country:greece

My MOAS Podcast on boat migration and new developments at sea and on land

“We carried out 500 interviews, roughly half of them in Greece, and the rest in Italy and to a smaller extent in Malta. What is clear is that the stories that we get are significantly different in terms of the experience of the journeys, and the country of origins vary significantly by route. Reasons for movement that we may define as forced migration – so experience of violence, human rights violation, war and persecution – were by far the dominant stories that we heard. However, there was also a link to dreams about improving their life and a better finding a better future; the experience of forced migration does not mean that someone cannot have aspirations for the future.

▻https://nandosigona.info/2017/03/11/medmig-and-new-developments-at-sea-and-on-land

#migrations #asile #réfugiés #Nando_Sigona #routes_migratoires #parcours_migratoires

Stakes high as Greek court set to decide fate of EU-Turkey migrant deal

Decision could potentially end EU-Turkey deal or pave way for forced removal of asylum seekers

▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/fate-eu-turkey-deal-be-decided-greek-court-665414141
#accord_UE-Turquie #deal #Turquie #asile #migrations #réfugiés #UE #EU

The Refugee Archipelago: The Inside Story of What Went Wrong — Refugees Deeply
►https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2017/03/06/the-refugee-archipelago-the-inside-story-of-what-went-wrong-in-greece

https://newsdeeply.imgix.net/20170306064254/HeroInvestigation.jpg?w=1200&h=630&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=60

Exactly how much money has been spent in Greece by the European Union is much reported but little understood. Refugees Deeply has calculated that $803 million has come into Greece since 2015, which includes all the funds actually allocated or spent, all significant bilateral funding and major sources of private donations.

The biggest pots of money are controlled by the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive body, which oversees the Asylum Migration Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF) which collectively had $541 million dedicated to Greek funding needs. However, the government in Greece was unable to absorb significant amounts of these funds, necessitating emergency assistance from the commission, channeled through other means.

Confusion over the true extent of spending has been exacerbated by inflated statements from the European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, who has regularly cited figures in excess of 1 billion euros ($1.06 billion). This amount apparently refers to all available and theoretical funds, not what has actually been allocated or spent.

Nevertheless, the $803 million total represents the most expensive humanitarian response in history.

[...]

A Greek policeman serving at the Moria camp put it more succinctly when explaining that his job was to get a copy of an I.D. and a fingerprint and then speed them on their way to Germany: “Copy, finger, Merkel.”

[...]

With his borders set to close, no hot spots and a grilling in prospect at a European leaders’ summit at the end of February, the Greek prime minister, Tsipras, found an unlikely savior. Panos Kammenos has been one of the indisputable political winners from the upheaval of Greek politics and the collapse of its traditional parties. A thickset right-winger with a penchant for military uniforms who blames Greece’s debt crisis on a shadowy global banking conspiracy, he found himself as the junior partner in a coalition government. His price for propping up a hard-left government was the defense ministry.

Prior to February, Kammenos’ contribution to the refugee response had been to growl that Europe should back down in debt negotiations or Greece would flood the E.U. with migrants. His change of heart came after $74 million was added to the defense ministry budget for refugee support, recurring annually. In a period of less than 10 days the Greek army established spartan but functional facilities at the hot spots.

The pattern was set for inertia, concealment of chaos, external pressure and last-minute actions. With responsibility for the response now divided between several Greek ministries and a U.N. agency more accustomed to working in the developing world, E.C. cash flowed and effective oversight of refugee spending was removed. A series of amendments that passed through Greece’s parliament stripped out auditing requirements on contracts related to the refugee crisis.

[...]

bon j’arrête de copier-coller. C’est un excellent article. Lisez-le !

https://newsdeeply.imgix.net/20170306070705/ND-Greek-Infographic-Revised.jpg

#refugee #réfugiés #grèce #europe #argent #ong #ngo

What about @rezo ?

@cdb_77

The Refugee Archipelago: The Inside Story of What Went Wrong in Greece

Refugees Deeply investigates failures in the most expensive humanitarian response in history, which played out during the refugee crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Exactly how much money has been spent in Greece by the European Union is much reported but little understood. Refugees Deeply has calculated that $803 million has come into Greece since 2015, which includes all the funds actually allocated or spent, all significant bilateral funding and major sources of private donations.
The biggest pots of money are controlled by the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive body, which oversees the Asylum Migration Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF) which collectively had $541 million dedicated to Greek funding needs. However, the government in Greece was unable to absorb significant amounts of these funds, necessitating emergency assistance from the commission, channeled through other means.

https://newsdeeply.imgix.net/20170306070705/ND-Greek-Infographic-Revised.jpg

New detention centres at the external EU borders

Greece is building pre-removal detention facilities on the Aegean islands with the aim of accelerating the implementation of the EU-Turkey statement. These will be separate from the Reception and Identification Centres on the hotspots where newly arrived refugees and migrants are initially detained.
The construction of pre-removal detention centres on the islands marks a shift away from previous efforts of the Greek authorities to transfer people from the hotspots to detention centres on the mainland. Greece currently has six pre-removal centres with a total of 5,215 places in #Amygdaleza, #Petrou_Ralli, Corinth, #Paranesti, #Xanthi and #Orestiada.

According to the EU Coordinator for the implementation of the statement, the pre-removal detention centres on the islands would be a temporary solution to increase the number of returns to Turkey. On #Kos, a pre-removal detention centre has been established by a Ministerial Decision entering into force in February 2017 until the end of 2017. The costs of construction of the centre are estimated at €4.5 million. Reference has also been made to pre-removal centres in the remaining #hotspots, although an implementing legal instrument has yet to be issued.

The expansion of detention practice to promote returns from EU border countries goes beyond Greece. At the end of 2016, Italy announced the re-opening of four Identification and Expulsion Centres (CIE) not currently operating. The government also requested the #CIE in #Rome, Torino, #Brindisi and #Caltanissetta to reserve 90 places each, specifically for Nigerian nationals.

#détention_administrative #rétention #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Grèce #Italie #Turin #Corinthe #réfugiés #asile #migrations

–-> peut-être utile pour des futures cartes...

Bob Dylan and Van Morrison Sing Together in Athens, on Historic Hill Overlooking the Acropolis | Open Culture
▻http://www.openculture.com/2013/03/bob_dylan_and_van_morrison_sing_together_in_athens_on_historic_hill_ove

http://cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/bob-and-van.jpeg

On a summer day in 1989, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan met up in Greece and brought their acoustic guitars to the place in Athens where the ancients believed the muses lived. Philopappos Hill, traditionally known as the Hill of the Muses, rises high above the Athens Basin and has a commanding view of the Acropolis. It was June 29. Dylan had just wrapped up a European tour the night before at Panathinaiko Stadium, and Morrison was traveling with a BBC crew for an Arena documentary that would be broadcast in 1991 as One Irish Rover: Van Morrison in Performances. The two legendary singer-songwriters played several of Morrison’s songs: “Foreign Window” and “One Irish Rover,” above, and “Crazy Love,” below. A fourth song, “And It Stoned Me,” was apparently cut from the film.

#musique #repérages

Migrant Ill -Treatment in Greek Law Enforcement – Are the Strasbourg Court Judgments the Tip of the Iceberg?

The present paper aims to provide an analysis of the first major judgments of the Strasbourg Court which usefully shed light on the underlying, long-standing systemic failures of the Greek rule of law. The author argues that these judgments are in fact only the tip of the iceberg. For this the paper looks into the process of supervision of these judgments’ execution by Greece, which is pending before the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, as well as into alarming reports issued notably by CPT as well as by the Greek Ombudsman. The paper also highlights the question of racial violence that has not been so far the subject of analysis in the Court’s judgments concerning ill-treatment in Greece. However, a number of reports, especially the annual reports of the Greek Racist Violence Recording Network since 2012, record numerous cases of racist violence by law enforcement officials targeting migrants and the ineffective responses by the administrative and judicial authorities. The paper’s concluding observations provide certain recommendations in order to enhance Greek law and practice and eradicate impunity.

▻https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers2.cfm?abstract_id=2921109
#CEDH #Grèce #asile #migrations #réfugiés #violence #racisme #xénophobie #droit_d'asile

Mapping history | The Economist

▻http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21716594-walk-through-continents-mountainous-south-eastern-corner-mapping

http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/cf_images/images-magazine/2017/02/11/BK/20170211_BKP001_facebook.jpg

TRAGEDIES and mistakes are strewn across Europe’s borderlands. Nowhere more so than in the continent’s mountainous south-eastern corner, where the Iron Curtain once divided communist Bulgaria from capitalist Greece and Turkey. The land is haunted by that divide, and by vanished kingdoms, peoples and wars. Kapka Kassabova’s poignant, erudite and witty third book, “Border”, brings hidden history vividly to light.

#livre #frontières #balkans #europe_du_sud #cartographie

AIDA 2016 Update : Belgium

The updated Country Report on Belgium contains information on recent developments in case law and policy related to asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum seekers and integration of beneficiaries of international protection.

Belgium not only increased its use of the #Dublin Regulation in 2016, but also repeatedly stated its intention to reinstate Dublin transfers to Greece in 2017, a practice halted in 2011 after Belgium was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The State Secretary sees this measure as the “only way for candidate applicants to understand that they may not choose their country of asylum.”

Belgium expanded its list of safe countries of origin to include Georgia and Albania, despite a ruling of the Council of State declaring the designation of Albania unlawful. A further extension of this list is to be expected with State Secretary of Asylum and Migration reiterating plans to take other EU Member States’ designations of safe countries into account.

The pressure on the reception network in Belgium was artificially maintained by closing down multiple reception capacities in 2016 thereby reducing the reception capacity from 35,697 places in May 2016 to 26,362 places in January 2017.

The increased use of detention on grounds of protection of public order has led to multiple occasions where detention was based on accusations that were later deemed untrue or which the judiciary decided not to prosecute. When courts later reviewed the legality of detention orders, they regularly ruled that they were illegal. On top of this, the State Secretary announced the establishment of closed centres for families close to the 127-Bis Repatriation Centre near the Brussels National Airport, with a view to carrying out returns, even though detaining children is currently prohibited under Belgian legislation.

In April 2016 the Aliens Act was amended to restrict the duration of residence permits for beneficiaries of international protection. According to the new provision beneficiaries of international protection no longer receive permanent residence upon recognition, but a temporary right of residence of five years. Amendments also facilitated revoking the right to residence in Belgium.

“The developments in 2016 clearly show the intent to discourage people from seeking asylum in Belgium as far as possible by lowering protection standards, shortening procedures and increasing the use of detention and Dublin. The government’s intention to detain children, add countries to the safe countries of origin list and apply the barely used cessation clauses more strictly, already offers a view on the future of Belgium’s asylum system,” says Ruben Fierens, AIDA Legal Officer.

▻http://www.asylumineurope.org/news/22-02-2017/aida-2016-update-belgium
#asile #migrations #réfugiés #Belgique #Grèce #renvois #expulsions #renvois_Dublin #pays_sûrs #liste_des_pays_sûrs #Albanie #Géorgie #logement #hébergement #détention_administrative #rétention

‘Big, beautiful’ walls don’t stop migrants in the US or Europe

The next barbed wire fence, not quite a wall, was erected by Greece in 2012 in an effort to seal its land border with Turkey. This was a relatively unsophisticated fence that ran through the land strip of the Greek northeastern border with Turkey for 12.5km. It was originally budgeted at €5.5 million but eventually cost €3.16 million. The fence was fully financed by Greece, as the European Commission refused to contribute.

▻https://theconversation.com/big-beautiful-walls-dont-stop-migrants-in-the-us-or-europe-72040

#murs #barrières_frontalières #coût #frontières #Grèce #USA #Etats-Unis #Trump #contrôles_frontaliers #asile #migrations #réfugiés
cc @albertocampiphoto @daphne @marty

‘No one accepts responsibility’: thirteen refugees dead in Greece

As refugees and migrants die in Greece’s ‘#hotspots’, military camps and in transit, the EU, the UNHCR and Greek institutions must be held to account.

http://www.irr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/@GiorgosKosmop-2-768x432.jpg

#mourir_en_Grèce #asile #migrations #réfugiés #décès #morts #Grèce #mourir_dans_un_hotspot

Europe’s Migrant Trail, Through the Instagrams of Refugees. Following the “digital breadcrumbs” left by refugees on social media.

The photojournalists who documented the suffering of these refugees began their projects along traditional lines. Some of them, from the Times and from Reuters, won Pulitzer Prizes for images explicitly showing the dangers and humiliations people have endured in their search for a better life in Europe. As the crisis continued last year, the Belgian photographer Tomas van Houtryve embarked on a different kind of project. Supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, he followed the “digital breadcrumbs” left by refugees on social media as they passed through Turkey, Greece, and France. Van Houtryve, who has covered wars in Nepal and Afghanistan as a traditional photojournalist, became interested in the ways in which digital technology affects photography when, in 2013, he began working on a series of photographs of the United States taken from drones. For his current project, which he has called “Traces of Exile,” he shot video footage of sites along the migrant trail in Europe. Then, using an augmented-reality app called Layar, he overlaid his footage with screenshots of images posted by refugees on Instagram from those same sites.

▻http://www.newyorker.com/culture/portfolio/following-europes-migrant-trail-through-the-instagrams-of-refugees
#réseaux_sociaux #asile #migrations #réfugiés #parcours_migratoires #itinéraires_migratoires #smartphones #témoignages #Instagram

Ankara says Greece has ‘forcefully’ sent thousands of migrants back to Turkey

Officials from the Directorate General of Migration Management, which works under the Interior Ministry, said that Greece sent back more than 3,000 migrants to Turkey in the past four months.

▻http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ankara-says-greece-has-forcefully-sent-thousands-of-migrants-back

#refoulement #push-back #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Grèce #Turquie

Italy and Germany step up measures to deter asylum seekers

Those who thought Europe’s refugee “crisis” was over were reminded this week that tens of thousands of refugees remain stranded in Greece and the Balkans. Images of refugee tents shrouded in snow on the Greek islands have sparked outrage about the lack of adequate shelter, and scorn has been poured on the Greek government for keeping refugees in such miserable conditions. But others have pointed out that the real culprits are EU and member state policies that have closed borders and shrugged off responsibility for a more equitable distribution of the refugees arriving on Europe’s southern shores.

▻http://www.irinnews.org/analysis/2017/01/13/italy-and-germany-step-measures-deter-asylum-seekers
#Allemagne #Italie #asile #migrations #réfugiés #politique_migratoire #Libye #externalisation #détention_administrative #rétention #expulsions #renvois

Alarm in Greece as four migrants die in refugee camps in a week

Three migrants died within a week at the #Moria camp on the island of Lesvos, while a fourth was found dead at a camp on the island of Samos. The deaths have increased concerns about the living conditions of thousands of people who continue to live in tents, and cast fresh doubts over a pledge by the Migration Ministry in early January to take the necessary precautions as heavy snowfall and subzero temperatures engulfed the country.

▻http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2017/01/31/alarm-in-greece-as-four-migrants-die-in-refugee-camps-in-a-week
#Grèce #mourir_en_Europe #asile #migrations #morts #décès #réfugiés #camps_de_réfugiés #Lesbos #îles

Greece Plans to Fast Track Asylum Claims to Save E.U.-Turkey Deal

Amid a low number of returns under the E.U.-Turkey deal, Apostolis Fotiadis reports that European officials are increasing pressure on Greece to expedite returns to Turkey in the form of a new action plan.

▻https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2017/01/30/greece-plans-to-fast-track-asylum-claims-to-save-e-u-turkey-deal
#accord_UE-Turquie #deal #Turquie #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Grèce

Turkish-, Greek Cypriots exchange maps in symbolic breakthrough | Reuters

▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyprus-conflict-idUSKBN14V1AL

Lien transmis par Otto Simonett à Genève.

C’est historique : à ma connaissance, la première fois que ces cartes sont produites et proposées par les délégations (et non pas par les services carto de l’ONU)
▻http://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20170111&t=2&i=1168342474&w=&fh=545px&fw=&ll=&pl=&sq=&r=LYN

By Michele Kambas and Tom Miles | GENEVA

Leaders of Cyprus’s ethnic Greek and Turkish communities exchanged maps outlining rival proposals for territorial boundaries on Wednesday in a groundbreaking move diplomats hope could form part of a deal ending decades of division.

Presented, submitted and then sealed in a United Nations vault, territorial adjustments form an integral part of solving the decades-old Cyprus conflict which has kept Greece and Turkey at loggerheads and obstructs Turkey’s membership bid to the European Union.

Rival sides did not disclose detail. Both maps will form the basis for more intensive discussions on defining boundaries.

Carte de Chypre que j’ai réalisé dans les années 1990 avec les données et la contribution précieuse de Marie-Pierre Richarte

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/584/32336122116_61155c4f76_o_d.png

#chypre #murs #frontières

Nos films préférés en 2016 : Nicole Brenez
▻http://susauvieuxmonde.canalblog.com/archives/2017/01/15/34763058.html

La plus belle séance de cinéma de l’année Les Derniers Parisiens de Hamé & Ékoué Avant-première au Max Linder Panorama, Paris, le 2 décembre 2016 Le film…

30 Syrian refugees returned to Turkey from Greece

Almost 30 Syrian refugees who had their initial bids for asylum in Greece rejected have been returned to Turkey.

▻http://home.bt.com/news/world-news/30-syrian-refugees-returned-to-turkey-from-greece-11364136102819
#réfugiés_syriens #asile #migrations #réfugiés #renvois #expulsions #deal #accord #UE #EU

#Migrant crisis: Greece refugee camps hit by winter
11 January 2017
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/38578837

Video
Journalist Howard Johnson has travelled to the Malakasa and Oinofyta refugee camps, around an hour outside Athens, to see how people were coping with the wintry weather.

#Hiver

Thousands of refugees left in cold, as UN and EU accused of mismanagement
United Nations refugee agency and EU’s Echo aid department accused of failing to properly ‘winterise’ camps

In a recent UNHCR video, promoted by Echo, the two institutions hailed the success of their winterisation work. In early December, the EU also said that Greece was safe enough to return refugees there from other European countries.

But refugees and independent aid workers say Echo and UNHCR had initially ignored the gravity of the situation. The head of Medécins Sans Frontières in Greece, Loic Jaeger, described the situation as a failure.

“We are outraged about the positive communications [from UNHCR and the EU] that are completely disconnected with reality,” said Jaeger, speaking before UNHCR began to admit flaws in the process on 9 December.

Jaeger said: “Our feeling is that there is a willingness now, led by the fact that there is a massive amount of money [allocated for winterisation], to try to present the situation as if it is OK. But it is not. On the islands we are still not even starting to winterise. In some places it’s working quite well, but in northern Greece you still have people sleeping in tents in the snow."

▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/22/thousands-of-refugees-left-in-cold-as-un-and-eu-accused-of-mismanagemen

#réfugiés #immigration #migrants #Grèce #camps #campements #UE #UNHCR

Keep City Plaza Open

City Plaza is a refugee accommodation and solidarity space in the heart of Athens, Greece.

Following the closure of the borders when the EU trapped almost 65,000 refugees in Greece, the Greek government created more than 49 detention centers, hotspots and camps. City Plaza offers a safe and dignified alternative to these places where the conditions are wretched, unclean and inhumane.
On the 22nd of April 2016 refugees, volunteers and solidarity activists occupied City Plaza Hotel which had been closed for 7 years.
126 rooms on 7 floors. A reception, bar, dining room, kitchen, storage, play ground, health care center, roof terrace, classroom and library.
CIty Plaza is supported exclusively through political solidarity and individual donations.

400 people live together at City Plaza.
The numbers: More than 100 families 165 children, 100 men, 115 women, 35 locals, activists and volunteers.
Refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan & Gambia

Self-organisation is at the heart of City Plaza.
The philosophy: We live together. We work together. We struggle together.
The foundations of the day to day running of City Plaza lie in solidarity and collective participation. Refugees, locals, activists and volunteers work together in this way.

Your donation will go towards the essential working groups of City Plaza
Kitchen
– 3 meals a day for all, that’s 1,200 meals a day
Health Care Center
– Daily appointments with doctors and nurses & coordination with public hospitals, working to resolve refugee-specific health care services
Storage space and distribution of supplies for basic needs
– Everyday the people of City Plaza are given supplies to provide for basic needs (toiletries, washing powder, supplies for babies etc) but supplies are currently low.
Maintenance of the building
– A team of volunteers working for maintenance. City Plaza has not yet had enough funding to provide heating for the building.
Language Classes
– Greek for children, English for adults and children, German for adults and children

▻https://www.youcaring.com/refugeeaccommodationandsolidarityspacecityplaza-716186

REFUGE - Human Stories From the Refugee Crisis
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/refuge-human-stories-from-the-refugee-crisis

A small team of filmmakers set out for Greece, documenting human stories from the frontlines of the European Refugee Crisis, focused on humanity and hope. The world was changing and we found...

Why don’t refugees just stay in Turkey or Greece? We asked them

As the current migration and refugee crisis has unfolded, one question has frequently been asked: why don’t refugees just stay in Turkey or Greece?

Because migration research tends to focus on why people leave their home countries in the first place, we often miss the critical in-between step. Indeed, migrants may try to establish a life in an intended destination country, such as Turkey or Greece, but then be compelled for different reasons to move on. Alternatively, refugees may become “stuck” in a country that was intended to be a stop-over on a longer journey.

We wanted to find out how migrants in Greece and Turkey viewed their current situations and planned for the future. From May to June 2015, we interviewed more than 1,000 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria. The respondents included both migrants who had only recently arrived at Turkish or Greek refugee camps as well as people who had lived there for several years.

https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/149627/width754/image-20161212-31391-1l2bvwq.jpg

#asile #migrations #réfugiés #Grèce #Turquie #partir #parcours_migratoire #itinéraire_migratoire #pays_de_transit #transit

Greece appeals to EU for support over plan to detain refugees in order to speed up deportations

Greece has appealed to the EU to support its plan to reduce the numbers of migrants living in overcrowded refugee camps on the Aegean Islands.

The country suggests segregating people from nations with a “low recognition rate” of asylum eligibility – namely Algeria, Pakistan and Morocco – along with migrants judged to be behaving improperly in “#pre-removal” detention centres on the mainland.

▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greece-refugees-eu-support-plan-detain-refugees-a7467551.html
#catégorisation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #ségrégation #Grèce #détention_administrative #rétention #centres_de_renvoi #Algérie #Pakistan #Maroc