leading up to his arrest. “Did he intend to violate the law?” The government did not have the evidence to prove that he did, the defense attorney argued.

“Scott intended one thing,” he said. “To provide basic human kindness in the form of humanitarian aid.”

▻https://theintercept.com/2019/06/04/scott-warren-no-more-deaths-trial-conspiracy-phone

UN experts urge US authorities to drop charges against aid worker Scott Warren

GENEVA (5 June 2019) – UN human rights experts* have expressed grave concerns about criminal charges brought against Scott Warren, a U.S. citizen who works for an aid organisation providing water and medical aid to migrants in the Arizona desert.

Warren’s trial began on 29 May 2019, and if found guilty he faces up to 20 years in jail.

“Providing humanitarian aid is not a crime. We urge the US authorities to immediately drop all charges against Scott Warren,” the experts said.

Warren, 36, lives in the desert town of Ajo, Arizona, where he helped to establish the organisation No More Deaths, which provides humanitarian assistance along migration routes. For the past 10 years, he has helped migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross the Arizona - Mexican border through the Sonora desert.

Border Control agents arrested the human rights defender on 17 January 2018 at “the Barn”, a humanitarian shelter in the Sonora Desert, while he was providing assistance to two undocumented migrants. His arrest came hours after the release of a report from No More Deaths which documented the implication of Border Control agents in the systematic destruction of humanitarian supplies, including water stores, and denounced a pattern of harassment, intimidation and surveillance against humanitarian aid workers.

Warren faces charges on two counts of “harboring” migrants and one count of “conspiring to transport and harbor” migrants.

Arizona has some of the deadliest migrant corridors along the US border, accounting for more than a third of more than 7,000 border deaths recorded by US authorities over the last two decades. The actual numbers are likely to be higher, given the remains of many of those who die are not recovered.

“The vital and legitimate humanitarian work of Scott Warren and No More Deaths upholds the right to life and prevents the deaths of migrants and asylum seekers at the US-Mexican border,” said the UN experts.

“The prosecution of Scott Warren represents an unacceptable escalation of existing patterns criminalising migrant rights defenders along the migrant caravan routes.”

The experts are in contact with the U.S. authorities on the issues.

▻https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24675&LangID=E

Judge declares mistrial in Tucson trial of aid volunteer accused of harboring migrants

Jurors in the high-profile felony trial against Scott Warren — a humanitarian-aid volunteer charged with harboring two undocumented immigrants in southwestern Arizona — were unable to reach a verdict, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial in the case.

U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins brought the 12-person jury into the Tucson federal courtroom on the afternoon of June 11, after they indicated for a second time that they were deadlocked on all three charges Warren faced.

The judge dismissed the jury after each member told him that additional time deliberating would not result in a verdict.

Collins scheduled a status conference on the trial for July 2, when prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona will decide whether to try Warren again before another jury.

Prosecutors declined to comment after the judge dismissed the jury, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona has not responded to a request for comment.

Warren, 36, a volunteer with the group No More Deaths, faced up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.

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He’s accused of conspiring to transport two undocumented immigrants, Kristian Perez-Villanueva and Jose Arnaldo Sacaria-Goday, and of harboring them for several days in January 2018 in Ajo, Arizona.

Speaking to reporters outside the federal courthouse, Warren acknowledged that he’d be back in court in a month’s time to learn if the legal case against him would continue.

But he thanked his supporters who filled the courthouse to capacity on each of the seven days of testimony.

“But the other men arrested with me that day, Jose Sacaria-Goday and Kristian Perez-Villanueva, have not received the outpouring of support that I have,” Warren said. “I do not know how they are doing now. But I desperately hope that they are safe.”

Warren said that the need to provide humanitarian aid to migrants crossing the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border still is “as necessary” as ever.

He pointed out that since his arrest on Jan. 17, 2018, the remains of 88 migrants were recovered from the Ajo corridor, a remote and notoriously rugged desert wilderness in southwestern Arizona.

Greg Kuykendall, the lead attorney in his defense team, praised volunteers, such as Warren, for using their time and resources to help migrants in need.

He declined to answer questions about the possibility of a retrial.

“The government put on its best case, with the full force and countless resources, and 12 jurors could not agree with that case,” Kuykendall said. “We remain devoted today in our commitment to defend Scott’s lifelong devotion to providing humanitarian aid.”
Volunteers say border humanitarian work will continue

The hung jury in Warren’s felony trial follows the convictions of several other No More Deaths volunteers for carrying out humanitarian aid duties along protected wilderness areas along the Arizona border.

In January, a federal judge in Tucson convicted four volunteers of misdemeanors for entering a wildlife refuge without a permit and dropping off food and water for migrants. He sentenced them to 15 months probation, ordered them to pay a fine of $150, and banned them from the refuge.

The following month, four other No More Deaths volunteers pleaded guilty to a civil infraction of entering a wildlife refuge without a permit, and agreed to pay $280 in fines.

Warren is also awaiting the outcome of a separate misdemeanor case brought against him for entering protected wilderness areas without a permit.

Page Corich-Kleim, a longtime volunteer with No More Deaths, said despite these results, their work in providing humanitarian aid will continue along southwestern Arizona.

“This evening, we have a group of volunteers driving out to Ajo to put water out,” she said. “So throughout this whole trial, we haven’t stopped doing our work and we’re not going to stop doing our work.”

The jury began deliberations midday on Friday, after attorneys presented their closing arguments in Tucson federal court. But after nearly 15 hours of deliberations, they were unable to reach consensus on the three felony counts against Warren.

The jurors first notified Collins late Monday afternoon that they were unable to reach a verdict in the case. But the judge asked them to try once again on Tuesday morning.

But after deadlocking once again on Tuesday morning, Collins thanked them and dismissed them from jury duty.

The jurors left the courthouse without speaking to the media.
Prosecutors said Warren conspired to harbor migrants

During the trial, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona argued that the two migrants were in good health and did not need medical care when they showed up to a building known as “the Barn” on Jan. 14, 2018.

The prosecutors argued that Warren had conspired with Irineo Mujica, a migrants-rights activist who runs a shelter in nearby Sonoyta, Mexico, to take in the two migrants and shield them from Border Patrol. They also alleged that the humanitarian aid was used as a “cover” to help them further their journey illegally into the United States.

Agents arrested Warren, as well as Perez-Villanueva and Sacaria-Goday, during a Jan. 17, 2018, raid of the Barn, after they had set up surveillance of the area.

Defense attorneys for Warren said he had no idea that the two men would be at the Barn when he arrived, and that he had followed the protocols No More Deaths had established to provide a medical assessment, as well as food, water, shelter and orientation to the two migrants.

Warren’s intent was not to break the law, but rather to provide lifesaving aid, his attorneys said.

▻https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/border-issues/2019/06/11/scott-warren-verdict-aiding-undocumented-immigrants-on-us-mexico-border-no-more-deaths/1387036001

Jurors refuse to convict activist facing 20 years for helping migrants

Jury could not reach a verdict against Scott Daniel Warren who was arrested in 2018 for giving migrants water, food and lodging.

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A US jury could not reach a verdict on Tuesday against a border activist who, defense attorneys say, was simply being kind by providing two migrants with water, food and lodging when he was arrested in early 2018.

Scott Daniel Warren, a 36-year-old college geography instructor, was charged with conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants in a trial that humanitarian aid groups said would have wide implications for their work. He faced up to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors maintained the men were not in distress and Warren conspired to transport and harbor them at a property used for providing aid to migrants in an Arizona town near the US-Mexico border.

The case played out as humanitarian groups say they are coming under increasing scrutiny under Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies.

Outside the courthouse, Warren thanked his supporters and criticized the government’s efforts to crack down on the number of immigrants coming to the US.

“Today it remains as necessary as ever for local residents and humanitarian aid volunteers to stand in solidarity with migrants and refugees, and we must also stand for our families, friends and neighbors in the very land itself most threatened by the militarization of our borderland communities,” Warren said.

Glenn McCormick, a spokesman for the US attorney’s office in Arizona, declined to comment on whether Warren would face another trial. The judge set a 2 July status hearing for the defense and prosecution.

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Warren is one of nine members of the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths who have been charged with crimes related to their work. But he is the only one to face felony charges.

In west Texas, a county attorney was detained earlier this year after stopping her car on a dark highway to pick up three young migrants who flagged her down. Teresa Todd was held briefly, and federal agents searched her cellphone.

Border activists say they worry about what they see as the gradual criminalization of humanitarian action.

Warren has said his case could set a dangerous precedent by expanding the definition of the crimes of transporting and harboring migrants to include people merely trying to help border-crossers in desperate need of water or other necessities.

Warren and other volunteers with the No More Deaths group also were targeted this year in separate federal misdemeanor cases after leaving water, canned food and other provisions for migrants hiking through the Cabeza Prieta national wildlife refuge in southern Arizona.

In Warren’s felony case, the defense team headed by Greg Kuykendall argued that Warren could not, in good conscience, turn away two migrants who had recently crossed the desert to enter the US.

Jurors said on Monday that they could not reach a consensus on the charges against Warren, but a federal judge told them to keep deliberating. They were still deadlocked on Tuesday and ultimately dismissed.

Thousands of migrants have died crossing the border since the mid-1990s, when heightened enforcement pushed migrant traffic into Arizona’s scorching deserts.

▻https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/11/arizona-activist-migrant-water-scott-daniel-warren-verdict

The gripping case of Scott Warren

Is offering assistance to illegal immigrants a protected religious practice?

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ONE TROUBLE with liberty is that you never know what people will do with it. In recent years, American conservatives have been passionate defenders of individual religious freedoms, such as the right to have nothing to do with same-sex weddings. But Scott Warren (pictured), an idealistic geographer who is facing felony charges for succouring migrants in the Arizona desert, has now become a standard-bearer for a very different sort of conscientious objection.

On June 11th his trial, which has been closely watched at the liberal end of America’s religious spectrum, reached deadlock after jurors failed to agree despite three days of deliberation. That was a better result than Mr Warren and his many supporters feared. Prosecutors may seek a retrial.

▻https://www.economist.com/united-states/2019/06/15/the-gripping-case-of-scott-warren

USA: Decision to retry Dr. Scott Warren is part of wider campaign against human rights defenders

In response to US federal prosecutors deciding today to retry the human rights defender Dr. Scott Warren after a previous attempt to prosecute him ended in a mistrial, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director Amnesty International, said:

“By deciding to mount an entirely new trial against Dr. Scott Warren, the Trump administration is doubling down on its attacks against human rights defenders who are doing necessary and life-saving work at the US-Mexico border.”

“Amnesty International has documented that the criminalization of Dr. Warren is not an isolated incident, but part of a larger politically-motivated campaign of harassment and intimidation by the US government that is in clear violation of US and international law. The US government must immediately halt these campaigns, and Congress should hold authorities accountable for their abuse of power.”

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4 Arizona Women Convicted for Leaving Water for Migrants
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/800226