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Julian Assange spying: Three protected witnesses accuse Spanish ex-marine of spying on Julian Assange | In English | EL PAÍS
▻https://elpais.com/elpais/2020/01/21/inenglish/1579611351_198492.html

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Former employees of David Morales tell a judge in Spain that his company was making recordings of the cyberactivist and his lawyers for the CIA

Spain’s High Court, the Audencia Nacional, is closing in on David Morales, the head of the Spanish security company US Global S. L., and who is under investigation for spying on cyberactivist Julian Assange while he was living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Three people who worked for the company have testified as protected witnesses before High Court Judge José de la Mata that Morales handed over material collected from the diplomatic headquarters to US intelligence services. The three witnesses say that Morales, a former marine in the Spanish Navy, bragged about the collaboration. “I am a mercenary and I make no bones about it,” he said to one of them.

Two of the witnesses confirm what EL PAÍS revealed before the legal investigation began – that in December 2017, the owner of UC Global S. L. ordered workers to change the surveillance cameras in the embassy and replace them with others that could capture audio. From that moment on, they recorded and monitored conversations between the WikiLeaks founder and his lawyers, as well as all of his visitors.

During the meetings with the lawyers, Assange prepared his legal defense against the extradition order from the United States. The Australian cyberactivist is wanted in the US for allegedly committing 18 crimes for leaking classified information on secret military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq via the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. He faces a total of 175 years in prison.

According to the evidence provided by the witnesses – videos, audio tapes and dozens of emails, some of which were published in advance by this newspaper – the spying operation was intensive. Under Morales’s express orders, the security team photographed the passports of all of Assange’s visitors, took apart their cellphones, downloaded content from their iPads, took notes and put together reports on each meeting.

Morales outlined in writing the objectives and the “high priority” profiles that had to be “under control at all times” – in particular visitors from North America and Russia, as seen in emails. The list of Assange’s visitors did not include any Russian citizens, but did include a visitor from Serbia and another one from Belarus. “All this has to be considered top secret to limit its distribution,” the owner of UC Global S. L. wrote to one of his trusted workers. The Ecuadorian diplomats who worked in the London embassy were also spied on, according to the evidence provided by the witnesses.

The three witness statements all spoke of the phrases Morales used with his most-trusted workers in reference to the alleged collaboration with the US secret service: “We are playing in the first division,” “I have gone to the dark side,” “Those in control are the American friends,” “The American client,” “The American friends are asking me to confirm,” “The North American will get us a lot of contracts around the world,” and “US intelligence.” The obsession over any Russian visit or sign of a link between Assange and Russia was also reflected in the photographs that were taken of the passport visas of some visitors.

The recordings from the cameras installed in the embassy were extracted from the hard drive every 15 days, along with other recordings from microphones placed in fire extinguishers, and delivered personally to Morales at the headquarters of UC Global, located in Jerez de la Frontera in the south of Spain. They were always original recordings, not copies.

Morales traveled to the US once or twice a month allegedly to hand over the material to “the Americans.” A microphone was installed on the PVC plastic base of a fire extinguisher near the meeting room where Assange met with his lawyers. The cyberactivist had placed a device that created white noise in this room, and activated it when he thought he was being spied on. He placed another device in the women’s bathroom, where he sometimes met with his lawyers.

On notera le côté faux-cul d’absolument tout le monde…

On reconnait, paraît-il, Juan Guaidó comme président par intérim, mais il n’est nulle part qualifié ainsi :
– le titre parle d’ opposant
– le tweet de Macron du président de l’Assemblée nationale vénézuélienne
– quant aux dirigeants de l’UE, ils lui réservent un accueil chaleureux mais rien de concret.

#association_de_malfaiteurs

▻https://elpais.com/politica/2020/01/24/actualidad/1579897148_446733.html

Gros débat en Espagne car l’impétrant n’a été reçu « que » par le ministre des AE tandis que Madrid, tenue par la droite (et soutenue par l’extrême) l’a fêté... Les critiques disent que, justement, Macron (et Johnson avant lui) ont reçu « le leader de l’opposition venezuélienne »... Dans le même temps, un ministre a été délégué fissa à l’aéroport pour empêcher la numéro 2 de Maduro de fouler le sol espagnol (sous peine d’arrestation)
▻https://elpais.com/politica/2020/01/25/actualidad/1579953643_629569.html

Ça change de la France où tout le monde s’en contrebalance (sauf pour répéter que Maduro c’est le mal).

Mais les personnalités politiques espagnoles se sont beaucoup investies (p. ex. J.-L. Zapatero). Sans parler de Leopoldo López (père) eurodéputé pour le PPE.

Et sinon,

“España está dispuesta a albergar una reunión del grupo internacional de contacto, que lleva meses sin citarse. Sería útil, no solamente para hacerse una foto, sino para discutir cómo puede España ayudar a resolver las diferencias entre venezolanos. España busca ser constructiva”

#pas_seulement_pour_la_photo
ce qui définit assez bien_a contrario_ les actions de Guaidó…

ou encore, à peine plus loin,

Fuentes diplomáticas argumentan que las fotos de Guaidó con mandatarios de otros países no son útiles en este momento, cuando hay mucha división también dentro de la oposición venezolana, ni ayuda a calmar los ánimos ni a buscar una presión que fuerce a Nicolás Maduro a convocar unas elecciones.

Bañistas de una playa de Gran Canaria auxilian a 24 inmigrantes que desembarcaron en patera

Las llegadas de inmigrantes a las Islas Canarias han aumentado un 22% en 2019 y ya rozan las 1.500.

Las imágenes de inmigrantes en pateras son habituales en la costa española, aunque a veces la tragedia deja un hueco para la esperanza. Este viernes desembarcaron 24 personas en la playa del Águila, en el sur de Gran Canaria, y los bañistas que disfrutaban del sol de la isla se lanzaron a socorrerlas. Entre los viajeros, que llegaron todos con vida, había seis menores de edad y dos mujeres embarazadas. Las llegadas a las costas canarias han aumentado más de un 20% en 2019.

El otoño no existe en las playas de Maspalomas. Mientras los bañistas disfrutaban de unos agradables 27 grados, una embarcación con inmigrantes magrebíes y subsaharianos alcanzó la pedregosa costa. Los integrantes de la patera, un grupo de tres bebés, tres niños, 10 varones y ocho mujeres, desembarcaron por sus propios medios en la orilla. Los bañistas, que observaban la escena estupefactos, ayudaron de inmediato, incluso antes de que los servicios de emergencia llegasen para entregar agua, alimentos y ropa de abrigo a los inmigrantes. Algunos de los usuarios de la playa se pusieron de acuerdo para ir a un supermercado cercano y comprar leche y biberones para los más pequeños, y embutidos, pan y yogures para los demás.

Aunque no se produjeron víctimas, 13 inmigrantes fueron derivados a distintos centros sanitarios porque presentaban síntomas de deshidratación, mareos o cuadros de vómitos, según informó Efe. Los viajeros pasaron cinco días en el mar y algunos de ellos trataron de huir al alcanzar la playa, con escaso éxito. Uno de los bebés tuvo que ser evacuado al Hospital Materno-infantil de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Más de 27.000 inmigrantes han llegado a España en lo que va de 2019, menos de la mitad que el año pasado, según el Ministerio del Interior. Sin embargo, Canarias ha experimentado un aumento del 22%. A principios de noviembre, nueve inmigrantes murieron tras volcar una patera en Lanzarote. El archipiélago, que durante el otoño y el invierno supone una opción muy atractiva para muchos turistas españoles y extranjeros que escapan del frío continental, se ha convertido en una ruta al alza entre quienes se echan al mar con la ilusión de alcanzar suelo europeo. No todos lo consiguen.

▻https://elpais.com/politica/2019/11/29/actualidad/1575040711_248908.html
#Canaries #îles_canaries

Ça me rappelle quelque chose...

J’imagine que ça te rappelle ça, @reka

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La côte atlantique, nouveau point de départ de jeunes marocains

Ces dernières semaines, plusieurs embarcations transportant des jeunes marocains sont parties des villes de Salé, Casablanca, ou encore Safi, pour rejoindre le sud de l’Espagne ou les Canaries. Pour Ali Zoubeidi, docteur en droit public, spécialiste dans le trafic illicite de migrants au Maroc, les départs depuis ces villes situées sur la côte atlantique du pays sont nouveaux, et révèlent le désarroi d’une jeunesse qui, faute de perspectives, se tourne vers un « eldorado » européen.
Entre fin septembre et début octobre, les corps de 16 personnes ont été repêchés au large de Casablanca, au nord-ouest du Maroc. Les victimes, tous de jeunes marocains, étaient montées à bord d’une embarcation pneumatique, espérant rejoindre le sud de l’Espagne par l’océan Atlantique. Sur la soixantaine de personnes qui se trouvaient à bord, seules trois ont survécu.

Quelques semaines plus tard, une vidéo publiée sur les réseaux sociaux fait le tour de la presse marocaine. Elle montre Anouar Boukharsa, un sportif marocain détenteur de plusieurs prix de taekwondo régionaux et nationaux, lancer sa médaille à la mer depuis un bateau de fortune en direction des Canaries. Parti de la plage de Souira, au sud de la ville de Safi, avec une dizaine de jeunes marocains comme lui originaires de la région, il est arrivé le 23 octobre à Lanzarote, une île de l’archipel espagnol, après quatre jours de voyage.

Si le Maroc est devenu ces dernières années une route migratoire majeure, avec des départs s’organisant le plus souvent depuis la côte méditerranéenne, ces deux événements illustrent la présence d’autres points de départ se situant du côté Atlantique. Ali Zoubeidi, docteur en droit public spécialiste dans le trafic illicite de migrants au Maroc, travaille sur l’émergence de ces nouvelles traversées. Il répond aux questions de la rédaction d’InfoMigrants.

Les départs depuis la côte atlantique du Maroc sont-ils nouveaux ?

La route atlantique depuis le sud du pays en direction des Canaries avait déjà été réactivée, avec des points de départ dans la région de Tiznit, ou près de Dakhla. On connaissait déjà aussi la route du nord, avec des embarcations qui partent des villes d’Asilah ou de Larache, sur la côte atlantique, pour rejoindre la mer Méditerranée puis le sud de l’Espagne.

Mais ce que l’on voit émerger maintenant, et c’est très récent, ce sont des points de départ dans le centre, à partir de villes comme Safi - d’où est parti le champion de taekwondo - pour aller aux Canaries, ou de Salé et de Casablanca pour rejoindre la Méditerranée et ensuite le sud de l’Espagne. Ce sont des trajets de plusieurs jours, très dangereux, à bord d’embarcations de pêche traditionnelles ou de bateaux pneumatiques qui sont mis à l’eau sur des plages sauvages, par exemple à Souira, au sud de Safi.

Les points de départ au sud concernent à la fois des Marocains et des migrants originaires d’Afrique subsaharienne. Ces derniers se retrouvent pour certains au sud du pays après avoir été refoulés du nord par les autorités. [Les autorités marocaines avaient commencé en août 2018 à refouler de force des migrants vers le sud du pays afin de les « soustraire aux réseaux mafieux » du nord, NDLR.]

Au centre, depuis Safi, Salé, ce sont surtout de jeunes marocains qui partent vers l’Europe.

Comment expliquer ces départs de jeunes marocains ?

Même s’il n’y a pas encore de chiffres et données précises sur les départs depuis ces nouvelles zones, ce que l’on observe, c’est vraiment le désespoir de la jeunesse marocaine. Ce sont souvent des jeunes qui décident de quitter le pays en trouvant l’issue la plus proche pour atteindre l’Europe, « l’eldorado ». Dans les vidéos qui sont apparues ces dernières semaines, on a vu plusieurs personnes originaires de Safi partir du sud de leur ville, dont des sportifs. Certains jettent à l’eau leurs médailles, d’autres leurs diplômes. C’est révélateur d’une absence de perspectives pour la jeunesse marocaine, tant au niveau économique, de la santé, qu’au niveau sportif et culturel. Ils savent qu’ils peuvent mourir pendant le trajet, mais ils ne se posent pas la question de ce qu’il pourra ensuite se passer une fois en Espagne.

C’est vraiment présenté comme une aventure, un challenge entre jeunes. Ce sont aussi des jeunes qui souffrent de l’absence de voie légale d’immigration. Ils se voient refuser des visas pour des raisons économiques, même quand il s’agit pour eux simplement de faire du tourisme ou d’effectuer un déplacement temporaire. Et puis, il y a la mise en scène. On fait des vidéos pendant le passage irrégulier, on se vante pour montrer qu’on y arrive, on fait des dédicaces à sa famille, ses amis : c’est le moment où l’on peut dire « j’ai réussi quelque chose ». Et cela devient un facteur d’attraction pour d’autres. C’est aussi de la publicité dont se servent ensuite les réseaux mafieux.

Comment s’organisent ces départs ? Quels sont les dangers ?

Je dirais qu’il y a vraiment des réseaux criminels impliqués dans environ 85% des cas. Le reste étant des amateurs qui s’auto-organisent. Je soulignerais aussi l’importance de la communauté locale, des gens qui habitent sur la côte : dans les quartiers populaires, des pêcheurs sont impliqués. Il y a également des opportunistes, qui n’y connaissent rien, qui prennent contact avec des jeunes via les réseaux sociaux et les arnaquent. Début septembre, pour le cas du naufrage au large de Casablanca d’une embarcation qui se dirigeait vers le sud de l’Espagne, il s’agissait clairement d’une arnaque. Il est extrêmement compliqué de rejoindre les côtes espagnoles depuis Casablanca.

Il y a également eu le cas de migrants qui avaient été mis dans une embarcation et emmenés d’une côte marocaine à une autre. On leur avait dit de rester cachés pour ne pas être repérés. Au-delà des arnaques, ce sont des routes très dangereuses, autant lorsqu’on part du centre vers les Canaries que du centre vers le sud de l’Espagne. Et, souvent, les jeunes qui partent n’ont pas le réflexe de penser à des numéros de secours qu’ils pourraient appeler en cas de détresse.

La vidéo du champion de taekwondo, et deux jours avant la photo d’un ancien footballeur lors de sa traversée, sont des signaux d’alarme pour le pays. Le Maroc renforce ses capacités et forme des acteurs à lutter contre ces départs et ces réseaux. Mais il faudra aussi des programmes pour travailler sur les causes profondes qui poussent ces jeunes à partir.

▻https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/20425/la-cote-atlantique-nouveau-point-de-depart-de-jeunes-marocains

#migrants_marocains #jeunes #jeunesse #Asilah #Larache #Salé #Casablanca #Safi

Casi 60 muertos en el naufragio de una patera que venía a Canarias

Al menos 57 inmigrantes de varias nacionalidades han muerto tras naufragar este miércoles su embarcación en aguas del Atlántico a la altura de #Nuadibú (470 kilómetros al norte de Nuakchot), en Mauritania.

Al menos 57 inmigrantes de varias nacionalidades han muerto tras naufragar este miércoles su embarcación en aguas del Atlántico a la altura de Nuadibú (470 kilómetros al norte de Nuakchot), en Mauritania, según fuentes policiales en esta ciudad.

Otros 74 ocupantes de esa misma patera lograron salir con vida tras nadar hasta llegar a la costa de Mauritania, y fueron ellos los que dieron detalles del naufragio.

La embarcación había partido el pasado jueves desde las costas de Gambia con destino a las Islas Canarias, llevando a bordo un total de 150 ocupantes de distintas nacionalidades.

La embarcación, que al parecer viajaba siempre cerca de las costas, golpeó un arrecife y volcó; una vez en el agua, solo los que sabían nadar pudieron llegar hasta la costa y salvar la vida.

Tras encontrar a los supervivientes, las autoridades mauritanas les llevaron hasta un lugar seguro de Nuadibú, donde les proporcionaron cuidados, víveres, ropa y mantas.

No hay esperanza de encontrar a nuevos supervivientes, según las fuentes, pero continúa el rastreo para tratar de encontrar los cadáveres, que en algunos casos han sido arrojados a tierra por el oleaje.

Estos últimos serán enterrados esta misma noche en un lugar al exterior de la ciudad.

▻https://www.laprovincia.es/sucesos/2019/12/04/60-muertos-naufragio-patera-iba/1233464.html
#Mauritanie

Il naufragio di ieri al largo delle coste mauritane in cui 60 migranti hanno perso la vita mi ha riportato indietro al 2006, quando più di 50.000 migranti avevano intrapreso la rotta delle Canarie con un tragico bilancio di più di 5000 morti nell’Oceano Atlantico.
In quegli anni andavo spesso alle Canarie per capire quello che succedeva. Su quelle isole e a Melilla, ho cominciato a lavorare sulle politiche di esternalizzazione.
Che i migranti partano sempre più a sud, dal Gambia questa volta, sapendo che il viaggio é lunghissimo (più di 10 giorni di traversata) e pericolosissimo, si spiega anche con il tentativo di chiusura totale delle altre rotte, quella libica e marocchina, da parte della UE e per la presenza delle navi di Frontex al largo delle coste senegalesi e mauritane.

▻https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10220667545986599&set=a.1478670974789&type=3&theater

#Sara_Prestianni #Gambie

Mauritanian coast guard intercepts boat carrying around 190 migrants, IOM says

A boat carrying around 190 migrants was intercepted by the Mauritanian coast guard on Friday, the UN migration agency said. This comes less than two days after 63 migrants drowned when their vessel sank in the same waters en route from The Gambia. The country’s president has vowed to crack down on people traffickers.

After the recovery of five additional bodies, the death toll from last Wednesday’s sinking of a fishing boat rose to 63 over the weekend, according to news agencies AP and dpa. The boat was headed northward toward Spain’s Canary Islands from the small coastal town of Barra in the Gambia.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said at least 150 people were traveling on the boat. According to one of the survivors, the boat may have been carrying up to 200 people, as rfi reported. Around 80 survived by swimming ashore.

Separately, the Mauritanian coast guard on Friday intercepted a vessel carrying around 190 Gambian migrants headed for Spain’s Canary Islands, a Mauritanian security source told news agency AFP.

Initial estimates said the boat was carrying between 150 and 180 migrants. They are in the process of being identified by the local authorities, said Laura Lungarotti, chief of the IOM in Mauritania.

Uptick in attempted crossings

The incidents are indicative of a resurgence in the number of people willing to risk the perilous and poorly monitored sea passage along West Africa’s coast to Spain’s Canary Islands, which was a major route for those seeking jobs and a better life in Europe until Spain stepped up patrols in the mid-2000s, Reuters writes.

“It is part of this trend of an increasing number of people passing through this route because the central Mediterranean route has been stopped due to the Libya situation,” Lungarotti told Reuters.

In Italy, the number of migrant arrivals dropped significantly after the Italian government focused its policies on stopping migration to its shores from Libya in 2016.

From January to December this year, some 14,000 people arrived irregularly in Europe via the central Mediterranean route, down from nearly 25,000 in 2018.

Recently, however, there has been a rise in migrant boats departing from Libya: In late November, at least 9 boats with more than 600 migrants on board were discovered on the central Mediterranean route in only 48 hours, according to IOM.

The Canary Islands are located roughly 1,000 kilometers north of Mauritania’s capital on the Atlantic coast, Nouakchott, and some 1,600 kilometers north of the capital of The Gambia, Banjul.

According to IOM, some 158 people are known to have died trying to reach the Canary Islands so far this year. That’s almost four times as many as last year, when 43 people died.

’National tragedy’

“To lose 60 young lives at sea is a national tragedy and a matter of grave concern to my government,” Gambian President Adama Barrow said on national television. “A full police investigation has been launched to get to the bottom of this serious national disaster. The culprits will be prosecuted according to law,” AFP cited Barrow as saying.

Last Wednesday’s sinking off Mauritania with at least 63 deaths was one of the deadliest incidents along this route in recent years. According to IOM, it is the largest known loss of life along the so-called western migration route this year, and this year’s sixth deadliest migrant capsizings globally.

The boat was attempting to reach the Canary Islands when their boat hit a rock. 87 people survived the disaster by swimming ashore, IOM said.

President Barrow further said funds had been sent to Mauritania to cater to the immediate needs of the survivors admitted to hospital and to finance their repatriation. According to IOM, more than 35,000 Gambian migrants left the small country of just over 2 million and arrived in Europe between 2014 and 2018.

The Gambia to crack down on traffickers

On Saturday, Barrow vowed to punish people traffickers as the country mourned the deaths of the Europe-bound migrants. Barrow pledged to “fast track prosecution of cases involving human trafficking.” Law enforcement officials were “instructed to increase surveillance and arrest... criminals involved in human trafficking,” he said.

A 22-year oppressive rule of former President Yahya Jammeh, Barrow’s predecessor, adversely affected the country’s economy. This contributed to the high number of people trying to migrate to Europe, many of whom ended up stranded in Libya and Niger. Since Jammeh was forced to cede power in 2017, however, some Gambians have started to return.

In regards to the boat intercepted by the Mauritanian coast guard on Friday, Barrow said “Arrangements have been made to transport them” back to Banjul.

▻https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/21407/mauritanian-coast-guard-intercepts-boat-carrying-around-190-migrants-i

Una patera con 26 personas llega a #Tenerife y otras 152 son rescatadas en Alborán y cerca de Gran Canaria

Salvamento Marítimo traslada este sábado al puerto de Almería a 49 varones que habían quedado aislados dos días por el mal tiempo.

Una embarcación de Salvamento Marítimo ha rescatado esta noche a una patera con al menos 26 inmigrantes a 50 millas (92 kilómetros) de la isla de Gran Canaria. El equipo de emergencias ha trasladado a los ocupantes de la embarcación precaria al puerto de Arguineguín, una localidad del municipio de Mogán (Gran Canaria) de unos 2.500 habitantes. En otra operación en el mar de Alborán han sido rescatadas 126 personas, de las que 49, todos varones, estaban aislados desde la tarde del pasado jueves en la isla de Alborán por el mal tiempo.

Según la agencia Efe, que cita fuentes del servicio 112 de Canarias, los rescatados cerca de Gran Canaria son 22 hombres y cuatro mujeres. Según Europa Press, que atribuye la información a fuentes de Cruz Roja, son 24 varones, uno de ellos menor de edad, y cuatro mujeres, entre las que hay una embarazada. Además, otra patera con 26 migrantes de origen subsahariano ha llegado esta madrugada al muelle de Los Abrigos de Granadilla de Abona, un municipio de Tenerife de unos 48.400 habitantes. De estos, nueve son hombres —hay un menor de 16 años— y 17 mujeres, entre las que hay una embarazada y una niña de cinco años.

Una vez en tierra, el Servicio de Urgencias Canario (SUC) y Cruz Roja asistieron a los ocupantes de las dos pateras, todos en aparente buen estado de salud. Sin embargo, al menos cuatro personas de la patera rescatada a 50 millas de Gran Canaria han tenido que ser derivados a centros sanitarios por patologías leves. De la otra infraembarcación, tres inmigrantes han sido trasladados a ambulatorios por el mismo motivo.

La operación en aguas de Alborán comenzó en la mañana de este sábado cuando la embarcación Salvamar Spica ha emprendido rumbo a la isla de Alborán para recoger a 49 varones, según ha informado un portavoz de Salvamento Marítimo a Efe . Estos hombres llegaron a la isla de Alborán en patera el pasado jueves sobre las 18.30 horas pero su traslado había sido imposible por el mal tiempo.

Cuando la Salvamar Spica se dirigía en su búsqueda, el destacamento naval de la Armada en Alborán ha alertado al centro coordinador de Salvamento Marítimo del avistamiento de otra patera a media milla náutica (unos 900 metros) de la isla de Alborán.

La Salvamar Spica ha recogido a 77 personas, entre ellas 21 mujeres y cuatro menores, de esta patera y posteriormente ha transbordado a los 49 varones llegados a la isla de Alborán y que fueron atendidos desde el jueves por el destacamento naval de la Armada.

La embarcación de rescate se dirige hacia el puerto de Almería, al que está prevista su llegada sobre las 19.10 horas.

El aumento de las llegadas de inmigrantes a Canarias ha llevado al colapso a los centros de acogida en esta comunidad. La falta de plazas en los albergues, dependientes de la Secretaría de Estado de Migraciones, ha llegado a tal punto que se han tenido que habilitar habitaciones en un hotel en Las Palmas para mujeres embarazadas y con niños pequeños. Solo hay 200 plazas de acogida en albergues temporales de Tenerife y Gran Canaria, pero en 2019, 1.470 inmigrantes han llegado a las islas.

La media en los últimas cuatro meses se sitúa en 400 llegadas cada mes, muchas de ellas en pateras en condiciones pésimas. La cifra está muy lejos de los casi 40.000 que arribaron en esta comunidad entre 2005 y 2006 en la llamada crisis de los cayucos, pero existe un aumento con respecto al año pasado —de un 12%— que se debe al reforzamiento de la seguridad en el norte de Marruecos. La dificultad de realizar esa ruta ha aumentado el número de embarcaciones precarias que se dirigen a Canarias para tratar de llegar a territorio español o europeo.

Este pasado miércoles, al menos 63 inmigrantes de varias nacionalidades murieron tras naufragar su patera en aguas del Atlántico a la altura de Nuadibú (470 kilómetros al norte de Nuakchot), en Mauritania, según confirmó la Organización Internacional para las Migraciones (OIM) en un comunicado. Entre los fallecidos había un niño y siete mujeres. Otros 83 ocupantes de esa misma patera lograron salir con vida tras nadar hasta llegar a la costa de Mauritania, y fueron ellos los que dieron detalles del naufragio. La embarcación precaria había partido el pasado jueves desde las costas de Gambia con destino a las islas Canarias, llevando a bordo entre 150 y 180 ocupantes.

▻https://elpais.com/politica/2019/12/07/actualidad/1575708520_470358.html

43 muertos en la patera hundida que venía a Canarias

La oenegé Caminando Fronteras informa de que hay 21 supervivientes, que fueron rescatados por la marina marroquí - La embarcación se hundió a 24 kilómetros de la costa de Tan-Tan.

Un total de 43 personas han fallecido al naufragar una patera que se dirigía al Archipiélago, según ha informado la periodista e investigadora en Migraciones y Trata de Seres Humanos, Helena Maleno, en su cuenta de Twitter. La oenegé Caminando Fronteras ha apuntado que 21 personas han sido rescatadas con vida por los servicios de rescate marroquí.

La agencia Efe informaba esta tarde de que dos personas habían muerto y al menos 19 habían desaparecido al hundirse a unos 24 kilómetros de la costa de Tan-Tan, en Marruecos, una patera que se dirigía hacia Canarias, según explicó Salvamento Marítimo, con la información que recibió de los servicios de rescate de Rabat.

España envió de urgencia esta mañana hacia la zona a una embarcación de rescate desde Lanzarote, a unos 200 kilómetros de distancia, la Salvamar Al Nair, tras recibir a través de las ONG llamadas telefónicas de socorro de los propios inmigrantes, que pedían auxilio porque su neumática se estaba hundiendo.

La periodista amplió esta información y asegura que el número de fallecidos asciende a 43 y que sólo dos cadáveres habían sido recuperados.

▻https://www.laprovincia.es/sucesos/2020/04/03/43-muertos-patera-diria-canarias/1271515.html

Ca contraste avec les #all_men_panel recensés ici, en France, au Royaume Uni, en Arabie Saoudite, aux Émirats Arabes Unis :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/267673
►https://seenthis.net/messages/577900
►https://seenthis.net/messages/743915
►https://seenthis.net/messages/755768
►https://seenthis.net/messages/771106

#femmes #sexisme #photo #invisibilisation #la_barbe

#théocratie

#fou_furieux

ils ont pas encore fusillé le traître qui a les mains dans les poches ?

Pourtant, quel que soit le personnage à Washington, c’était la même chose.
A l’Elysée, ce doit pas être mieux, dans les grandes villes aussi.

Idem pour les conseils d’administration des grosses boites.

Y’avait déjà eut un épisode similaire en 2017 comme le rappelle cet article : Religious right sticks by Trump as political heat rises : ▻https://apnews.com/09acb60e55594ee79914e7691fdcd922

https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/32c362cb9b604deeb973fbcfe27a9099/800.jpeg

▻https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/11/03/actualidad/1572806433_452486.html

https://ep01.epimg.net/internacional/imagenes/2019/11/03/actualidad/1572806433_452486_1572807275_noticia_normal_recorte1.jpg

El día que el presidente prestó juramento de su cargo, en enero de 2017, lo hizo sobre dos Biblias: una propia y otra usada por Abraham Lincoln en 1861. A su lado estaba el ultraconservador Mike Pence, que asumió como vicepresidente. Ese día, Paula White se convirtió en la primera religiosa que oficiaba la oración durante la ceremonia. Después de su aparición pública junto a los políticos, su apoyo en las redes bajó considerablemente. “Veía cómo mis seguidores en Twitter bajaban en 10.000, 20.000, 30.000...”, reconoció a The Washington Times. Ahora tiene 700.000 en esta red social y tres millones en Facebook.

En junio, en Orlando (Florida), la asesora espiritual cambió el tono utilizado en la inauguración del mandato del presidente para pasar a uno más alarmista en un mitin del republicano. “Que cada red demoniaca que se haya alineado contra el llamamiento del presidente Trump, sea derribada en nombre de Jesús”, exclamó ante la multitud. “Declaro que el presidente Trump superará todas las estrategias del infierno y todas las estrategias del enemigo”, agregó entonces. Algunos cristianos consideran sus ideas heréticas y no faltan quienes la tildan de populista e incluso de figura divisiva en esa fe.

White, como Trump, no siempre fue religiosa. En su libro de memorias Something Greater, publicado el pasado octubre, narra la “visita divina” que Jesús le hizo en 1986, cuando estaba con su hija recién nacida. En la visión, ella aparecía predicando en todos los continentes. La imagen fue un impulso para dedicarse por completo a la religión. Desde entonces, ha levantado un imperio, con programas de televisión, radio, libros, giras por el país y, desde 2014, como pastora principal en una iglesia evangélica en Florida.

Eso, hasta que Jesús volvió a hablarle. En mayo, durante el sermón dominical, afirmó que el Señor le había dicho que no se podía “perder este momento” para hacer cosas más grandes. Así que abandonó su puesto de pastora en la New Destiny Christian Center en Apopka para abrir una Universidad y levantar 3.000 nuevas iglesias. Pero los ambiciosos planes de White se vieron interrumpidos por uno de sus seguidores: Trump. El presidente estadounidense, que intenta asegurarse que los evangélicos permanezcan en sus filas, la llamó para encargarse de que lo consiga desde la Casa Blanca. White todavía no ha hecho ni un comentario al respecto. Sus redes están enfocadas ahora mismo en promocionar su nuevo libro antes que al propio Trump.

C’est une séance d’exorcisme.

#esplanade_des_mosquées

Elles pourraient donc aller au « mont du temple » mais pas sur « l’esplanade des Mosquées » :)

‘Israel’ fears visit by Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for Al Aqsa
By َQudsN / August 14, 2019
▻http://qudsnen.co/israel-fears-visit-by-ilhan-omar-and-rashida-tlaib-for-al-aqsa

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- The occupation state of Israel is preparing for the possibility that Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who are expected to arrive in the country on Friday, will want to visit the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem together with representatives of the Palestinian Authority, Axios quoted Israeli officials.

Israeli deputy national security adviser Reuven Azar held a “secret meeting” on the subject in Israel’s National Security Council, according to a Channel 13 report cited by the Times of Israel.

Azar said there was a high probability that the freshman Democrats — two of the four members of “the Squad” — will want to visit the Al Aqsa Mosque, according to the report.

It was agreed that it is vital that if the Omar (D-Minn.) and Tlaib (D-Mich.) visit the site, Israeli police must not allow them to be accompanied by officials from the Palestinian Authority, to stress on the Israeli sovereignty over the occupied holy city and its holy places of worship.

According to Israeli officials, Azar stressed that “the preferred goal is that the congresswomen won’t come to Israel at all” on Sunday, Axios reported.

Azar also instructed the Israeli Foreign Ministry to seek from the US Embassy an advance list of the women’s delegation members in order to vet them and notify those who would not be allowed to enter the country, according to Axios.

C’est un peu le souk si on peut le dire ainsi !
Israel prohíbe la entrada a dos congresistas musulmanas de EE UU a petición de Trump
▻https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/08/15/actualidad
/1565881293_435773.html
Israël se prépare à une éventuelle visite d’Omar et de Tlaib sur le Mont du Temple
▻https://www.i24news.tv/fr/actu/international/1565808772-israel-se-prepare-a-une-eventuelle-visite-d-omar-et-de-tlaib-sur-
mais à 19:01
Les élues démocrates Rashida Tlaieb et Ilhan Omar interdites d’entrée en Israël (ministre)
▻https://www.i24news.tv/fr/actu/israel/1565849073-israel-envisage-de-revenir-sur-sa-decision-d-autoriser-l-entree-d

C’est Trump qui a fait le forcing pour qu’Israël refuse le visa.
(au passage, @gonzo, ton lien est cassé - saut de ligne dans l’adresse)

Israel prohíbe la entrada a dos congresistas musulmanas de EE UU a petición de Trump | Internacional | EL PAÍS
▻https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/08/15/actualidad/1565881293_435773.html

https://ep00.epimg.net/internacional/imagenes/2019/08/15/actualidad/1565881293_435773_1565888625_rrss_normal.jpg

Israel ha vetado este jueves la entrada al país a las congresistas demócratas Ilhan Omar y Rashida Tlaib, las primeras legisladoras musulmanas en la historia de Estados Unidos, ante las presiones del presidente Donald Trump.

Tras una jornada de vacilaciones, el Gobierno del primer ministro Benjamín Netanyahu les ha denegado el visado, según ha confirmado el Ministerio del Interior, por su declarado apoyo al movimiento Boicot, Desinversión y Sanciones (BDS) al Estado judío. Netanyahu se encontraba entre la espada y la pared —mostrar lealtad a su aliado republicano en la Casa Blanca o desairar al Partido Demócrata, el más votado entre los judíos norteamericanos— ante la anunciada visita a Israel y Palestina de las representantes por los Estados de Minnesota y Michigan, prevista para este fin de semana.

Trump, que había redoblado en los últimos días la presión para que Israel vetara la entrada de ambas congresistas, ha lanzado este jueves un órdago a su aliado a través de Twitter. «Mostraría una gran debilidad que Israel permitiera la visita de las representantes Omar y Tlaib. Odian a Israel y a todo el pueblo judío, y no hay nada que pueda decirse o hacerse para hacer que cambien de opinión», ha tuiteado.

▻https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1162000480681287683

@realDonaldTrump - 3:57 PM · 15 août 2019
It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep.Tlaib to visit. They hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds. Minnesota and Michigan will have a hard time putting them back in office. They are a disgrace!

▻https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1162040855328436225

@realDonaldTrump - 6:38 PM · 15 août 2019
Representatives Omar and Tlaib are the face of the Democrat Party, and they HATE Israel!

Ce qui n’est pas sans rappeler ces autres routes...

La #route_arctique (entre #Finlande et #Norvège) :

https://seenthis.net/local/cache-vignettes/L600xH338/taa46c53_doc150a-2f1f7.jpg

Ou le grand détour des #réfugiés syriens via le #Sahel :

https://seenthis.net/local/cache-vignettes/L600xH377/format1500wj19c3-945f9.jpg

Du #Brésil au #Canada, la nouvelle route de l’exil africain

https://seenthis.net/local/cache-vignettes/L600xH339/Gje5Satpng-9979e-e4785.png

Africa: At U.S.-Mexico Border, Africans Join Diversifying Migrant Community

It took Julia and her two daughters five years to get from Kassai, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to a cot on the floor of a migrant shelter in Laredo, Texas, on a Sunday night in August 2019.

First, it was four years in Angola. She saved money, she says, by working as a hairdresser.

They flew to Ecuador. Took a bus and boat to Colombia. They spent 14 days crossing through Panama’s Darien Gap, lost part of the time in the dense jungle. Three weeks in Panama, then three more in Costa Rica while Julia recuperated from an illness. Then Nicaragua. Honduras. Guatemala.

Finally, after a month of waiting in Acuña, on the U.S.-Mexico border, they stuck their feet in the sandy dirt along the southern bank of the Rio Grande. They were alone, and didn’t know how to swim.

“We prayed first, then we got into the water,” Julia recalled. “My daughter was crying.”

“‘Mom, I can’t…’” Julia remembers her pleading in chest-high water.

Halfway across, she says, U.S. soldiers — possibly border agents — shouted to them: “‘Come, give us your hands.’“

“I did,” Julia recalls, “and they took us out.”

More families from afar

Historically, the majority of people caught crossing into the southwest U.S. without authorization were single Mexican adults. In fiscal 2009, Mexicans accounted for 91.63% of border apprehensions, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

But demographics of migrants and asylum-seekers crossing into the U.S. from Mexico are shifting in two significant ways: In the last decade, nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras began migrating in greater numbers. In the same period, the number of Mexicans dropped.

Then, in the last year, families became the top source of Southwest border migration. The Border Patrol apprehended 432,838 adults and children traveling in family units from October 2018 through July 2019, a 456% increase over the same period the previous fiscal year.

To the surprise of longtime border agents, while the overwhelming majority of these families continue to be from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Central America, a small but growing proportion are from countries outside the Americas, nearly twice as much as two years ago.

By the end of July this year, CBP data shows the agency had apprehended 63,470 people from countries other than those four, making up 8.35% of total apprehensions. In fiscal 2017, they were 4.3% of the total apprehended population.

CBP does not release the breakdown of where detained migrants come from until after the end of the fiscal year in September. But anecdotes and preliminary data show an increasingly diverse group of migrants and asylum-seekers, including more than 1,600 African nationals from 36 countries, apprehended in one border sector alone.

They are unprecedented numbers.

Allen Vowell, an acting deputy patrol agent in charge with the U.S. Border Patrol in Eagle Pass, Texas, said the recent demographic changes are unlike any he has seen in two decades of working on the border.

“I would say until this year, Africans — personally I’ve probably only seen a handful in over 20 years,” Vowell said.

From Oct. 1, 2018, to Aug. 22, 2019, Del Rio sector agents apprehended 51,394 people, including 1,681 nationals of African countries. They are largely, like Julia, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola or Cameroon, according to sector officials.

The arrival of sub-Saharan nationals — often Congolese, according to Del Rio Sector officials — posed new challenges. A lot of border agents are bilingual in English and Spanish. But when apprehending a group that primarily spoke French and Portuguese, the agents had to scramble for interpreters.

While many migrants from the Northern Triangle have relatives in the U.S. as a point of contact or a destination, those from Africa are less likely to have those relationships.

That means they are more likely to stay in migrant shelters in the U.S. or in Mexico for longer, waiting to figure out their next steps until their immigration court hearing.

There is the political tumult in Venezuela, leading to the exodus of millions of people scattered throughout the region.

The end of the “wet foot dry foot” policy with Cuba that allowed migrants who reached the shores of Florida to remain, Cubans who want to leave the island for the U.S. to take a more circuitous route.

And then, to the surprise of Border Patrol agents, there arrived the large groups of sub-Saharan Africans, crossing through the Del Rio sector in Texas.

The migrant trail goes beyond Africa.

Ten years ago, CBP detained 99 Indians on the Southwest border. In 2018, it was 8,997.

Similarly, Bangladeshi migrants didn’t figure into the top 20 countries among those apprehended at the border a decade ago. In 2019, there were 1,198.

This week, a Bangladeshi man living in Mexico pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges.

There are also the regional conflicts and tensions in Latin America and the Caribbean that are leading to a bigger number of migrants within the hemisphere arriving at the U.S-Mexico border, like Venezuela and Nicaragua. Haitians and Cubans continue to take the more circuitous route through Central America and up to the U.S., rather than travel by boat to Florida, where they risk being stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard before setting foot on land.

Son’s death sends family on a dangerous journey

Julia says she got tunnel vision after her teenage son was killed in DRC, en route to school one day in 2014 for reasons she still does not know or understand.

She only knows that she received a call from the morgue. A truck dropped his body off there.

He was 17. His name was George.

She can’t go back to DRC, she says. It’s just not safe.

“There, while you sleep, the thieves will come through the roof. They demand money, and if you don’t have money, they’ll rape your daughter,” she said.

“When he died in 2014, I made up my mind that I would not stay.”

They want to get to Buffalo, New York. They don’t have family in the U.S., Julia says, but some people they met on the road were headed there. Word was, there was work, at least.

She had an immigration court hearing scheduled for the first week of August. She was still at the San Antonio shelter, two days before.

They didn’t now how far from Texas it was, or how cold New York gets in winter. They weren’t worried about those things now. They just needed the bus fare to get there, and they had nothing left. No money. No phone.

Ketsia, now 15, speaks Spanish, English and Italian with ease. Jemima, 9, is the best French speaker in the family. They didn’t fight while they’ve been on the road for the last five months, from Ecuador to San Antonio. Not much, at least, they giggle.

“She’s strong. Very strong,” Ketsia says of her mother, in Spanish. “I saw a lot of women who left their kids behind in the jungle. She’s courageous. This path we’re on, isn’t for everyone. If you’re not strong, it’s very difficult.”

“My dream is to arrive there, to New York. To get a job. To put the girls in school,” Julia responds.

“I suffered a lot already,” she says, something she repeats without going into more detail. She has a tendency to stare off, lose herself in thought when the conversation nears the darker parts of their family history.

“I don’t want my children to go through the same,” she says. “We suffered a lot. I don’t want that anymore for my children.”

The shelter where they stayed does not track migrants after they’ve left, and for privacy and safety reasons, shelters do not share whether individuals are staying with them.

Attempts by VOA to locate Julia, Ketsia and Jemima in the weeks following the interview were unsuccessful.

▻https://allafrica.com/stories/201909020140.html

El naufragio de un grupo de africanos en Chiapas revela una nueva ruta migratoria por el Pacífico

El accidente de una lancha en Tonalá deja un muerto y varios desaparecidos. Ante la presión policial en el sur de México, grupos de cameruneses optan por usar vías marítimas para llegar a EE UU.

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Tirado en la playa, entre el pasto y la orilla. La foto del cuerpo de Emmanuel Cheo Ngu, camerunés de 39 años, fallecido este viernes tras el naufragio de su embarcación en Ignacio Allende, municipio de Tonalá, ha vuelto a revivir las peores imágenes de la crisis migratoria que se vive en el sur de México. La nueva política migratoria puesta en marcha por Andrés Manuel López Obrador tras el chantaje de Estados Unidos, ha obligado a los nuevos grupos de migrantes atrapados en Tapachula, Chiapas, a buscar nuevas y peligrosas rutas en su intento de llegar a la frontera norte.

A las 7.00 de la mañana, según pescadores de la zona, una embarcación con personas procedentes de Camerún comenzó a tambalearse hasta que todos cayeron al agua, de acuerdo a la investigación judicial. El portal AlertaChiapas y activistas en la zona consultados por este medio, afirmaron que el bote salió desde la costa de Guatemala o desde el sur del Estado de Chiapas, ya en México, con destino Oaxaca. Cuando llegaron los Grupos de Rescate consiguieron socorrer a 8 personas, 7 hombres y una mujer, que fueron trasladados al Hospital General de Tonalá. El cuerpo de Cheo Ngu fue encontrado tirado cerca de la orilla. Hasta el momento hay varias personas desaparecidas.

La ruta por vía marítima que une la frontera de Guatemala con el istmo de Tehuantepec, en Oaxaca, es una opción cada vez más frecuente ante el aumento de detenciones y deportaciones por parte de la recién creada Guardia Nacional. Tradicionalmente los migrantes han utilizado las rutas terrestres, pero los traficantes de personas cada vez recurren más a esta ruta poco vigilada, más barata y con menos riesgos a ser detenido. Por una cantidad que oscila entre los 400 y 800 dólares —para los cubanos puede ser el doble— esta ruta permite a los centroamericanos avanzar desde Guatemala a Salina Cruz o Huatulco, en Oaxaca.

Aunque la mayoría de los migrantes en México son de origen centroamericano, el flujo de personas procedentes de Camerún, República Democrática del Congo o Eritrea, ha ido en aumento. Los africanos se encuentran en un ‘limbo legal’ ya que no pueden ser repatriados y actualmente tienen la negativa del gobierno federal para recibir los trámites de salida para continuar su trayecto hacia Estados Unidos. En los últimos dos meses cientos de ellos permanecen varados en Tapachula (Chiapas). Algunos en la Estación Migratoria Siglo XXI, y otros en la calle, donde han mantenido protestas y enfrentamientos contra la policía y la Guardia Nacional por la situación que viven y la falta de respuestas.

Luis García Villagran es activista por los derechos humanos en Tapachula. En llamada telefónica y aparentemente afectado, confirma que su versión dista mucho de la de las autoridades. “Hay una embarcación que sí ha llegado a su destino (Oaxaca) y que ni se ha nombrado, pero en la accidentada iban más personas de las que dice el informe oficial. Sé con seguridad que hay más personas desaparecidas. No solo hemos perdido a nuestro hermano Emmanuel”, zanja Villagran.

▻https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/10/12/actualidad/1570833110_016901.html

Σε δοκιμαστική λειτουργία το αερόσταστο της FRONTEX

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Σε δοκιμαστική λειτουργία τίθεται από σήμερα για 28 ημέρες το αερόστατο της FRONTEX στη Σάμο, μήκους 35 μέτρων, προσδεμένο στο έδαφος, εξοπλισμένο με ραντάρ, θερμική κάμερα και σύστημα αυτόματης αναγνώρισης, το οποίο θα επιτηρεί αδιάλειπτα και σε πραγματικό χρόνο το θαλάσσιο πεδίο.

Σύμφωνα με ανακοίνωση του Λιμενικού, στόχος είναι η αστυνόμευση του θαλάσσιου πεδίου και η καταπολέμηση του διασυνοριακού εγκλήματος. Δημιουργείται ωστόσο το ερώτημα αν οι πληροφορίες που θα συλλέγει το αερόστατο θα χρησιμοποιούνται για την αναχαίτιση ή την αποτροπή των πλεούμενων των προσφύγων που ξεκινούν από τα τουρκικά παράλια για να ζητήσουν διεθνή προστασία στην Ευρώπη.

« Πρώτα απ’ όλα ξέρεις τι ώρα φεύγει από τους διακινητές το σκάφος, ενημερώνεις την τουρκική πλευρά, πηγαίνεις εσύ κοντά, δηλαδή είναι ένα σύνολο ενεργειών » σημείωνε την περασμένη εβδομάδα σε συνέντευξή του στον ΑΝΤ1 ο αναπληρωτής υπουργός Μεταναστευτικής Πολιτικής Γιώργος Κουμουτσάκος, μιλώντας για τα αποτελέσματα που αναμένεται να έχει το αερόστατο στην ενίσχυση της επιτήρησης των συνόρων.

Το Λιμενικό είναι η πρώτη ακτοφυλακή κράτους-μέλους της Ε.Ε. που χρησιμοποιεί αερόστατο για την επιτήρηση της θάλασσας, δέκα μήνες μετά την πρώτη παρόμοια πανευρωπαϊκή χρήση μη επανδρωμένου αεροσκάφους μεσαίου ύψους μακράς εμβέλειας.

« Αυτό καταδεικνύει την ισχυρή και ξεκάθαρη βούληση του Λ.Σ.-ΕΛ.ΑΚΤ. να καταβάλει κάθε δυνατή προσπάθεια, χρησιμοποιώντας τη διαθέσιμη τεχνολογία αιχμής, για την αποτελεσματική φύλαξη των εξωτερικών θαλάσσιων συνόρων της Ευρωπαϊκής Ενωσης, την πάταξη κάθε μορφής εγκληματικότητας καθώς και την προστασία της ανθρώπινης ζωής στη θάλασσα », σημειώνει το Λιμενικό.

Η λειτουργία του αερόστατου εντάσσεται στην επιχείρηση « Ποσειδών » που συντονίζουν το Λιμενικό και η ΕΛ.ΑΣ. υπό την επιτήρηση της FRONTEX.

Παράλληλα, στο νησί θα τεθεί σε λειτουργία φορτηγό εξοπλισμένο με παρόμοια συστήματα, προκειμένου να μπορούν να συγκριθούν τα αποτελέσματα και η λειτουργία του επίγειου και του εναέριου συστήματος.

▻https://www.efsyn.gr/ellada/koinonia/205553_se-dokimastiki-leitoyrgia-aerostasto-tis-frontex

Zeppelin over the island of Samos to monitor migrants trafficking

Greek authorities and the Frontex will release a huge surveillance Zeppelin above the island of Samos to monitor migrants who illegally try to reach Greece and Europe. The installation of the ominous balloon will be certainly a grotesque attraction for the tourists who visit the island in the East Aegean Sea.

Deputy Minister of Migration Policy Giorgos Koumoutsakos told private ANT1 TV that the Zeppelin will go in operation next week.

“In Samos, at some point, I think it’s a matter of days or a week, a Zeppelin balloon will be installed in cooperation with FRONTEX, which will take a picture of a huge area. What does that mean? First of all, you know what time the ship moves away from the traffickers, inform the Turkish side, you go near, that is a set of actions,” Koumoutsakos said.

The Zeppelin will be monitored by the GNR radar unit of the Frontext located at the port of Karlovasi, samiakienimerosi notes adding “It will give a picture of movements between the Turkish coast to Samos for the more effective guarding of our maritime borders.”

The Deputy Minister did not elaborate on what exactly can the Greek Port Authority do when it comes “near” to the refugee and migrants boats.

According to daily efimerida ton syntakton, the Norwegian NGO, Aegean Boat Report, revealed a video shot on July 17. The video shows how a Greek Coast Guard vessel approaches a boat with 34 people on board and leaves them at the open sea to be “collected” by Turkish authorities, while the passengers, among them 14 children, desperately are shouting “Not to Turkey!”

It is not clear, whether the Greek Coast Guard vessel is in international waters as such vessels do not enter Turkish territorial waters. According to international law, the passengers ought to be rescued. The Greek Coast Guard has so far not taken position on the issue, saying it will need to evaluate the video first, efsyn notes.

“There is no push backs. Everything will be done in accordance with the international law. Greece will do nothing beyond the international law,” Koumoutsakos stressed.

PS I suppose, tourists will be cheered to have their vacation activities monitored by a plastic Big Brother. Not?

▻https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2019/07/26/zeppelin-samos-migrants-refugees

Once migrants on Mediterranean were saved by naval patrols. Now they have to watch as #drones fly over
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Amid the panicked shouting from the water and the smell of petrol from the sinking dinghy, the noise of an approaching engine briefly raises hope. Dozens of people fighting for their lives in the Mediterranean use their remaining energy to wave frantically for help. Nearly 2,000 miles away in the Polish capital, Warsaw, a drone operator watches their final moments via a live transmission. There is no ship to answer the SOS, just an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by the European border and coast guard agency, Frontex.

This is not a scene from some nightmarish future on Europe’s maritime borders but a present-day probability. Frontex, which is based in Warsaw, is part of a £95m investment by the EU in unmanned aerial vehicles, the Observer has learned.

This spending has come as the EU pulls back its naval missions in the Mediterranean and harasses almost all search-and-rescue charity boats out of the water. Frontex’s surveillance drones are flying over waters off Libya where not a single rescue has been carried out by the main EU naval mission since last August, in what is the deadliest stretch of water in the world.

The replacement of naval vessels, which can conduct rescues, with drones, which cannot, is being condemned as a cynical abrogation of any European role in saving lives.

“There is no obligation for drones to be equipped with life-saving appliances and to conduct rescue operations,” said a German Green party MEP, Erik Marquardt. “You need ships for that, and ships are exactly what there is a lack of at the moment.” This year the death rate for people attempting the Mediterranean crossing has risen from a historical average of 2% to as high as 14% last month. In total, 567 of the estimated 8,362 people who have attempted it so far this year have died.

Gabriele Iacovino, director of one of Italy’s leading thinktanks, the Centre for International Studies, said the move into drones was “a way to spend money without having the responsibility to save lives”. Aerial surveillance without ships in the water amounted to a “naval mission without a naval force”, and was about avoiding embarrassing political rows in Europe over what to do with rescued migrants.

Since March the EU’s main naval mission in the area, Operation Sophia, has withdrawn its ships from waters where the majority of migrant boats have sunk. While Sophia was not primarily a search-and-rescue mission, it was obliged under international and EU law to assist vessels in distress. The switch to drones is part of an apparent effort to monitor the Mediterranean without being pulled into rescue missions that deliver migrants to European shores.

Marta Foresti, director of the Human Mobility Initiative at the Overseas Development Institute, an influential UK thinktank, said Europe had replaced migration policy with panic, with potentially lethal consequences. “We panicked in 2015 and that panic has turned into security budgets,” she said. “Frontex’s budget has doubled with very little oversight or design. It’s a knee-jerk reaction.”

The strategy has seen Frontex, based in Warsaw, and its sister agency, the European Maritime Safety Agency, based in Lisbon, invest in pilotless aerial vehicles. The Observer has found three contracts – two under EMSA and one under Frontex – totalling £95m for drones that can supply intelligence to Frontex.

The models include the Hermes, made by Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest privately owned arms manufacturer, and the Heron, produced by Israel Aerospace Industries, a state-owned company. Both models were developed for use in combat missions in the occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza. Frontex said its drone suppliers met all “EU procurement rules and guidelines”.

There is mounting concern both over how Frontex is spending EU taxpayers’ money and how it can be held accountable. The migration panic roiling Europe’s politics has been a boon for a once unfashionable EU outpost that coordinated national coastal and border guards. Ten years ago Frontex’s budget was £79m. In the latest budget cycle it has been awarded £10.4bn.

Demand from member states for its services have largely been driven by its role in coordinating and carrying out deportations. The expansion of the deportation machine has caused concern among institutions tasked with monitoring the forced returns missions: a group of national ombudsmen, independent watchdogs appointed in all EU member states to safeguard human rights, has announced plans to begin its own independent monitoring group. The move follows frustration with the way their reports on past missions have been handled by Frontex.

Andreas Pottakis, Greece’s ombudsman, is among those calling for an end to the agency policing itself: “Internal monitoring of Frontex by Frontex cannot substitute for the need for external monitoring by independent bodies. This is the only way the demand for transparency can be met and that the EU administration can effectively be held into account.”
Acting to extradite helpless civilians to the hands of Libyan militias may amount to criminal liability

The Frontex Consultative Forum, a body offering strategic advice to Frontex’s management board on how the agency can improve respect for fundamental rights, has also severely criticised it for a sloppy approach to accountability. An online archive of all Frontex operations, which was used by independent researchers, was recently removed.

The switch to drones in the Mediterranean has also led to Frontex being accused of feeding intelligence on the position of migrant boats to Libya’s coast guards so they can intercept and return them to Libya. Although it receives EU funds, the Libyan coast guard remains a loosely defined outfit that often overlaps with smuggling gangs and detention centre owners.

“The Libyan coast guard never patrols the sea,” said Tamino Böhm of the German rescue charity Sea-Watch. “They never leave port unless there is a boat to head to for a pullback. This means the information they have comes from the surveillance flights of Italy, Frontex and the EU.”

A Frontex spokesperson said that incidents related to boats in distress were passed to the “responsible rescue coordination centre and to the neighbouring ones for situational awareness and potential coordination”. Thus the maritime rescue coordination centre in Rome has begun to share information with its Libyan counterpart in Tripoli, under the instructions of Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini.

The EU is already accused of crimes against humanity in a submission before the International Criminal Court for “orchestrating a policy of forced transfer to concentration camp-like detention facilities [in Libya] where atrocious crimes are committed”.

The case, brought by lawyers based in Paris, seeks to demonstrate that many of the people intercepted have faced human rights abuses ranging from slavery to torture and murder after being returned to Libya.

Omer Shatz, an Israeli who teaches at Sciences Po university in Paris, and one of the two lawyers who brought the ICC case, said Frontex drone operators could be criminally liable for aiding pullbacks. “A drone operator that is aware of a migrant boat in distress is obliged to secure fundamental rights to life, body integrity, liberty and dignity. This means she has to take actions intended to search, rescue and disembark those rescued at safe port. Acting to extradite helpless vulnerable civilians to the hands of Libyan militias may amount to criminal liability.”

Under international law, migrants rescued at sea by European vessels cannot be returned to Libya, where conflict and human rights abuses mean the UN has stated there is no safe port. Under the UN convention on the law of the sea (Unclos) all ships are obliged to report an encounter with a vessel in distress and offer assistance. This is partly why EU naval missions that were not mandated to conduct rescue missions found themselves pitched into them regardless.

Drones, however, operate in a legal grey zone not covered by Unclos. The situation for private contractors to EU agencies, as in some of the current drone operations, is even less clear.

Frontex told the Observer that all drone operators, staff or private contractors are subject to EU laws that mandate the protection of human life. The agency said it was unable to share a copy of the mission instructions given to drone operators that would tell them what to do in the event of encountering a boat in distress, asking the Observer to submit a freedom of information request. The agency said drones had encountered boats in distress on only four occasions – all in June this year – in the central Mediterranean, and that none had led to a “serious incident report” – Frontex jargon for a red flag. When EU naval vessels were deployed in similar areas in previous years, multiple serious incidents were reported every month, according to documents seen by the Observer.

▻https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/04/drones-replace-patrol-ships-mediterranean-fears-more-migrant-deaths

#Méditerranée #mer_Méditerranée #Libye

L’uso dei droni per guardare i migranti che affogano mette a nudo tutta la disumanità delle pratiche di controllo sui confini

https://dossierlibia.lasciatecientrare.it/wp-content/uploads/arton24352.jpg

In troppi crediamo al mito di una frontiera dal volto umano, solo perché ci spaventa guardare in faccia la realtà macchiata di sangue.

“Se avessi ignorato quelle grida di aiuto, non avrei mai più trovato il coraggio di affrontare il mare”.

Con queste parole il pescatore siciliano Carlo Giarratano ha commentato la sua decisione di sfidare il “decreto sicurezza” del Governo italiano, che prevede sanzioni o l’arresto nei confronti di chiunque trasporti in Italia migranti soccorsi in mare.

La sua storia è un esempio della preoccupante tensione che si è creata ai confini della “Fortezza Europa” in materia di leggi e regolamenti. Secondo il diritto internazionale, il capitano di un’imbarcazione in mare è tenuto a fornire assistenza alle persone in difficoltà, “a prescindere dalla nazionalità o dalla cittadinanza delle persone stesse”. Al contempo, molti paesi europei, e la stessa UE, stanno cercando di limitare questo principio e queste attività, malgrado il tragico bilancio di morti nel Mediterraneo, in continua crescita.

L’Agenzia di Confine e Guardia Costiera Europea, Frontex, sembra aver escogitato una soluzione ingegnosa: i droni. L’obbligo legale di aiutare un’imbarcazione in difficoltà non si applica a un veicolo aereo senza pilota (UAV, unmanned aerial vehicle). Si può aggirare la questione, politicamente calda, su chi sia responsabile di accogliere i migranti soccorsi, se questi semplicemente non vengono proprio soccorsi. Questo principio fa parte di una consolidata tendenza a mettere in atto politiche finalizzate a impedire che i migranti attraversino il Mediterraneo. Visto l’obbligo di soccorrere le persone che ci chiedono aiuto, la soluzione sembra essere questa: fare in modo di non sentire le loro richieste.

Jean-Claude Juncker sostiene che le politiche europee di presidio ai confini sono concepite per “stroncare il business dei trafficanti”, perché nella moralità egocentrica che ispira la politica di frontiera europea, se non ci fossero trafficanti non ci sarebbero migranti.

Ma non ci sono trafficanti che si fabbricano migranti in officina. Se le rotte ufficiali sono bloccate, le persone vanno a cercare quelle non ufficiali. Rendere la migrazione più difficile, ha fatto aumentare la richiesta di trafficanti e scafisti, certamente non l’ha fermata. Invece che stroncare il loro business, queste politiche lo hanno creato.

Secondo la logica della foglia di fico, l’UE sostiene di non limitarsi a lasciare affogare i migranti, ma di fornire supporto alla guardia costiera libica perché intercetti le imbarcazioni che tentano la traversata e riporti le persone nei campi di detenzione in Libia.

Ma il rapporto del Global Detention Project, a proposito delle condizioni in questi campi, riferisce: “I detenuti sono spesso sottoposti a gravi abusi e violenze, compresi stupri e torture, estorsioni, lavori forzati, schiavitù, condizioni di vita insopportabili, esecuzioni sommarie.” Human Rights Watch, in un rapporto intitolato Senza via di fuga dall’Inferno, descrive situazioni di sovraffollamento e malnutrizione e riporta testimonianze di bambini picchiati dalle guardie.

L’Irish Times ha riportato accuse secondo cui le milizie associate con il GNA (Governo Libico di Alleanza Nazionale, riconosciuto dall’ONU), starebbero immagazzinando munizioni in questi campi e userebbero i rifugiati come “scudi umani”. Sembra quasi inevitabile, quindi, la notizia che il 3 luglio almeno 53 rifugiati sono stati uccisi durante un attacco dei ribelli appartenenti all’Esercito Nazionale Libico, nel campo di detenzione di Tajura, vicino a Tripoli.

Secondo una testimonianza riportata dall’Associated Press, a Tajura i migranti erano costretti a pulire le armi delle milizie fedeli al GNA, armi che erano immagazzinate nel campo. Secondo i racconti di testimoni oculari dell’attacco, riportati dalle forze ONU, le guardie del campo avrebbero aperto il fuoco su chi tentava di scappare.

Nel mondo occidentale, quando parliamo di immigrazione, tendiamo a focalizzarci sul cosiddetto “impatto sulle comunità” causato dai flussi di nuovi arrivati che si muovono da un posto all’altro.

Nelle nostre discussioni, ci chiediamo se i migranti portino un guadagno per l’economia oppure intacchino risorse già scarse. Raramente ci fermiamo a guardare nella sua cruda e tecnica realtà la concreta applicazione del controllo alle frontiere, quando si traduce davvero in fucili e filo spinato.

Ci ripetiamo che i costi vanno tutti in un’unica direzione: secondo la nostra narrazione preferita, i controlli di confine sono tutti gratis, è lasciare entrare i migranti la cosa che costa. Ma i costi da pagare ci sono sempre: non solo il tributo di morti che continua a crescere o i budget multimilionari e sempre in aumento delle nostre agenzie di frontiera, ma anche i costi morali e sociali che finiamo con l’estorcere a noi stessi.

L’ossessione per la sicurezza dei confini deve fare i conti con alcune delle più antiche e radicate convinzioni etiche proprie delle società occidentali. Prendersi cura del più debole, fare agli altri quello che vogliamo sia fatto a noi, aiutare chi possiamo. Molti uomini e donne che lavorano in mare, quando soccorrono dei naufraghi non sono spinti solo da una legge che li obbliga a prestare aiuto, ma anche da un imperativo morale più essenziale. “Lo facciamo perché siamo gente di mare”, ha detto Giarratano al Guardian, “in mare, se ci sono persone in pericolo, le salviamo”.

Ma i nostri governi hanno deciso che questo non vale per gli europei. Come se fosse una perversa sfida lanciata a istinti morali vecchi di migliaia di anni, nell’Europa moderna un marinaio che salva un migrante mentre sta per affogare, deve essere punito.

Infrangere queste reti di reciproche responsabilità fra gli esseri umani, ha dei costi: divisioni e tensioni sociali. Ed è un amaro paradosso, perché proprio argomenti di questo genere sono in testa alle nostre preoccupazioni percepite quando si parla di migrazioni. E mentre l’UE fa di tutto per respingere un fronte del confine verso i deserti del Nord Africa, cercando di tenere i corpi dei rifugiati abbastanza lontani da non farceli vedere da vicino, intanto l’altro fronte continua a spingere verso di noi. L’Europa diventa un “ambiente ostile” e quindi noi diventiamo un popolo ostile.

Ci auto-ingaggiamo come guardie di confine al nostro interno. Padroni di casa, infermiere, insegnanti, manager – ogni relazione sociale deve essere controllata. Il nostro regime di “frontiera quotidiana” crea “comunità sospette” all’interno della nostra società: sono persone sospette per il solo fatto di esistere e, nei loro confronti, si possono chiamare le forze dell’ordine in ogni momento, “giusto per dare un’occhiata”.

Il confine non è solo un sistema per tenere gli estranei fuori dalla nostra società, ma per marchiare per sempre le persone come estranee, anche all’interno e per legittimare ufficialmente il pregiudizio, per garantire che “l’integrazione” – il Sacro Graal della narrazione progressista sull’immigrazione – resti illusoria e irrealizzabile, uno scherzo crudele giocato sulla pelle di persone destinate a rimanere etichettate come straniere e sospette. La nostra società nel suo insieme si mette al servizio di questo insaziabile confine, fino a definire la sua vera e propria identità nella capacità di respingere le persone.

Malgrado arrivino continuamente immagini e notizie di tragedie e di morti, i media evitano di collegarle con le campagne di opinione che amplificano le cosiddette “legittime preoccupazioni” della gente e le trasformano in un inattaccabile “comune buon senso”.

I compromessi che reggono le politiche di controllo dei confini non vengono messi in luce. Questo ci permette di guardare da un’altra parte, non perché siamo crudeli ma perché non possiamo sopportare di vedere quello che stiamo facendo. Ci sono persone e gruppi che, come denuncia Adam Serwer in un articolo su The Atlantic, sono proprio “Focalizzati sulla Crudeltà”. E anche se noi non siamo così, viviamo comunque nel loro stesso mondo, un mondo in cui degli esseri umani annegano e noi li guardiamo dall’alto dei nostri droni senza pilota, mentre lo stato punisce chi cerca di salvarli.

In troppi crediamo nel mito di una frontiera dal volto umano, solo perché ci spaventa guardare in faccia la tragica e insanguinata realtà del concreto controllo quotidiano sui confini. E comunque, se fosse possibile, non avremmo ormai risolto questa contraddizione? Il fatto che non lo abbiamo fatto dovrebbe portarci a pensare che non ne siamo capaci e che ci si prospetta una cruda e desolante scelta morale per il futuro.

D’ora in poi, il numero dei migranti non può che aumentare. I cambiamenti climatici saranno determinanti. La scelta di non respingerli non sarà certamente gratis: non c’è modo di condividere le nostre risorse con altri senza sostenere dei costi. Ma se non lo facciamo, scegliamo consapevolmente i naufragi, gli annegamenti, i campi di detenzione, scegliamo di destinare queste persone ad una vita da schiavi in zone di guerra. Scegliamo l’ambiente ostile. Scegliamo di “difendere il nostro stile di vita” semplicemente accettando di vivere a fianco di una popolazione sempre in aumento fatta di rifugiati senza patria, ammassati in baracche di lamiera e depositi soffocanti, sfiniti fino alla disperazione.

Ma c’è un costo che, alla fine, giudicheremo troppo alto da pagare? Per il momento, sembra di no: ma, … cosa siamo diventati?

►https://dossierlibia.lasciatecientrare.it/luso-dei-droni-per-guardare-i-migranti-che-affogano-m

Et aussi... l’utilisation de moins en moins de #bateaux et de plus en plus de #avions a le même effet...

Sophia : The EU naval mission without any ships

Launched in 2015 to combat human smuggling in the Mediterranean, the operation has been all but dismantled, symbolizing European division on immigration policy.

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The Italian air base of Sigonella extends its wire fencing across the green and yellow fields of Sicily, 25 kilometers inland from the island’s coastline. Only the enormous cone of Mount Etna, visible in the distance, stands out over this flat land. Posters depicting a sniper taking aim indicate that this is a restricted-access military zone with armed surveillance.

Inside, there is an enormous city with deserted avenues, runways and hangars. This is the departure point for aircraft patrolling the Central Mediterranean as part of EU Naval Force Mediterranean Operation Sophia, Europe’s military response to the human smuggling rings, launched in 2015. But since March of this year, the planes have been a reflection of a mutilated mission: Sophia is now a naval operation without any ships.

The Spanish detachment in #Sigonella has just rotated some of its personnel. A group of newly arrived soldiers are being trained in a small room inside one of the makeshift containers where the group of 39 military members work. The aircraft that they use is standing just a few meters away, on a sun-drenched esplanade that smells of fuel. The plane has been designed for round-the-clock maritime surveillance, and it has a spherical infrared camera fitted on its nose that allows it to locate and identify seagoing vessels, as well as to detect illegal trafficking of people, arms and oil.

If the EU had systematically shown more solidarity with Italy [...] Italian voters would not have made a dramatic swing to the far right

Juan Fernando López Aguilar, EU Civil Liberties Committee

This aircraft was also made to assist in sea rescues. But this activity is no longer taking place, now that there are no ships in the mission. Six aircraft are all that remain of Operation Sophia, which has been all but dismantled. Nobody would venture to say whether its mandate will be extended beyond the current deadline of September 30.

The planes at Sigonella continue to patrol the Central Mediterranean and collect information to meet the ambitious if vague goal that triggered the mission back at the height of the refugee crisis: “To disrupt the business of human and weapons smuggling.” The operation’s most controversial task is still being carried out as well: training Libya’s Coast Guard so they will do the job of intercepting vessels filled with people fleeing Libyan war and chaos, and return them to the point of departure. Even official sources of Europe’s diplomatic service admitted, in a written reply, that the temporary suspension of naval assets “is not optimal,” and that the mission’s ability to fulfill its mandate “is more limited.”

In these four years, the mission has had some tangible achievements: the arrest of 151 individuals suspected of human trafficking and smuggling, and the destruction of 551 boats used by criminal networks. Operation Sophia has also inspected three ships and seized banned goods; it has made radio contact with 2,462 vessels to check their identity, and made 161 friendly approaches. For European diplomats, the mission has been mainly useful in “significantly reducing smugglers’ ability to operate in high seas” and has generally contributed to “improving maritime safety and stability in the Central Mediterranean.”

Sophia’s main mission was never to rescue people at sea, yet in these last years it has saved 45,000 lives, following the maritime obligation to aid people in distress. The reason why it has been stripped of its ships – a move that has been strongly criticized by non-profit groups – can be found 800 kilometers north of Sicily, in Rome, and also in the offices of European politicians. Last summer, Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini began to apply a closed-port policy for ships carrying rescued migrants unless a previous relocation agreement existed with other countries. Salvini first targeted the non-profit groups performing sea rescues, and then he warned his European colleagues that Italy, which is leading the EU mission, would refuse to take in all the rescued migrants without first seeing a change in EU policy. A year later, no European deal has emerged, and every time a rescue is made, the issue of who takes in the migrants is negotiated on an ad hoc basis.

Operation Sophia has saved 45,000 lives

Although arrivals through this route have plummeted, Salvini insists that “Italy is not willing to accept all the migrants who arrive in Europe.” Political division among member states has had an effect on the European military mission. “Sophia has not been conducting rescues since August 2018,” says Matteo Villa, a migration expert at Italy’s Institute for International Policy Studies (ISPI). “Nobody in the EU wanted to see a mission ship with migrants on board being refused port entry, so the ‘solution’ was to suspend Sophia’s naval tasks.”

The decision to maintain the operation without any ships was made at the last minute in March, in a move that prevented the dismantling of the mission just ahead of the European elections. “Operation Sophia has helped save lives, although that was not its main objective. It was a mistake for [the EU] to leave it with nothing but airplanes, without the ships that were able to save lives,” says Matteo de Bellis, a migration and refugee expert at Amnesty International. “What they are doing now, training the Libyans, only serves to empower the forces that intercept refugees and migrants and return them to Libya, where they face arbitrary detention in centers where there is torture, exploitation and rape.”

Ever since the great maritime rescue operation developed by Italy in 2013, the Mare Nostrum, which saved 150,000 people, its European successors have been less ambitious in scope and their goals more focused on security and border patrolling. This is the case with Sophia, which by training the Libyan Coast Guard is contributing to the increasingly clear strategy of outsourcing EU migratory control, even to a country mired in chaos and war. “If Europe reduces search-and-rescue operations and encourages Libya to conduct them in its place, then it is being an accomplice to the violations taking place in Libya,” says Catherine Wollard, secretary general of the non-profit network integrated in the European Council of Refugees and Exiles (ECRE).

Training the Libyans only serves to empower the forces that intercept refugees and migrants and return them to Libya, where they face torture, exploitation and rape

Matteo de Bellis, Amnesty International

The vision offered by official European sources regarding the training of the Libyan Coast Guard, and about Operation Sophia in general, is very different when it comes to reducing mortality on the Mediterranean’s most deadly migration route. “Operation Sophia was launched to fight criminal human smuggling networks that put lives at risk in the Central Mediterranean,” they say in a written response. European officials are aware of what is going on in Libya, but their response to the accusations of abuse perpetrated by the Libyan Coast Guard and the situation of migrants confined in detention centers in terrible conditions, is the following: “Everything that happens in Libyan territorial waters is Libya’s responsibility, not Europe’s, yet we are not looking the other way. […] Through Operation Sophia we have saved lives, fought traffickers and trained the Libyan Coast Guard […]. We are performing this last task because substantial loss of life at sea is taking place within Libyan territorial waters. That is why it is very important for Libya’s Coast Guard and Navy to know how to assist distressed migrants in line with international law and humanitarian standards. Also, because the contribution of Libya’s Coast Guard in the fight against traffickers operating in their waters is indispensable.”

Criticism of Operation Sophia is also coming from the European Parliament, which funded the trip that made this feature story possible. Juan Fernando López Aguilar, president of the parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, attacks the decision to strip Sophia of its naval resources. The Socialist Party (PSOE) politician says that this decision was made “in the absolute absence of a global approach to the migration phenomenon that would include cooperative coordination of all the resources at member states’ disposal, such as development aid in Africa, cooperation with origin and transit countries, hirings in countries of origin and the creation of legal ways to access the EU. Now that would dismantle [the mafias’] business model,” he says.

López Aguilar says that the EU is aware of Italy’s weariness of the situation, considering that “for years it dealt with a migratory pressure that exceeded its response capacity.” Between 2014 and 2017, around 624,000 people landed on Italy’s coasts. “If they EU had systematically shown more solidarity with Italy, if relocation programs for people in hotspots had been observed, very likely Italian voters would not have made a dramatic swing giving victory to the far right, nor would we have reached a point where a xenophobic closed-port narrative is claimed to represent the salvation of Italian interests.”

Miguel Urbán, a European Member of Parliament for the Spanish leftist party Unidas Podemos, is highly critical of the way the EU has been managing immigration. He talks about a “militarization of the Mediterranean” and describes European policy as bowing to “the far right’s strategy.” He blames Italy’s attitude for turning Sophia into “an operation in the Mediterranean without a naval fleet. What the Italian government gets out of this is to rid itself of its humanitarian responsibility to disembark migrants on its coasts.”

For now, no progress has been made on the underlying political problem of disembarkation and, by extension, on the long-delayed reform of the Dublin Regulation to balance out frontline states’ responsibility in taking in refugees with solidarity from other countries. Sophia will continue to hobble along until September after being all but given up for dead in March. After that, everything is still up in the air.

▻https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/08/29/inenglish/1567088519_215547.html
#Sophie #Opération_Sophia #Sicile

L’uso dei droni per guardare i migranti che affogano mette a nudo tutta la disumanità delle pratiche di controllo sui confini

https://dossierlibia.lasciatecientrare.it/wp-content/uploads/arton24352.jpg

In troppi crediamo al mito di una frontiera dal volto umano, solo perché ci spaventa guardare in faccia la realtà macchiata di sangue.

“Se avessi ignorato quelle grida di aiuto, non avrei mai più trovato il coraggio di affrontare il mare”.

Con queste parole il pescatore siciliano Carlo Giarratano ha commentato la sua decisione di sfidare il “decreto sicurezza” del Governo italiano, che prevede sanzioni o l’arresto nei confronti di chiunque trasporti in Italia migranti soccorsi in mare.

La sua storia è un esempio della preoccupante tensione che si è creata ai confini della “Fortezza Europa” in materia di leggi e regolamenti. Secondo il diritto internazionale, il capitano di un’imbarcazione in mare è tenuto a fornire assistenza alle persone in difficoltà, “a prescindere dalla nazionalità o dalla cittadinanza delle persone stesse”. Al contempo, molti paesi europei, e la stessa UE, stanno cercando di limitare questo principio e queste attività, malgrado il tragico bilancio di morti nel Mediterraneo, in continua crescita.

L’Agenzia di Confine e Guardia Costiera Europea, Frontex, sembra aver escogitato una soluzione ingegnosa: i droni. L’obbligo legale di aiutare un’imbarcazione in difficoltà non si applica a un veicolo aereo senza pilota (UAV, unmanned aerial vehicle). Si può aggirare la questione, politicamente calda, su chi sia responsabile di accogliere i migranti soccorsi, se questi semplicemente non vengono proprio soccorsi. Questo principio fa parte di una consolidata tendenza a mettere in atto politiche finalizzate a impedire che i migranti attraversino il Mediterraneo. Visto l’obbligo di soccorrere le persone che ci chiedono aiuto, la soluzione sembra essere questa: fare in modo di non sentire le loro richieste.

Jean-Claude Juncker sostiene che le politiche europee di presidio ai confini sono concepite per “stroncare il business dei trafficanti”, perché nella moralità egocentrica che ispira la politica di frontiera europea, se non ci fossero trafficanti non ci sarebbero migranti.

Ma non ci sono trafficanti che si fabbricano migranti in officina. Se le rotte ufficiali sono bloccate, le persone vanno a cercare quelle non ufficiali. Rendere la migrazione più difficile, ha fatto aumentare la richiesta di trafficanti e scafisti, certamente non l’ha fermata. Invece che stroncare il loro business, queste politiche lo hanno creato.

Secondo la logica della foglia di fico, l’UE sostiene di non limitarsi a lasciare affogare i migranti, ma di fornire supporto alla guardia costiera libica perché intercetti le imbarcazioni che tentano la traversata e riporti le persone nei campi di detenzione in Libia.

Ma il rapporto del Global Detention Project, a proposito delle condizioni in questi campi, riferisce: “I detenuti sono spesso sottoposti a gravi abusi e violenze, compresi stupri e torture, estorsioni, lavori forzati, schiavitù, condizioni di vita insopportabili, esecuzioni sommarie.” Human Rights Watch, in un rapporto intitolato Senza via di fuga dall’Inferno, descrive situazioni di sovraffollamento e malnutrizione e riporta testimonianze di bambini picchiati dalle guardie.

L’Irish Times ha riportato accuse secondo cui le milizie associate con il GNA (Governo Libico di Alleanza Nazionale, riconosciuto dall’ONU), starebbero immagazzinando munizioni in questi campi e userebbero i rifugiati come “scudi umani”. Sembra quasi inevitabile, quindi, la notizia che il 3 luglio almeno 53 rifugiati sono stati uccisi durante un attacco dei ribelli appartenenti all’Esercito Nazionale Libico, nel campo di detenzione di Tajura, vicino a Tripoli.

Secondo una testimonianza riportata dall’Associated Press, a Tajura i migranti erano costretti a pulire le armi delle milizie fedeli al GNA, armi che erano immagazzinate nel campo. Secondo i racconti di testimoni oculari dell’attacco, riportati dalle forze ONU, le guardie del campo avrebbero aperto il fuoco su chi tentava di scappare.

Nel mondo occidentale, quando parliamo di immigrazione, tendiamo a focalizzarci sul cosiddetto “impatto sulle comunità” causato dai flussi di nuovi arrivati che si muovono da un posto all’altro.

Nelle nostre discussioni, ci chiediamo se i migranti portino un guadagno per l’economia oppure intacchino risorse già scarse. Raramente ci fermiamo a guardare nella sua cruda e tecnica realtà la concreta applicazione del controllo alle frontiere, quando si traduce davvero in fucili e filo spinato.

Ci ripetiamo che i costi vanno tutti in un’unica direzione: secondo la nostra narrazione preferita, i controlli di confine sono tutti gratis, è lasciare entrare i migranti la cosa che costa. Ma i costi da pagare ci sono sempre: non solo il tributo di morti che continua a crescere o i budget multimilionari e sempre in aumento delle nostre agenzie di frontiera, ma anche i costi morali e sociali che finiamo con l’estorcere a noi stessi.

L’ossessione per la sicurezza dei confini deve fare i conti con alcune delle più antiche e radicate convinzioni etiche proprie delle società occidentali. Prendersi cura del più debole, fare agli altri quello che vogliamo sia fatto a noi, aiutare chi possiamo. Molti uomini e donne che lavorano in mare, quando soccorrono dei naufraghi non sono spinti solo da una legge che li obbliga a prestare aiuto, ma anche da un imperativo morale più essenziale. “Lo facciamo perché siamo gente di mare”, ha detto Giarratano al Guardian, “in mare, se ci sono persone in pericolo, le salviamo”.

Ma i nostri governi hanno deciso che questo non vale per gli europei. Come se fosse una perversa sfida lanciata a istinti morali vecchi di migliaia di anni, nell’Europa moderna un marinaio che salva un migrante mentre sta per affogare, deve essere punito.

Infrangere queste reti di reciproche responsabilità fra gli esseri umani, ha dei costi: divisioni e tensioni sociali. Ed è un amaro paradosso, perché proprio argomenti di questo genere sono in testa alle nostre preoccupazioni percepite quando si parla di migrazioni. E mentre l’UE fa di tutto per respingere un fronte del confine verso i deserti del Nord Africa, cercando di tenere i corpi dei rifugiati abbastanza lontani da non farceli vedere da vicino, intanto l’altro fronte continua a spingere verso di noi. L’Europa diventa un “ambiente ostile” e quindi noi diventiamo un popolo ostile.

Ci auto-ingaggiamo come guardie di confine al nostro interno. Padroni di casa, infermiere, insegnanti, manager – ogni relazione sociale deve essere controllata. Il nostro regime di “frontiera quotidiana” crea “comunità sospette” all’interno della nostra società: sono persone sospette per il solo fatto di esistere e, nei loro confronti, si possono chiamare le forze dell’ordine in ogni momento, “giusto per dare un’occhiata”.

Il confine non è solo un sistema per tenere gli estranei fuori dalla nostra società, ma per marchiare per sempre le persone come estranee, anche all’interno e per legittimare ufficialmente il pregiudizio, per garantire che “l’integrazione” – il Sacro Graal della narrazione progressista sull’immigrazione – resti illusoria e irrealizzabile, uno scherzo crudele giocato sulla pelle di persone destinate a rimanere etichettate come straniere e sospette. La nostra società nel suo insieme si mette al servizio di questo insaziabile confine, fino a definire la sua vera e propria identità nella capacità di respingere le persone.

Malgrado arrivino continuamente immagini e notizie di tragedie e di morti, i media evitano di collegarle con le campagne di opinione che amplificano le cosiddette “legittime preoccupazioni” della gente e le trasformano in un inattaccabile “comune buon senso”.

I compromessi che reggono le politiche di controllo dei confini non vengono messi in luce. Questo ci permette di guardare da un’altra parte, non perché siamo crudeli ma perché non possiamo sopportare di vedere quello che stiamo facendo. Ci sono persone e gruppi che, come denuncia Adam Serwer in un articolo su The Atlantic, sono proprio “Focalizzati sulla Crudeltà”. E anche se noi non siamo così, viviamo comunque nel loro stesso mondo, un mondo in cui degli esseri umani annegano e noi li guardiamo dall’alto dei nostri droni senza pilota, mentre lo stato punisce chi cerca di salvarli.

In troppi crediamo nel mito di una frontiera dal volto umano, solo perché ci spaventa guardare in faccia la tragica e insanguinata realtà del concreto controllo quotidiano sui confini. E comunque, se fosse possibile, non avremmo ormai risolto questa contraddizione? Il fatto che non lo abbiamo fatto dovrebbe portarci a pensare che non ne siamo capaci e che ci si prospetta una cruda e desolante scelta morale per il futuro.

D’ora in poi, il numero dei migranti non può che aumentare. I cambiamenti climatici saranno determinanti. La scelta di non respingerli non sarà certamente gratis: non c’è modo di condividere le nostre risorse con altri senza sostenere dei costi. Ma se non lo facciamo, scegliamo consapevolmente i naufragi, gli annegamenti, i campi di detenzione, scegliamo di destinare queste persone ad una vita da schiavi in zone di guerra. Scegliamo l’ambiente ostile. Scegliamo di “difendere il nostro stile di vita” semplicemente accettando di vivere a fianco di una popolazione sempre in aumento fatta di rifugiati senza patria, ammassati in baracche di lamiera e depositi soffocanti, sfiniti fino alla disperazione.

Ma c’è un costo che, alla fine, giudicheremo troppo alto da pagare? Per il momento, sembra di no: ma, … cosa siamo diventati?

►https://dossierlibia.lasciatecientrare.it/luso-dei-droni-per-guardare-i-migranti-che-affogano-m

Grèce : le gouvernement durcit nettement sa position et implique l’armée à la gestion de flux migratoire en Mer Egée

Après deux conférences intergouvernementales ce we., le gouvernement Mitsotakis a décidé la participation active de l’Armée et des Forces Navales dans des opérations de dissuasion en Mer Egée. En même temps il a décidé de poursuivre les opérations de ’désengorgement’ des îlses, de renfoncer les forces de garde-côte en effectifs et en navires, et de pousser plus loin la coopération avec Frontex et les forces de l’Otan qui opèrent déjà dans la région.

Le durcissement net de la politique gouvernementale se traduit aussi par le retour en force d’un discours ouvertement xénophobe. Le vice-président du gouvernement grec, Adonis Géorgiadis, connu pour ses positions à l’’extrême-droite de l’échiquier politique, a déclaré que parmi les nouveaux arrivants, il y aurait très peu de réfugiés, la plupart seraient des ‘clandestins’ et il n’a pas manqué de qualifier les flux d’ ‘invasion’.

source – en grec - Efimerida tôn Syntaktôn : ▻https://www.efsyn.gr/politiki/kybernisi/211786_kybernisi-sklirainei-ti-stasi-tis-sto-prosfygiko

Il va de soi que cette militarisation de la gestion migratoire laisse craindre le pire dans la mesure où le but évident de l’implication de l’armée ne saurait être que la systématisation des opérations de push-back en pleine mer, ce qui est non seulement illégal mais ouvertement criminel.

Reçu de Vicky Skoumbi via la mailing-list Migreurop, 23.09.2019

Drones for Frontex: unmanned migration control at Europe’s borders

Instead of providing sea rescue capabilities in the Mediterranean, the EU is expanding air surveillance. Refugees are observed with drones developed for the military. In addition to numerous EU states, countries such as Libya could also use the information obtained.

►https://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-354-frontex-drones.pdf

Et des #drones_israéliens en #Méditerranée :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/855951
#Israël

A condition qu’il reste de la #bière !

Study : Decreases in Global Beer Supply Due to Extreme Drought, Heat
KTVN, le 15 octobre 2018
►https://seenthis.net/messages/729871

Même si ça a l’air d’une blague, je l’ajoute à la troisième compilation :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/680147

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

#BD #dessin #Mordillo #mort_en_2019