• Coronavirus: Migrant groups call for lifting of refusal of entry to migrants arriving by sea - Cyprus- Mail

    Migrant rights group Kisa along with a number of other, international groups have called on the government to terminate its policy of refusing entry to migrants arriving by sea, introduced as a measure to slow the spread of coronavirus.

    The migrant rights groups, in a joint statement, criticised both the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot side for the way they handled a group of 175 refugees who were denied entry by the government in March.

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#Chypre#réfugiés#bateau#lybie#sante

    https://cyprus-mail.com/2020/05/21/coronavirus-migrant-groups-call-for-lifting-of-refusal-of-entry-to-migr

  • Des lieux pour apprendre et des espaces à vivre : l’#école et ses périphéries. Les dehors et les ailleurs

    Quelle approche géographique des #territoires_scolaires ? [Texte intégral]
    Exemple à partir de la cartographie des établissements du 2nd degré à #La_Réunion
    What geographical approach to school territories ? An example from the map of secondary schools on the island of Reunion
    Sylvain Genevois

    #Roms et #Voyageurs : quand les enjeux spatiaux s’invitent à l’école [Texte intégral]
    Roma and Travelers : when space challenges come to school
    Aurore Lecomte

    Les différences nationales de désignation et représentation des déplacements occasionnels des classes dans les pays d’Europe [Texte intégral]
    National differences in the designation and representation of the occasional displacing of classes in European countries
    Xavier Michel

    Images d’espaces / espaces en #images [Texte intégral]
    Étudiants, enseignants débutants, formateurs et espaces d’apprentissage
    Images of spaces / spaces in images. Students, newly qualified teachers, lecturers and learning spaces
    Jean-François Thémines et Anne-Laure Le Guern

    Les effets d’un espace d’apprentissage délocalisé : analyse d’un espace scénique [Texte intégral]
    The effects of a relocated learning space : analysis of a scenic space
    Claire de Saint Martin

    Étranges #stages à l’étranger. Quand le #Covid-19 reconfigure les #apprentissages « #Hors_les_murs » [Texte intégral]
    Strange internships abroad. When the Covid-19 reconfigures “Outside the walls” learning
    Dominique Chevalier

    Etudier et se rencontrer au sein d’une société divisée, perspectives de territoires d’apprentissage chypriotes [Texte intégral]
    Studying and meeting in a divided society : prospects for Cypriot learning territories
    Marie Pouillès-Garonzi
    #Chypre

    Ouvrir l’École sur son espace proche : enjeux de la #territorialisation de l’enseignement de la géographie dans le secondaire en #Nouvelle-Calédonie [Texte intégral]
    Opening up the School to its immediate surroundings : territorialisation challenges of geography teaching in secondary schools in New Caledonia
    Amandine Touitou, Isabelle Lefort et Séverine Ferrière

    Les trajets domicile-école des élèves de primaire peuvent-ils constituer un point de départ pour construire des apprentissages spatiaux ? [Texte intégral]
    Can the home to school journeys of primary school children constitute a starting point for building spatial learning ?
    Elsa Filâtre

    https://journals.openedition.org/geocarrefour/15007
    #revue #géographie

  • IOM Maintains COVID-19 Support for Vulnerable Migrant Communities in Cyprus - Cyprus | ReliefWeb
    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#Chypre#protection#sante

    https://reliefweb.int/report/cyprus/iom-maintains-covid-19-support-vulnerable-migrant-communities-cyprus

    Nicosia – The number of COVID-19 case in Cyprus has dropped over the past three weeks (837 confirmed cases and 15 deaths overall) but the risk of infection persists among the most vulnerable communities on the island due to overcrowded living conditions, challenges in accessing basic services such as health, as well as communication barriers.

  • The government undermines legality and the rule of law under the pretext of coronavirus

    In a statement the Minister of Interior appears perturbed by NGO accusations for violations of the law, European legislation and human rights of refugees and migrants, claiming that, with the compulsory “quarantine” of hundreds of refugees in congested detention centres, his ministry “does whatever is possible for providing housing, food and healthcare”, even for “illegal” refugees! As to the lack of basic infrastructures for safeguarding human decency, his response is that «additional sanitary units are being installed and the electricity supply is being increased”.

    However, the Minister of Interior does not respond to the accusations either as to flagrant violations of the Refugee Law and European legislation that primarily prohibit their detention, or as to the contempt of all recommendations and calls by international and European agencies. The Council of Europe (CoE) for example with the CoE Tookit calls on the member states to deal with the pandemic “in a way that respects the fundamental values of democracy, rule of law and human rights”, while the Commissioner for Human Rights of the CoE calls on member states to release migrants and asylum seekers in detention centres “to the maximum extent possible”.

    The new migration policy of the Minister is focused on detention of asylum seekers and their concentration at “Reception” Centres for asylum seekers in Pournara and Kofinou. The two Centers have been turned to closed detention centres, under unacceptable, inhuman and humiliating living conditions, depriving them of basic human rights and putting their health to danger and therefore that of society at large, while at the same time suspending the asylum application examination procedures. There is already a nurse diagnosed with coronavirus at the Menoyia Detention Centre for Irregular Migrants and police officers serving there have been put in quarantine. However, no measures have been taken for the protection of the detained refugees and migrants and none of them have been tested for coronavirus, despite the fact that we have been informed of cases of detainees with some symptoms. Contrary to common sense and in violation of the decrees of the Minister of Health for the prohibition of even small group gatherings, the Minister of Interior ordered the transfer of detainees from Menoyia to Pournara, detaining them in the spaces where some 700 people are being held, without any testing and risking their health and public health in general.

    In addition, the Minister of Interior does not explain that, in view of the lack over the years of a housing policy for refugees and migrants, “housing” for the detained asylum seekers is a tent or other similar rough structure, while for a section of migrants, especially those without papers, “housing” is simply a bed next to 5 or 10 other beds in a room in terrible repair but which carries a very steep rent. The same also applies to «medical care”, in the framework of which asylum seekers are limited to general hospitals of the area prior to GESY (General Health System), unable to register with a personal doctor and all that this entails, especially in the present conditions of coronavirus. For the majority of migrants, even those regularly paying their contribution to GESY for over a year now, continue to be excluded from registering with the system, which results in their being referred to a non-existent personal doctor when they apply to emergency departments.

    Conceding that the above measures have been taken in the absence of coronavirus cases among asylum seekers, the Minister claims that their compulsory transfer and detention at Pournara and Kofinou «was deemed necessary … because it was found that they did not comply with the restrictive measures». Without substantiating his allegations, the Minister proceeds to stigmatisation and arbitrary punitive treatment (deprivation of liberty) of migrants and refugees.

    By the same token, it was also deemed «necessary», and «reasonable» as per a “Fileleftheros” journalist», to use violence, excessive according to eyewitnesses, by the Special Traffic Squad «Ζ» of the police during the recent arrest of two migrants for not complying with the restrictive measures. In the framework of the toxic climate against migrant and refugee communities, shaped by the policy of the government and the Minister of Interior, including the use of the army with common patrols in old Nicosia, Squad “Z” appears to concentrate its action in the old city of Nicosia, targeting its racist rage at migrants and refugees and exhausting the frustrations of at least some of its members for demonstrating power and authority, through the use of verbal and physical violence as in the above arrest. Occasionally, the police are “accompanied” in this “work” by some journalists, who completely “by chance” happen to be present in some cases by the police and who are all too ready not only to exonerate but to also promote police actions with relevant photographs and articles.

    KISA reiterates its position that the policies and actions of the Minister of Interior and the government, both in terms of mass detention and the arbitrary suspension of the asylum procedures during the pandemic as well as in relation to the unequal access to the right to healthcare, constitute blatant violations of the Refugee Law, European legislation and international human rights law but they are also extremely dangerous for the health of asylum seekers and public health in general.

    KISA states that it fully appreciates the necessity to comply with the restrictive measures and that the small section of citizens, including migrants and refugees that violates the measures must be dealt with equally as all other citizens. The racist treatment, violence and stigmatisation of all the migrant and refugee population as potentially not complying with the measures and, therefore, as dangerous for public health, amounts to flagrant violations of the fundamental principles of equality, rule of law and human rights, undermining and shattering our country’s democracy and civilization.

    KISA deems as positive the interventions of both the UNHCR and the Commissioner for Administration and Human Rights but these must not be limited to general positions of the type “a report will be prepared” but they should posit in no uncertain terms the need for immediate measures for restoring legality and the rule of law. Neither the visit in the form of a “tour” by the Minister nor the provision of “200 more tents” will lead to changing the Ministry’s unlawful policy and violations.

    KISA has proceeded to legal measures, including before the European Court of Human Rights, as well as a report against the Ministry’s measures. At the same time, it calls on other civil society organisations, independent authorities and the competent parliamentary committees for immediate and dynamic interventions so as to fully restore the government’s compliance with legality and the rule of law.

    https://kisa.org.cy/undermining-legality-and-the-rule-of-law-under-the-pretext-of-coronavirus
    #Chypre #asile #migrations #coronavirus #covid-19 #réfugiés #rétention #détention_administrative #Pournara #Kofinou #Menoyia

    Ajouté à la métaliste:
    https://seenthis.net/messages/835410

  • CoVid-19 dans les #pays_méditerranéens

    En collaboration avec les ingénieurs de la plateforme universitaire de données d’Aix-Marseille (PUD-AMU), l’Observatoire démographique vous propose ci-dessous des ressources #statistiques officielles concernant la situation de l’#épidémie. (Merci aux chercheurs qui nous ont fait des retours pour améliorer cette page : Hala Bayoumi, Eric Verdeil, Philippe Sierra).

    Pour chaque pays, nous donnons le lien vers la ou les sources officielles : #Albanie, #Algérie, #Bosnie-et-Herzégovine, #Bulgarie, #Chypre, #Croatie, #Egypte, #Espagne, #France, #Grèce, #Israël, #Italie, #Jordanie, #Kosovo, #Liban, #Libye, #Macédoine, #Malte, #Maroc, #Monténégro, #Palestine, #Portugal, #Serbie, #Slovénie, #Syrie, #Tunisie, #Turquie

    https://demomed.org/index.php/fr/ressources-en-ligne/coronavirus-situation
    #Méditerranée #comparaison #chiffres #graphiques #contamination #décès #coronavirus #visualisation

    ping @simplicissimus @reka

  • Chypre : Human Rights Watch appelle à la libération de 175 Syriens confinés dans »des appartements surpeuplés »- Diaspora en ligne
    Human Rights Watch a exhorté jeudi les autorités chypriotes-turques à libérer 175 migrants syriens qui ont été assignés à résidence dans des appartements surpeuplés, selon l’ONG, après le naufrage de leur embarcation le mois dernier.
    #Covid-19#Turquie#Chypre#Syriens#Confinement#Quarantaine#Politique#Encampement#migrant#migration

    https://diasporaenligne.net/actualites-chypre-human-rights-watch-appelle-a-la-liberation-de-175

  • Turkish Cypriot Authorities: Release Detained Syrian Asylum Seekers-Human Rights Watch
    Turkish Cypriot authorities should immediately release 175 detained Syrian asylum seekers, and Greek Cypriot authorities should allow them to cross the line into their territory and process their asylum claims, Human Rights Watch said today.
    #Covid-19#Turquie#Chypre#Syriens#Amnistie#Prisonniers#Politique#Demandeurs_asile#migrant#migration

    https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/16/turkish-cypriot-authorities-release-detained-syrian-asylum-seekers

  • Turkish Cypriot Authorities: Release Detained Syrian Asylum Seekers. Republic of Cyprus Should Process Their Claims

    Turkish Cypriot authorities should immediately release 175 detained Syrian asylum seekers, and Greek Cypriot authorities should allow them to cross the line into their territory and process their asylum claims, Human Rights Watch said today.

    On March 20, 2020, citing a #Covid-19 lockdown, Greek Cypriot authorities refused permission to dock to a boat carrying the asylum seekers, many of whom were trying to join family already settled in the Republic of Cyprus. The boat eventually navigated north, and Turkish Cypriot authorities rescued them from shallow waters when their vessel capsized. Turkish Cypriot authorities are now effectively detaining the asylum seekers and have indicated that they will transfer them to Turkey.

    “Turkish Cypriot authorities initially provided rescue and safety to the Syrian asylum seekers, but now appear to be holding them in indefinite detention,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “For their part, Greek Cypriot authorities should not ignore the claims for protection and family reunification that many of the asylum seekers have on its territory.”

    The 175 Syrian asylum seekers, most of whom fled Aleppo and Idlib, left Mersin in southern Turkey on a boat bound for Cyprus on March 20. They include 69 children, at least 7 of them unaccompanied. After the Greek Cypriot coast guard pushed them back, the overcrowded boat traveled north and overturned near the Northern Cyprus shore. No one was injured and the Turkish Cypriot authorities helped the Syrians reach land and gave them relief items.

    The authorities housed the asylum seekers in a sports hall for a few days, then moved them to an apartment complex for a 14-day quarantine period. That period ended in the first week of April, but the Turkish Cypriot authorities have maintained the Syrian asylum seekers under effective house arrest, confined to the apartments and under constant surveillance. The legal basis for their continued confinement is unclear, as under the law in Northern Cyprus, detention on migration grounds is authorized only for 8 days, extendable only by a court decision, which Human Rights Watch understands has not been sought in this case.

    As a matter of international law, the Republic of Cyprus refers to the entire island, but it is currently under the effective control of two states. The internationally recognized government of the Republic of Cyprus has effective control over the southern part – also referred to as Greek Cyprus. It is a European Union member. The self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) governs the northern part and is deemed to be under the effective control of Turkey, the only country that recognizes the entity of TRNC. Under international law, Turkey is treated as an occupying power and assumes responsibility for upholding human rights there.

    Human Rights Watch spoke with 2 of the asylum seekers, who described their conditions as cramped, with 15 to 21 people on average to a room. “They don’t let us outside,” one said. “We are not even allowed on the balcony. We spend all day in our rooms. We don’t know anything and don’t know what will happen to us.” Human Rights Watch understands that the asylum seekers have access to a nurse but have not been tested for Covid-19.

    The TRNC issued deportation orders from the territory to Turkey for all 175 asylum seekers. Human Rights Watch understands that Turkey has refused to accept the Syrians, citing Covid-19-related concerns.

    Turkey has repeatedly violated the prohibition on refoulement – the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to face persecution or serious violations of their rights, Human Rights Watch said. Since July 2019, Turkey has deported hundreds of Syrians, perhaps more. Any Syrians forcibly returned to Turkey face a risk of onward refoulement to Syria.

    Human Rights Watch spoke to three Syrian asylum seekers in the Republic of Cyprus who said that on previous attempts to reach Cyprus in the past year they had been interdicted by the Turkish coast guard and ultimately returned to Syria. In all cases, they were forced to sign voluntary repatriation forms, a practice that Human Rights Watch has documented.

    The asylum seekers trapped in northern Cyprus expressed frustration and said they were afraid of being returned to Syria. Three had tried to escape by jumping from the balcony of their apartment building but were caught, uninjured, and returned to their rooms. While Turkey has refused to accept them, Human Rights Watch is concerned that this position could change once the strict restrictions on freedom of movement because of Covid-19 loosen.

    The Turkish-controlled TRNC does not operate its own asylum system. The protections that Cyprus is required to provide to asylum seekers as an EU member are inaccessible for asylum seekers in the north. Instead, nongovernmental groups in Northern Cyprus are sometimes granted access to migrants who arrive there to find out if they have international protection needs. If the groups determine that they do, the authorities have tended to allow them to stay and granted them access to basic rights such as to health care, education, and work. Human Rights Watch understands that the groups have yet to be granted access to the 175 asylum seekers.

    The Republic of Cyprus is entitled to control its borders and manage crossings into the country but is bound by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to respect the right to seek asylum. Failure to do so may also violate the nonrefoulement principle. Failure to assist a boat in distress could also be a breach of international law of the sea and EU obligations on search-and-rescue.

    Under international law, public health measures must be proportionate, nondiscriminatory, and based on available scientific evidence. Measures such as requiring a period of isolation or quarantine may be permitted, but the pandemic cannot justify blanket bans on allowing boats to land, which risk the rights to life and health of those on board.

    Turkish authorities, as well as the TRNC, are bound by the principle of nonrefoulement. They are also bound by international human rights law, including the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits arbitrary detention. While irregular migrants may be detained for limited periods, including pending lawful removal, if such removal is unable to be carried out imminently, they should be released.

    States should not detain children for immigration-related reasons and are obliged to provide appropriate care to unaccompanied children. On April 13, UNICEF said that all governments should impose a moratorium on detaining children and urgently release children where alternatives are possible, due to heightened risks of Covid-19 in detention.

    The Turkish Cypriot authorities should end the detention of the Syrian asylum seekers and ensure they are housed in accommodation where they are able to practice social distancing and proper hygiene and have access to adequate food, water, medical care, and legal assistance, Human Rights Watch said.

    “The Syrian asylum seekers are being held in cramped quarters, vulnerable to the spread of Covid-19, in constant fear they may be forcibly returned to the country they fled,” Hardman said. “Once released from detention, the Republic of Cyprus should promptly accept their claims for asylum and requests for family reunification and protect them from the risk of return to persecution or other serious violations in Syria.”

    https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/16/turkish-cypriot-authorities-release-detained-syrian-asylum-seekers
    #Chypre #réfugiés #asile #migrations #réfugiés #réfugiés_syriens #Turquie #Chypre_du_Nord #frontières #coronavirus

    ping @thomas_lacroix

  • Cyprus pushes Syrian refugees back at sea due to #coronavirus

    About 200 Syrian refugees are stranded in northern Cyprus after a harrowing standoff with authorities on the sea.

    Nearly 200 Syrian asylum seekers are stranded in northern Cyprus after they were pushed back in the middle of the sea by authorities in the government-controlled south.

    Quarantined and under threat of deportation, they have become the latest victims of a multiplying border shutdown as countries grapple with the advance of coronavirus.

    On Friday, March 20, several Greek Cypriot patrol vessels approached a vastly overcrowded boat several miles of the coast of Cape Greco.

    A police translator with a megaphone informed the passengers in Arabic that they could not enter Cyprus and would have to turn back. The craft was holding 175 people including 69 children.

    According to authorities in northern Cyprus, all are Syrian.

    Al Jazeera spoke to three Syrians who were on board. Their names are being withheld to not invite reprisals by authorities.

    One mother in her twenties from Aleppo said: “It was very crowded, the waves were high and the boat was moving a lot. I held my children tight. The police said you cannot enter because of the coronavirus, we said we were joining our husbands and families and if you are scared about coronavirus you can put us in a camp alone or quarantine. But they refused and then the boats started to circle.”

    On March 15, Cyprus shut its borders to all except Cypriots, European workers and those with special permits for a period of two weeks.

    As of Sunday, the country had recorded 214 confirmed cases and six have died.

    In a statement given to Al Jazeera, Cypriot police spokesman Christos Andreou said: “The police acted on the ministerial decrees concerning the prohibition of entry ... to protect against the distribution of coronavirus. The police made it clear that they will not allow anyone including immigrants to enter in violation of these decrees.”

    A man from Idlib told Al Jazeera: "A bigger boat came after an hour with a cannon and weapons on top. They had personnel with guns on board who said, ’If you want water, food and fuel we will give it to you but entry to Cyprus is not allowed’.

    “We asked even for them just to take the women and children. They threw us a small bottle of diesel and drove behind us for an hour and we continued to the Turkish side. A storm came and waves started to hit the boat.”

    After a standoff of several hours the boat, that had begun its journey in Mersin in southern Turkey, turned around and eventually upturned near the shore of northern Cyprus.

    Local authorities rescued the passengers from the shoreline, and they are now being housed in apartments.

    The Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded the north following a Greek-backed military coup by forces seeking to unify the country with Athens.

    Although Cyprus is an EU member, the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is recognised only by Turkey and the territories are separated by a 120-mile long UN-monitored buffer zone which cuts through the nation’s capital, Nicosia.

    Gulfem Verizoglu-Sevgili of the TRNC ministry of foreign affairs told Al Jazeera in a statement: “In the early hours of March 21, a rescue mission took place off the eastern coast of TRNC by the Karpaz Peninsula. The refugees were primarily taken to a sports hall where they underwent medical examinations and were provided with clothes and food. They have now been moved into flats.”

    The refugees received a warm reception by Turkish Cypriot authorities, but their fate is uncertain and local NGOs say they have been denied access to the apartments.

    A partial curfew is in place with movement largely restricted to essential businesses.

    Fezile Osum from Refugee Rights Association, an NGO based in northern Cyprus, told Al Jazeera: “The situation is complicated because the south closed their asylum system and here we don’t have one. Normally we would be able to conduct interviews but because of the curfew we are not allowed to do anything, and we don’t how they are being treated.”

    All crossing points that connect the Greek and Turkish Cypriot territories are currently closed.

    A man from Aleppo living in the Republic of Cyprus told Al Jazeera that his wife and children were among those stranded in the north. They are treated well, he said, but lack information.

    “Nobody is telling them anything. They should at least let us be together. If we knew about the border closures, they wouldn’t have come,” he said.

    UNHCR spokeswoman Emilia Strovolidou confirmed that deportation orders had been issued by the TRNC, but Turkey had refused the request.

    “Authorities in the north have placed them in 14-day quarantine in apartments and afterwards they will try again to deport them to Turkey.”

    Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International’s senior researcher on Turkey, told Al Jazeera he was concerned by cases of refoulement from Turkey to Syria.

    “Turkey has punished misdemeanour offences by arbitrarily sending people back to Syria, either those living there for a while or potentially those deported back from Northern Cyprus. There is definitely a problem with independent oversight of returns and people in detention.”

    Osum, of Refugee Rights Association, believes a dangerous precedent has been set.

    “I am afraid that Cyprus will continue to push back people and we will have more arrivals or even deaths in the sea.”
    ’Extremely saddened’

    UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi recently said that while everyday life for many has stopped, “war persecution have not.”

    He advised that screening and quarantine arrangements can be put in place “to enable authorities to manage the arrival of asylum seekers and refugees in a safe manner, while respecting international refugee protection standards designed to save lives.”

    Despite being relatively untouched during the height of Europe’s refugee crisis in 2015-2016, Cyprus is now the top recipient of first-time asylum seekers in the EU per capita registering 12,695 in 2019, the majority Syrian.

    Even pre-coronavirus the Cypriot government has taken an increasingly strident tone against irregular immigration, pr opagating the idea that refugees and migrants crossing over the porous buffer zone from north to south have been encouraged or sent by Ankara as an orchestrated attempt to alter the country’s demographics.

    Aside from the pandemic, the Cypriot asylum system may prompt yet more treacherous boat journeys.

    Corina Drousiotou from the Cyprus Refugee Council told Al Jazeera that almost all Syrians in Cyprus receive subsidiary protection status, which does not allow them to bring over family members legally.

    “We are extremely saddened by the pushback as until now the Cypriot authorities had taken every step to ensure refugees arriving on boats were able to reach our shores safely. We are contacted every day by devastated fathers desperate to be reunited with their families.”

    The woman from Aleppo who was on board the boat, said: “We didn’t go to Cyprus as tourists. We went to become refugees there.”

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/cyprus-pushes-syrian-refugees-sea-due-coronavirus-200330091614066.html
    #refoulement #refoulements #Chypre #asile #migrations #réfugiés #réfugiés_syriens

    ping @thomas_lacroix

    • Syrian refugees in Cyprus pushed back to Turkey

      On 15 May 2020, the administration of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) forcibly sent 100 Syrian refugees, including unaccompanied children, to Mersin, Turkey. They have been transferred to Kilis, near the Syrian border, where they are now. Most of the 100 Syrian refugees – 56 – are children and women and girls are in the majority.

      On 24 April 2020, the TRNC had already forcibly sent 75 Syrian refugees, including unaccompanied children, to Mersin, Turkey, from where they have been reportedly moved to a camp in the province of Kahramanmaraş. All 175 Syrian refugees have expressed their intent to apply for asylum and find protection in an EU member state. Syrians forcibly returned to Turkey face a risk of onward refoulement to Syria.

      This group of 175 refugees arrived by boat on 20 March and were pushed back to the sea by the coastguard of the republic of Cyprus as the boat was approaching the southern part of the island, which is under the jurisdiction and control of the government of the Republic of Cyprus. Many of these refugees were trying to join their families already settled in the Republic of Cyprus, which is a member of the European Union. The boat went north, capsized and the refugees were rescued by the “Turkish Cypriot administration” which has effective control over the northern part of the island. The refugees were housed in an apartment complex for a 14-day quarantine period due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of the quarantine period, they continued to be detained – this time arbitrarily, in violation of the law of the “Turkish Cypriot administration” which authorises the detention of irregular migrants for eight days extendable only by a court order.

      We, the undersigned organisations condemn the push-back of the vessel from Cypriot waters by the government of Cyprus, which amounts to refoulement in violation of the prohibition of non-refoulement set out under the 1951 Geneva Convention and EU law on asylum, and infringes Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights

      We, the undersigned organisations also condemn the return of 175 refugees to Turkey and the arbitrary detention of these persons by the “Turkish Cypriot administration”. These acts also violate the 1951 Refugee Convention and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The detention of minors additionally violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular Articles 9, 10, 22 and 37 on detention of children, the right to reunification with members of the family and the right of every child to be with both parents. States are obliged to provide appropriate care to unaccompanied children. On April 13, UNICEF said that all governments should impose a moratorium on detaining children and urgently release children where alternatives are possible, due to heightened risks of Covid-19 in detention.

      Recommendations

      We call on the “Turkish Cypriot administration” and Turkey to:

      Respect the principle of non-refoulement and international human rights law, including the European Convention on Human Rights, by stopping the forced return of refugees and asylum seekers to Turkey and/or Syria;

      We call on the government of the Republic of Cyprus to:

      Abide by EU and international obligations to respect the right to seek asylum and the principle of non-refoulement, and provide assistance to boats in distress at sea by carrying out search and rescue operations;
      Cooperate with the UN and the “Turkish Cypriot administration” with a view to allowing the asylum seekers access to territory under control of the government of the Republic of Cyprus to apply for asylum and reunify with their families;
      Terminate the suspension of access to asylum by those arriving by sea to the territory of the Republic of Cyprus in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

      https://euromedrights.org/publication/syrian-refugees-in-cyprus-pushed-back-to-turkey

  • La galassia offshore dei trader ticinesi. Il caso Duferco

    La catena societaria del gruppo Duferco, la più importante azienda di commercio di materie prime di Lugano di Federico Franchini

    È considerato il più importante commerciante d’acciaio del mondo e l’unica multinazionale con sede in Ticino. È la Duferco di Lugano, capostipite e fiore all’occhiello della piazza di trading del Ceresio. Nonostante la sua importanza di lei si sa poco o nulla. Chi la controlla? Quali sono i suoi utili? Attraverso documenti ufficiali area ha ricostruito la sua struttura societaria. Quello che emerge è una galassia complessa che si dirama in diversi paradisi fiscali.

    Rue Guillaume Schneider 6, Lussemburgo. Per ricostruire la catena societaria di Duferco occorre partire da qui. Se il Ticino è il centro operativo delle diverse società legate a questo gruppo, il cuore societario è nel Granducato. È qui, dove si sono trasferite da Guernsey nel 2010, che hanno sede le case madri di quelle che di fatto sono le due Duferco: la Duferco Participations Holding (Dph), legata alla storica proprietà italiana, e la Duferco International Trading Holding (Dith), oggi in mani cinesi. Queste due holding, benché legate tra loro da vincoli storici e di proprietà, vanno considerate come due multinazionali a sé.

    La Duferco del Dragone
    È il 2014 quando il colosso pubblico cinese Hesteel Group acquisisce la maggioranza della Duferco di #Lugano. In realtà, il controllo arriva a monte: Hesteel, tramite una controllata di Singapore, acquisisce la maggioranza della Dith, la società madre delle attività di trading. L’alleanza è tra titani: il secondo produttore d’acciaio del mondo si unisce al principale commerciante di prodotti siderurgici del pianeta. Gli ormai ex azionisti di maggioranza, il fondatore #BrunoBolfo e suo nipote #AntonioGozzi perdono il controllo sulla Dith, ma attraverso l’altra #Duferco, la Dph, mantengono un’importante quota di minoranza nella holding che ora detiene i diritti esclusivi per vendere l’acciaio cinese.

    Dopo Hesteel (61%) e Dph (27%), il terzo azionista di Dith è la Big Brown Dog Holding (12%) di Hong Kong, controllata dal Ceo Matthew De Morgan e nella quale, fino a poco fa, mantenevano qualche briciola gli ucraini dell’Unione Industriale del Donbass (Isd). Prima dell’arrivo di Hesteel, infatti, Bolfo & Co. avevano stretto un accordo strategico con l’Isd che, tramite la cipriota Steelhold, aveva acquisito quote di minoranza della Dith. Oggi, gli oligarchi dell’est sono ormai usciti di scena lasciando spazio ai nuovi padroni dell’acciaio, i dragoni cinesi della provincia di Hebei.

    Il gruppo ha mantenuto la sede operativa in Ticino, dove sono attive sette società tra cui la capostipite della piazza luganese: la Duferco Sa. La Dith è attiva soprattutto nel commercio di acciaio (ma non solo) e dispone di alcune unità produttive come una fabbrica in Macedonia, controllata tramite filiali a Cipro e nel Liechtenstein. La diminuzione della domanda di acciaio cinese e la crisi dei dazi sta pesando sulle performance del gruppo: dopo essere diminuiti del 20% nel 2018, gli utili di Dith sono scesi di un altro 57% nel 2019, issandosi a 26 milioni di dollari.

    Dxt: il gigante sconosciuto
    Ogni anno, Handelszeitung pubblica la lista delle più importanti società elvetiche per cifra d’affari. Nel 2019, per arrivare al Ticino occorreva scendere alla 32esima posizione: qui si trova la Dxt Commodities. Poco nota al grande pubblico, questa azienda è specializzata nel trading d’idrocarburi ed energia elettrica. Dxt è stata fondata nel 1999 dai top manager di Duferco, in collaborazione con alcuni fiduciari di Lugano. Gli stessi, per intenderci, che hanno ideato la tanto discussa ingegneria fiscale della Gucci. Anche per il trading l’asse è sempre quello: Lugano-Lussemburgo. La Dxt è controllata al 95% dalla Dxt International, sede nel Granducato. Una società che ha realizzato 26 milioni di euro di utili nel 2018, grazie soprattutto alla controllata ticinese. La Dxt International è detenuta al 50% da due altre società: la Spelugues Investments, basata nel Delaware e posseduta dal Ceo Benedict Sciortino; e la Dph, la Duferco “italiana”. Oltre alla Dxt, quest’ultima detiene in Ticino, sempre per il tramite di una lussemburghese, anche la metà del gruppo di commercio marittimo Nova Marine.

    Scatole cinesi
    Ma chi controlla la Dph? Il primo scalino a ritroso porta alla Btb Investments, una società che la detiene al 100%. A questo punto l’organigramma si biforca in due rami. Uno va verso altre due entità – la Ultima Holding a sua volta controllata dalla Lagrev Investments – che sembrano portare al manager Antonio Gozzi. L’altro ramo, leggermente maggioritario, conduce alla Bb Holding Investments che, come le altre lussemburghesi citate, ha sede al numero 6 di Rue Guillaume Schneider. La Bb Holding fa capo al vecchio patron, quel Bruno Bolfo che, ancora una volta, sembra avere azzeccato tutte le sue mosse: nel 2019, l’utile netto della sua holding è aumentato del 66% raggiungendo gli 85 milioni di dollari. La Duferco italiana, insomma, sembra rendere di più rispetto a quella cinese. Per mettere al sicuro il suo tesoro milionario, però, Bruno Bolfo ha pensato a uno scalino in più: la Bb Holding è infatti detenuta al 100% da La Sesta Trust, un fondo fiduciario basato nel Liechtenstein. Ultima fermata di una galassia decisamente offshore.

    Mister acciaio e gli amici luganesi

    È l’11 agosto del 1982 quando, presso lo studio del notaio Filippo Solari di Lugano, viene costituita la Duferco Sa. Il gruppo era stato creato qualche anno prima in Brasile dal ligure Bruno Bolfo, un manager con esperienze nell’acciaio in Italia, Stati Uniti e Sudamerica.

    In Ticino, al momento della creazione della Duferco, Bolfo non c’è. A comparire di fronte al notaio sono due figure note del sottobosco finanziario e societario luganese: Elio Borradori, padre dell’attuale sindaco Marco, che diventerà noto per essere stato l’amministratore dei dittatori Saddam Hussein e Ferdinando Marcos, e il suo socio Josef Kraft. Al momento della sua creazione, la maggioranza delle azioni della Duferco saranno detenute da una sconosciuta società del Liechtenstein, la Forward Investment, amministrata dallo stesso Kraft.

    Quando, un anno dopo, viene creata in Lussemburgo la prima Duferco Holding, lo schema si ripete: il controllo è affidato alla Laconfida di Vaduz, la società figlia dello studio legale Borradori e da cui sono transitati molti dei segreti finanziari, più o meno occulti, legati al sottobosco fiduciario luganese. Nel 1990, quando la Duferco decide d’insediare la sua casa madre a Guernsey, la Duferco Holding viene liquidata nel Granducato. Ad occuparsi della liquidazione sono Josef Kraft e Jean-Louis Hurst, suo successore a Laconfida ed ex dirigente del gruppo Ocra, la struttura creata da Tito Tettamanti per la gestione della contabilità parallela dei potentati di mezzo mondo. Hurst entrerà di lì a poco anche nella Duferco di Lugano, nel frattempo diventata sede operativa di quello che si sta profilando come il più grande commerciante di acciaio del pianeta.

    Una società che negli anni ’90 si lancia alla conquista del selvaggio Est in preda al caos delle privatizzazioni del settore siderurgico. In quegli anni, oltre a stringere alleanze con gli oligarchi russi e ucraini, Duferco consolida la propria struttura societaria in Ticino. Per farlo, Bruno Bolfo fa affidamento ad un gruppo di rampanti fiduciari ed esperti fiscali. Nel 1996, infatti, nel Cda di Duferco c’entrano Donato Cortesi e Adelio Lardi, gli ideatori dell’ingegneria fiscale dei giganti della moda che in quegli anni inizieranno a insediarsi in Ticino.

    Nel 1999, Lardi e Cortesi, assieme al già citato Hurst e ai top manager di Duferco, si faranno promotori della nascita di Dufenergy, la società che diventerà Dxt Commodities. Un nome poco noto, ma che oggi è la più importante azienda ticinese per cifra d’affari. Una società che, come abbiamo visto nell’articolo sopra, è controllata di fatto al 50% da una società del Delaware, al 25% da una lussemburghese e al 25% da un trust del Lichtenstein, cassaforte dei tesori di Bruno Bolfo. Insomma, dall’inizio alla fine, i segreti di Duferco portano sempre a Vaduz.

    https://www.areaonline.ch/La-galassia-offshore-dei-trader-ticinesi-Il-caso-Duferco-08bb2900


    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETx22_HWoAAI-TT?format=jpg&name=large

    #matière_première #offshore #acier @cdb_77 #suisse #tessin

  • Forages illégaux à Chypre : l’Union européenne va-t-elle sanctionner la Turquie ?
    https://www.latribune.fr/economie/international/forages-illegaux-a-chypre-l-union-europeenne-va-t-elle-sanctionner-la-turq

    L’Union européenne a mis en garde la Turquie contre tout forage illégal d’hydrocarbures en Méditerranée orientale, notamment dans les eaux de Chypre.

    L’Union européenne a mis en garde la Turquie contre tout forage illégal d’hydrocarbures en Méditerranée orientale, notamment dans les eaux de Chypre, avant l’ouverture de la conférence internationale de Berlin pour tenter de pacifier la Libye. Le ministère turc des Affaires étrangères a pourtant annoncé dimanche l’arrivée d’un bateau, le Yavuz, au sud de l’île pour y mener des activités de forage. "Tous les membres de la communauté internationale doivent s’abstenir de toute action susceptible de porter atteinte à la stabilité et à la sécurité régionales", a rappelé le porte-parole du chef de la diplomatie européenne Josep Borrell dans un communiqué diffusé samedi. « L’intention de la Turquie de lancer de nouvelles activités d’exploration et de forage dans l’ensemble de la région va malheureusement dans le sens opposé », a-t-il déploré.

    L’UE s’est mise en mesure de prendre des sanctions ciblées contre « les personnes ou les entités qui sont responsables d’activités de forage non autorisées d’hydrocarbures en Méditerranée orientale ou qui sont impliquées dans ces activités ». Une liste est en préparation et pourrait être discutée au cours de la réunion des ministres des Affaires étrangères de l’UE lundi à Bruxelles. Les sanctions consisteront en une interdiction de pénétrer sur le territoire de l’UE et un gel des avoirs. De plus, il sera interdit de prêter des fonds aux personnes et aux entités inscrites sur la liste. De son côté, Chypre a accusé dimanche la Turquie de « se transformer en Etat pirate en Méditerranée orientale », selon un communiqué de la présidence. « La Turquie persiste en suivant la voie de l’illégalité (au regard du droit) internationale », selon le texte.

    Le président turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan, qui participe à la conférence de Berlin, a rejeté les « ultimatums » de l’Union européenne. Il a rappelé que la Turquie abritait quelque quatre millions de réfugiés, en majorité syriens, et qu’elle pourrait leur ouvrir les portes vers l’Europe. L’implication turque dans le conflit en Libye est dictée par des facteurs géopolitiques et par des motivations d’ordre économique. Ainsi, des gisements d’hydrocarbures en Méditerranée orientale aiguisent l’appétit de la Turquie mais aussi celui d’autres pays riverains comme la Grèce, l’Egypte, Chypre et Israël.

    • İsrail’e Yavuz’la mesaj
      https://www.yenisafak.com/gundem/israile-yavuzla-mesaj-3522446


      Bölge ile ilgili harita
      (carte de la région)

      Doğu Akdeniz’de, Yunanistan ve Mısır’la birlikte hareket eden İsrail’e, Türkiye’den Kıbrıs’ın güneyinde net mesaj geldi. Kıbrıs adası çevresinde arama ve sondaj faaliyetlerine devam eden Türkiye, Yavuz sondaj gemisinin Ada’nın güneyindeki ‘G’ ruhsat sahasına gönderdi. Konuya ilişkin Dışişleri Bakanlığı Sözcüsü Hami Aksoy, “Yavuz sondaj gemimiz, geçtiğimiz cuma günü KKTC hükümetinin 2011 yılında Türkiye Petrolleri’ne verdiği ruhsatlar çerçevesinde, üçüncü sondaj faaliyetini gerçekleştirmek üzere Ada’nın güneyindeki ‘G’ ruhsat sahasına intikal etmiştir” dedi. İntikalin, Yunanistan, Güney Kıbrıs ve İsrail arasında 2 Ocak’ta imzalanan EastMed Boru Hattı projesinden ve Kahire’de toplanan Doğu Akdeniz Gaz Forumu kuruluş bildirgesinin imzalanmasından hemen sonra gelmesi dikkat çekti. Her iki inisiyatifin başını da İsrail’in çektiği biliniyor. Yavuz hamlesi, Türkiye’nin İsrail’e karşı kararlılık gösterisi olarak değerlendirildi.

      KKTC RUHSAT SAHASI
      Dışişleri Bakanlığı Sözcüsü Aksoy Yavuz’un ‘G” ruhsat sahasına intikale ilişkin, “Yavuz sondaj gemimiz, geçtiğimiz cuma günü KKTC hükümetinin 2011 yılında Türkiye Petrolleri’ne verdiği ruhsatlar çerçevesinde, üçüncü sondaj faaliyetini gerçekleştirmek üzere Ada’nın güneyindeki ‘G’ ruhsat sahasına intikal etmiştir. Bu sahada Ada’nın ortak sahibi olarak Kıbrıs Türklerinin de en az Kıbrıs Rumları kadar hakları vardır. Burada petrol ve doğal gaz bulunması halinde iki taraf da gelirleri birlikte paylaşacaktır” ifadelerini kullandı.

      LAF OLSUN DİYE VERMEDİK
      KKTC Başbakan Yardımcısı ve Dışişleri Bakanı Kudret Özersay, Yavuz’un ‘G’ bölgesine intikaline ilişkin KKTC’nin Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı’na (TPAO) verdiği tüm lisans alanlarında kazı yapılacağını belirterek “Bu lisansları laf olsun diye vermedik.” dedi. KKTC’nin bu adımı atacağını aylar öncesinden duyurduğunu anımsatan Özersay, Doğu Akdeniz’de en erken zamanda doğal gaz konusunda ilgili bütün tarafların iş birliği yapmasının kaçınılmaz olduğunu söyledi.

      LEVİATHAN VE TAMAR’A SINIR KOMŞUSU
      Yavuz sondaj gemisinin intikal ettiği ‘G’ bölgesi, Kıbrıs adasının güneydoğusunda bulunuyor ve İsrail’in Doğu Akdeniz’deki iki önemli doğal gaz sahası, Leviathan ve Tamar’ın bulunduğu deniz alanına sınırdaş konumda yer alıyor. Yavuz’un bölgeye gönderilmesi, Türkiye’yi, 2020 yılı askeri istihbarat raporunda “tehdit” listesine alan ve EastMed boru hattı projesinde ısrarcı olan İsrail yönetimine bir cevap niteliği taşıyor.

      KORSAN GEMİ KOVALANDI
      Aralık ayında İsrail’in Kanal 13 adlı televizyonu haberinde Türk donanmasının Doğu Akdeniz’de, Kıbrıs adası açıklarında korsan arama çalışması yapmak isteyen bir İsrail gemisini engellediğini belirtmişti. Kanal 13 muhabiri Barak Ravid Twitter hesabından paylaştığı mesajda, iki hafta önce ortak bir proje üzerinde çalışan İsrailli ve Güney Kıbrıslı araştırmacıları taşıyan İsrail’e ait “Bat Galim” isimli araştırma gemisinin, Türk Deniz Kuvvetlerine ait bir gemi tarafından Doğu Akdeniz’den çıkarıldığını öne sürmüş ve adını açıklamadığı İsrailli bir yetkiliye dayandırdığı mesajında, Türk Deniz Kuvvetlerine ait geminin Bat Galim’e telsiz yoluyla ulaşarak bölgeden ayrılması emrini verdiğini iddia etmişti. İsrail gemisinin kovalandığı bölgenin Yavuz’un intikal ettiği ‘G’ alanı olduğu iddialar arasındaydı.

      AB’ye ders gibi cevap
      Öte yandan Türk Dışişleri Bakanlığı, Avrupa Birliği’nin Yavuz gemisinin Kıbrıs adasının güneyine intikalini hedef alan açıklamasına da sert tepki gösterdi. Dışişleri Bakanlığı Sözcüsü Hami Aksoy, Yavuz sondaj gemisinin KKTC ruhsat sahalarındaki üçüncü sondaj faaliyetine ilişkin AB açıklamasına, Kıbrıs Türk makamlarının hidrokarbon kaynaklarının ve gelirlerinin hakça paylaşımına yönelik 13 Temmuz 2019 tarihinde yaptığı önerinin halen geçerli ve çözüm için önemli bir fırsat olduğunu belirtti. Aksoy, “AB, ülkemizin ve Kıbrıs Türklerinin Doğu Akdeniz’deki haklarının gasp edilmesine 2003’ten beri sessiz kalmıştır. Yaptığı hiçbir açıklamada Kıbrıs Türklerine değinmemiş, Kıbrıs Türklerinin varlığını ve haklarını yok saymıştır. AB öncelikle birlik dayanışması kisvesiyle bu gerçeklikten uzak, ön yargılı, çifte standartlı politikalarını sona erdirmelidir. Kıbrıs Türklerinin Ada’nın doğal kaynakları üzerindeki hakları garanti altına alınıncaya ve 13 Temmuz 2019 önerisi çerçevesinde bir işbirliği mekanizması kurulana değin Ada’nın güneyinde de Kıbrıs Türklerinin haklarını korumaya devam edeceğimizden kimse şüphe duymamalıdır” değerlendirmesini yaptı.

    • Yavuz 8. bölgeye geçti: «Türkler burnumuzun dibini kazıyor» - Dünya Haberleri
      https://www.cnnturk.com/dunya/yavuz-8-bolgeye-gecti-turkler-burnumuzun-dibini-kaziyor

      Yavuz gemisi, Akdeniz’de Kıbrıslı Rumların parselleyip kiraladığı 8 numaralı bölgede sondaja başlıyor. Rum yönetimi, “Türkler burnumuzun dibini kazıyorlar” diye telaşlandı.

      Kıbrıs adasının batısında çalışmalarını tamamlayan Yavuz sondaj gemisi, Kıbrıslı Rumların 13 parsele ayırarak İtalyan ENI ve Fransız Total ortaklığına kiraladığı 8 numaralı parselle kesişen bölgede kazı yapacak. Yavuz’un Rumların kiraladığı parselde çalışma başlatması Rum yönetiminin, “Türkiye el koyuyor, burnumuzun dibini kazacaklar” paniğine yol açtı. Yavuz, Ada’nın güneyinde KKTC’nin verdiği ruhsat çerçevesinde çalışma yürütecek.

      Enerji Bakanı Fatih Dönmez’in geçen hafta ilan ettiği Yavuz’un yeni görev yeri “Lefkoşa-1” parselinin ‘neresi’ olduğu Rumların paniğiyle ortaya çıktı. Türk tarafının “Lefkoşa-1” adı verdiği parsel, Rumların adanın güneyini 13 parsele ayırdığı bölgenin tam orta yerinde yer alan ve İtalyan ENI ve Fransız Total’in bu yıl sondaj yapmayı planladığı 8 numaralı parsel ile üst üste geliyor. Rumların tek yanlı parsellemesine tepki olarak KKTC’nin de parsellediği ve ‘G’ bölgesinde yer alan Lefkoşa -1 parseli, Limasol kentinin yaklaşık 180 kilometre güneyinde yer alıyor. KKTC’nin parseli, Rumların 8 numaralı parselinin yaklaşık 3’te 2’si ile kesişiyor. Yavuz, 24 Mayıs’a kadar sondaj yapacak.

      AKSOY: 8 NUMARADA
      Dışişleri Bakanlığı Sözcüsü Hami Aksoy da AB’nin “Türkiye Yavuz’u doğu Akdeniz’de yeni bir göreve gönderdi” açıklamasına yanıt verirken Yavuz’un cuma günü üçüncü sondaj faaliyeti için 8 numara ruhsat sahasına intikal ettiğini belirtti. Bu sahada Kıbrıs Türklerinin de en az Kıbrıs Rumları kadar hakkı olduğunu vurgulayan Aksoy, petrol ve doğalgaz bulunursa iki tarafın geliri paylaşacağını vurguladı.

  • Irregular migration into EU at lowest level since 2013

    The number of irregular border crossings detected on the European Union’s external borders last year fell to the lowest level since 2013 due to a drop in the number of people reaching European shores via the Central and Western Mediterranean routes.

    Preliminary 2019 data collected by Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, showed a 6% fall in illegal border crossings along the EU’s external borders to just over 139 000. This is 92% below the record number set in 2015.

    The number of irregular migrants crossing the Central Mediterranean fell roughly 41% to around 14 000. Nationals of Tunisia and Sudan accounted for the largest share of detections on this route.

    The total number of irregular migrants detected in the Western Mediterranean dropped approximately 58% to around 24 000, with Moroccans and Algerians making up the largest percentage.

    Eeastern Mediterranean and Western Balkans

    Despite the general downward trend, the Eastern Mediterranean saw growing migratory pressure starting in the spring. It peaked in September and then started falling in accordance with the seasonal trend. In all of 2019, there were more than 82 000 irregular migrants detected on this route, roughly 46% more than in the previous year.

    In the second half of 2019, irregular arrivals in the region were at the highest since the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement in March 2016, although still well below the figures recorded in 2015 and early 2016 with the situation before the Statement.

    Some persons transferred from the Greek islands to the mainland appear to have continued on the Western Balkan migratory route. There has been an increase in detections on the Greek-Albanian border after the start of the Frontex joint operation in May. In the second half of the year, a significant number of detections was reported on the EU borders with Serbia.

    In total, around 14 000 irregular crossings were detected at the EU’s borders on the Western Balkan route last year – more than double the 2018 figure.

    On the Eastern Mediterranean route and the related Western Balkan route, nationals of Afghanistan and Syria accounted for over half of all registered irregular arrivals.

    Top nationality

    Overall, Afghans were the main nationality of newly arrived irregular migrants in 2019, representing almost a quarter of all arrivals. The number of Afghan migrants was nearly three times (+167%) the figure from the previous year. Roughly four out of five were registered on the Eastern Mediterranean route, while nearly all the rest on the Western Balkan route.

    The most recent available data also suggest a higher percentage of women among the newly arrived migrants in 2019. In the first ten months of last year, around 23% of migrants were women compared with 19% in 2018. EU countries counted approximately 14 600 migrant children younger than 14 in the January-October period, almost one thousand more than in all of 2018.

    https://frontex.europa.eu/media-centre/news-release/flash-report-irregular-migration-into-eu-at-lowest-level-since-2013-n

    ......

    Et comme dit Catherine Teule via la mailing-list Migreurop, qui a signalé cette info :

    Bravo Frontex !!!! ( et ses partenaires des pays tiers).
    Enfin, pas tout à fait puisque certaines « routes » ont enregistré des augmentations de flux à la fin de l’année 2019...

    #statistiques #chiffres #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Europe #2019 #frontières_extérieures #Frontex #Méditerranée #Balkans #route_des_Balkans #réfugiés_afghans

    • Parallèlement...
      Migrants : l’Europe va doubler ses opérations d’aide en matière d’asile

      Le bureau européen d’appui en matière d’asile « va voir ses déploiements opérationnels doubler en 2020 » pour atteindre 2000 personnes sur le terrain.

      L’agence européenne de l’asile a annoncé ce mardi le doublement de ses opérations en 2020, en particulier pour renforcer sa présence en #Grèce, à #Chypre et à #Malte, où l’afflux de migrants a explosé en 2019.

      Le #bureau_européen_d'appui_en_matière_d'asile (#EASO) « va voir ses déploiements opérationnels doubler en 2020 » pour atteindre 2000 personnes sur le terrain, fruit d’un #accord signé en décembre avec ces pays ainsi que l’#Italie, a souligné l’agence dans un communiqué.

      « Chypre, la Grèce et Malte verront un doublement du #personnel_EASO tandis que les déploiements en Italie seront réduits à la lumière des changements de besoins de la part des autorités » de ce pays où, à l’inverse, les arrivées par la Méditerranée ont été divisées par deux entre 2018 et 2019.

      Très loin des flux migratoires au plus fort de la crise en 2015, 110 669 migrants et réfugiés ont rallié l’Europe après avoir traversé la mer en 2019 selon les chiffres publiés par l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM) de l’ONU. Soit dix fois moins que le million de personnes arrivées en 2015.

      L’an dernier, la Grèce a accueilli 62 445 de ces exilés, contre 32 742 l’année précédente. Le petit État insulaire de Malte a vu débarquer 3405 personnes, soit deux fois plus que les 1445 de 2018, tandis que 7647 migrants sont arrivés à Chypre (4307 en 2018).

      Avec quelque 550 agents en Grèce, EASO prévoit donc « trois fois plus d’assistants sociaux » et une aide plus ciblée « pour aider à la réception dans les #hotspots » comme celui de #Lesbos, où plus de 37 000 personnes s’entassent dans des conditions souvent indignes. À Chypre, les 120 personnels européens auront surtout pour mission d’aider les autorités à enregistrer et traiter les demandes d’asile.

      « Le corridor le plus meurtrier »

      La réduction du soutien européen en Italie s’explique par la chute des arrivées dans ce pays (11 471 en 2019, 23 370 en 2018, 181 000 en 2016) qui avait un temps fermé ses ports aux bateaux secourant les migrants en mer en 2019.

      Cette route de Méditerranée centrale entre l’Afrique du Nord et l’Italie « reste le corridor le plus meurtrier », a encore précisé l’OIM, qui a recensé 1283 décès connus en Méditerranée (centrale, orientale et occidentale) l’an dernier, contre près de 2.300 l’année précédente. « Comme pour Malte, EASO restera fortement impliqué dans (le processus de) #débarquement ad hoc » des bateaux portant secours aux migrants sur cette route, a ajouté le bureau européen.

      https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/europe/migrants-l-europe-va-doubler-ses-operations-d-aide-en-matiere-d-asile_21136

  • #Julie_BINDEL : « Pourquoi une femme oserait-elle signaler un viol après ce qui est arrivé à ma fille ? »
    https://tradfem.wordpress.com/2020/01/07/%e2%80%89pourquoi-une-femme-oserait-elle-signaler-un-viol-apres-c

    Le mois dernier, je me suis rendue à Chypre pour rencontrer l’adolescente britannique condamnée pour avoir fait de fausses allégations de viol.

    Lundi dernier, un tribunal local a déclaré cette jeune fille de 19 ans coupable de « méfait public » pour avoir apparemment inventé de toutes pièces l’allégation de son viol par 12 hommes israéliens alors qu’elle travaillait à Ayia Napa. Aujourd’hui, elle a été condamnée à quatre mois de prison avec sursis et serait sur le chemin du retour.

    Son épreuve a suscité l’indignation en Grande-Bretagne, le ministère des Affaires étrangères se disant « sérieusement préoccupé quant aux garanties d’un procès équitable dans cette affaire profondément pénible » où, selon les avocats de la jeune femme, des preuves médico-légales cruciales ont été soit non recueillies soit inexplicablement jugées irrecevables par le tribunal.

    Lorsque je les rencontre, l’adolescente et sa mère vivent dans un appartement loué dans un village de vacances qui, hors saison, ressemble à une ville fantôme. Les deux sont évidemment très proches et la mère me dit fièrement que sa fille est déterminée à se battre pour obtenir justice.

    Traduction : #Tradfem
    Version originale : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/mother-ayia-napa-teen-would-woman-dare-report-rape-has-happened
    #justice_patriarcale #viol #violences_masculines #déni_de_justice #Ayia_Napa #Chypre

  • The Role of EASO Operations in National Asylum Systems: ECRE Report

    In a comparative report published today, ECRE analyses the operations of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) involving deployment of experts in the asylum procedures of Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta.

    The Agency currently has ongoing operations and over 900 staff members present in the four countries. The aims of the operations are agreed in Operating Plans with the respective Member States.

    The report gives an overview of the different areas of the asylum procedure in which the Agency supports Member State authorities, namely the registration of asylum applications, the implementation of the Dublin Regulation, the examination of asylum applications at first instance, and appeals. It also provides observations on the effectiveness of EASO operations in meeting their objectives and the impact of the Agency’s presence on the efficiency and quality of asylum procedures in the host Member States, particularly as regards the enhancement of staff capacity, the quality of decisions and the contribution to compliance with the EU asylum acquis.

    The report follows a series of fact-finding missions in Cyprus, Italy, Greece and Malta in 2018 and 2019, discussions with authorities and relevant stakeholders, as well as analysis of a small sample of decisions in selected countries.

    https://www.ecre.org/the-role-of-easo-operations-in-national-asylum-systems-ecre-report
    #EASO #Italie #Chypre #Malte #Grèce #asile #migrations #réfugiés #procédure_d'asile

    ping @isskein

  • Council of Ministers amendments on the green line code in violation of the EC Regulation

    On 27.11.2019, the Council of Ministers decided, without any consultation with either the stakeholders concerned in Cyprus or with the European Union/ Commission, to proceed to the amendment of the Code for the implementation of the Regulation of the European Council (866/2004/ΕC) on the Green Line. According to this decision:

    All people passing through the line (including Cypriot citizens, hitherto not checked) will be checked.
    Unaccompanied minors not escorted by parents will not be allowed to cross unless they have written authorisation by their parents.
    No third-country nationals (TCN) with temporary residence permit, except family members of Cypriot or other European citizens, and with long-term residence permit, will be allowed to pass through the line.
    The passage of people will be permitted for humanitarian grounds, medical reasons, etc
    In addition, the Council of Ministers has decided to submit bills to the House of Representatives for imposing administrative fines (in monetary terms) to people using ports and airports in the areas not under the control of the government, without clarifying as to whether these fines will be imposed on everyone or only on TCN.

    KISA is of the opinion that the government should have informed both Cypriot society as well as the EC for the proposed amendments to the Code for the implementation of the green line Regulation. It is not coincidental that the EC has already expressed the need for its approval of any amendments.

    KISA believes that the decision to restrict and/or prohibit the crossing of legally residing migrants through the green line constitutes prohibited discrimination and is not permitted by the Council Regulation, which renders it a direct violation of the Regulation itself.

    From a legal point of view, the government does have the right to impose universal checks of identity verification of persons passing through the line. However, as it has decided to apply the Regulation strictly 15 years later, it should do so after the setting up of the necessary infrastructe and required staff increases at the checkpoints so as to ensure people’s smooth movement. The immediate implementation of the above checks, without all the above, constitutes disproportionate restrictions and obstacles to the free movement of people through the line.

    KISA also condemns the government’s attempt to connect, by using misleading and populist rhetoric, the amendments with the management of the rising number of asylum applications, irregular migration and security for domestic audience and impressing the public as, according to point 2 (d) of the decision, «third-country nationals … are not permitted to pass through the line … unless they apply for asylum». The proposed measures that the government has connected with the increasing refugee flows to Cyprus, due to the continuing wars in the area, cannot objectively speaking bring about the objectives pursued by the government (reduction of the refugee flows), as no one can restrict the right to asylum, which is a fundamental right according to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

    Instead of the government asking for EU’s assistance and support to enable it to meet the severe pressures on the asylum system and the reception of asylum seekers in Cyprus, it will waste European and national resources on the green line checks and undue hassle of legally residing migrants as well as Cypriots at the checkpoints.

    KISA is of the opinion that the new policy entails serious risks to the Cyprus question as, on the one hand, it hinders communication and contact between the areas controlled and not under the control of the government and, on the other, it turns the green line into a hard border, which leads to deepening the division of our country, when the objective of the Regulation is to facilitate free movement of people and cooperation between the two communities.

    Finally, KISA points out that the inclusion of the Ministry of Defence in the Ministerial Committee for migration and asylum formalises the securitisation policy on migration and asylum, a policy that has contributed substantially to harbouring racism and the rise of extreme right and neo-nazi organisations in Europe.

    KISA in cooperation with other civil society organisations intends to do all it can, including through reports/complaints to European and international organisations and agencies, against these new measures.

    https://kisa.org.cy/ministerial-amendments-on-the-green-line-code-in-violation-of-the-ec-regula
    #Chypre #green_line #fermeture_des_frontières #frontières #contrôles_systématiques #libre_circulation #Chypre_du_Nord

    –----------------------

    Traduction en français:

    Une décision du conseil des ministres de la République prise de manière unilatérale sans consulter les institutions européennes visant à amender la manière dont les contrôles sont exercées aux points de passage officiels de la Ligne Verte entre la République de Chypre et la république auto-proclamée turque de Chypre Nord selon un règlement européen adopté en 2004 au moment de l’entrée du pays dans l’Union européenne.

    Jusqu’à présent les citoyen.nes européen.nes et les Chypriotes pouvaient franchir la #ligne_verte et exercer leur droit à la libre circulation, ainsi que les ressortissant.es de pays non-membres de l’UE disposant d’un droit au séjour y compris touristes en court séjour) délivré par la République de Chypre.

    Désormais toutes les personnes passant par la ligne (y compris les citoyens chypriotes, jusqu’à présent non contrôlés) seront contrôlées. Le passage de personnes sera autorisé pour des raisons humanitaires, médicales, etc.

    De plus,

    Les #mineurs_non_accompagnés qui ne sont pas escortés par leurs parents ne seront pas autorisés à traverser sans l’autorisation écrite de leurs parents
    Aucun ressortissant de pays tiers (RTC) titulaire d’un permis de séjour temporaire, à l’exception des membres de la famille de Chypriotes ou d’autres citoyens européens, et titulaire d’un permis de séjour de longue durée, ne sera autorisé à franchir cette ligne.

    « En outre, le Conseil des ministres a décidé de soumettre à la Chambre des représentants des projets de loi visant à imposer des amendes administratives (en termes monétaires) aux usagers des ports et aéroports dans les zones non contrôlées par le gouvernement, sans préciser si ces amendes seront imposées à tous ou seulement aux resortissant.es d’Etats non-membres de l’UE ».

    Selon le gouvernement, ces interdictions de passage par la ligne verte n’affecteront pas les demandeurs d’asile ainsi que le rapporte cet article du Cyprus Mail. Le parti communiste AKEL a dénoncé la mise en place d’une frontière dure (hard border).

    KISA souligne que, juridiquement, de tels contrôles systématiques et sans discrimination aucune sont légaux. L’ONG poursuit en critiquant l’absence d’infrastructure et de personnel pour ce faire, alors que le règlement autorise de tels contrôles depuis son édiction, il y a 15 ans de cela, et interprète ceci comme une décision qui restreint la mobilité de manière disproportionnée qui met en danger la liberté de circulation. KISA condamne le lien fait explicitement par le gouvernement entre l’augmentation du nombre de demandeurs d’asile, de personnes migrantes en situation irrégulière, de préoccupations sécuritaires à Chypre et la nécessité de cette décision. L’association constate que demander du soutien à l’UE pour mieux accueillir ces personnes auraient été plus judicieux que de renforcer des contrôles sur la ligne verte, une démarche coûteuse, populiste et qui met à mal les efforts de coopération entre les deux communautés de chaque côté de la ligne entamés ces dernières années.

    Pour rappel, les points de passage de la ligne verte ont été ouverts en 2004 au moment de l’entrée de l’île dans l’UE. La République de Chypre n’exerce sa souveraineté que sur une partie de l’île, mais tou.tes les Chypriotes, qu’ils/elles soient Chypriotes turcs ou grecs, sont des citoyen.nes européen.nes.
    Cette décision unilatérale donne un signal peut prometteur aux (énièmes) négociations de paix en vue d’une solution engagées sous l’égide de l’ONU et relancées à Berlin le mois dernier.

    ping @reka

  • Is NSO Group’s infamous Pegasus spyware being traded through the EU ?
    https://www.accessnow.org/is-nso-groups-infamous-pegasus-spyware-being-traded-through-the-eu

    When sophisticated surveillance systems are sold and used effectively without constraint, it puts civil society, free expression, and our democracies in the crosshairs. The brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi remains a grim reminder of the vulnerability of those speaking out for human rights. In the European Union, there are export controls designed to prevent sales of these kinds of systems to certain countries with troubling human rights records. The question is, how well (...)

    #NSO #Pegasus #spyware #exportation #activisme #sécuritaire #hacking #surveillance #journalisme #web (...)

    ##NovalpinaCapital

  • #métaliste autour de la Création de zones frontalières (au lieu de lignes de frontière) en vue de refoulements

    Je viens de lire dans un compte-rendu de réunion qui a eu lieu à Milan en juin 2019, ce commentaire, sur la situation à la #frontière italo-slovène :

    Gianfranco Schiavone :

    «Quello che sicuramente dovrebbe diventare una questione delicata é l’annunciato avvio delle pattuglie italo slovene in frontiera con l’obiettivo dichiarato alla stampa di bloccare gli arrivi. Con riammissione senza formalita’ delle persone irregolari intercettate nella fascia dei 5 km dalla frontiera . Queste sono le dichiarazioni pubbliche di questi giorni»

    Une #zone_frontalière de #5_km dans laquelle ont lieu des #refoulements directs.

    #Italie #Slovénie #frontière_sud-alpine #migrations #réfugiés #asile #frontière_mobile #bande_frontalière #frontières_mobiles #zone_frontalière #zones_frontalières #zone-frontière

    Ceci me rappelle d’autres cas, en Europe et ailleurs, dans lesquels des procédures semblables (la frontière n’est plus une #ligne, mais une #zone) ont été mises en place, j’essaie de les mettre sur ce fil de discussion.
    Si quelqu’un a d’autres cas à signaler, les contributions sont bienvenues...

    ping @reka @simplicissimus @karine4 @isskein

    • A la frontière entre franco-italienne :

      Dans un amendement, l’élu a proposé « une zone limitée aux communes limitrophes ou une bande de 10 kms par rapport à la frontière. » Le gouvernement en a accepté le principe, mais « le délimitera de manière précise par décret pour coller à la réalité du terrain. »

      http://alpesdusud.alpes1.com/news/locales/67705/alpes-du-sud-refus-d-entree-pour-les-migrants-vers-une-evolution-
      #France #Italie #frontière_sud-alpine

    • L’article 10 de la loi renforçant la sécurité intérieure et la lutte contre le terrorisme modifie l’article 78-2 du Code de procédure pénale relatif aux contrôles d’identités. Il permet ainsi des contrôles aux frontières pour une durée de douze heures consécutives (contre six auparavant). Il les élargit « aux abords » de 373 gares et dans un rayon de dix kilomètres des ports et aéroports au nombre des points de passage frontaliers. Bien au-delà des simples frontières de l’Hexagone, c’est une partie importante du territoire français qui est ainsi couvert, dont des villes entières comme Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Marseille, etc.

      source, p.25 : https://www.lacimade.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/La_Cimade_Schengen_Frontieres.pdf
      #France

    • Frontière entre #Italie et #Slovénie :

      This month saw the introduction of joint Slovenian and Italian police patrols on their mutual border, raising concerns about the retrenchment of national boundaries contra the Schengen Agreement. The collaboration between authorities, due to be implemented until the end of September, mobilises four joint operations per week, with respective police forces able to enter 10km into the territory of their neighboring state in order to apprehend migrants. Mixed operations by member states signifies a growing trend towards the securitization of the EU’s internal borders, and in this case a tightening of controls on the departure point from the West Balkan route.

      The patrols aim at stemming the transit of migrants from the western Slovenian regions of #Goriška and #Obalno-kraška, into the eastern region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy. Given the extensive pushback apparatus being employed by Slovenian and Croatian officials, arrival in Italy has often been the first place where persons-in-transit can apply for international protection without the threat of summary removal. However, these developments in cross border patrols highlight a growing effort on the part of the Italian government to prevent people seeking sanctuary on its territory.

      (p.15-16)

      https://www.borderviolence.eu/wp-content/uploads/July-2019-Final-Report.pdf

      –—

      While the exact number of persons arriving via the Slovenian-Italian border is unknown, there has been a sharp rise since April (http://www.regioni.it/dalleregioni/2020/11/09/friuli-venezia-giulia-immigrazione-fedriga-ripensare-politiche-di-controllo-) of people entering Italy from the Balkan route. Not only in Trieste, but also around the province of #Udine, arrivals have increased compared to last year. In Udine, around 100 people (https://www.ansa.it/friuliveneziagiulia/notizie/2020/11/30/migranti-oltre-cento-persone-rintracciate-nelludinese_9fdae48d-8174-4ea1-b221-8) were identified in one day. This has been met with a huge rise in chain pushbacks, initiated by Italian authorities via readmissions to Slovenia. From January to October 2020, 1321 people (https://www.rainews.it/tgr/fvg/articoli/2020/11/fvg-massimiliano-fedriga-migranti-arrivi-emergenza-98da1880-455e-4c59-9dc9-6) have been returned via the informal readmissions agreement , representing a fivefold increase when compared with the statistics from 2019.

      But instead of dealing with this deficit in adherence to international asylum law, in recent months Italian authorities have only sought to adapt border controls to apprehend more people. Border checks are now focusing on trucks, cars and smaller border crossings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu4es3xXVc8&feature=youtu.be

      ), rather than focusing solely on the military patrols of the forested area. This fits into a strategy of heightened control, pioneered by the Governor of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region Massimiliano Fedriga who hopes to deploy more detection equipment at the border. The aim is to choke off any onward transit beyond the first 10km of Italian territory, and therefore apply the fast tracked process of readmission to the maximum number of new arrivals.

      https://seenthis.net/messages/892914

      #10_km

    • Kuster Backs Bill To Reduce 100-Mile Zone for Border Patrol Checkpoints

      Congresswoman Ann McLane Kuster is cosponsoring legislation to reduce border zones from 100 to 25 miles from the border (https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3852?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22border+zone%22%5D%7D&s=1&r=1), within which U.S. Customs and Border Patrol can set up immigration checkpoints.

      Congressman Peter Welch of Vermont is the prime sponsor of the legislation.

      Kuster was stopped at one such immigration checkpoint in June of this year. The checkpoint, on I-93 in Woodstock, around 90 miles from the border, resulted in 29 tickets for alleged immigration violations.

      The violations were for legal visitors who did not have appropriate paperwork on them, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

      According to a map from CityLabs, the entire state of New Hampshire falls within a border zone (which includes coastal borders).

      “I think it has a chilling effect,” says Kuster. “It’s not the free and open America that we know.”

      Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy introduced a similar bill to the Senate.

      https://www.nhpr.org/post/kuster-backs-bill-reduce-100-mile-zone-border-patrol-checkpoints#stream/0
      #USA #Etats-Unis

    • Inside the Massive U.S. ’Border Zone’

      All of Michigan, D.C., and a large chunk of Pennsylvania are part of the area where Border Patrol has expanded search and seizure rights. Here’s what it means to live or travel there.

      https://cdn.citylab.com/media/img/citylab/2018/05/03_Esri_Map/940.png?mod=1548686763

      https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/05/who-lives-in-border-patrols-100-mile-zone-probably-you-mapped/558275
      #cartographie #visualisation
      #100-Mile_Zone

      déjà signalé sur seenthis par @reka en 2018 :
      https://seenthis.net/messages/727225

    • En #Hongrie, les pushbacks, largement pratiqués depuis des années, ont été légalisés en mars 2017 par de nouvelles dispositions permettant aux forces de l’ordre de refouler automatiquement toute personne interpellée sur le territoire hongrois et considérée en situation irrégulière. Ces personnes sont ramenées jusqu’à la clôture et renvoyées de l’autre côté. Si elles manifestent leur volonté de demander l’asile, on leur signifie qu’elles doivent repartir en Serbie et passer par les zones de transit. Pourtant, se trouvant géographiquement et juridiquement en Hongrie (le mur étant situé à 1,5 mètre à l’intérieur du tracé officiel de la frontière), les autorités ont l’obligation de prendre en compte ces demandes d’asile en vertu des conventions européennes et des textes internationaux dont la Hongrie est signataire.

      Tiré du rapport de La Cimade (2018), pp.37-38 :
      https://www.lacimade.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/La_Cimade_Schengen_Frontieres.pdf

    • Le zone di transito e di frontiera – commento dell’ASGI al decreto del Ministero dell’Interno del 5 agosto 2019

      Il 7 settembre 2009 sulla Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 210 (https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2019/09/07/19A05525/sg) è stato pubblicato il decreto del Ministero dell’Interno del 5 agosto 2019 che individua le zone di transito e di frontiera dove potrà trovare applicazione la procedura accelerata per l’esame nel merito delle domande di protezione internazionale e istituisce due nuove sezioni delle Commissioni territoriali , come previsto dall’art. 28 bis co. 1 quater del D.lgs. n. 25/2008, introdotto dal d.l. n. 113/2018.

      Le zone di frontiera o di transito sono individuate in quelle esistenti nelle seguenti province:

      –Trieste e Gorizia;

      –Crotone, Cosenza, Matera, Taranto, Lecce e Brindisi;

      –Caltanissetta, Ragusa, Siracusa, Catania, Messina;

      –Trapani, Agrigento;

      –Città metropolitana di Cagliari e Sud Sardegna.

      Il decreto ministeriale istituisce altresì due nuove sezioni , Matera e Ragusa, le quali operano rispettivamente nella commissione territoriale per il riconoscimento dello status di rifugiato di Bari, per la zona di frontiera di Matera, e nella commissione territoriale di Siracusa, per la zona di frontiera di Ragusa.

      Nel commento qui pubblicato ASGI sottolinea come le nuove disposizioni paiono contrastare con le norme dell’Unione Europea perché si riferiscono in modo assolutamente generico alle “zone di transito o di frontiera individuate in quelle esistenti nelle province” e non ad aree delimitate, quali ad esempio i porti o le aree aeroportuali o altri luoghi coincidenti con frontiere fisiche con Paesi terzi non appartenenti all’Unione europea.

      ASGI evidenzia come “l’applicazione delle procedure accelerate alle domande presentate nelle zone individuate nel decreto ministeriale comporta una restrizione dell’effettivo esercizio dei diritti di cui ogni straniero è titolare allorché manifesta la volontà di presentare la domanda di asilo e una conseguente contrazione del diritto di difesa, in ragione del dimezzamento dei termini di impugnazione e dell’assenza di un effetto sospensivo automatico derivante dalla proposizione del ricorso previsti, in modo differente per le varie ipotesi specifiche, dall’art. 35 bis D. Lgs. 25/08”.

      A tal fine ASGI ricorda che:

      – ai cittadini di Paesi terzi o apolidi tenuti in centri di trattenimento o presenti ai valichi di frontiera, comprese le zone di transito alla frontiere esterne, che desiderino presentare una domanda di protezione internazionale, gli Stati membri devono garantire l’informazione, anche sull’accesso procedura per il riconoscimento della protezione internazionale, adeguati servizi di interpretariato,
      nonché l’effettivo accesso a tali aree alle organizzazioni e alle persone che prestano consulenza e assistenza ai richiedenti asilo (art. 8 Direttiva 2013/32/UE);

      – gli Stati membri devono provvedere affinché l’avvocato o altro consulente legale che assiste o rappresenta un richiedente possa accedere alle aree chiuse, quali i centri di trattenimento e le zone di transito (art. 23 par. 2) e analoga possibilità deve essere garantita all’UNHCR (art. 29, par. 1);

      – ai sensi dell’art. 46 par. 1 il richiedente ha diritto a un ricorso effettivo dinanzi a un giudice anche nel caso in cui la decisione sulla domanda di protezione internazionale venga presa in frontiera o nelle zone di transito.

      E’ evidente, conclude ASGI nel commento al Decreto, che vi sia il rischio che lo straniero espulso o respinto e che abbia presentato domanda di protezione internazionale dopo l’espulsione o il respingimento in una zona di frontiera tra quelle indicate nel nuovo decreto ministeriale si veda esaminata la sua domanda in modo sommario mentre è trattenuto in condizioni e luoghi imprecisati e inaccessibili di fatto a difensori e organizzazioni di tutela dei diritti.

      Occorre invece ribadire che la presentazione della domanda di protezione internazionale in frontiera riguarderà spesso persone rese ulteriormente vulnerabili dalle condizioni traumatiche del viaggio ed alle quali andrà perciò in ogni caso garantito un esame adeguato della domanda di protezione internazionale e l’applicazione delle garanzie e dei diritti previsti a tutela dei richiedenti protezione internazionale dalle disposizioni nazionali e dell’Unione Europea.

      https://www.asgi.it/asilo-e-protezione-internazionale/asilo-zone-transito-frontiera

    • La loi renforçant la lutte contre le terrorisme étend à nouveau les contrôles d’identités frontaliers

      Avant l’entrée en vigueur de la loi du 30 octobre 2017, les #contrôles_frontaliers étaient autorisés dans les espaces publics des #gares, #ports et #aéroports ouverts au trafic international (désignés par un arrêté ministériel) et dans une zone située entre la frontière terrestre et une ligne tracée de 20 kilomètres en deçà. Le législateur avait étendu les zones frontalières, notamment dans les territoires ultra-marins (où la convention de Schengen n’est pourtant pas applicable).

      https://www.editions-legislatives.fr/actualite/la-loi-renforcant-la-lutte-contre-le-terrorisme-etend-a-nouvea
      #France #20_km #20_kilomètres #espace_public #gares_internationales

    • The Grand Chamber Judgment in Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary: Immigration Detention and how the Ground beneath our Feet Continues to Erode

      The ECtHR has been for a long time criticized for its approach to immigration detention that diverts from the generally applicable principles to deprivation of liberty in other contexts. As Cathryn Costello has observed in her article Immigration Detention: The Ground beneath our Feet, a major weakness in the Court’s approach has been the failure to scrutinize the necessity of immigration detention under Article 5(1)(f) of the ECHR. The Grand Chamber judgment in Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary delivered on 21 November 2019 has further eroded the protection extended to asylum-seekers under the Convention to the point that restrictions imposed upon asylum-seekers might not even be qualified as deprivation of liberty worthy of the protection of Article 5. The Grand Chamber overruled on this point the unanimously adopted Chamber judgment that found that the holding of asylum-seekers in the ‘transit zone’ between Hungary and Serbia actually amounts to deprivation of liberty.

      In this blog, I will briefly describe the facts of the case, the findings of the Grand Chamber under Article 3 ECHR that was also invoked by the applicants and then I will focus on the reasoning as to the applicability of Article 5.

      The case concerned two Bangladeshi nationals who transited through Greece, the Republic of Northern Macedonia (as it is now known) and Serbia before reaching Hungary, where they immediately applied for asylum. They found themselves in the transit zone on the land border between Hungary and Serbia, where they were held for 23 days pending the examination of their asylum applications. The applications were rejected on the same day on the ground that the applicants had transited through Serbia that, according to Hungary, was a safe third country. The rejections were confirmed on appeal, an order for their expulsion was issued, the applicants were escorted out of the transit zone and they crossed back into Serbia.

      Procedural Breach of Article 3 ECHR

      The Grand Chamber established that Hungary ‘failed to discharge its procedural obligation under Article 3 of the Convention to assess the risks of treatment contrary to that provision before removing the applicants from Hungary’ to Serbia (para 163). No finding was made on the issue as to whether Hungary was substantively in breach of the right not to be subjected to refoulement given the conditions in Serbia and the deficiencies in the Serbian asylum procedures that might lead to chain refoulement. This omission follows a trend in the Court’s reasoning that can be described as a procedural turn: focus on the quality of the national decision making processes rather than on the substantive accuracy of the decisions taken at national level.[1] This omission, however, had important consequences for the application of Article 5 to the applicants’ case, the most controversial aspect in the Grand Chamber’s reasoning.

      The Chamber’s reasoning under Article 5 ECHR

      On this aspect, the Grand Chamber departed from the Chamber’s conclusion that the applicants were deprived of their liberty. The fundamental question here is whether ‘the stay’ (Hungary used the term ‘accommodation’) of asylum-seekers in the ‘transit zone’ with an exit door open to Serbia, but closed to Hungary, amounts to deprivation of liberty (i.e. detention) in the sense of Article 5 ECHR. Asylum seekers in the transit zone were denied access to the Hungarian territory,[2] but they could leave to Serbia. This creates a complex intertwinement between deprivation of liberty (Article 5(1)(f)) normally understood as not allowing somebody to leave a place, on the one hand, and not allowing somebody to enter a place. Entering a State can be very relevant from the perspective of the obligation upon this State not to refoule, which necessitates a procedure for determining whether there is a risk of refoulement.

      In its judgment from 14 March 2017 the Chamber unanimously answered in positive: by holding them in the transit zone, Hungary deprived the applicants from their liberty, which was in violation of Article 5(1)(f) since this measures had no legal basis in the national law. The Chamber clarified that‘[t]he mere fact that it was possible for them to leave voluntarily returning to Serbia which never consented to their readmission cannot rule out an infringement of the right to liberty.’ (para 55). In this way the Chamber reaffirmed the reasoning in Amuur v France where the Court observed ‘[…] this possibility [to leave voluntary the country] becomes theoretical if no other country offering protection comparable to the protection they expect to find in the country where they are seeking asylum is inclined or prepared to take them in.’ (para 48) It follows that although the transit zone at the French airport was, as France argued, “open to the outside”, the applicants were still considered as having been detained since this ‘outside’ did not offer a level of protection comparable to the one in France.

      The Chamber followed this reasoning from Amuur v France in Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary, which led to the recognition that ‘[…] the applicants could not have left the transit zone in the direction of Serbia without unwanted and grave consequences, that is, without forfeiting their asylum claims and running the risk of refoulement’ (para 55). The Chamber also added that ‘To hold otherwise would void the protection afforded by Article 5 of the Convention by compelling the applicants to choose between liberty and the pursuit of a procedure ultimately aimed to shelter them from the risk of exposure to treatment in breach of Article 3 of the Convention.’ (para 56)

      The ‘practical and realistic’ approach of the Grand Chamber under Article 5 ECHR

      The Grand Chamber in its reasoning broke precisely this linkage between the applicability of Article 5 (the qualification of a treatment as deprivation of liberty) and Article 3 (protection from refoulement). The Grand Chamber performed the following important moves to achieve this. First, it stated that ‘its approach should be practical and realistic, having regard to the present-day conditions and challenges’, which implied that States were not only entitled to control their borders, but also ‘to take measures against foreigners circumventing restrictions on immigration.’ (para 213). With Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary the Court has thus added another nuance to its well-established point of departure in cases dealing with migrants. This point of departure has been that States are entitled, subject to their treaty obligations, to control their borders. The new addition introduced with Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary and also repeated in Z.A. and Others v Russia, a Grand Chamber judgment issued on the same day, concerns States’ right to prevent ‘foreigners circumventing restrictions on immigration’. This addition, however, does not seem appropriate given that the applicants themselves in Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary never circumvented any immigration control restrictions. They applied immediately for asylum.

      This ‘practical and realistic approach’ also implied an endorsement of the representation of the situation as one of ‘crisis’:[3] ‘the Court observes that the Hungarian authorities were in conditions of a mass influx of asylum-seekers and migrants at the border, which necessitated rapidly putting in place measures to deal with what was clearly a crisis situation.’ (para 228) In the same paragraph, the Grand Chamber went on to almost praise Hungary for having processed the applicants’ claims so fast event though it was ‘a crisis’: ‘Despite the ensuring very significant difficulties, the applicants’ asylum claims and their judicial appeals were examined within three weeks and two days.’ It appears as if the Grand Chamber at this stage had already forgotten its findings made earlier in the judgment under Article 3 that the national procedure for examining the applicants’ claims was deficient. This ultimately gave the basis for the Grand Chamber to find a violation of Article 3.

      The distinction based on how asylum-seekers arrive and the type of border they find themselves at

      The second move performed by the Grand Chamber implied the introduction of a distinction between ‘staying at airport transit zones’ (para 214) and at reception centers located on islands (para 216), on the one hand, and a transit zone located on the land border between two Council of Europe Member States (para 219). This meant, as the Court reasoned, that the applicants did not have to take a plane to leave the zone, they could simply walk out of the zone. In other words, it was practically possible for them to do it on their own and they did not need anybody’s help. As the Court continued to reason in para 236, ‘Indeed, unlike the case of Amuur, where the French courts described the applicants’ confinement as an “arbitrary deprivation of liberty”, in the present case the Hungarian authorities were apparently convinced that the applicants could realistically leave in the direction of Serbia [emphasis added].’ This quotation also begs the comment as to why what the national authorities were or were not convinced about actually mattered. In addition, the reference in Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary as to how the national authorities had qualified the situation is also bizarre given that ‘deprivation of liberty’ is an autonomous concept under the Convention. On this point, the two dissenting judges, Judge Bianku and Judge Vućinić criticized the majority by highlighting that ‘the Court has reiterated on many occasions that it does not consider itself bound by the domestic courts’ legal conclusions as to the existence of a deprivation of liberty.’

      Narrowing down the importance of Amuur v France

      The third move performed by the Court is playing down the importance of and narrowing the relevance of Amuur v France. In Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary the Grand Chamber reiterated (para 239) the most significant pronouncement from Amuur: the possibility to leave the zone ‘becomes theoretical if no other country offering protection comparable to the protection they expect to find in the country where they are seeking asylum is included to take them in.’ It then noted that this reasoning ‘must be read in close relation to the factual and legal context in that case.’ This meant that in contrast to the situation in Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary, in Amuur the applicants could not leave ‘without authorization to board an airplane and without diplomatic assurance concerning their only possible destination, Syria, a country “not bound by the Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.’ (para 240) On this point Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary can be also distinguished from Z.A. and Others v Russia, where the Grand Chamber observed that ‘[…] unlike in land border transit zones, in this particular case leaving the Sheremetyevo airport transit zone would have required planning, contacting aviation companies, purchasing tickets and possibly applying for a visa depending on the destination.’ (para 154) For the applicants in Ilias and Ahmed ‘it was practically possible […] to walk to the border and cross into Serbia, a country bound by the Geneva Convention.’ (para 241). The Grand Chamber acknowledged that the applicants feared of the deficiencies in the Serbian asylum procedure and the related risk of removal to the Republic of North Macedonia or Greece. (para 242) However, what seems to be crucial is that their fears were not related to ‘direct threat to their life or health’ (para 242). It follows that the possibility to leave for a place will not preclude the qualification of the situation as one of detention, only if this place poses a direct threat to life or health.

      As noted by the two dissenting judges, it did not seem to matter for the majority that the applicants could not enter Serbia lawfully. In this way, the majority’s reasoning under Article 5 appears to endorse a situation where people are just pushed out of the border without some formal procedures with elementary guarantees.

      Read as a whole the Grand Chamber judgment in Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary is inconsistent: it contains two findings that are difficult to square together. The Court concluded that since the applicants would not be exposed to a direct risk in Serbia, they were not detained in Hungary. At the same time, Hungary violated Article 3 of the Convention since it did not conduct a proper assessment of the risks that the applicants could face if they were to return to Serbia.

      Overall weakening of the protection of Article 5 ECHR

      One final comment is due. In Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary, the Grand Chamber summarized the following factors for determining whether ‘confinement of foreigners in airport transit zones and reception centers’ can be defined as deprivation of liberty: ‘i) the applicants’ individual situation and their choices, ii) the applicable legal regime of the respective country and its purpose, iii) the relevant duration, especially in the light of the purpose and the procedural protection enjoyed by applicants pending the events, and iv) the nature and degree of the actual restrictions imposed on or experienced by the applicants.’ (para 217) (see also Z.A. and Others v Russia, para 145) Among these criteria particular attention needs to be directed to the applicable legal regime and the availability of procedural protection. In principle, Article 5, if found applicable, offers certain guarantees (e.g. statutory basis for the deprivation of liberty, access to proceedings for challenging the lawfulness of the detention). The Court seems to have inserted such considerations at the definitional stage of its analysis. For example, in Z.A. and Others v Russia, the Grand Chamber when it examined whether the confinement of the applicants in the airport transit zone amounted to deprivation of liberty, noted that they were left ‘in a legal limbo without any possibility of challenging the measure restricting their liberty’ (para 146). This played a role for the Grand Chamber to conclude that the applicants in Z.A. and Others v Russia were indeed deprived of liberty and Article 5 was thus found applicable. In contrast, the Grand Chamber in Ilias and Ahmed v Hungary observed that certain procedural guarantees applied to the applicants’ case (para 226), which also played a role for the final conclusion that Article 5 was not applicable. In sum, instead of scrutinizing the national legal regime and the access to procedural guarantees as part of the substantive analysis under Article 5, where a single deficiency leads to a finding of a violation (i.e. it is sufficient to find a violation of Article 5 if there is no strictly defined statutory basis for the applicants’ detention), the Court has muddled these criteria together with other factors and made them pertinent for the definitional analysis. This ultimately weakens the roles of these criteria and creates uncertainty.

      [1] See V Stoyanova, ‘How Exception must “Very Exceptional” Be? Non-refoulement, Socio-Economic Deprivation and Paposhvili v Belgium’ (2017) International Journal of Refugee Law 29(4) 580.

      [2] See B Nagy, ‘From Reluctance to Total Denial: Asylum Policy in Hungary 2015-2018’ in V Stoyanova and E Karageorgiou (eds) The New Asylum and Transit Countries in Europe during and in the Aftermath of the 2015/2016 Crisis (Brill 2019) 17.

      [3] Boldizsar Nagy has argued that this representation made by the Hungarian government is a lie. See B Nagy, Restricting access to asylum and contempt of courts: illiberals at work in Hungary, https://eumigrationlawblog.eu/restricting-access-to-asylum-and-contempt-of-courts-illiberals-at

      https://strasbourgobservers.com/2019/12/23/the-grand-chamber-judgment-in-ilias-and-ahmed-v-hungary-immigra
      #justice #CEDH #Hongrie #CourEDH

    • Entre la #Pologne et la #Biélorussie :

      Si cette famille a pu être aidée, c’est aussi parce qu’elle a réussi à dépasser la zone de l’état d’urgence : une bande de 3 km tracée par la Pologne tout du long de sa frontière avec la Biélorussie, formellement interdite d’accès aux organisations comme aux journalistes.
      Le long de la frontière, les migrants se retrouvent donc seuls entre les gardes-frontières polonais et biélorusses. Côté polonais, ils sont ramenés manu militari en Biélorussie… En Biélorussie, ils sont également refoulés : depuis octobre, le pays refuse de laisser entrer les migrants déjà passés côté européen. « La seule chance de sortir de la Pologne, c’est d’entrer en Biélorussie. La seule chance de sortir de la Biélorussie, c’est d’entrer en Pologne. C’est comme un ping-pong », confie Nelson (pseudonyme), un migrant originaire de la République démocratique du Congo qui a contacté notre rédaction.

      https://seenthis.net/messages/948199
      et plus précisément ici :
      https://seenthis.net/messages/948199#message948201

      –-

      Et l’article de Médiapart :
      Entre la Pologne et le Belarus, les migrants abandonnés dans une #zone_de_non-droit
      https://seenthis.net/messages/948199#message948202

    • « À titre de mesures compensatoires à l’entrée en vigueur de la convention de Schengen – qui, du reste, n’était pas encore applicable –, la loi du 10 août 1993 instaure les contrôles dits frontaliers : la police, la gendarmerie et la douane peuvent vérifier l’identité de toute personne, pour s’assurer qu’elle respecte les obligations liées à la détention d’un titre de circulation ou de séjour, dans la zone frontalière et dans les zones publiques des ports, aéroports et gares ouvertes au trafic international. La zone frontalière est une bande de terre, large de 20 km, longeant la frontière terrestre ; les ports, gares ou autres aérogares visés figurent sur une longue liste fixée par un arrêté ministériel. »

      (Ferré 2018 : 16)

      –-

      « Il suffit de passer quelques heures à la gare de Menton pour le constater. Pour les personnes présumées étrangères, la liberté d’aller et de venir dans les espaces placés sous surveillance est restreinte. Elle a encore été réduite avec la loi du 30 octobre 2017 renforçant la sécurité intérieure et la lutte contre le terrorisme qui modifie, une fois de plus, le texte de loi sur les contrôles d’identité en étendant les zones frontalières autour de certains ports et aéroports qui constituent des points de passage frontaliers au sens du code frontières Schengen, soit « tout point de passage autorisé par les autorités compétentes pour le franchissement des frontières extérieures ». Dans ces nouvelles zones, la police pourra procéder à des opérations de contrôle sans avoir besoin de motiver son intervention. La loi de 2017 a également prévu que les contrôles frontaliers puissent s’effectuer « aux abords des gares » et non plus seulement dans les zones publiques de ces lieux. La formulation souffre, c’est peu de le dire, d’un manque de précision qui donne plus de latitude encore aux forces de l’ordre. »

      (Ferré 2018 : 19)

      source : Nathalie Ferré, « La France s’enferme à double tour », Plein Droit, 2018, n°116.

      #20_km #20_kilomètres

    • #Pyrénées, frontière #Espagne-#France, témoignage d’une personne ayant acheté un terrain en zone frontalière :

      « En ce moment, on croise plein de voitures de forces de l’ordre, ce qui est étonnant en plein hiver car il n’y a personne. Il y a aussi des barrages de police réguliers car ils savent que des gens se font prendre sur la route », raconte Camille Rosa, cofondatrice d’une cantine solidaire à Perpignan. « On a acheté avec des copains un petit terrain vers Cerbère. Un jour, des gendarmes sont venus fouiller notre camion alors que mes enfants faisaient la sieste à l’intérieur. J’ai tenté de m’interposer, mais ils m’ont dit que sur la #zone_frontalière, ils avaient une #commission_rogatoire_permanente », poursuit-elle.

      https://seenthis.net/messages/950934

    • #France :

      Le contrôle d’identité « Schengen » permet de vérifier le respect des obligations liées aux titres et documents d’identité et de voyage. Il peut avoir lieu dans une zone située à moins de #20_kilomètres de la frontière terrestre séparant la France d’un pays limitrophe (Allemagne, Belgique, Espagne, Italie, Luxembourg et Suisse). Si le contrôle a lieu sur l’autoroute ou dans un train, la zone s’étend jusqu’au 1er péage ou l’arrêt après les 20 kilomètres. Le contrôle peut être effectué dans un port, un aéroport ou une gare et ses abords accessible au public et ouverte au trafic international. Le contrôle ne peut pas être pratiqué plus de 12 heures consécutives dans un même lieu et ne peut pas être systématique.

      Depuis la loi n° 2017-1510 du 30 octobre 2017 renforçant la sécurité intérieure, des contrôles d’identité peuvent également être effectués dans un rayon de #10_kilomètres autour de certains #ports et #aéroports sur le territoire.

      C’est ce dernier contrôle qui concerne majoritairement les personnes se présentant à la frontière francoitalienne, mais certaines situations suivies par les militants locaux laissent penser que d’autres types de contrôles ont pu servir pour justifier les arrestations de personnes au-delà de la bande des 20 kilomètres ou des zones transfrontalières.

      Rapport de l’Anafé, Persona non grata, 2019 : http://www.anafe.org/spip.php?article520

      –—

      Rapport CNCDH 2018, p.7 :

      « la préfète des Hautes-Alpes a expliqué que la zone permettant de procéder à des refus d’entrée avait été définie par son prédécesseur mais qu’elle ne correspondait pas nécessairement à la bande des 20 kms14. Selon la PAF, les refus d’entrée peuvent être prononcés dès lors que l’étranger est contrôlé sur le territoire des communes de Montgenèvre et Nevache, et donc jusqu’à l’entrée de Briançon. »
      Il convient de rappeler que des contrôles aléatoires, hors du cadre dérogatoire prévu en cas de rétablissement des frontières, peuvent être opérés, conformément à l’article 78-2 du code de procédure pénale, dans une zone comprise entre la frontière terrestre de la France avec les Etats de l’espace et une ligne tracée à 20 kilomètres en deçà, ainsi que dans les zones accessibles au public des ports, aéroports et gares ferroviaires ou routières ouverts au trafic international et désignés par arrêté et aux abords de ces gares. Ces contrôles sont toutefois strictement encadrés, notamment par la jurisprudence de la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne. Les personnes interpellées sur ce fondement peuvent faire l’objet d’une procédure de réadmission. En revanche, lorsque les contrôles aux frontières intérieures sont rétablis, les autorités françaises peuvent refuser l’entrée aux étrangers ne remplissant pas les conditions d’entrée sur le territoire aux frontières terrestres et leur notifier une décision de non-admission. Ces étrangers sont considérés comme n’étant pas entrés sur le territoire

      https://www.cncdh.fr/fr/publications/avis-sur-la-situation-des-migrants-la-frontiere-franco-italienne

      #10_km #20_km

    • Sur le #Bibby_Stockholm barge at #Portland Port :

      “Since the vessel is positioned below the mean low water mark, it did not require planning permission”

      https://seenthis.net/messages/1000870#message1011761

      voir aussi :

      “The circumstances at Portland Port are very different because where the barge is to be positioned is below the mean low water mark. This means that the barge is outside of our planning control and there is no requirement for planning permission from the council.”

      https://news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/2023/07/18/leaders-comments-on-the-home-office-barge

      #UK #Angleterre

    • The ‘Border’ under EU Law

      The first argument made by the Catania Tribunal regards the correct initiation of a border procedure. According to the judge, the procedure was not applied „at the border“, as understood by EU law (Art. 43 Directive 2013/32). Indeed, the applicants arrived and made their asylum application in Lampedusa (province of Agrigento) but the detention was ordered several days later in Pozzallo (Ragusa province) when the applicants were no longer „at the border.“ Because the border procedure (involving detention) was utilized at a later stage and in a different place, it was not appropriately initiated.

      In support of the Catania Tribunal’s conclusion, we should recall that Article 43 the Procedures Directive requires a spatial and temporal link between the border crossing and the activation of the border procedure (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32013L0032). Although the Directive does not define the terms „border“ or „transit zone“, it clearly distinguishes these areas from other „locations in the proximity of the border or transit zone“ (Article 43(3)), where applicants can be exceptionally accommodated but never detained. The distinction between the border and other places in its vicinity suggests that the procedure provided for in Art. 43 can only be applied in narrow and well-defined areas or in pre-identified transit zones (such as the Hungarian transit zones examined by the Court in FMS and Commission v Hungary).

      Other EU law instruments support this narrow interpretation of the “border” concept. Regulation 1931/2006 defines a „border area“ as a delimited space within 30 km from the Member State’s border. In the Affum case, the Court also called for a narrow interpretation of the spatial concept of „border.“ There, the Court clarified that the Return Directive allows Member States to apply a simplified return procedure at their external borders in order to „ensure that third-country nationals do not enter [their] territory“ (a purpose which resonates with that of Art. 8(3)(c) Reception Directive). However, such a procedure can only be applied if there is a „direct temporal and spatial link with the crossing of the border“, i.e. „at the time of the irregular crossing of the border or near that border after it has been crossed“ (par. 72).

      By contrast, under the Italian accelerated procedure, the border has blurred contours. The new procedure, relying on the “#fiction_of_non-entry” (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2020/654201/EPRS_STU(2020)654201_EN.pdf), can be carried out not only „at“ the border and in transit zones or in areas territorially „close“ to the border, but in entire provinces in southern and northern Italy. This far exceeds the narrow definition of border or border area derived from EU law.

      https://seenthis.net/messages/1018938#message1023987
      #fiction_de_non-entrée

      –—

      Ce terme est empruntée d’une vieille loi des Etats-Unis, The Immigration Act 1891 :

      “The Immigration Act 1891 was the first to expressly mention detention, as it made provision for officers to ’inspect all such aliens’ or ’to orcier a temporary removal of such aliens for examination at a de ignated time and place, and then and there detain them until a thorough inspection is made’. The Act alsa created the very important provision that came to be known as the ’entry fiction’. According to this, a removal to shore for examination ’shall not be considered a landing during the pendency of such examination’. This was a criticallegal (and constitutional) innovation because it meant that th ose incarcerated must be treated as if they were not there. This was both an attempt to treat the place of detention as if it were sim ply an extension ofbeing held on board ship, but also something more serious. The concept of being physically detained within the territorial land-mass of the United States but not being considered legally present was radical. It suggested a kind of limbo - with the detention centre constituting perhaps an extra-legal space- putting immigrants beyond the reach of constitutional norms, pending a final executive decision to land or deport them.”

      source : Daniel Wilsher, Immigration detention : law, history, politics, 2012, p. 13

    • Autour du nouveau #pacte (#Pacte_européen_sur_la_migration_et_l’asile)

      3) Introduzione del concetto di “finzione del non ingresso”

      Il patto introduce il concetto di “finzione giuridica di non ingresso”, secondo il quale le zone di frontiera sono considerate come non parte del territorio degli Stati membri. Questo interessa in particolare l’Italia, la Grecia e la Spagna per gli sbarchi della rotta mediterranea, mentre sono più articolati “i confini” per la rotta balcanica. Durante le 12 settimane di attesa per l’esito della richiesta di asilo, le persone sono considerate legalmente “non presenti nel territorio dell’UE”, nonostante esse fisicamente lo siano (in centri di detenzione ai confini), non avranno un patrocinio legale gratuito per la pratica amministrativa e tempi brevissimi per il ricorso in caso di un primo diniego (e in quel caso rischiano anche di essere espulse durante l’attesa della decisione che li riguarda). In assenza di accordi con i paesi di origine (come nella maggioranza dei casi), le espulsioni avverranno verso i paesi di partenza.

      Tale concetto creadelle pericolose “zone grigie” in cui le persone in movimento, trattenute per la procedura accelerata di frontiera, non potranno muoversi sul territorio né tantomeno accedere a un supporto esterno. Tutto questo in spregio del diritto internazionale e della tutela della persona che, sulla carta, l’UE si propone(va) di difendere.

      https://seenthis.net/messages/1050383

    • Legal fiction of non-entry in EU asylum policy

      The fiction of ’#non-entry' is a claim that states use in border management to deny the legal arrival of third-country nationals on their territory, regardless of their physical presence, until granted entry by a border or immigration officer. It is usually applied in transit zones at international airports between arrival gates and passport control, signifying that the persons who have arrived have not yet entered the territory of the destination country. Although physically present, they are not considered to have legally entered the country’s official territory until they have undergone the necessary clearance. In the EU, all Member States make use of the fiction of non-entry in transit zones at ports of entry, but usually in a non-asylum context. In 2018, Germany was one of the first Member States to extend this concept to include land crossings. Since the mass arrival of asylum-seekers in 2015-2016, other Member States too have increasingly looked into ways of using this claim to inhibit asylum-seekers’ entry to their territory and thereby avoid the obligation under international law to provide them with certain protection and aid. This, however, may lead to a risk of refoulement, as the fiction of non-entry limits asylum-seekers’ movement and access to rights and procedures, including the asylum procedure. This is a revised edition of a briefing published in March 2024.

      https://seenthis.net/messages/1050973
      #fiction_légale #legal_fiction #non-entrée #aéroports #territoire #géographie #zones_frontalières #zones_de_transit #présence_physique

  • #Graffiti in Cyprus paints a rich and complex picture of this divided society


    All too often, graffiti is categorised as either art or vandalism, when in fact it’s so much more than that. When read with special attention, graffiti can offer deep insights into societies experiencing rapid social and political change – especially those marred by recent conflict.

    The walls of a city give communities and individuals who may not have a formal platform space to share their feelings and opinions, and challenge dominant beliefs or ideals.

    As researchers interested in societies recovering from disaster or conflict, we recently took a trip to explore graffiti in Cyprus. Cyprus and its capital, Nicosia, have remained divided since 1974, following the Turkish invasion and ensuing conflict.

    The Turkish-Cypriot state in the north (recognised only by Turkey) is separated from the internationally-recognised Republic of Cyprus in the south by a UN-controlled buffer zone.

    Crossings between the two sides are only permitted through closely monitored checkpoints, leaving the Cypriot people physically, politically and culturally divided.

    In places like this, graffiti can both reflect and shape community attitudes at a grassroots level. By seriously examining graffiti as a cultural product of such societies, we can better understand these divisions and work towards peacebuilding.
    The power of graffiti

    Graffiti encompasses a wide variety of motivations and styles: anything from tagging to more artistic forms of expression like murals. Research has investigated how graffiti can be a channel for political participation and informal education. It’s a medium widely associated with urban subcultures formed around punk, hip-hop and skateboarding along with many other social movements over the decades.

    Views about the value of graffiti can vary just as widely. Authorities, artists and members of the public tend to take different stances, which can also depend on context, content and style. Graffiti has sometimes been linked to social disorder and decline, but it can also add cultural value or in some cases lead to “artwashing” and gentrification. Certainly, it has the power to influence the character of a place, and change urban landscapes over time.

    When searching for meaning in graffiti, we must look at its form and content. For example, pieces of plain writing may initially seem quite simple, but things like language choices can be telling.

    In Nicosia, Turkish and Greek messages were painted with meaning for each respective “inside” group, while English was used to address a wider, international audience. So language choice is indirectly related to the ethno-nationalist conflict, and acts as an informal commentary on people’s experiences of the city.

    Inevitably, we saw many references to division and conflict in the graffiti of Nicosia. But we also saw pieces related to local gang tags, local politics, anti-sexism and the patriarchy, racism, migrant worker rights, refugees, consumerism, veganism and LGBTIQ+ inclusion – among other topics.

    This suggests local people are seeing beyond the past conflict in their daily lives. But it also suggests existing formal platforms for these issues to be addressed may not be effective or leave some feeling disillusioned. So people turn to city walls.
    Making a statement

    Larger scale murals across Cyprus are beautifully and skilfully painted – and equally interesting. In war-torn, damaged urban landscapes, they can be seen as an attempt to make the spaces more aesthetically appealing or to make a larger statement. These are often commissioned, and are even incorporated into official peacebuilding initiatives, art festivals and tourism strategies.

    A mural in the southern city of Limassol, depicting a Nepali woman and her child, was painted shortly after the 2015 earthquake; unrelated to the Cypriot conflict itself, it affirms that Cypriot artists are outward-looking and aware of turmoil beyond their own borders (not always common in conflict zones).

    Symbols are commonly used in street art across the world to deliver powerful political statements instantly. Internationally recognised symbols make a visual connection to transnational communities, ideologies and movements.

    In Nicosia, common symbols included the Communist hammer and sickle, the Anarchist symbol, the peace sign, doves, gender signs and even swastikas. These symbols have broad, universal meanings attached to them so that no matter where the audience is from (Cyprus receives more than 3m tourists per year), the message is understood.
    Location matters

    Where graffiti is painted also tells a significant story: we saw that location influenced both the amount and the content of graffiti. The old city of Nicosia has lots of buffer zone walls and barriers, and a border crossing on the main shopping thoroughfare.

    The areas closest to crossings contained mostly English language messages, explicitly about the conflict. Further away from the buffer zone, we observed less graffiti, and the messages become more varied.

    We can speculate, then, that the division might have a greater influence on daily life, the closer people are to the dividing wall. This highly contextual insight has the potential to enhance our understanding of the unique experiences of local people in conflict-affected zones.

    Our early investigations of graffiti have already told us much about life in conflict-affected Cyprus. Clearly, the importance of graffiti should not be overlooked: it can open a window into the lives and minds of many people, who might otherwise lack a voice.

    https://theconversation.com/graffiti-in-cyprus-paints-a-rich-and-complex-picture-of-this-divide
    #Chypre #graffitis #art_de_rue

  • A Chypre, Monsieur Tout-le-Monde tuait des femmes étrangères, travailleuses invisibles
    http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/a-chypre-monsieur-tout-le-monde-tuait-des-femmes-etrangeres-travailleuses

    La mort leur a donné un nom. Arian Palanas Lozano, Maricar Valdez, Asmita Khadka Bista, Livia-Florentina Bunea et Mary Rose Tiburcio… Les deux dernières étaient les mamans d’Elena et Sierra, 8 et 6 ans. Cinq femmes et deux fillettes, des étrangères victimes de Nikos Metaxas, suspecté d’être le premier tueur en série de l’histoire de l’île de Chypre. Ces travailleuses invisibles sont devenues les symboles de milliers de migrantes que la société chypriote a longtemps ignorées.

    Au cœur de l’Union européenne, à quelques semaines d’élections continentales, des milliers de femmes sont ainsi « réduites à l’état de choses par des employeurs qui abusent de leur pauvreté », dénonce Ester Beatty. « Certaines bossent jusqu’à quinze heures par jour ! »

    #féminicide #exploitation #migrations

  • ’Cyprus is saturated’ - burgeoning migrant crisis grips island

    Smugglers increasingly take advantage of island’s partition and proximity to Middle East.

    When Rubar and Bestoon Abass embarked on their journey to Europe they had no idea that Cyprus was the continent’s easternmost state. Like most Iraqi Kurds heading west, their destination was Germany, not an EU nation barely 100 miles from war-torn Syria.

    “I had never heard of Cyprus,” said Rubar, reaching for his pregnant wife’s hand as they sat gloomily in a migrant centre run by the Catholic charity Caritas in the heart of Nicosia. “The smugglers told us it was much cheaper to get to and was still in Europe. We paid $2,000 [£1,590] for the four of us to come.”

    Cyprus is in the midst of a burgeoning migrant crisis as smuggler networks take advantage of the Mediterranean island’s partition and proximity to the Middle East. As in Greece, when Europe’s refugee crisis erupted with Syria’s descent into civil war, support groups have rushed to deal with the social ailments that have arisen with the influx.

    “Cyprus is saturated,” its interior minister, Constantinos Petrides, said in an interview with the Guardian. “It’s no longer easy to absorb such flows, or handle the situation, no matter how much money we get.”

    The island has exceeded every other EU member state in asylum claims in 2018, recording the highest number per capita with almost 6,000 applications for a population of about 1 million.

    By August requests were 55% higher than for the same eight-month period in 2017, a figure itself 56% higher than that for 2016, according to the interior ministry. With the country’s asylum and reception systems vastly overstretched, alarmed officials have appealed to Brussels for help.

    “This is a European problem,” said Petrides, adding that closed borders elsewhere in the bloc were placing a disproportionate burden on small frontline states such as Cyprus. “It’s absolutely necessary to find a holistic solution … which means distributing asylum seekers through an automatic relocation mechanism to countries throughout the EU.”

    Rubar and Bestoon arrived with their two children in August. Like the ever-growing number of Syrians also heading here from overcrowded camps in Turkey and Lebanon, the couple landed in Northern Cyprus, the self-styled state acknowledged only by Ankara in the 44 years since Turkish troops invaded and seized over a third of the island’s territory.

    They then took the increasingly well-trodden route of sneaking across the dividing buffer zone into the internationally recognised Greek-controlled south. Stretching 112 miles across Cyprus, the UN-patrolled ceasefire line offers innumerable blind spots for those determined to evade detection.

    Geography’s stark reality hit, Rubar admits, when he was shown Cyprus on the world map adorning the migrant centre’s airy reception room. “If I had known I’d never have come,” said the farmer. “After all, being here we’re much nearer Baghdad than we are Berlin.”

    Elizabeth Kassinis, Caritas’ executive manager, said the Abbasses’ experience is not uncommon. “Many are surprised to find out where they actually are. When we tell them, they are shocked, stunned, completely speechless. Nearly all arrive expecting they’ll be within walking distance of a job in Germany.”

    Illicit crossings from the north have made Cyprus’ woes much worse. Reports have increased in recent months of irregular migrants flying into Ercan airport in the Turkish-controlled breakaway state.

    Hamstrung by politics, not least Turkey’s refusal to recognise the government in the southern part of Cyprus since its 1974 invasion of the island, authorities are unable to send them back.

    “Because of the illegal occupation in the north we’ve seen phenomena that wouldn’t happen in conditions of legality,” said Petrides. “It’s an open wound, not just for Cyprus but the entire EU.”

    With international agencies focusing almost entirely on sea arrivals, the real number of migrants on the island has been hugely underestimated, charities say. “We are a humanitarian organisation that addresses poverty, hunger and homelessness and we are seeing across-the-board increases in them all,” Kassinis said.

    A backlog of 8,000 asylum claims has amassed as authorities struggle to cope with the flows, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. “We’re talking about a process that can take up to five years and an extremely high number of people waiting for final decisions to their claims,” said Katja Saha, the agency’s representative in Nicosia.

    “It’s highly likely that the vast majority are not refugees and should not be in the asylum processing system but, that said, the lack of infrastructure and social services makes it very difficult to identify those who are vulnerable, particularly victims of trafficking and torture.”

    As numbers grow, pressure on the island’s two state-run camps has become immense and asylum seekers are expected to find private accommodation after 72 hours. For most that is nearly impossible when rent allowances are little more than €100 (£90) per person a month and employment is limited to manual work such as car washing and farm labour, Saha said.

    In Nicosia, which houses one of the camps, asylum seekers have resorted to sleeping in parks and buses and the vestibules of buildings. “For the last month I’ve been in a tent in the park with my wife and four children,” said Basin Hussain, who also fled Iraq. “The first three days were spent in the reception centre but then we were told to leave.”

    There are fears the drama being played out in the eastern Mediterranean will get a lot worse if the situation in Syria deteriorates further and war extends to Idlib, the country’s last rebel stronghold. A Turkish-Russian ceasefire deal is currently sustaining a fragile peace in the province.

    Cyprus had been spared the refugee crisis until this year as most Europe-bound asylum seekers headed for Greece and Italy instead.

    “It’s surprising, given its geographic location, that Cyprus has not been more impacted by the seven-year conflict,” said Saha. “Since the spring we’ve seen this increase in Syrians because word has spread that Lebanon and Turkey, as first asylum countries, are saturated.”

    As elsewhere in Europe the island is not immune to hostility toward the new arrivals. Far-right groups coalescing around the ultranationalist ELAM party have gained increasing popularity as the issue provides fodder for their approval ratings ahead of European parliamentary elections next year.

    “What we don’t want to do is open more and more reception centres,” said Petrides, emphasising that solidarity was now needed on Europe’s eastern edge. “It’s not the solution, either for the country or asylum seekers.”


    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/11/cyprus-the-new-entry-point-to-europe-for-refugees-and-migrants?CMP=shar
    #parcours_migratoires #routes_migratoires #Chypre #asile #migrations #réfugiés
    ping @isskein

  • « Affirmer que l’Europe c’est la paix est une fadaise doublée d’une mystification » Olivier Delorme
    - 27 Novembre 2018 - Le Comptoir

    https://comptoir.org/2018/11/27/olivier-delorme-affirmer-que-leurope-cest-la-paix-est-une-fadaise-doublee-

    Le Comptoir : Vous vous moquez du lieu commun européiste disant que l’Europe c’est la paix… La formation de l’Union européenne n’a-t-elle pas aidé à pacifier une Europe qui a connu deux guerres mondiales et bien d’autres encore ?


    Olivier Delorme : Nullement. En réalité, la guerre est impossible en Europe dès lors que les États-Unis d’Amérique en 1945, puis l’Union soviétique en août 1949, ont acquis l’arme atomique. En effet, au mois d’avril de cette même année 1949, dix États européens de l’Ouest se sont liés au Canada et aux États-Unis par le pacte d’assistance mutuelle qu’on appelle l’Alliance atlantique, tandis que des troupes soviétiques stationnent dans la plupart des États d’Europe de l’Est qui formeront le Pacte de Varsovie en 1955. Dès lors, les deux Grands peuvent, en Europe, se jauger, se gêner, mais pas provoquer une remise en cause de l’équilibre qui dégénérerait en conflit nucléaire, puisque chacun considère son “glacis européen” comme faisant partie de ses intérêts vitaux. C’est l’équilibre de la terreur, et rien d’autre, qui assure la paix en Europe après 1945.

    Quant à la possibilité d’une guerre franco-allemande dans ce contexte géopolitique, elle relève simplement du burlesque. Les États-Unis exerçant sur l’Europe de l’Ouest une hégémonie sans partage jusqu’en 1958, il est en effet extravagant d’imaginer que des États qui dépendent entièrement d’eux pour leur sécurité et beaucoup pour leur approvisionnement et leur reconstruction (plan Marshall), qui abritent en outre sur leur territoire des bases américaines, puissent entrer en guerre les uns contre les autres. Enfin, lorsque la France quitte l’organisation militaire intégrée de l’Alliance atlantique (1966), c’est que sa force de dissuasion nucléaire est devenue opérationnelle : aucune agression directe contre elle de la part d’une puissance non nucléaire n’est donc plus envisageable. Dans ces conditions, affirmer que “l’Europe c’est la paix” est une fadaise doublée d’une mystification.

    La réalité, c’est que ce qu’on appelle la “construction européenne” et c’est une construction américaine de guerre froide : il ne s’est jamais agi que d’organiser économiquement la partie de l’Europe sous hégémonie américaine. On sait aujourd’hui que les services spéciaux américains ont abondamment financé les mouvements paneuropéens, et que la plupart des “Pères de l’Europe” ont été ce que les archives de la CIA désignent comme des hired hands ou mains louées, ce que je propose, dans ces 30 bonnes raisons pour sortir de l’Europe, de traduire par mercenaires ou domestiques appointés. D’ailleurs, nombre de ces Pères ont aussi eu une carrière à l’OTAN et/ou une retraite dorée dans des multinationales américaines.

    Quant à la pacification des relations entre les deux blocs de la guerre froide, elle n’a elle non plus strictement rien eu à voir avec la “construction européenne”. Elle s’est faite d’abord à l’initiative du général de Gaulle, qui parlait volontiers d’Europe de l’Atlantique à l’Oural, c’est-à-dire sans aucun rapport avec l’Europe américaine de Monnet et de ses compères, et pour partie en réaction à l’échec du seul plan européen qui n’a pas été inspiré ou patronné par les Américains (Plan Fouchet, 1961-1962) et que, pour cette raison, les partenaires d’alors de la Communauté économique européenne (CEE) ont fait capoter. De même, l’autre politique de détente européenne a été initiée par un autre État-nation du continent, et de nouveau hors du cadre de la CEE. C’est l’Ostpolitik de l’Allemand Willy Brandt, qui répond d’abord à des impératifs nationaux allemands. Les États-nations ont donc joué, dans la pacification de l’Europe, un rôle bien plus actif que la “construction européenne”.

    Ajoutons encore que, à Chypre, l’Union européenne (UE) n’a fait qu’entériner l’occupation et la colonisation illégale (depuis 1974) de 37 % d’un État qui en est devenu membre en 2004 (la République de Chypre) par un État candidat à l’Union (la Turquie) : situation parfaitement ubuesque ! Et l’UE n’a jamais sérieusement tenté quoi que ce soit, ni exercé la moindre pression significative sur la Turquie, afin de dégager une solution politique à ce conflit. Elle n’a pas davantage manifesté la moindre solidarité aux Chypriotes qui, depuis plusieurs mois, doivent faire face à des intimidations de la marine de guerre turque destinées à empêcher la mise en valeur de gisements gaziers situés dans la zone économique exclusive de la République de Chypre.


    De même l’UE n’a-t-elle jamais rien tenté de sérieux pour obtenir de la Turquie – qu’elle finance pourtant largement au titre de la pré-adhésion et, plus récemment, à celui du chantage aux migrants – qu’elle mette fin à ses innombrables violations des espaces maritime et aérien grecs, c’est-à-dire à la violation des frontières de l’Union ! Et lorsque, en 1996, la Turquie occupe les îlots grecs d’Imia (de nouveau menacés le printemps dernier), conduisant les deux pays au bord du conflit (trois morts dans le crash d’un hélicoptère grec), la Commission et le Conseil se taisent. Seul le Parlement vote une résolution, sans la moindre conséquence pratique, réaffirmant les droits souverains de la Grèce et invitant le Conseil à « prendre les mesures qui s’imposent pour améliorer les relations entre la Grèce et la Turquie ». Ce qu’il ne fera pas. C’est finalement une médiation américaine qui rétablira le statu quo.

    Or, la permanence de la menace turque, qui a connu un regain ces derniers temps sans plus de réaction de l’UE, contraint la Grèce à soutenir un effort militaire disproportionné : elle est le pays de l’OTAN qui consacre, après les États-Unis, la part la plus importante de son PIB aux dépenses militaires. Et cet effort a largement contribué à la “construction” de la fameuse dette grecque, tout en enrichissant les industries de défense allemande et française, dont la Grèce figure régulièrement parmi les clients les plus importants.

    Enfin, ce qu’on appelait alors les “Communautés européennes” a joué un rôle singulièrement toxique dans le déclenchement des guerres de sécession yougoslaves, et fait la démonstration que la prétendue solidarité européenne ne pèse rien dès que des intérêts nationaux puissants sont en jeu. En effet, si le 16 décembre 1991 le Conseil européen fixait à l’unanimité les critères de reconnaissance des indépendances slovène et croate et chargeait une commission d’arbitrage de les apprécier, l’Allemagne puis l’Autriche, soucieuses de se reconstituer un espace d’influence plus ou moins exclusive sur d’anciennes terres austro-hongroises devenues yougoslaves en 1918, violaient la décision du Conseil dès le 23 décembre, mettant ainsi le feu aux poudres. De même, les décisions européennes, comme je l’explique dans le troisième tome de La Grèce et les Balkans (Gallimard, 2013) contribuèrent-elles largement au déclenchement des hostilités intercommunautaires en Bosnie-Herzégovine. Donc non seulement la “construction européenne” n’a pas créé les conditions de la paix en Europe, mais elle s’est montrée incapable de contribuer à la maintenir.

    On parle beaucoup de “faire l’Europe”, et les euro-libéraux mettent en avant qu’il s’agit de la seule façon de s’opposer aux grandes nations comme les USA, la Chine ou la Russie. Mais n’est-ce pas contradictoire avec l’implication grandissante de l’OTAN au sein de l’UE ? Quels sont d’ailleurs ces liens avec cette organisation issue de la Guerre froide ?
    OTAN et UE ont une même origine – la Guerre froide – et un même but : l’intégration entre les deux rives de l’Atlantique. Comme l’ont de nouveau montré la rage de la Commission européenne à négocier le TAFTA dans la plus totale opacité, de manière à cacher la réalité à des opinions européennes largement hostiles à cet accord, et sa volonté de contourner les parlements nationaux dans la ratification du CETA.

    Si l’on examine la chronologie, la création en 1952 de la première Communauté européenne, celle du charbon et de l’acier (CECA), conçue par Monnet, agent d’influence américain – stipendié ou non peu importe – est suivie de peu par la substitution1, dans les importations des pays de cette CECA, du charbon américain en surproduction au charbon polonais, de bien meilleure qualité mais se trouvant dans une Europe avec laquelle les États-Unis veulent que les échanges commerciaux cessent. Puis les États-Unis accordent à la CECA, dès 1953, un prêt dont la contrepartie est l’augmentation des achats de leur charbon au coût minoré par des subventions au fret. Au final, la CECA a permis aux États-Unis d’exporter en Europe leur surproduction, ce qui conduit, à terme, à la fermeture des mines des États membres de la CECA eux-mêmes.

    Ajoutons que le premier ambassadeur américain près la CECA, nommé à la demande pressante de Monnet, est David Bruce, qui fut chef de la branche européenne de l’OSS (l’ancêtre de la CIA) puis un très interventionniste ambassadeur en France (1949–1952) ; il le sera ensuite en Allemagne (1957-1959) et au Royaume-Uni (1961-1969). Bruce sera également chargé de pousser à la constitution de la Communauté européenne de défense (CED), destinée à répondre aux exigences américaines d’un réarmement allemand après le début de la guerre de Corée (juin 1950). Car les États-Unis devant envoyer des troupes en Corée, ils demandent aux Européens de participer davantage à leur propre défense (ça ne date pas de Trump !). La CED est imaginée de nouveau par Monnet (ou par ceux qui lui soufflent ses idées) pour neutraliser les oppositions en Europe à la renaissance d’une armée allemande cinq ans après la fin du second conflit mondial, et le gouvernement français de René Pleven la fait sienne (octobre 1950). Le traité est signé en mai 1952, mais l’opposition des gaullistes et des communistes fera échouer sa ratification au Parlement français en août 1954.
    Parallèlement, en février 1952, la conférence de Lisbonne des États membres de l’Alliance atlantique adopte le rapport d’un comité de sages – dont Monnet, l’indispensable bonne à tout faire des Américains, est bien sûr l’un des membres – qui crée une organisation militaire intégrée, l’OTAN, destinée à placer sous commandement américain l’armée dite européenne (CED) qui n’a d’autre fonction que d’être une troupe de supplétifs. Enfin, on confie aussi à Bruce la tâche de promouvoir la création d’un organe politique européen unique. Moins d’un an après la mort de la CED, se réunit la conférence de Messine (juin 1955) qui lance la négociation sur les traités de Rome signés le 25 mars 1957. Et le 16 mai suivant, le Belge Paul-Henri Spaak, qui a été le principal artisan de ces traités, devient le 2e secrétaire général de l’OTAN, poste dans lequel un autre des “pères-signataires” de Rome en 1957, le Néerlandais Joseph Luns, sera le recordman de durée (1971-1984). OTAN et “construction européenne” sont intimement liées : elles ont toujours été les deux faces d’une même monnaie !
    Et la “défense européenne”, aujourd’hui comme au temps de la CED, n’a jamais été qu’un leurre. Lors de la négociation du traité de Maastricht, il s’est rapidement avéré que la plupart des États ne pouvaient concevoir que le “pilier” de défense et de sécurité commune fût autre chose que l’OTAN. On y a mis les formes parce que la France n’avait pas encore liquidé l’héritage gaullien, mais la réintégration de celle-ci dans cette organisation militaire sous commandement américain, ébauchée par Chirac, conclue par Sarkozy et ratifiée (malgré des engagements contraires) par Hollande, rend inutiles les circonlocutions d’autrefois. Ce n’est pas tant qu’il y ait une “implication grandissante” de l’OTAN dans l’UE, c’est juste qu’on dissimule moins une réalité consubstantielle à la “construction européenne”.
    Par ailleurs, pour les États de l’Europe anciennement sous hégémonie soviétique, l’intégration à l’UE a été l’antichambre de l’intégration à l’OTAN (raison pour laquelle Moscou a réagi si vigoureusement lors de l’association de l’Ukraine à l’UE). Et j’oserais dire que, pour eux, l’appartenance à l’OTAN est beaucoup plus importante que leur appartenance à l’UE.


    Mais ce qui est aujourd’hui le plus drôle, c’est que les orientations de la nouvelle administration américaine viennent troubler ce très vieux jeu. Parce que la monnaie européenne, largement sous-évaluée pour les fondamentaux de l’économie allemande (et largement surévaluée pour la plupart des économies de la zone que cette monnaie étouffe), est devenue un redoutable instrument de dumping au service des exportations allemandes, Trump range désormais l’UE parmi les ennemis des États-Unis et remet en cause le libre-échange avec cet espace. Alors qu’on sait que, par le passé, les États-Unis ont été à la fois les moteurs du libre-échange (qui est toujours la loi du plus fort… mais les États-Unis n’étant plus aujourd’hui les plus forts, ils n’y ont plus intérêt) comme de la monnaie unique. L’ouverture des archives américaines a ainsi révélé un mémorandum de la section Europe du département d’État américain, en date du 11 juin 1965, dans lequel Robert Marjolin, l’ombre de Monnet et vice-président de la Commission (1958-1967), se voyait prescrire « de poursuivre l’union monétaire à la dérobée (ou en rusant), jusqu’au moment où ‘l’adoption de ces propositions serait devenue pratiquement inéluctable »²… Ceci est à mettre en parallèle avec la décision du sommet européen de La Haye, en décembre 1969, de confier à une commission présidée par le Luxembourgeois Pierre Werner l’élaboration du premier projet (rapport remis en octobre 1970) d’union économique et monétaire.

    Par ailleurs, le même Trump n’a plus de mots assez durs pour l’OTAN qui, à ses yeux, coûte trop cher aux Américains. D’autant que ses relations avec Poutine semblent indiquer qu’il souhaite sortir de l’actuel remake de Guerre froide. On oublie souvent, en Europe, que le principe fondamental de la diplomatie américaine, depuis l’indépendance jusqu’en 1948, a été le refus des alliances permanentes. Ce n’est que le contexte de la Guerre froide qui a justifié le vote au Congrès de la résolution Vandenberg autorisant le président des États-Unis à conclure des alliances en temps de paix. Trump entend-il refermer ce qui pourrait n’avoir été qu’une parenthèse de soixante-dix ans ?

    Hostilité à l’UE et désintérêt pour l’OTAN – deux créations états-uniennes –, c’est en tout cas ce qui cause aujourd’hui une forme d’affolement chez beaucoup de dirigeants européens et dans la nomenklatura de l’UE : comment des marionnettes pourront-elles vivre sans leur marionnettiste ?

    Vous plaidez pour l’indépendance de la France, mais la France n’est-elle pas trop petite pour s’imposer sur la scène internationale ?
    Non. Hier comme aujourd’hui, la question de la taille est une fausse question. Je ne vais pas vous faire la liste de tous les Empires, colosses aux pieds d’argile – jusqu’à l’URSS –, qui ont péri non en dépit mais, en tout ou partie, à cause de leur taille et de leur hétérogénéité. Ni la liste des petits États qui ont profondément marqué l’histoire de l’humanité – les cités grecques plus que l’immense Empire perse – ou le monde contemporain, quoi qu’on pense par ailleurs de leur action – Israël, par exemple. Le petit Uruguay est aujourd’hui un laboratoire politique, économique et social qui a engrangé bien plus de réussites que ses deux voisins géants, l’Argentine et le Brésil.

    Un État n’est pas fort parce que son territoire est étendu ou sa population nombreuse. Il est fort parce que s’y exprime une volonté d’exister et de se projeter dans l’avenir en tant que peuple, une conscience d’avoir des intérêts communs, de former une communauté qui se traduit en volonté politique.

    L’UE n’est pas une volonté – parce les Européens ne forment pas et ne formeront pas un peuple, en tout cas pas avant très longtemps. Elle n’est pas davantage une addition de volontés. Parce que ses États membres, et les peuples dont ils sont l’expression, n’ont ni les mêmes intérêts, ni la même vision du monde, ni la même conception de leur rôle dans ce monde, ni le même mode de vie, etc. L’UE n’est jamais que la soustraction de vingt-huit ou vingt-sept objections à chaque décision qu’elle doit prendre, et chaque décision n’est, au final, que le plus petit commun dénominateur entre vingt-sept ou vingt-huit intérêts divergents. Un plus petit commun dénominateur qu’il faut à chaque fois négocier âprement pendant que passent les trains de l’histoire. On ne joue aucun rôle, on ne pèse rien quand on est un plus petit commun dénominateur : on ne fait que subir la volonté de ceux qui ont le courage de l’exprimer.


    En réalité, l’UE n’est que l’expression de vingt-sept lâchetés, de vingt-sept renoncements à exister par soi-même ; l’UE ne peut-être qu’un monstre mou, un géant aboulique et privé d’agilité. Aujourd’hui comme hier, et peut-être plus qu’hier, mieux vaut être une puissance moyenne, agile, qui sait ce qu’elle veut et coopère tous azimuts avec d’autres, sur la base de l’égalité et des avantages mutuels, plutôt qu’une partie impuissante d’un Empire impotent – plutôt le roseau que le chêne, pour paraphraser La Fontaine.

    Par ailleurs, que dire d’un pays comme la Belgique, morcelée de l’intérieur et de faible envergure tant du point de vue géographique et militaire que du point de vue démographique ? Pablo Iglesias pour les mêmes raisons refuse d’envisager une sortie de l’UE. La sortie n’est-elle pas l’apanage des nations privilégiées ?
    Comme je l’ai dit plus haut, la question n’est pas la taille mais la volonté de faire communauté politique. Il y a, je crois, 193 États membres de l’ONU, c’est-à-dire qu’il n’y a jamais eu autant d’États sur notre planète, et des États de toutes tailles. Prétendre donc que le temps des États nationaux serait révolu est une baliverne : nous vivons précisément le triomphe des États nationaux, indépendamment de leur taille, du niveau de leur PIB ou de l’importance de leur population.

    En revanche, plus vous éloignez le citoyen des centres réels de décision, plus vous soustrayez le pouvoir réel à tout contrôle démocratique réel, plus vous décrédibilisez à la fois la démocratie et l’État national. Mais, contrairement au plan des eurolâtres, cette décrédibilisation ne se traduit pas par une demande de “plus d’Europe”, elle produit un repli vers l’infranational. Puisqu’on sait que l’État national ne protège plus et que l’Europe ne protège pas, on se replie vers des identités – réelles ou fantasmées – culturelles, linguistiques, religieuses… dont on attend une autre forme de protection. Et ce phénomène est particulièrement sensible dans certains États de formation récente ou fragiles du fait de régionalismes forts comme la Belgique, l’Espagne ou l’Italie.

    Quant aux responsables politiques de gauche dite radicale ou populiste, leur pusillanimité à l’égard de la question européenne tient à mon avis à deux méprises qui risquent d’être mortelles pour eux. Ils pensent qu’on ne peut pas gagner une élection en expliquant pourquoi la sortie de l’UE est indispensable à la reconstruction de la démocratie et de l’État social. Mais lors du référendum grec de 2015, on a pilonné les Grecs, du soir au matin et du matin au soir, avec une propagande extravagante professant que s’ils votaient “non”, la Grèce serait expulsée de l’euro et de l’Union. Et les Grecs ont pourtant voté “non” à 61,31 %, avec une participation de 62,5 %. Ils n’étaient certes pas tous pour la sortie, mais ils en ont tous pris le risque. Puis il y a eu le Brexit. De même, les calamiteux taux de participation aux élections européennes (on a atteint 13 % en Slovaquie en 2014, et péniblement 43 % dans l’ensemble des pays, seulement parce que certains pratiquent le vote obligatoire) sont un excellent indicateur de l’absence totale d’adhésion populaire à ce projet. Et on va probablement voir, au printemps prochain, un affaissement supplémentaire de la participation conjugué à des gains substantiels pour les partis plus ou moins hostiles à l’UE – avec à la clé un parlement probablement très différent de l’actuel et une Commission où siégeront sans doute un nombre non négligeable d’eurosceptiques plus ou moins déterminés.

    La deuxième raison, c’est qu’à gauche on continue à s’aveugler sur la nature intrinsèque, c’est-à-dire non réformable, de l’UE. Autrement dit à prendre les vessies ordolibérales et libre-échangistes de l’UE pour les lanternes de l’internationalisme.


    La France forme-t-elle vraiment un couple avec l’Allemagne ? De l’extérieur, on a plutôt l’impression d’un maître et son valet suivant à la lettre ses demandes…
    Cette histoire de “couple franco-allemand” relève de la mystification. Comme toute relation bilatérale, celle de la France et de l’Allemagne est fondée sur un rapport de force et connaît des hauts et des bas – plus de bas que de hauts si on fait le compte avec un minimum de bonne foi.
    La fable du couple commencerait avec le tant célébré traité franco-allemand de 1963. Initiative française prise en réponse à l’échec du Plan Fouchet dont j’ai parlé plus haut, ce traité est signé par le chancelier Adenauer. Mais il déchaîne, au sein de son gouvernement comme au Bundestag, une telle opposition haineuse qu’Adenauer fut obligé de s’engager à démissionner pour obtenir sa ratification et que le Bundestag lui ajouta – cas unique dans l’histoire diplomatique –, un préambule interprétatif unilatéral – en partie rédigé par l’inévitable Monnet ! – qui… vidait le texte de son contenu politique en précisant que les liens de la RFA avec les États-Unis primeraient toujours ses engagements envers la France. Là-dessus, Ludwig Erhard remplaça Adenauer à la chancellerie : il était l’homme des Anglo-Américains depuis 1947, et sans doute le politique allemand le plus francophobe de son temps. Sacré mariage !

    Le seul véritable couple fut celui d’Helmut Schmidt et Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (1974-1981). On sait combien Mitterrand vécut mal la réunification à marche forcée imposée par Kohl et sa politique yougoslave à l’opposé de ce que voulait la France. Puis vint le temps – bientôt un quart de siècle – où la France, prisonnière du piège mortel de l’euro, se trouve confrontée aux perpétuelles injonctions allemandes à faire les “réformes nécessaires” pour satisfaire à des règles toujours plus imbéciles et contraignantes d’une monnaie unique absurde. Vingt-cinq ans durant lesquels les gouvernements français – pour préserver le “couple” et par délire eurolâtre – ont renoncé à défendre les intérêts de la France face au gouvernement d’un pays, l’Allemagne, qui mène une politique économique et monétaire dictée par ses seuls intérêts : si couple il y a, il n’est plus que celui du patron et de son larbin.

    Vous parlez de l’influence ordolibérale sur la volonté de soustraire des décisions politiques (liées à des élections) les enjeux économiques. Antonin Cohen qui retrace les liens entre Vichy et la communauté européenne rappelle que la déclaration de Schuman de 1950 visait précisément à promouvoir l’avènement d’une technocratie économique – une déclaration qui rappelle les théories d’inspiration technocratique des années 1930. D’où vient cette méfiance profonde pour la politique et la démocratie sous toutes ses formes ?


    Si on lit Monnet, que de Gaulle définit comme l’inspirateur de toute cette “construction”, ce qui frappe c’est la méfiance qu’il a pour les peuples. En la résumant avec à peine d’exagération pédagogique, la doctrine Monnet c’est : les peuples sont bêtes et donc inclinés à faire des bêtises ; notre rôle, à nous gens raisonnables et sachants, est de les empêcher d’en faire. En conséquence et dès l’origine, le principe central de la “construction européenne” consiste à dessaisir les instances démocratiques des leviers essentiels pour remettre ceux-ci entre les mains de sages qui savent mieux que les peuples ce qui est bon pour eux.

    C’est aussi vieux que la politique ! Lorsque Hérodote, au Ve siècle avant notre ère, fait dialoguer trois hiérarques perses sur le meilleur régime politique, il met les mots suivants dans la bouche de celui qui défend l’oligarchie : « choisissons un groupe d’hommes parmi les meilleurs, et investissons-les du pouvoir ; car, certes, nous serons nous-mêmes de leur nombre, et il est dans l’ordre de la vraisemblance que les hommes les meilleurs prennent les meilleures décisions ». Monnet ET la “construction européenne” sont tout entiers là-dedans.

    Car en dépit de ce que serinent certains, l’Europe n’est pas une “belle idée” détournée de ses fins initiales. Le projet européen vise, dès l’origine et intrinsèquement, à placer en surplomb des démocraties nationales une oligarchie qui vide ces dernières de tout contenu, qui les réduit à des formes creuses, à un rite électoral sans signification puisque ce qui est en jeu n’est plus que de désigner celui qui conduira, dans son pays, la politique unique déterminée dans le sein de l’oligarchie européenne à partir des principes qu’elle a fait graver dans le marbre des traités.

    En outre, l’échec de la CED convainc Monnet que, pour parvenir au but, il faut que les peuples l’ignorent. Il convient donc, plutôt que de présenter un projet fédéral condamné à l’échec, d’empiler les faits accomplis d’apparence technique qui, à terme, rendront inéluctable la réalisation de l’objectif politique. La “méthode européenne” n’a jamais consisté qu’à accumuler les micro coups d’État technocratiques, invisibles sur le moment, qui dessèchent les démocraties nationales de l’intérieur, les privant d’efficacité et de crédibilité. Si l’on refuse de voir ces réalités, on se réduit à l’impuissance face au Moloch européen.


    Alors oui, l’illusion technocratique est au cœur de l’histoire du XXe siècle : les tyrannies totalitaires comme les démocraties nationales d’après-guerre qui ont cherché à concilier démocratie, efficacité et justice partagent ce goût des “experts”. Mais, dans le cas européen, la technocratie est un instrument au service d’un projet oligarchique.

    Ainsi voit-on en Grèce et en Italie, en novembre 2011, à moins d’une semaine d’intervalle, l’UE combiner, et en réalité imposer, le remplacement de deux chefs de gouvernement issus d’élections, un social-démocrate et un conservateur (Papandréou et Berlusconi), par deux technocrates sans la moindre légitimité démocratique : Papadimos, ex-banquier central grec et ex-vice-président de la Banque centrale européenne, et Monti, ex-professeur en économie et management et ex-commissaire européen, tous deux membres de haut niveau de la nomenklatura technocratique européenne. Et l’on voit aujourd’hui en France un gouvernement qui est à la fois le plus technocratique, le plus autoritaire et le plus méprisant pour les droits du Parlement qu’il entend réduire, en même temps qu’il est le plus européen. Exemple qui, pas plus que les deux autres, ne doit rien au hasard mais doit tout à la réalité du projet européen.

    Notes :
    1 Voir Régine Perron, Le Marché du charbon, en enjeu entre l’Europe et les États-Unis de 1945 à 1958 (Publications de la Sorbonne, 2014).
    2 « The State Department also played a role. A memo from the European section, dated June 11, 1965, advises the vice-president of the European Economic Community, Robert Marjolin, to pursue monetary union by stealth. It recommends suppressing debate until the point at which “adoption of such proposals would become virtually inescapable“. » Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, « Euro-federalists financed by US spy chiefs », The Telegraph (19 septembre 2000).

    #UE #Union_européenne #Communautés_européennes #nomenklatura #guerre #Paix #Allemagne #Belgique #Chypre #France #Italie #Turquie #Yougoslavie #construction_européenne #OTAN #TAFTA #CETA #CECA #BREXIT

  • La privatisation du vivant - pratiques
    https://pratiques.fr/La-privatisation-du-vivant

    Pratiques : Le corps des femmes est particulièrement exploité.

    À l’échelle internationale, le commerce d’ovules est très organisé. Certaines femmes indiennes peuvent accéder à la FIV parce qu’en contrepartie, elles donnent leurs ovules. Ce commerce se développe beaucoup au Mexique. En Europe, ce sont l’Espagne et Chypre qui en sont la plaque tournante.

    Ce commerce sert à la recherche, mais il est aussi très bien connu des citoyens français, anglais… On sait qu’en général les gens vont acheter des ovules en Espagne parce qu’ils proviennent de femmes d’Europe de l’Est qui ont des caractéristiques génétiques recherchées : blondes aux yeux bleus, grandes… Et dans le cadre de la grossesse pour autrui (GPA), ils vont aller faire porter les grossesses par des femmes indiennes. Ce sont des enjeux raciaux et d’exploitation graves. Il y a là plusieurs femmes en jeu, ce qui complexifie encore plus ce commerce des corps. Les impacts sur les mères porteuses sont au premier plan, mais pour les pourvoyeuses d’ovules, les conséquences sur leur santé semblent occultées. Ce sont souvent de très jeunes femmes, les stimulations ovariennes à répétition, les prélèvements d’ovules affectent leur propre santé reproductive, d’autant que lorsqu’elles repartent chez elles, elles n’ont pas toujours le suivi nécessaire. Des documentaires, tels que Eggsploitation aux États-Unis, montrent les effets de l’hyperstimulation ovarienne sur ces jeunes filles, dont certaines ont développé des cancers en lien avec l’utilisation massive d’hormones. Ce sont les femmes invisibles de tous ces discours, les gens ont très peu de connaissances sur les procédures médicales utilisées pour amener une femme à produire dix à quinze ovules dans un mois. C’est dans une logique de marché : transformer le corps des femmes pour qu’il soit plus productif.

    #GPA #don_d'organes