#criminalisation_de_la_solidarité

The Everywhere Border. Digital Migration Control Infrastructure in the Americas

The US is building a digital border infrastructure in neighbouring countries that expands and deepens surveillance, while hiding state violence. The implications of this new infrastructure will be long-lasting and need to be integrated into strategies of resistance of migrant justice movements worldwide.

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In 2021, José Eusebio Asegurado, a farmer in El Salvador, was arrested by the Salvadoran National Civil Police for ‘promoting human trafficking’. The basis for the arrest was a WhatsApp group chat (external link)
that Asegurado and other migrants1 were using to coordinate a caravan, which had been infiltrated by a police agent. According to the screenshots used to incriminate him, Asegurado’s only participation in the chat was responding ‘OK’ to a migrant’s message that he would be at a meeting point at around 5 o’clock. Police arrested Asegurado at the meeting point, telling him he was ‘profiled’ as a caravan organiser.

The same day, the Salvadoran police also charged Fátima Pérez, a cook, and Juan Rufino Ramírez, a private security guard, with promoting ‘human trafficking’ based on messages on a WhatsApp group they had created to coordinate a caravan. Screenshots in Ramírez’s case show him giving instructions to the 55-member group to meet at the bus station, and the prices of tickets to Guatemala. The police arrested Ramírez and Pérez the morning they were planning to leave.

These three arrests took place in the span of four hours. The then-US ambassador in El Salvador, Katherine Dueholm, promptly congratulated (external link)
the General Prosecutor’s office, stating: ‘I applaud the Salvadoran authorities who are taking action against those who want to deceive citizens with caravans and false promises. They promote only #UnViajeEnVano (external link)
’ – ’a journey in vain’.

The arrests and Ambassador Dueholm’s praise reflect the critical role of covert surveillance and data-driven ‘smart’ technologies in US migration-control practices operating deep within countries outside the US. Over the past twenty years, the US (and other wealthy countries) have made strides to externalise border-control regimes well beyond their actual territory. This often involves effectively enrolling agencies in other countries in migrant surveillance, policing, and exclusion.

The new digital infrastructure that enables border externalisation, however, is little understood. This digital infrastructure relies on both military-grade technology built by major weapons manufacturers and Silicon Valley innovation: inter-operable databases that share fingerprints seamlessly between police agencies across borders; biometric collection devices used by Mexican detention authorities to track migrants for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP); social media apps that serve as critical communications networks for migrants and surveillance tools for police; digital ID systems that enable access to essential services, but double as tracking devices.

Infrastructure – digital or material – has real sticking power; that’s the point. Once a highway splits a community in half, a new permanence stifles the din of protest, and people move on. We use the term digital infrastructure to describe the establishment of a foundation that will be fundamental to how world powers will practise migration control; and, as it embeds itself, increasingly beyond challenge – a unified strategic intervention by powerful countries, with the US coveting the vanguard. While it may look like technological experimentation (like AI-powered robot dogs on the border) or one-off opportunistic data-grabs (like networks of international data-sharing agreements), the growth of digital border infrastructure is by design. This is enabled through joined-up digital technologies that settle into the kind of rigid, ‘motiveless’ permanence granted to other infrastructures, like submarine communications cables, protocols and servers that run the internet, an electrical grid or a superhighway.2

The profound implications of new infrastructures persist long after their creation, as is the case for the digital infrastructure deployed to police migrants in the so-called US ‘backyard’. Its impacts are frequently rendered invisible. Governments promote border policing technologies as fundamentally safe, humane and non-violent (external link)
while migrant advocates struggle to make visible the violence on the other side of this unseen ‘borderland circuitry’.3

The implications range from digitally triggered violence and killings by local police in Central America to actions by the US, its allies and competitors in geopolitical contests over the control of global security. The US government and private industry have worked themselves into a largely covert entrepreneurial frenzy to own and control the migration policing interface of the future. Monitoring and control capabilities – a longstanding and routine part of US aid packages to fight organised crime – both expand domestic spying by partner governments for their own ends and serve US border externalization interests in controlling the movement of people and diverting them away from the US territorial border.

This essay will focus primarily on how digital infrastructure serves US interests . What do we know about this strategy and how it is already affecting mobility and human rights in the region? What are its historical foundations? What challenges lie ahead? It is impossible to answer these questions simply by dissecting the cruelty or provenance of any single technology, system or actor. We first need to understand the transnational motivations driving these incremental, more observable, facts on the ground. We need, in other words, to make visible the invisible digital infrastructure.
Digital infrastructure is key to border externalisation and a rise in unaccountable violence

Understanding border externalisation through the lens of digital infrastructure captures the true scale of border practices envisaged by the US (and its competitors and allies) as well as their envisaged permanence within the future world order. Digital border infrastructure feeds on histories of domination, control and atrocities in the name of transnational ‘crime-fighting’ projects, setting the stage for tremendous social costs.

First, as to scale, we are witnessing an escalation of US border imperialism and borderland violence4 – both in terms of geographical reach far into national territories and the further extension of ‘policeability’5 to an increasing number of individuals and groups through this digital infrastructure. This includes anyone an algorithm decides might be ‘dangerous’, those who might migrate, as well as humanitarian actors, migrant advocacy groups, and aid organisations. Scaling and the rapid growth it engenders is a quintessential property of digital technologies, regardless of their origin or application. The shifts to new targets under digital infrastructure are frictionless compared to earlier analogue-based border policing tactics. Asegurado, the farmer assisting migrants in El Salvador, was swept up in the US border externalisation dragnet with a simple ‘OK’ on a WhatsApp chat.

Second, as to permanence, advocates of digital borders in national capitals, industry and development agencies embrace the term ‘digital public infrastructure’ as a brand, to bestow (unearned) trust, normalisation and the inevitability of contested digital tools such as biometric IDs and payment systems.6 Ceding the privilege of defining ‘digital infrastructure’ to actors with vested interests in current migration-control practices is reckless. Without a counternarrative that articulates their violent disposition, digital border externalisation tools – including widespread biometrics collection, real-time transaction data-collection in payment systems, and the confiscation of smartphones at the border – can easily be normalised as ‘digital public infrastructure’, rather than resisted.

The scale and enduring impact of the rapidly hardening digital infrastructure that fuels border externalisation calls for urgent transnational organising. As writers and activists, we have come together to resist the use of digital infrastructure in US migration-control policy in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. We have only traces and not the whole picture. Building on the work of others, we weave all this together to show how the fusion of state and digital power to construct digital border infrastructure is neither humane nor safe: rather, it is increasing unaccountable forms of violence.

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Convergence: Drugs war, border externalisation, digital infrastructure and the militarisation of US’ neighbouring regions

Economic and political initiatives since the 1970s have driven relentlessly towards US investments in more militarised, criminalising, and digitised migration-control practices. Since 9/11, the US convergence of ‘national security’ with unauthorised migration has fueled an ever expanding border externalisation regime—currently there are 23 CBP offices and 48 ICE offices worldwide—and consequently has provided an especially lucrative market for digital surveillance corporations.7 Through programmes such as the Mérida Initiative and the Central American Regional Security Initiative, the US has tied aid to countries such as Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to increased militarisation, policing, incarceration, and migration control.

Yet migration patterns to the US from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean cannot be divorced from the practices and policies that the US employed for over a century to dominate countries in these regions. Decades of US practices and policies have fuelled economic, political, and environmental instability – key factors that drive migration to the US. Over the past 20 years the number of people migrating from Central America has more than doubled (external link)
, the largest increases coming from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. The US-backed ‘war on drugs’ in Mexico and Central America has dramatically increased violence and instability.8 In Mexico, the fight against organised crime has resulted in 350,000 deaths and more than 72,000 disappearances (external link)
between 2006 and 2021. According to the World Bank, 60% of rural Central Americans live in poverty (external link)
. While the largest contributors to the climate crisis are wealthy countries, these already impoverished populations suffer the most acute impacts of climate change. For decades, prolonged droughts together with natural catastrophic events such as hurricanes (external link)
and floods (external link)
have deeply affected Central America. The number of people facing food insecurity tripled between 2019 and 2021, affecting 6.4 million people (external link)
. Asegurado, Pérez and Ramírez – like many others – are grasping for alternatives to this intolerable situation.

Rather than acknowledge these underlying causes, the US response has been to extend its border ever further. General John Kelly, former Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), stated (external link)
, ‘I believe the defense of the Southwest border starts 1,500 miles to the south’. Mexico has long been central to the US border-externalisation regime, and digital infrastructure plays an increasingly critical role. Tony Crowder, former director of CBP’s Air and Marine Operations, shared Kelly’s sentiment ‘We have taught the Mexicans how to fish…[but] even though we have all this surveillance capability, we don’t have enough, we need more’.9

While part of a continuum of US efforts to enlist Mexico in support of its regional objectives, this ‘security and rule-of-law partnership (external link)
’ accelerated following 9/11. In 2007, the US shifted the focus of its drug war (external link)
from Colombia to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Under this frame of securitisation, the drug war merged with the migrant-control regime. In 2008, the Mérida Initiative was launched – a bilateral partnership between the US and Mexico in the name of the US war on drugs. It initially provided financing for Mexico to purchase equipment for its military and police forces and for intelligence gathering. In 2013, Mérida was revamped to include four pillars (external link)
, incorporating the creation of a ‘21st century US-Mexican border, while improving immigrant enforcement in Mexico and security along Mexico’s southern borders’. Effectively an extension of US policy, some $3.5 billion (external link)
has helped shape Mexico’s migration-control agenda since 2008.

In 2014, Programa Frontera Sur further securitised Mexico’s southern border by increasing the migration policing and deportation apparatus. Consequently, Mexico now has one of the world’s largest (external link)
immigration detention systems. Between 2014 and 2017, Mexico deported more Central Americans (external link)
than the US Border Patrol. Doris Meissner, the former commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS, the predecessor to ICE and CBP), underscored the importance of Mexican migration control, explaining in 2017 the need to look at both US and Mexican data to assess the effectiveness of US border enforcement (external link)
.10

Under these agreements, the US Department of Defense has provided training and sold millions in military equipment to Mexico, including an array of ‘smart border’ technologies provided by corporations (external link)
such as Dev Technology, General Dynamics, Amazon Web Services, and NEC. The CBP and ICE have provided training on intelligence-gathering, info-sharing, and migration policing. A key element of US support to Mexico has been to develop an infrastructure to collect and share data – such as biometric and biographical information, and criminal history – in a manner that interfaces seamlessly with US databases.

The digital infrastructure that tracks and catalogues migrants is central to US migration policy in Mexico. The US-backed Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) strategy relies on this infrastructure (external link)
as the primary means to control migration rather than sealing Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala. Biometric collection is essential to making migrants more legible to the state. In 2011, the US provided four biometric kiosks (external link)
to Mexico’s southern border, and 117 additional biometric scanners (external link)
the following year. Between 2018 and the first half of 2022, the Mexican government gathered and shared information on over 360,000 migrants in detention facilities.11 Information from CBP reveals that Mexican authorities shared information from 10,000 humanitarian visa (external link)
applications with DHS. The release of approximately 1,800 unregistered migrants from a shelter in Piedras Negras was conditional on the registration of their data.12

An ‘Information Sharing Environment’ that includes inter-operable data-sharing systems (external link)
is central to achieving the objectives of the homeland security state. ‘Inter-operability’ enables seamless connectivity between police, immigration agencies, foreign governments, and more.13 Key forms of US-initiated digital infrastructure rely on widespread information-gathering and seamless sharing of data for surveillance across borders.

This vast amount of data-collection and sharing has been fuelled by unleashing the power of the carceral state – including the centrality of the ‘criminal alien’, ‘gang member’ and ‘drug trafficker’ as threats to national security – at all geographic levels of the US migrant-control regime. For example, the Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program (BITMAP) allows DHS and its partner countries to know where and when an individual arrives in the Western Hemisphere (external link)
and their travel patterns before they reach the southwest US border. BITMAP is currently deployed to 18 countries (external link)
, including Mexico. DHS also has a Criminal History Information Sharing (CHIS) programme that allows for the global sharing of biographic, biometric, and descriptive information on individuals deported from the US (e.g. alleged immigration, employment, family, and criminal histories).

The structural criminalisation of poverty in both countries is amplified with CHIS. According to the National Survey of Imprisoned Population in Mexico, conducted by the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (INEGI) in 2021, nearly 44% of the respondents declared having been imprisoned on the basis of false accusations or incriminations (external link)
. Forty-two percent claimed they had been forced to plead guilty or to incriminate someone else. Nearly half of those who are jailed have not been convicted (external link)
, and nearly half of all convictions are for theft of under US$100 (external link)
. This is the kind of data that feeds CHIS.

In another example, DHS is developing the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology System (HART) (external link)
to replace its current centralised biometric database, IDENT, through a contract with Peraton (external link)
(a subsidiary of Veritas Capital, a private equity firm). Hosted by Amazon Web Services, HART will enable DHS to aggregate and compare biographical and biometric data on hundreds of millions of people across the globe. This includes so-called encounter data from police stops, facial recognition, DNA, iris scans, and voice prints – usually gathered without the individual’s knowledge or consent. The massive HART database draws from widespread biometrics collection in all realms – for example, the US DOS INL’s development of integrated DNA databases in Mexico and Central America in the name of combating trafficking or the proposed national biometric digital ID in Mexico (external link)
. In this way, multiple state initiatives merge, and the power of the state to police, track and control migrants and all people under their watch grows exponentially.

While the Mérida Initiative formally ended in 2019, its approach has been sustained by the Mexican government. In 2021, the Mexican government increased (external link)
the military by 46% and the National Guard dedicated to stopping migrants by 300%. In July 2022, President López Obrador committed $1.5 billion in smart border infrastructure (external link)
over the next two years.

For US partner states, any technological and data-sharing channels that are financed and exported to them become assets – not just for monitoring migrants, but to advance multiple agendas of coercive power-building. This infrastructure can therefore end up fuelling violence and criminalisation, undermining the right to asylum, exacerbating inequality, and expanding the power of paramilitaries and the police (external link)
, while privileging securitised neoliberal and corporate prerogatives.
The geopolitical nature of digital infrastructure

In their research on digital payment systems, Marieke de Goede and Carola Westermeier use the term ‘infrastructural geopolitics’ to stress the growing centrality of infrastructure to geopolitics and the ways in which US economic power is rooted in financial infrastructures (which, like migration control, are rapidly digitising).14

The global financial messaging network SWIFT is an example of infrastructure that is invisible to most people and yet plays a major role, as the writers describe, in reinforcing power relations of the post-war global order in which it emerged. Seventy years after the Second World War and fifty years since SWIFT’s establishment, bank messaging routes flow through former colonial capitals and map onto a ‘core’ of Western countries, leaving large swaths of Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East in a permanent, but effectively invisible, economic periphery. Similarly, digital IDs, social media monitoring and infiltration, and data-sharing platforms are essentially component parts, nodes, or partially visible layers of deeper, longer-term geo-strategic digital infrastructure projects.

Extension of borders through digital infrastructure serves US political and economic goals well beyond the policing of human mobility. Geopolitical contests for control over infrastructures play out across several domains. Military establishments covet ‘identity dominance (external link)
’, an objective that drove US forces to gather massive stores of biometric data in Afghanistan and Iraq as a weapon of war. US digital services giants like Amazon and Google mastered ‘platformisation’ by building e-commerce (digital advertising, search, social media, etc.) infrastructure to dominate the digital economy. Often, public and private-sector interests converge, including in the form of public–private partnerships (PPPs) to build infrastructure. In each case, the true contest among states and corporate giants centres on control over the interface, or the most essential, invisible, infrastructural methods of digital communication and control. As Michael Kwet explains (external link)
, ‘Transnational “Big Tech” corporations based in the United States have amassed trillions of dollars and gained excessive powers to control everything, from business and labor to social media and entertainment in the Global South. Digital colonialism is now engulfing the world’. The US quest for domination through externalised migration policing infrastructure goes hand in hand with its geopolitical and corporate designs for economic power.

These forms of infrastructural digital power pose unique challenges for documentation and ultimately for any form of systemic change. Challenges include blurred lines of responsibility, mission, and function; governments and corporate actors are seen or presented as passive conduits or intermediaries in digital public infrastructure; and infrastructures can easily appear to be ‘ahistorical’ and motiveless. In Mexico and Central America, migration control converges with ongoing US foreign policing operations (such as the war on drugs, and gang wars). We explore the several simultaneous effects of this complex merger: the turn to digital infrastructure; its relationship to violence and human suffering; and its foreclosure of accountability for these harms.
Digital border infrastructure in your phone: Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policing techniques along migration routes

Surveillance infrastructure is tangible in physical migration detention centres and in police arrests: mugshots, cheek swabs, confiscation of the detainee’s mobile phone. The deepening integration of daily life, telecommunications and computers open extensive avenues for more covert, opportunistic surveillance of private communications and activity by users who rely on social media, mobile communication and messaging apps. The surveillance of mobile phones and social media ranges from overt disclosure requirements for visa and benefits applications to government listing and tracking of protesters and other ‘undesirable’ actors. Migrant surveillance is immersed in these control schemes where surveillance technology serves as a silent tool for government violence and repression.

This has had an impact on how migrants travel and keep safe, such as through safety in numbers. Travelling in caravans has therefore become both a survival and a protest strategy: sources of both physical and economic security (external link)
and opposition (external link)
to the economic policies that contributed to their displacement. Social media and messaging apps are key tools for the coordination of caravans and for migrants more broadly. Migrants use these tools to identify routes, look for shelter and food, communicate with their support networks, warn each other about risks (external link)
, and coordinate travel. Governments as well as organised crime understand these dynamics and use these same tools to monitor and extort migrants.

On 5 June 2019, Irineo Mujica, from Sin Fronteras – a civil society organisation (CSO) dedicated to the protection of human rights of migrants in Mexico and the US, and which has supported multiple migrant caravans – was arrested in Mexico, falsely charged with human trafficking (external link)
. Mujica appeared in the CBP’s watchlist database published in 2019 (external link)
that contained photos, names, professions, and other details of journalists, activists, and social media influencers both from Mexico and the US with links to the migrant caravan.

A DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) report (external link)
on the database and other surveillance practices found that CBP established electronic alerts (lookouts) on journalists, attorneys, and advocates who were connected by social media to the migrant caravans. Those tagged by the lookouts were constantly flagged for secondary screening (external link)
when entering the US, and interrogated about their work, organisation, family, education, and political leanings.

The weaponisation of such information had grim effects on the Mexican side of the border. According to Sin Fronteras activist Alex Mensing (external link)
, after the CBP shared information gathered through lookouts with the Mexican government, other members from his organisation who assisted migrant caravans in the same period saw an increase in border scrutiny and death threats (external link)
. Organising and supporting migrants threatens lucrative operations that depend on the criminalisation of migration across the region. Civil society assistance makes migrants less prone to kidnapping and extortion, which therefore reduces the income for organised crime linked to these activities, and, as a domino effect, bribes to authorities also drop, pitting the collective interests of such groups against activists and those providing humanitarian assistance.

Surveilling anyone who might pose a threat to the system has long been a generalised and systematic form of government control in Mexico. A leaked document from the NSO Group, the Israeli company that created Pegasus, revealed that 50,000 people were possible surveillance targets (external link)
in Mexico. The list included opposition politicians, journalists investigating government corruption and extrajudicial killings, activists advocating the taxing of sugary drinks, judges, academics, and international experts who investigated the case of the enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killing of the 43 students, among others.

In 2022, mobile phones from two journalists and an activist who investigated abuses committed by the Mexican army were found to be infected with the malware Pegasus (external link)
. In 2020, the Mexican government sought to create a SIM card registry that would link to the card owner’s biometrics and other personal data. This would have intensified government digital surveillance via ICT infrastructure, and was opposed by civil society (external link)
.

CBP internal documents show (external link)
that government agencies across the border continually share information about the location of migrants, their origin, and the number of people in each group, even before they start to migrate. In 2018, US DHS agents infiltrated a WhatsApp group (external link)
of Honduran migrants travelling in a caravan of about 4,000. These policing practices are also being reproduced by the Mexican government.15

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Impact: Infrastructural violence and accountability deficits in globalised migration policing

Roberto M., a young man in El Salvador, was shot and taken away by police shortly after being deported from the US. The rural police officers who shot Roberto also threatened an eyewitness at gunpoint, telling him that Roberto was a gang member and if he revealed what he’d seen, the same would happen to him. Police in El Salvador receive data on gang-member affiliation from the US, and share these lists (external link)
with neighbourhood-level police where deportees plan to live. These databases have been found to be problematic and unreliable (external link)
. Police departments confirmed (external link)
that this information is used to target people (external link)
: ‘We think that if a person wasn’t wanted in the United States, it must be because the deported person is bad’.

Violence can increasingly be tied to digital border technologies, particularly in combination with one another and with physical and environmental realities that envelop them. Studies show the effects of integrated fixed-tower surveillance on migrant mortality rates in Arizona’s Altar Valley. Here, digital infrastructure merges with the ineffective yet longstanding US deterrence policy that purposefully makes migration routes more dangerous, on the theory that migrants would not risk the journey. The fusion of technology and policies that inflict deliberate harm produces these predictable results of increased migrant deaths (external link)
.

The story of Roberto M. and the witness to his post-deportation shooting and disappearance in El Salvador reflects another pattern of violence tied to information-sharing through digital infrastructures. The criminologist Ana Muñiz documents a ‘cycle of violent policing, migration, more violent policing, detention, deportation, violent policing, migration, and so on’, in which the labels themselves (‘criminal alien’ or ‘gang member’) become inescapable vectors of precarity.16 Such labels channel individuals into a ‘sort of statelessness’ as constant, quantifiable scapegoats that provide an easy diversion for state security forces and corporations that produce and perpetuate the ‘structural causes of violence’.17

Digital infrastructure merges not with a physical terrain, but with pre-existing social and political factors that make violence a foregone conclusion. Today’s multipurpose digital infrastructure also permits the efficient incorporation of new undesirable criminalised categories, including ‘caravan organisers’ or ‘migration promoters’ – as in El Salvador’s attempt (external link)
to reform its penal code, criminalising the ‘promotion of migration’ on social media.
Challenges and way forward

We are interested in developing deeper knowledge about the political origins of these infrastructures to challenge the violence of global migration control systems. This essay only sets out the field of engagement. Far more collective work is required to document and design models of resistance to meet such challenges.

The diffuse and structural nature of power behind the seemingly ahistorical, and motiveless characteristics of digital infrastructures undermine classic approaches to accountability. Furthermore, the familiar national and international judicial avenues to hold perpetrators of these forms of indirect violence responsible – however imperfect or ineffective they may already be – are exceptionally ill-suited to the conditions at play in the migration policing context specifically, for several reasons.

First, the technologies in use such as biometric databases, and the means of using civilian technologies like social media and other ICTs, are simply not designed to respect or be held to democratic scrutiny; they are military-grade and converted for use in quasi-militarised spaces, by institutions permeated with military ideology. Nearly a third of CBP personnel previously served in the US military. Biometric surveillance technologies advanced by leaps and bounds within US military operations before being integrated with ‘civilian’ border policing. Private-sector military contractors play an integral role in this transition.

As journalist Annie Jacobsen documents, as part of the US military biometric data-collection in Afghanistan, Palantir Technologies served as a critical link between US intelligence operations to track and kill military targets and quasi-civilian policing operations like the piloting of rapid DNA samples from migrant families at the US border in 2019.18 Today, the biometric kits used in Afghanistan, some still storing biometric data collected on the battlefield, are for sale on eBay (external link)
.

Second, justice and oversight bodies are ill-equipped to serve their intended function in this ecosystem. Within criminal proceedings and investigations, the use of technologies that capture and record evidence of allegedly criminal activity or purport to biometrically match records are extremely difficult to challenge because of their scientific veneer and opaque data-collection and analysis methods, which leaves no practical room (external link)
to impeach or exclude such evidence. The design of technologies that predetermine risk factors keyed to criminalised behaviour, including migration, contravenes the presumption of innocence. In the civil context, national-level justice mechanisms deny standing to non-nationals located outside the US who are victims of violations linked to digital surveillance.

Finally, there are huge incentives for both state and corporate power to hide violence. The political positioning of ‘smart borders’ as more ‘humane’ conceals the state’s role in violence and insulates corporations from negative PR or constraints by participating in repugnant markets. Their task is made easy by rendering physical pain abstract rather than affecting real human beings,19 and features of the data economy like the way corporates have helped the movement towards running government functions like private digital platforms.

Mitigation ‘risk assessment’ tools like data protection or human rights impact assessments provide cover (external link)
, favouring the continuation of these business practices because firms undertake them voluntarily and face little or no consequences for a poor risk assessment. Unsurprisingly, these industry-led tools often fail to provide (external link)
a means for real accountability; they reveal scant information that would be actionable if and when products do cause harm; and the burden of proving rights violations and finding an effective remedy (external link)
after the fact is shouldered entirely by victims. The interests of powerful actors converge around a web of financial stakes in the system, leading to the aggressive harassment and potential silencing of activists as the case of Irineo Mujica and Sin Fronteras illustrates.

We need tools and methods for transnational cooperation to document, gather and share information safely, and organise. Fusing new understandings about how digital power functions within existing resistance movements transnationally, holds potential for challenges to the digital infrastructure of border externalisation.

We are in the initial stages of our collective effort to understand and expose this digital infrastructure. Through this analysis, we can begin to identify the interventions to start to tear it apart and break it down. Transnational organising against tech corporations offers opportunities for shared understanding and meaningful solidarity. This year, organisations in France and Kenya, with support from actors in other countries, sued biometrics giant IDEMIA (external link)
for its failure to meet even minimum human rights standards of due diligence as it reaps billions in secret border security tech sales to low- and middle-income countries. This emerged from collaborative evidence-gathering and organising across borders.

As the US military establishment recognised decades ago: whoever dominates the field of externalised borders defines ‘friend and foe’ everywhere.20 The faster the US establishes economic and political dominance over digital migration-control infrastructure, the greater its security in maintaining global digital power. Digital infrastructure serves multiple purposes at once, but the ultimate geopolitical function is raw, generalised power over global affairs. The tools examined here will ‘contain’ human life within spaces of catastrophic violence, by design. This specific effect betrays the most fundamental commitments of international human rights and humanitarian law in the face of unprecedented challenges to human survival across most of the world. But this pernicious effect is also ruthlessly beside the point.

In reality, as facets of infrastructural power, the technologies that fix the ‘calculation of who must live and who must die’22 do not do so as an end in itself, but in the service of power and its reproduction in this digital age.23 In this way the complicity of state and corporate actors in the production of violence is cast in the starkest relief. This geopolitical analysis is our starting point for building resistance towards transformation.

▻https://www.tni.org/en/article/the-everywhere-border
#externalisation #migrations #frontières #réfugiés #USA #Etats-Unis #infrastructure #infrastructure_numérique #violence #violence_d'Etat #surveillance #caravane #whatsapp #criminalisation_de_la_migration #arrestation #technologie #technologie_intelligente #externalisation_des_contrôles_frontaliers #bases_de_données #interopérabilité #empreintes_digitales #coopération_policière #impérialisme #biométrie #Mérida_Initiative #Central_American_Regional_Security_Initiative #war_on_drugs #Amérique_centrale #Mexique #Programa_Frontera_Sur #rétention #détention_administrative #ICE #smart_borders #frontières_intelligentes #Dev_Technology #General_Dynamics #Amazon_Web_Services #complexe_militaro-industriel #NEC #Instituto_Nacional_de_Migración (#INM) #Guatemala #Biometric_Identification_Transnational_Migration_Alert_Program (#BITMAP) #Criminal_History_Information_Sharing (#CHIS) #criminalité #Homeland_Advanced_Recognition_Technology_System (#HART) #IDENT #Peraton #Veritas_Capital #reconnaissance_faciale #ADN #DOS_INL #infrastructural_geopolitics #géopolitique #SWIFT #multinationales #colonialisme_numérique #téléphones_portables #smartphones #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #NSO_Group #border_deaths #décès #morts_aux_frontières #mourir_aux_frontières

Settler terror devastates West Bank olive harvest

Israeli military restrictions and over 150 settler attacks in the past two weeks have prevented many Palestinians from harvesting this year’s crop.

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Early Sunday morning, 53-year-old Afaf Abu Alia was harvesting olives with her brother and children along with other families and protective presence activists in a grove near Turmus Ayya, a Palestinian town north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. She managed to fill just one basket before a mob of 100 settlers descended from the nearby outpost of Or Nachman.

Armed with clubs and stones, the settlers began attacking harvesters and activists, setting several vehicles ablaze. “We had left our equipment in my brother’s car and retreated as they got closer,” she told +972. But when they returned to the car to flee, the tires had been slashed. Soldiers arrived, detained her brother, and fired tear gas at them.

Choking from the gas, Abu Alia sat under a tree to wait for her brother. “Suddenly, I saw settlers running towards me. I tried to flee, but one caught up and hit me on the head and arm with a club. They also threw stones at people nearby.”

Abu Alia was taken to the Istishari Hospital in Ramallah, where she spent a night in the intensive care unit with a brain bleed and received 18 stitches in her head. “I thought that was it, that I was going to die,” she told Middle East Eye from her hospital bed, where she remains in serious condition.

The olive harvest in Palestine began less than two weeks ago, and already it is shaping up to be one of the most violent yet. Across much of the West Bank, Israeli forces are preventing Palestinian farmers from reaching their groves — even in areas where access was unhindered during last year’s deadly harvest season — and arresting and deporting international activists assisting the farmers. At the same time, settlers are destroying olive groves, cutting down trees and lighting them on fire, while attacks on harvesters are growing in both frequency and severity.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, 158 attacks have been recorded against olive pickers since the start of the harvest season on Oct. 9. In the first week of the harvest alone, 27 villages were affected by attacks on harvesters, theft of crop and harvest equipment, and the destruction of olive trees.

On Oct. 10, as Palestinian and international activists from the Zaytoun2025 solidarity campaign joined farmers in the fields, a group of settlers accompanied by soldiers attacked harvesters in the village of Beita. Although no prior coordination is required to harvest olives in this area, soldiers ordered the farmers to leave. When they refused, soldiers fired tear gas, while settlers hurled stones and assaulted both harvesters and journalists. Twelve vehicles were torched during the incident, including the car of AFP photojournalist Jaafar Ashtiyeh.

The following day, farmers discovered that at least 200 olive trees belonging to residents of Khirbet Abu Falah and Turmus Ayya had been cut down overnight. “They arrived while we were asleep and cut all the trees,” said Samir Shouman, a land owner from Khirbet Abu Falah, speaking to +972 on Friday as farmers and activists returned to the groves to assess the damage. “We waited all year for this moment, but as you see there are no olives and there will be no oil this year.”

In a rare occurrence, Israeli soldiers accompanied the harvesters on that visit — widely seen by the farmers and activists as an attempt to contain public outrage after the highly publicized attack on Sunday in Turmus Ayya, which was captured on video by American journalist Jasper Nathaniel.

Nathaniel told +972 that the army had facilitated the ambush. “We were trapped by settlers in one direction. We tried another way, and the army blocked us,” he said.

When he got out of the car to ask the soldiers for help because settlers were blocking their exit, the soldiers pointed their guns at him. “They said they’d help and move the settlers, but then they sped off and left us with two settlers on an ATV, one of them with a gun,” he recalled. “Two minutes later, 100 settlers appeared out of nowhere and attacked us.”

Even Judea and Samaria District Police Commander Moshe Pinchi — who has previously stated that protecting settlements takes precedence over maintaining law and order, and under whose command settler violence has surged — wrote in an internal police forum that “the images haunted my sleep.” Yet shocked as he may have been, no arrests have been made. What’s more, the police investigation has focused narrowly on a single settler, rather than the coordinated nature of the attack and apparent greenlight settlers received from the authorities.

An Israeli military spokesperson told +972 that “upon receiving the report [on Sunday], IDF and Israel Police forces arrived at the scene to disperse the disturbances.” Nathaniel rejected this version of events. “That never happened,” he said. “The attack lasted between 15 and 20 minutes, the [army] knew we needed help, and they left us alone.”
‘I had to remind the officer I was nearly killed’

The day after the attack in Turmus Ayya, harvesters returned to their fields near the Or Nachman outpost. Established in 2024, Or Nachman sits between Turmus Ayya and Al-Mughayyir in Area B of the West Bank, where Israel exercises security control and the Palestinian Authority nominally maintains civil order, and has been evacuated by the Israeli army several times — but each time rebuilt. Burned vehicles from the previous day’s attack still lined the road.

Israeli military and Civil Administration forces were present, likely due to the global attention generated by the attack, and the fact that many American citizens live in Turmus Ayya. Soldiers prevented farmers from harvesting within several hundred meters of the illegal outpost, and even under army supervision, one of the settlers identified in the video of the attack drove an ATV through the groves, filming the harvesters.

A forensics team later arrived, though any usable evidence had likely been destroyed in the 36 hours after the attack. Their very presence, however, was unusual: investigations into settler violence against Palestinians are exceedingly rare.

Nathaniel, who returned to the scene, said he confronted the soldier who had abandoned them. “He told me he’d seen the video and was very sorry, and said it was an honest mistake,” Nathaniel recounted. “I don’t believe him for one second.”

He described the police investigator he’d spoken to as hostile. “I had to remind the officer I was nearly killed, that he was supposed to be investigating who did it. It caught him off guard, like he forgot that was his job.”

Investigators, Nathaniel said, seemed intent on pinning the assault on the settler who clubbed Abu Alia. “They were willing to admit one guy broke the law. But it was clear they didn’t want to implicate any soldiers or other settlers.

“They even asked me how I knew they were settlers and not Arabs chasing me and asked if I heard Hebrew,” Nathaniel continued. “I refused to play that game. I told them that they knew as well as I did that they were settlers.”

One of the harvesters who returned to Turmus Ayya on Monday was Ali Al-Kouk, 59, who owns 80 olive trees but is barred by the Israeli army from accessing most of them. “In the past you could reach your land,” he told +972, as he separated olives from leaves and branches. “Today, most areas are inaccessible. There’s no greater humiliation than not being able to reach your own land while settlers are protected by the army. Even after the attack, settlers patrol to intimidate people.”

Nasser, another farmer, added that in previous harvests, they would spend weeks with their families in the groves. “Last year we came for 15 days with everyone, brought a truck and worked all day. Now we come to work quickly, for one or two days. [The settlers] come to kill us.”

An Israel Police spokesperson told +972 that they had “initiated a comprehensive investigation” into the attack on Sunday, as part of which “intensive investigative and intelligence operations have been conducted to identify those involved, gather evidence, and bring them to justice.” The spokesperson did not answer questions regarding whether police are investigating the whole incident or just the attack on the woman, whether arrests were made, and why forensic teams arrived only a day and a half later.
‘Not a single olive was left on the trees’

Besides attacking farmers, Israeli settlers have ramped up their destruction of Palestinian olive groves — even before the start of this year’s harvest.

In the morning of Oct. 3, Ayman Ghoneimat was in his home in the town of Surif, north of Hebron, when he saw a group of masked settlers descend from a nearby outpost with handsaws. “They began cutting and breaking the branches of ancient olive trees,” he recalled. “After about 20 minutes, they set the trees on fire and returned to the settlement outpost they had established near the village about five months ago.”

The next day, Ghoneimat was shocked to discover that the settlers had returned during the night and cut down dozens more ancient olive trees in the same area — a valley home to hundreds of olive and other fruit trees.

“Around 200 olive trees have been destroyed this month by settlers,” Ghonemiat told +972 earlier this week. “One-hundred of these trees belonged to me, including 40 that had been growing for generations, aged between 15 and 40 years. I also had a new piece of land that I planted earlier this year with about 50 young olive trees. Those too were cut down and broken by hand, deliberately and brutally.”

In the nearby town of Sa’ir, settlers have also been destroying olive groves before Palestinians have a chance to harvest them. Youssef Salameh Shalaldeh, a Palestinian farmer from Sa’ir, owns with his brothers about 30 dunams of land planted with olive trees.

On the afternoon of Oct. 8, Shalaldeh and his family received alarming news: settlers were harvesting olives from their trees. When they rushed to the site, they saw four settlers, one of whom was armed, violently beating the olive branches.

About 10 minutes later, a military vehicle arrived, accompanied by security from the settlement of Asfar. Instead of protecting the farmers, the soldiers expelled the Palestinians from their own land, allowing the settlers to remain.

Elsewhere in Sa’ir, settlers have lit fires that have ravaged entire groves. On Thursday, Jaddi Hamdan Shalaldeh, 35, walked among his desiccated trees. “Today we came to our land to pick the olives, as we do every year. But we had already heard about what happened: the entire land has been burned, and there isn’t a single olive left on the trees that we can benefit from.

“Every year I used to get around 10 to 12 tanks of olive oil,” he continued. “This year, not even a single drop — this is what the occupation has left us with. The goal of the settlers is to seize and colonize this land, and to drive us out of it by any means possible. But we will not leave this land except over our dead bodies.”
Targeting solidarity activists

Israeli authorities have also intensified their campaign against international activists arriving for the olive harvest. Last week, 32 activists were arrested in the village of Burin near Nablus after the army declared the entire village a closed military zone. Initially, only seven activists were deported — whom police claimed wore symbols associated with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), which Israel designated a “terror organization” in 2021 — but later the authorities decided to deport everyone.

“We came in response to a call to participate in the harvest, to stand with families under threat,” Merlin, a solidarity activist from the U.K. who participated in the harvest in Turmus Ayya, told +972. “As for the steps against us — arrest and deportation — I think activists know the risks. It only strengthens our conviction in what we’re doing: if Israeli authorities take our presence here so seriously, just standing and picking olives and documenting assaults when they happen, it proves how important it is for internationals to keep coming.”

Last year, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir set up a special task force to target foreign activists in the West Bank and expedite their detention and deportation. During the 2024 olive harvest, activists reported threats, intimidation, and false accusations during interrogations, and 15 were arrested and deported — a number that, this month alone, has more than doubled.

“It’s clear the decision to deport solidarity and human rights activists was predetermined, and all the ‘procedures’ were just protocol,” explained Riham Nasra, an attorney who represented several of the deported international activists. “This isn’t the result of proper legal review, but reflects political interests, leaving Palestinians in the field to face settler violence alone.”

Avi Dabush, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, organizes Israeli volunteers to accompany Palestinian farmers for the olive harvest. He told +972 that since the current season began, the army has barred them from accessing groves almost every day under the pretext of “closed military zones.”

“Before October 7, there were years with only three ‘closed military zone’ orders all season — and even then, it was possible to negotiate or to say ‘We’ll be finished in an hour or two and we’ll leave,’ or ‘We’ll move to a different area,’” he recalled. “Now it’s much tougher. It feels like the army is eager to expel.”

According to Dabush, these restrictions are the result of settler pressure. “There’s a settler campaign claiming that the harvest is being used for terror. Last year, the message was to prevent harvests within 200 meters of settlements. This year, the message is to cancel the harvest altogether.”

On Thursday, farmers from Sa’ir gathered with activists to go to their groves in the valley, near where settlers had established an outpost a few months ago. Shortly after the farmers started picking olives, three masked settlers wielding clubs came running down the hill.

As the settlers approached the farmers and the large number of journalists present, soldiers and Border Police officers arrived and asked them politely to go back, while pushing and shooting both tear gas and live fire at the farmers and journalists, saying it was a “closed military zone.” They claimed that in the coming days people could arrive “with coordination.”
Israeli soldiers confront Palestinian farmers attempting to harvest olives on their land near the village of Sa’ir, in the occupied West Bank, October 23, 2025. (Oren Ziv)

“It’s always like this, the army and the settlers together,” Ibrahim Salame, 55, a landowner in Sa’ir, told +972. “The settlers attack the olive groves, and the army comes and prevents us [from working]. Whenever we come down to the valley, the settlers approach so we have to leave.”

Eid Ghafari, an activist from the village of Sinjil, described a similar dynamic. “Today, we see settlers wearing army uniforms, sitting in outposts — they’ve become one system,” he told +972. “The army does the settlers’ work by closing off the land, and settlers enter from other directions and set up caravans. There are areas that have been inaccessible since the war began.

“When we try to enter the land, the army stops us and orders us to turn back,” Ghafari continued. “They protect the settlers, and shoot at harvesters. In the past, 2,000 people came, many who rely on olives for their livelihood. Now everyone is scared, and those who come to their plots often find that settlers have already harvested their olives.”

▻https://www.972mag.com/olive-harvest-west-bank-settlers
#olives #oliveraie #récolte #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #violence #solidarité #Cisjordanie #récolte_des_olives #Palestine #Israël #attaques

ping @reka

La Procura contesta l’assoluzione di Maysoon Majidi
▻https://www.meltingpot.org/2025/08/la-procura-contesta-lassoluzione-di-maysoon-majidi

L’assoluzione pronunciata dal Tribunale di Crotone del 5 febbraio 2025 sembrava aver posto fine alla vicenda giudiziaria che aveva visto coinvolta l’attivista curdo-iraniana Maisoon Majidi, imputata di favoreggiamento dell’immigrazione clandestina a seguito dell’arresto dopo lo sbarco sulle coste italiane. La donna era stata fermata mentre tentava di allontanarsi attraverso la boscaglia insieme pochi altri migranti, tra cui il capitano dell’imbarcazione, ed era stata accusata di aver coadiuvato la navigazione di un natante con a bordo circa settanta persone partite dalla Turchia. Tuttavia, la giovane donna non ha fatto in tempo a riprendere la sua vita in mano, dopo la (...)

#Notizie #Chiara_Lo_Bianco

Communiqué de presse :
Pour une consécration du principe de fraternité à la frontière

Le 12 septembre 2024, la #CEDH rejetait la requête formulée par #Loïc_Le_Dall, à la suite de sa condamnation pour « aide à l’entrée d’un étranger en situation irrégulière en France ». Cette décision, qui mit fin à plus de 6 ans de procédure, est un camouflet pour l’ensemble des militants et militantes des droits des personnes étrangères, qui demandent aux Institutions européennes de garantir l’application systématique de l’immunité humanitaire aux frontières.

Loïc Le Dall, président d’Emmaüs La Roya et membre du conseil d’administration de l’Anafé, militant de la défense des droits des personnes exilées, a été arrêté à la frontière franco-italienne en janvier 2018 alors qu’il conduisait sa voiture avec à son bord une personne racisée. Relaxé par le tribunal correctionnel puis condamné par la cour d’appel, la Cour de cassation a finalement confirmé en janvier 2023 sa condamnation pour « aide à l’entrée d’un étranger en situation irrégulière en France » en excluant l’immunité humanitaire pour l’aide à l’entrée. Aucune réponse n’a été apportée concernant le manque de caractérisation de l’infraction par la cour d’appel. C’est en effet sans aucun élément matériel permettant de savoir si la personne était ou non « étrangère » et « en situation irrégulière » que la cour d’appel a décidé de condamner Loïc Le Dall.

Résolu à faire prévaloir le principe de fraternité qui motive son engagement et estimant qu’il a été victime d’une atteinte à son droit fondamental de porter assistance aux personnes vulnérabilisées par devoir de conscience, le président d’Emmaüs La Roya a déposé en mai 2023 une requête devant la Cour européenne des droits de l’Homme (CEDH). Cette dernière a rendu une décision d’irrecevabilité le 12 septembre 2024.

Face à cette décision, Loïc Le Dall a déclaré : « nous sommes pris·e dans un étau juridique entre l’interdiction d’aider à l’entrée sur le territoire d’une personne y compris lorsque sa vie est en jeu lorsqu’elle se présente à une frontière terrestre et le risque d’être poursuivi·e pour non-assistance à personne en danger – et ce, sans compter la culpabilité s’il lui arrive quelque chose. » avant de conclure : « j’invite tous les juges des juridictions françaises et de la CEDH qui ont participé à mon procès à venir constater les violations des droits que nous observons au quotidien depuis 9 ans à la frontière franco-italienne. Je leur ferai découvrir la réalité de cette frontière et les accueillerai dans notre communauté ».

Pour nos organisations, cette décision est dangereuse pour toutes les personnes qui défendent les droits des personnes exilées en France. La CEDH n’a pas pris en compte le fait que les éléments constitutifs de l’infraction n’étaient pas constitués. Elle n’a surtout pas pris la mesure du durcissement de la législation française à l’encontre des défenseurs et défenseures des droits des personnes en migration, ni des pratiques de l’administration.

Nos organisations appellent à une modification des textes afin de garantir l’application systématique de l’immunité humanitaire aux frontières. Les personnes solidaires ne doivent plus être inquiétées, poursuivies ou condamnées pour leurs actions de fraternité à l’égard des personnes en migration. La défense des droits des personnes étrangères aux frontières que ce soit en mer, en montagne ou dans les plaines, ne doit plus être réprimée. À l’image de l’obligation de sauvetage en mer qui prohibe de poursuivre les organisations qui sauvent des vies en mer, et même si cela va à l’encontre des dispositions du Pacte sur l’immigration et l’asile et de la réforme Schengen qui ont accordé des dispositions permettant de réprimer les organisations y compris humanitaires dans certaines conditions, il serait temps que l’Union européenne se dote d’un mécanisme dédié au droit d’aider autrui à titre humanitaire, y compris à la frontière. Nos organisations continueront à militer pour ce droit et à soutenir les personnes exilées et toutes celles et ceux qui leur viennent en aide.

▻https://anafe.org/pour-une-consecration-du-principe-de-fraternite-a-la-frontiere
#fraternité #frontières #principe_de_fraternité #migrations #réfugiés #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #solidarité

Il modello della speranza, intervista a Mimmo Lucano
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVyJRIMlt0Q&feature=youtu.be

Les militants et les migrants font face à une hausse des criminalisations, selon un rapport

Dans un rapport (▻https://picum.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Criminalisation-of-migration-and-solidarity-in-the-EU-2024-report.pdf) publié mardi, l’ONG belge PICUM documente l’augmentation constante de la criminalisation des migrants et des personnes venant en aide aux exilés en Europe. Dans un contexte de durcissement de la législation européenne, les migrants sont désormais poursuivis pour l’acte même de migrer illégalement mais aussi de plus en plus pour des accusations de trafic d’êtres humains.

Selon un rapport de l’ONG belge PICUM (Plateforme pour la coopération internationale sur les sans-papiers) qui promeut le respect des droits de l’Homme des sans-papiers en Europe, les cas de criminalisation des migrants et des militants venant au secours des exilés sont en nette et constante hausse ces dernières années.

« C’est la quatrième année consécutive que nous observons une augmentation des niveaux de criminalisation des migrants et des personnes qui les aident. Et ce que nous pouvons observer n’est que la partie émergée de l’iceberg » affirme Silvia Carta, chargée de plaidoyer à PICUM et auteure de l’étude.

Car cette tendance inquiétante, qui n’est pas nouvelle, reste très probablement sous-estimée faute de données statistiques et officielles, mais aussi de nombreux cas non rapportés ou non répertoriés dans les médias.
Accusés d’être des passeurs

Avec la nouvelle législation européenne plus répressive, actuellement en discussion, c’est l’acte même de migrer qui est condamné.

D’après les chiffres recensés par l’ONG en 2024, au moins 91 migrants en Italie, en Grèce et en Espagne ont été incriminés pour facilitation de la migration irrégulière, de contrebande et d’autres chefs d’accusation. Et 84% d’entre elles étaient poursuivies pour franchissement irrégulier des frontières. Des accusations accolées à des circonstances aggravantes, telles que l’appartenance à une organisation criminelle, peuvent encore alourdir les peines.

De plus en plus, les exilés sont donc accusés d’être des passeurs et poursuivis pénalement pour trafic d’être humains. Certains sont suspectés d’avoir conduit un véhicule ou dirigé un bateau pour passer une frontière ou encore soupçonnées d’avoir aidé à gérer les passagers à bord. En Italie et en Grèce, plusieurs survivants de naufrages ont ainsi été poursuivis en tant que passeurs.

En réalité, selon les ONG, le plus souvent le migrant n’est qu’un simple passager qui aide à la distribution de nourriture et d’eau, en assistant les blessés, ou encore en utilisant son téléphone par exemple. Des témoignages rapportent également une contrainte par la menace armée pour prendre les commandes d’un navire ou d’un véhicule.
Criminalisation de la solidarité envers les migrants

En parallèle, au moins 142 militants ont été poursuivis en 2024 pour avoir aidé des migrants en Europe, s’est aussi indignée l’ONG de protection des sans-papiers. Selon le décompte de Picum, l’année dernière, plus de 80 personnes ont été poursuivies pour avoir secouru ou aidé des migrants en mer et une vingtaine pour leur avoir fourni de l’eau, de la nourriture ou des vêtements.

Ces situations ont surtout eu lieu en Grèce, en Italie, Pologne et en France mais d’autres cas ont été relevés en Bulgarie, Lettonie, à Chypre et Malte.

Cinq personnes, par exemple, ayant apporté une aide humanitaire à la frontière Pologne/Biélorusse risquent jusqu’à cinq ans de prison. L’ONG mentionne aussi le cas de sept militants basques accusés d’avoir profité du passage d’une course pour faire franchir la frontière entre l’Espagne et la France à 36 migrants en mars 2024. Ils devraient être jugés début octobre de cette année.

« La criminalisation de la solidarité avec les migrants est profondément liée à la criminalisation de la migration elle-même. Il ne s’agit pas de deux questions distinctes, mais d’un continuum de politiques migratoires restrictives qui rendent le franchissement des frontières dangereux et créent un environnement hostile à l’encontre de ceux qui sont considérés comme étant entrés de manière irrégulière », a déclaré Silvia Carta.

Note d’espoir toutefois pour les humanitaires : les tentatives pour décourager les ONG et défenseurs des droits des migrants de leur porter secours se traduisent majoritairement par des acquittements ou un abandon des charges. En 2024, les procédures judiciaires ont pris fin pour 43 des 142 personnes incriminées.
280 ans de prison

Reste que le Pacte sur la migration et l’asile, une vaste réforme qui durcit le contrôle de l’immigration en Europe et devrait entrer en fonction en 2026, pourrait encore élargir les motifs de criminalisation des migrants mais aussi de l’aide humanitaire.

Picum alerte depuis plusieurs années sur la criminalisation des sans-papiers. En 2023, 117 militants avant déjà été incriminés dans l’Union européenne : 88 l’ont été pour avoir secouru ou aidé des migrants en détresse en mer. D’autres pour avoir distribué de l’eau, de la nourriture ou des vêtements, tandis que certains ont été poursuivis pour leur participation à des protestations et des manifestations.

En Grèce, un pêcheur égyptien et son fils de 15 ans avaient été accusés de contrebande car le père pilotait le bateau de migrants. En réalité, il avait accepté ce rôle à contrecœur pour ne pas avoir à payer leur voyage. Il a été condamné à 280 ans de prison et son fils doit désormais répondre pour les mêmes accusations devant un tribunal pour mineurs.

Après 10 ans de procédures judiciaires, une femme, incriminée en 2014 pour avoir acheté des billets de train à des réfugiés syriens en Sicile (Italie) a finalement été acquittée.

Cependant, la lenteur des procédures (en moyenne trois ans) n’est pas sans conséquence sur les finances, la santé psychologique et la vie personnelle des mis en cause.

Déposé fin mars, un projet de rapport dirigé par l’eurodéputée socialiste allemande Birgit Sippel, doit être discuté au Parlement européen. Il exempterait l’aide humanitaire de la criminalisation ce qui permettrait de clarifier cet aspect.

►https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/64216/les-militants-et-les-migrants-font-face-a-une-hausse-des-criminalisati
#migrations #réfugiés #criminalisation #criminalisation_de_la_migration #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #Europe #rapport #PICUM #passeurs #chiffres #statistiques

ping @6donie @karine4

Italian government approved use of spyware on members of refugee NGO, MPs told

National security committee is investigating whether secret services breached law by using surveillance tool to monitor activists and journalists

The Italian government approved the use of a sophisticated surveillance tool to spy on members of a humanitarian NGO because they were allegedly deemed a possible threat to national security, MPs have heard.

Alfredo Mantovano, a cabinet undersecretary, made the admission during a classified meeting with Copasir, the parliamentary committee for national security, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Copasir is investigating whether the secret services breached the law in using Graphite, military-grade spyware made by the Israel-based Paragon Solutions, to monitor activists and journalists, and is expecting to report on its finding soon.

Giorgia Meloni’s government has been under pressure to address the case since January, when a handful of Italian activists and a journalist received warnings from WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by Meta, that their phones had been targeted by spyware.

The government initially denied involvement, but Mantovano, who oversees the intelligence services, told the committee that the spyware had targeted Luca Casarini and Giuseppe Caccia, the founders of Mediterranea Saving Humans, an NGO that tries to protect refugees who cross the Mediterranean.

He said the spyware was approved by the government and the attorney general of Rome’s court of appeal, and that the intelligence agencies used the surveillance system within the parameters of the law in order to conduct a “preventive” investigation into illegal immigration. He denied the spyware was used to target Francesco Cancellato, the editor-in-chief of the Italian news outlet Fanpage.

Mantovano’s assertions, which were first reported by La Repubblica, have so far not been denied by the government.

Paragon suspended its relationship with Italy when the breaches emerged, a person familiar with the matter told the Guardian. The company’s spyware is intended for use on criminals.

Mediterranea Saving Humans said it was informed about Mantovano’s claims by journalist sources, adding in a statement that the “secret operation worthy of a regime” had been “unmasked to the world”.
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In addition to the Copasir inquiry, prosecutors in five cities, including Rome, Palermo, Naples, Bologna and Venice, are investigating claims after complaints were submitted by targets of the alleged spyware breach, who include Mattia Ferrari, a priest, and David Yambio, a humanitarian activist, both of whom have worked with Mediterranea Saving Humans.

“Five prosecutors are investigating and we trust someone will have the courage to get to the bottom of it and demonstrate, as is clear, that this is an abuse of power and nothing else,” Mediterranea Saving Humans added.

▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/27/italian-government-approved-use-of-spyware-on-members-of-refugee-ngo-mp
#surveillance #migrations #réfugiés #Italie #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #sauvetage_en_mer #Graphite #Paragon_Solutions #technologie #journalistes #activistes #Mediterranea_Saving_Humans #Giuseppe_Caccia #Luca_Casarini #espionnage #Francesco_Cancellato #Mattia_Ferrari #David_Yambio

Activists Under Fire: The Rising Criminalization of Civil Movements Across Europe

On May 22, 2024, the air outside Berlin’s Humboldt University was thick with tension. Over a hundred people had peacefully gathered at Universitätsstraße in solidarity with a group of students. The students had occupied the nearby Institute for Social Sciences and renamed it Jabalia Institute after one of the largest refugee camps in Gaza—known as a historic stronghold of resistance. Their voices rose together in steady, rhythmic chants, demanding peace and justice for people facing genocide and violence in Palestine and Lebanon.

“When I first arrived, I was shocked by the amount of police on the street,” said Mimo, a 26-year-old engineering student at TU Berlin whose name has been changed due to his concern about possible visa issues and other legal problems that could result from his political views in Germany. Like many of his fellow students, Mimo is part of the Student Collective for Palestine at TU Berlin, an initiative committed to advocating for Palestinian rights and social justice. At Universitätsstraße, their calls for peace and equity were met with unyielding violence and hostility from the authorities.

“I can’t breathe anymore,” Mimo recalled himself gasping, as he felt a sharp, breath-stealing blow to his chest, before he even saw it coming. A police officer from the line had hit him with Quarzsandhandschuh—weighted gloves used to illegally harm protesters—forcing him to bend his knees from the pain while his fingers slipped out of the hands of those next to him.

As the human chain broke, the officers surged past him, dealing blows indiscriminately at the young faces around him. Cries of fear and pain erupted as the students scattered to escape the onslaught.

“It was really chaotic. People started crying and shouting like me: ‘I can’t breathe,’” Mimo recounted.

At the end of the day, Mimo returned home still shaken, his chest sore, and thoughts racing. Though he felt the lingering pain for weeks, he did not go to the hospital due to a fear of police retaliation. For Mimo and his fellow protesters, this was not an isolated experience but a part of an escalating pattern.

“The abuse of power from the authorities toward peaceful protesters is increasing exponentially,” Mimo explained. “We’ve started normalizing it.”

Mimo and the students in Berlin are not alone with their experience as governments and authorities across Germany and other European countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Poland, Hungary, and the Netherlands, are increasingly clamping down on civil society and student movements. Through new legal measures, intensified surveillance, and public media campaigns, the authorities actively stifle voices calling for peace, environmental justice, and human rights.

Over the last decade, Europe has witnessed an alarming rise in the repression and criminalization of activist groups and individuals; a trend that challenges the region’s formal commitment to democratic freedoms. A 2022 report from the European Civil Forum highlights this shift, recording over 450 cases of repression against civil society actors in Europe between 2019 and 2021.
A Shift Toward Criminalization and Its Legal Consequences

The criminalization of activist groups and NGOs across Europe carries significant legal and political ramifications. Members of organizations such as Sea Watch, Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future, and Last Generation have faced charges ranging from “public disturbance” to “aiding illegal immigration,” often under laws meant to protect state security or border integrity.

This crackdown risks undermining both the right to peaceful protest and a range of humanitarian practices protected under international human rights laws, including the European Convention on Human Rights. The legal consequences of the continent-wide trend extend beyond individual cases, creating a climate of fear and suppressing vital democratic freedoms—as seen in recent high-profile cases, especially in Germany, the UK, and Italy.

On May 19, 2023, during a high-stakes match at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, the 33-year-old Last Generation activist Giacomo Baggio burst onto the court, throwing a vibrant cloud of confetti into the air in a courageous act of civil disobedience. The spectators watched, frozen, as the stadium security quickly moved in to forcefully remove the activist from the ground, their hands gripping his neck. As Baggio was dragged away, his message resonated beyond the arena: it did not just interrupt a tennis match, it broke public silence on the urgent climate crisis.

In the wake of this and other peaceful civil disobedience actions carried out by Last Generation, the Rome police have sought to place Baggio under special surveillance (sorveglianza speciale), a strict surveillance regime devised for members of organized crime. For Baggio, it meant daily check-ins, an 8 p.m. curfew, and a ban on public events, sharply curtailing his political and social life.

“In the beginning, I felt profoundly alone,” Baggio shared. “This measure targeted me as an individual, isolating me from society.”

His words reflect the experiences of many European activists who face heightened repression as authorities use surveillance, arrests, and intimidation to silence dissent. In mid-October 2024, the Rome court overturned the surveillance request, citing insufficient evidence for a public threat. Yet, the chill on civil freedoms lingers as a warning for organizers across Italy and Europe.

“These disproportionate repressive acts show that the government fears losing legitimacy, clinging to power by silencing those who hold up a mirror to what it doesn’t want to see,” said Baggio.

The repression of Last Generation has intensified far beyond Italy’s borders. In May 2023, the German authorities launched sweeping nationwide raids against the climate group, charging its members with forming or supporting a criminal organization—a grave accusation usually reserved for terrorism cases. According to the activists and local media reports, the crackdown involved shutting down the organization’s website, freezing its members’ bank accounts, and invasive home raids to temporarily confiscate their personal belongings. The wave of criminalization underscored a troubling escalation of power abuse against activists that targets and undermines not only their political and organizational capacity, but also their very sense of personal space, financial stability, security, and livelihood.

In its 2023 report on civic repression, Amnesty International documented a sharp rise in counter-terrorism measures targeting civil society across Europe. Since 2019, at least 2,000 Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists have faced legal action, many for peaceful acts like roadblocks or sit-ins, with some even charged with terrorism-related offences. The UK’s 2022 Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act intensifies this crackdown, granting the police broad authority and imposing severe penalties on protests deemed “disruptive.“ Roadblocks and business disruptions now carry severe legal risks and consequences for groups like XR.

“In England and Wales, prison sentences for climate activists have surged dramatically,” said Charlie Holt, the European Head of Global Climate Legal Defence (CliDef). “Just a few years ago, it was rare to see climate activists jailed…now it happens routinely, and the sentences are growing longer and longer.”

In Spain, the Public Security Law—commonly known as the “gag law”—has been used against activists under vague claims of endangering national security. In 2022 and 2023, pacifist groups such as Desarma Madrid, which protested Spain’s arms sales, faced fines and arrests for unlicensed demonstrations.

The European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL) highlights similar legal restrictions across Poland, Italy, and Hungary. In Hungary, the far-reaching “Stop Soros” legislation specifically targets organizations providing aid to migrants and a range of other legitimate migration-related activities; making them punishable by up to one year in prison. The law has led to a significant chilling effect on the work of humanitarian groups. Although the EU Court rejected this law, the government has yet to retract it.

In Poland, the 2022 amendments to public assembly laws have drastically curtailed protest rights, empowering authorities to shut down peaceful gatherings without substantial evidence. This has impacted protests—particularly those since the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion in Ukraine—where demonstrators have rallied for peace and women’s rights while criticizing cuts to social welfare made in favour of military spending. On March 8, 2023, several protesters were detained on public order charges as feminist groups, including Strajk Kobiet, protested in Warsaw on the International Women’s Day.

Similarly in Italy, in September 2024, the parliament’s lower house approved a new Security Bill that targets climate activists and migrants in particular, while bearing consequences for a range of non-governmental organizations such as labor unions. If the decree also passes the Senate, protesters who block roads or railways could face up to two years in prison, while authorities would gain sweeping powers over migrants in detention centers.

The Security Bill mirrors a decade-long European trend of framing solidarity with migrants as a security threat rather than humanitarian aid. Civic Space Watch reports that a growing number of NGOs and individuals across Europe now face prosecution for offering food, shelter, or legal assistance to migrants accused of “aiding illegal immigration.”

“Authorities are trying to intimidate, hinder, and criminalize us to deter our rescue efforts and humanitarian actions,” said Oliver Kulikowski, the spokesperson of Sea Watch, a Mediterranean search-and-rescue NGO. He noted that Sea-Watch has faced hefty fines, legal battles, and that activists are threatened with prison terms for their life-saving work in one of the biggest graveyards in the world—the Mediterranean Sea.
Members of Sea-Watch-3 rescue ship approach a rubber vessel full of migrants on the Tunisian and Libyan border waters.

“This repression leads to an increasingly repressive society,” added Kulikowski. “When we see and allow people to die without rights at our borders, we erode the humanity and rights of society as a whole.”

In February 2024, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights urged an end to the repression of human rights defenders assisting migrants in Europe. The commissioner warned that criminalizing rescue operations violates the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which mandates aid for those in distress and raises ethical concerns about the responsibility of European nation-states to protect human life.

The repression has intensified in tandem with a surge in populist movements that frame humanitarian aid as subversive and illegal. For activists, NGOs, and civil society, mounting restrictions underscore a stark truth: defending human rights increasingly means sacrificing personal freedom as states prioritize border control over humanitarian commitments. The crackdown raises urgent questions about the EU’s commitment to its legal principles and core values in an era of escalating populism.
The Rise of Populism, Media Stigmatization, and Polarisation

In 2024, Amnesty International’s report on the state of the right to protest across 21 European countries highlighted a growing trend in repressive legislation, arbitrary arrests, the use of excessive force, and the rise of invasive surveillance.

“Rather than solving the problems they claim to want to prevent and repress, these punitive norms have the sole effect of feeding public opinion with new criminal hypotheses, further sanctions, and increases in existing penalties. Criminal populism, in short,” said Vitalba Azzollini, an Italian lawyer, about Italy’s recent Security Bill. Part of a broader right-wing wave across Europe, these measures disproportionately target migrant aid organizations, environmental activists, and peace advocates, fuelling campaigns that depict dissent as a destabilizing force.

“These narratives, often promoted in the name of protection of national security, state sovereignty, and moral values, are in fact being used to silence and repress dissent, public activism, and political participation,” said Gina Romero, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association in her report presented to the UN General Assembly in October 2024.

A 2022 study by Frontiers in Communication revealed how populist politicians have used mainstream media to amplify fear by spreading emotional narratives that sway public perception of activists as threats to stability and national security.

Political organizations calling for climate justice and social change often face an onslaught of populist media labels—“eco-vandals,” “extremists,” “criminals”—to weaponize public opinion towards them, noted Romain Didi, the Climate Governance and Human Rights Policy Coordinator of CAN Europe. This tactic, he explained, seeks to polarize society by focusing outrage on disrupted commutes and cultural damage, rather than the urgent reasons behind the activists’ actions.

Polls reveal a complex public sentiment about the increased criminalization of activist groups across Europe. For example, a survey conducted by More in Common Germany found that public support for radical climate actions has halved since 2021, with 55% of respondents now believing the protests are too disruptive. At the same time, support for climate action remains high, with 70% of Germans agreeing that addressing climate change requires urgent measures.

As restrictive laws advance under populist political forces that put the right to peaceful protest at risk, the media has taken an active role in polarizing public perceptions of social movements. This media strategy therefore increases public acceptance of restrictive measures, normalizing crackdowns, and, ultimately, contributing to the erosion of civil society and democratic values.
The Consequences of Repression

In 2022, Amnesty International launched the Protect the Protest campaign to address the alarming increase in government repression, criminalization of dissent, and the use of excessive force against peaceful demonstrators worldwide. The campaign aims to defend and uphold the freedoms of expression, assembly, and association while advocating for the fundamental right to protest and call for peace. The Council of Europe has also warned that the escalating criminalization of non-violent protests poses a direct threat to free speech and peaceful assembly.

Notably, the United Nations has urged governments to protect young climate and social justice activists, emphasizing their crucial role in addressing the global climate crisis and fight for social justice and peace:

“Activists are like a fire alarm for society: essential and life-saving, even if uncomfortable to hear,” remarked Ben Mitchel, an XR protester who participated in several peaceful actions in the UK.

Experts affirm that the rising trend of criminalizing social justice movements and their participants—fuelled by populist rhetoric—often has opposite affects. Rather than discouraging political participation, these repressive measures tend to amplify public support and drive even more activists to the streets, underscoring the urgency of their causes.

Nottingham Trent University lecturer Heather Alberro notes that heavy-handed responses can radicalize movements in what experts call the “radical flank effect,”where activists adopt more extreme tactics as repression intensifies.

Alberro explains that repression often pushes activists toward more radical actions, creating a dangerous cycle that may jeopardize movement goals and political stability. The pattern of criminalization and radicalization undermines public trust in democratic institutions, at the same time intensifying solidarity among the targeted activists and communities. We see this echoed in movements like Black Lives Matter, pro-Palestine advocacy, and Extinction Rebellion, where greater unity and resistance has been sparked in the face of state repression. According to Alberro, the result is a fragile balance where governments’ restrictive measures risk deepening societal divides, highlighting the need for European states to strike a fairer balance between security and human rights.

“The more they try to silence us, the more determined we become…we are not backing down; we’re finding new ways to make our voices heard”, affirmed Mimo, his voice steady with resolve.

Looking Forward: A Turning Point?

As Europe steps into a pivotal decade—one defined by the need for urgent climate action, migration challenges, and rising geopolitical tensions—the criminalization and repression of social justice and peace advocates raise profound questions about how governments maintain public order while respecting civil liberties. With 64 countries going through elections this year, questions on fundamental rights have become one of the key battlegrounds worldwide.

In Europe, the constitutional rights that once defined liberal democracy—the freedom of assembly and speech, and the right to dissent—are threatened as governments increasingly turn to restrictive laws that target civil disobedience, dissent, and protest actions. These measures reshape Europe’s societal landscape, systematically eroding the right to peaceful protest and undermining citizens’ fundamental freedoms.

“Peaceful protest is essential to democracy; it’s the hope for future social progress. Politicians who oppose this prioritise their immediate interests over the community’s future,” said Baggio. His statement reflects a widespread call among activists and organizations for European governments to protect the rights to protest and free speech, ensuring a public space where diverse voices can engage with critical issues like climate justice, gender equality, social inclusion, and peace.

As authorities clamp down, grassroots groups and NGOs remain resilient and interconnected in building solidarity networks across borders to amplify their demands and unify their struggles. Solidarity, in this climate, is not only a strategy but a necessity to safeguard everyone’s fundamental rights.

“Solidarity means recognising that our struggles are linked and that the forces that try to silence us are often the same,” said Mimo with a spark of hope flickering in his eyes.“I fear the future, yes, but I also believe in the power of our voices to change it.”

For an EU that champions human rights, democracy, and peace, the escalating crackdown on civil society casts a sharp, unsettling shadow. This shift is more than just a legal tightening: it is a warning and a call to critically scrutinize the power dynamics that allow authorities and governments to exclude, stigmatize, and repress civil society. Criminalization of protest raises urgent questions about our freedoms to voice, organize, and defend the values of peace and justice we believe in—freedoms that are not only our rights, but our collective responsibility: to protect the future of the world in which we live.

▻https://turningpointmag.org/2024/11/27/activists-under-fire-the-rising-criminalization-of-civil-movements-
#migrations #réfugiés #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #solidarité #Palestine #Extinction_Rebellion #répression #Fridays_for_Future #résistance #criminalisation #luttes #Last_Generation #populisme #stigmatisation

ping @karine4

#Bulgaria. Frontiera di morte
▻https://radioblackout.org/2025/01/bulgaria-frontiera-di-morte

La Bulgaria, paese recentemente entrato nell’area Schengen intende dimostrare a Bruxelles di saper controllare le proprie frontiere, specialmente quelle con i paesi dai quali transitano i migranti. Le politiche migratorie europee continuano a mietere vittime anche in questa zona dell’Unione, dove a fine anno sono morti tre ragazzini minorenni provenienti dall’Egitto. Ad attivisti ed attiviste […]

#L'informazione_di_Blackout #arresto_no_border_in_bugaria #frontiere_uccidono #morire_assiderati #no_name_kitchen #rotte_balcaniche #Turchia
▻https://cdn.radioblackout.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2025-01-14-virginia-bulgaria.mp3

L’Etat doit cesser d’entraver la #solidarité avec les personnes exilées aux #frontières

Alors que la protection des personnes exilées par l’Etat français ne cesse de se dégrader et que 2024 connaît déjà un nombre record de morts dans la #Manche, le rapport « Au mépris des droits. Enquête sur la répression de la solidarité avec les personnes exilées aux frontières », de l’Observatoire des libertés associatives (►https://www.lacoalition.fr/Au-mepris-des-droits-Enquete-sur-la-repression-de-la-solidarite-avec-les) documente les multiples #entraves auxquelles font face les acteurs solidaires aux frontières françaises.

L’enquête de l’Observatoire des libertés associatives dresse un état des lieux préoccupant de la situation de la solidarité aux frontières de la France avec le #Royaume-Uni, l’#Espagne et l’#Italie. Au lieu de soutenir et de protéger les actions de solidarité envers les personnes exilées, les pouvoirs publics (collectivités locales, forces de police, autorités administratives…) prennent des mesures, toujours plus répressives, pour empêcher ces initiatives ou les décourager.

Le rapport recense de nombreux exemples d’entraves à la solidarité, qui ont un impact direct sur l’#accès_aux_droits fondamentaux des personnes migrantes et contribuent toujours plus à la dégradation de leurs conditions de vie. À #Calais, des arrêtés préfectoraux interdisant la distribution de #nourriture par les solidaires dans certains endroits se sont succédés pendant plusieurs années. Aujourd’hui, des #barrières physiques, comme d’énormes #rochers, ont été installées. Le seul endroit proposant aux personnes de laver leurs vêtements a été fermé par un arrêté municipal. Dans ce territoire frontalier du Royaume-Uni, comme à la frontière franco-italienne, l’#accès_aux_soins est régulièrement entravé, rendant difficile voire impossible d’apporter une #aide_médicale aux personnes exilés vivant dans les campements du littoral nord ou perdues dans les montagnes briançonnaises.

À cela s’ajoutent un #harcèlement_policier et des entraves juridiques aux associations : des multiples contrôles d’identité ou des véhicules, des contraventions à outrance ou injustifiées, des procédures et #poursuites_judiciaires. Ces entraves découragent les initiatives citoyennes solidaires, ont un impact matériel sur les associations et un fort impact psychologique sur les personnes ciblées.

Dans la #vallée_de_la_Roya et à #Menton, près de la frontière franco-italienne, des citoyens solidaires rapportent craindre d’accompagner des personnes exilées vers un lieu d’accueil ou une administration (par exemple pour déposer une demande d’asile), alors que cela est tout à fait légal, car ils savent qu’ils seront immédiatement suspectés de les avoir aidées à franchir la frontière. Au #Pays_basque, à la frontière franco-espagnole, plusieurs solidaires ont été convoqués par la police ou placés en garde-à-vue pour avoir accompagné des personnes en voiture vers un lieu de répit. Sans nécessairement être suivies de poursuites judiciaires, ces actions visent avant tout à décourager d’autres personnes de faire de même.

Le rapport démontre également que les associations sont fréquemment mises en cause par les représentants administratifs et politiques, jetant ainsi le discrédit sur leurs actions : les accusant d’encourager l’installation de personnes exilées en France, de mettre ces personnes en danger ou pire d’être complices de passeurs et de trafiquants d’êtres humains. Pourtant, les actions des associations sont essentielles et servent souvent à pallier l’absence de réponse adaptée et efficace de l’Etat. Dans plusieurs territoires, ce sont souvent elles et les citoyens solidaires qui apportent les services minimums pour garantir la survie et la dignité des personnes exilées.

Face aux constats préoccupants dressés par ce rapport de l’Observatoire et l’ensemble des témoignages recueillis par nos associations et leurs partenaires, nous demandons aux pouvoirs publics de mettre fin aux entraves qui empêchent l’action quotidienne de centaines de citoyens, collectifs et associations de la solidarité de venir en aide aux personnes exilées.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kamg92ljws&t=5s

▻https://www.lacimade.org/presse/letat-doit-cesser-dentraver-la-solidarite-avec-les-personnes-exilees-aux-f
#France #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #Hautes-Alpes #frontière_sud-alpine #Alpes_Maritimes #Briançonnais

Aux frontières françaises, les #bénévoles aidant les migrants sont victimes de #menaces et #intimidations

Dans son nouveau rapport publié lundi, l’#Observatoire_des_libertés_associatives indique que les bénévoles qui viennent en aide aux exilés subissent toujours des menaces et pressions des pouvoirs publics alors que le #délit_de_solidarité a été aboli en 2018. À la frontière italienne, espagnole ou sur le littoral nord, ils dénoncent un harcèlement quotidien.

Des #amendes à répétition, des #gardes_à_vue abusives, des dépôts de rochers pour empêcher des distributions... Tous ces faits observés aux frontières françaises constituent des entraves à la solidarité. Et ils concernent à une grande échelle les bénévoles venant en aide aux migrants à la frontière espagnole, dans la Roya, dans le Briançonnais, comme sur le littoral de la Manche.

Dans son rapport réalisé par Mathilde Rogel et publié lundi 18 novembre, l’Observatoire des libertés associatives alerte sur l’attitude de plus en plus répressive des pouvoirs publics envers ces aidants alors que la situation des exilés, notamment sur le littoral du Pas-de-Calais, est de plus en plus dramatique. Au moins 60 personnes sont mortes en tentant de traverser la Manche depuis le début de l’année.

"L’article L622-1 du Code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile (CESEDA) 48 est utilisé depuis les années 1990 contre les soutiens divers aux personnes exilées", rappelle l’Observatoire dans son rapport. Mais depuis, la législation française a changé. En 2018, le Conseil constitutionnel a aboli le délit dit "de solidarité" en consacrant le principe de fraternité dans l’#aide_humanitaire.

Menaces juridiques et financières

Pourtant, dans les zones frontalières, ce principe de droit n’est pas appliqué et les menaces d’infractions liées au CESEDA sont courantes. "Ainsi, plusieurs militant·es aux frontières ont été placés en garde-à-vue sur le motif d’aide au passage, alors même que ces dernier·es n’avaient pas traversé la frontière", souligne le rapport.

Les menaces ou les #sanctions imposées aux bénévoles ne sont pas toujours juridiques. En imposant des amendes lourdes et aux motifs infondés aux associations, les pouvoirs publics font une entrave financière à la solidarité. L’association Utopia 56 a ainsi comptabilisé "un total de 104 #contraventions perçues par ses membres entre le 17 mars 2020 et le 13 mai 2021, soit un total d’environ 20 000 euros".

Décourager les exilés...et les bénévoles

Ce #harcèlement des bénévoles contribue à éloigner les exilés des distributions de nourriture, mais aussi des lieux de soins de santé. Comme lorsque des bénévoles sont empêchés par la police d’emmener à l’hôpital de Briançon des personnes en hypothermie. De même lorsque l’ouverture d’une clinique mobile près de Dunkerque est empêchée par le dépôt de blocs de béton.

En plus de décourager les exilés de bénéficier de l’aide qui pourrait leur être apportée, l’objectif semble aussi être de décourager les bénévoles eux-mêmes. Cela passe par des intimidations, des amendes envoyées avec régularité, mais aussi par le fait de jeter le discrédit sur l’action des associatifs ou encore de les accuser de mettre les personnes en danger et d’être complices des passeurs.

Pour un bénévole interrogé par l’autrice du rapport, cette façon d’agir "est clairement un objectif de se trouver des coupables, enfin de se déresponsabiliser, si on pointe du doigt les associations, et bien en fait, l’État ne montre pas du doigt ses propres manquements”.

▻https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/61242/aux-frontieres-francaises-les-benevoles-aidant-les-migrants-sont-victi

#criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #solidarité #migrations #frontières #France #dissuasion #découragement #frontière_sud-alpine

ping @karine4

#Appel à la solidarité avec #Abdallah_Said

https://crldht.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Visuels-proposition-2.png

Le mardi 12 novembre 2024, la Cellule d’Investigation Financière a placé Abdallah El Said, un militant et président de l’Association “#Enfants_de_la_Lune_de_Médenine”, en garde à vue. Suite à un long interrogatoire, les charges retenues contre Abdallah Said n’ont pas encore été précisées, mais elles concernent principalement des activités liées à la prise en charge d’enfants réfugiés, migrants et abandonnés, qui font partie des activités de l’association dans la région de Médenine.

Le mardi 12 novembre 2024, la Cellule d’Investigation Financière a placé Abdallah El Said, un militant et président de l’Association “Enfants de la Lune de Médenine”, en garde à vue. Suite à un long interrogatoire, les charges retenues contre Abdallah Said n’ont pas encore été précisées, mais elles concernent principalement des activités liées à la prise en charge d’enfants réfugiés, migrants et abandonnés, qui font partie des activités de l’association dans la région de Médenine.

Le travail humanitaire d’Abdallah Said, d’origine tchadienne et actif en Tunisie depuis de nombreuses années, en faveur des enfants migrants et réfugiés a déjà été l’objet de campagnes haineuses et racistes sur les réseaux sociaux.

Abdallah Said jouit de tous les droits civils et politiques en tant que citoyen tunisien et exerce ses activités civiques dans le respect des lois. Son seul “crime” est d’être engagé dans le territoire où il a décidé de vivre et d’être solidaire avec les enfants migrants et réfugiés dans la région de Médenine.

Abdallah Said est incarcéré dans le cadre d’une politique de criminalisation de la solidarité avec les personnes migrantes, qui s’est traduite par de nombreuses arrestations et poursuites incessantes dans des affaires pour lesquelles aucune audience n’a encore été fixée. Depuis la réunion du Conseil national de sécurité en mai 2024, cette campagne a commencé et continue aujourd’hui, mettant en lumière chaque jour la défense de nouvelles personnes pour enquête dans le seul but d’apporter une aide humanitaire aux migrants.

Le Comité de suivi met en évidence le caractère purement politique de l’enquête, qui va à l’encontre des accords internationaux signés par l’État tunisien, et demande la fin de la politique de criminalisation de la solidarité avec les personnes migrantes et la libération de tous les arrêtés et détenus, ainsi que l’arrêt de toutes les poursuites à leur encontre.

La dignité pour les réfugiés et des demandeurs d’asile

Les réfugiés, les demandeurs d’asile et les migrants bénéficieront toujours de notre soutien.

Comité de suivi pour lutter contre la criminalisation des politiques de solidarité

▻https://crldht.com/appel-a-la-solidarite-avec-abdallah-said

#Tunisie #répression #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #migrations #solidarité #emprisonnement

ping @_kg_

L’ossessione dell’Alto Adige per la sicurezza colpisce attivisti e migranti

Il nuovo questore della Provincia autonoma di Bolzano, #Paolo_Sartori, insediatosi a inizio marzo, ha impresso una decisa accelerazione della repressione di attivisti politici e soggetti marginali. Fogli di via, espulsioni, Daspo urbano e avvisi orali. Buona parte della cittadinanza applaude al suo operato ma c’è anche chi continua a far sentire la propria voce

Il 17 luglio di quest’anno una “battitura” ha dato il via alla protesta dei detenuti del carcere di Bolzano contro le condizioni di vita all’interno degli istituti penitenziari in Italia. Un gruppo di solidali si è recato spontaneamente sotto le mura della struttura del capoluogo altoatesino per ascoltare e sostenere le ragioni dei reclusi, nel tentativo di spezzare il loro isolamento e fare da megafono alle loro istanze.

Più tardi il gruppo è stato raggiunto in un bar da due volanti della polizia. Portati in questura, gli attivisti sono stati fotosegnalati e denunciati per “manifestazione non autorizzata”. A uno di loro, residente a Laives, un Comune limitrofo, è stato consegnato un foglio di via da Bolzano della durata di due anni.

Si tratta di uno degli ultimi episodi in cui il “pugno duro” del questore Paolo Sartori si è abbattuto sul gruppo di attivisti politici e militanti antimilitaristi altoatesini.

“Il #foglio_di_via, così come il #Divieto_di_accesso_ad_aree_urbane (Dacur, il cosiddetto #daspo_urbano, ndr), è una misura di natura amministrativa che limita la libertà di movimento e opera preventivamente rispetto alla commissione di reati”, spiega l’avvocata bolzanina Francesca De Angeli. Diffusamente utilizzato durante il fascismo nei confronti di chi si opponeva al regime, oggi questo dispositivo è previsto dall’articolo 2 del decreto legislativo 159/2011, noto come “Codice antimafia e delle misure di prevenzione”.

La sua applicazione non prevede la convalida di un giudice, ma è sufficiente che il questore ritenga -sulla base di elementi di fatto concreti e univoci- che un soggetto manifesti con il suo comportamento atteggiamenti riconducibili al concetto di pericolosità sociale. “Sebbene questo strumento dovrebbe basarsi su fatti connessi a motivazioni che sottolineino la concreta e reale pericolosità della persona -evidenzia De Angeli-, a Bolzano le misure di prevenzione sembrano essere più che altro la ricetta per isolare e allontanare i soggetti sgraditi”.

Nel capoluogo altoatesino, infatti, si assiste a un utilizzo disinvolto di questi dispositivi e, osserva l’avvocata, “i fogli di via rilasciati appaiono spesso ciclostilati, in alcuni casi non viene menzionato il luogo di residenza o di dimora abituale -presupposto giuridico per l’applicazione del foglio di via- in cui la persona dovrebbe fare ritorno e, spesso, sono carenti nelle motivazioni”.

È questo, per esempio, il caso dell’attivista politico allontanato da Bolzano a luglio. Ad Altreconomia l’uomo racconta che “il foglio di via che mi è stato notificato contiene alcune inesattezze macroscopiche e falsità come per esempio alcuni precedenti per i quali non sono mai stato denunciato o che a Bolzano non svolgo alcuna attività lavorativa, né abbia legami di parentela”.

Un’altra misura utilizzata dal questore è l’avviso orale, un invito a mutare la propria condotta, preludio alla “sorveglianza speciale”. Quest’estate nei confronti di altri due militanti bolzanini a un precedente avviso orale è seguito l’“avviso orale aggravato”, sui cui l’ordinanza 46076 del 2021 della Corte di Cassazione ha sollevato questioni di legittimità costituzionale.

Tra le prescrizioni -alcune delle quali chiaramente tarate su soggetti di altro tipo, come per esempio “il divieto di possedere mezzi di trasporto blindati, radar e visori notturni”- rientra il divieto di usare “in tutto o in parte piattaforme o servizi informatici e telematici quali social network, nonché possedere o utilizzare telefoni cellulari, smartphone, tablet, laptop che consentano connessioni dati via wi-fi o con Sim”.

“Contro questi provvedimenti è possibile presentare ricorso al Tribunale amministrativo regionale ma va detto che non tutti hanno le medesime possibilità di accesso alla giustizia e che il costo per un procedimento amministrativo può raggiungere anche alcune migliaia di euro”, puntualizza De Angeli. Chi non ha diritto al gratuito patrocinio -per il 2024 tutti coloro che superano la soglia di reddito annua di 12.838 euro-, deve versare infatti 650 euro solo per il contributo unificato, a cui poi si devono aggiungere le spese legali.

Nel mirino del questore di Bolzano non ci sono solo gli attivisti politici. Le operazioni di “prevenzione generale” -così vengono nominate nei comunicati stampa della questura- colpiscono anche i soggetti marginalizzati, soprattutto persone senza dimora e migranti.

A fine luglio la questura di Bolzano ha pubblicato i dati del proprio operato in materia di “contrasto all’immigrazione”: nei primi sette mesi dell’anno si sono registrate 162 espulsioni e ordini di allontanamento (erano state 134 in tutto il 2023) e sono stati revocati 92 permessi di soggiorno. In conferenza stampa Sartori ha rivendicato la quantità dei provvedimenti emessi in un così breve arco di tempo, ma andando alla ricerca delle storie di chi queste sanzioni le subisce appare evidente come l’azione delle forze di polizia assuma in molti casi i contorni di una “pesca a strascico”, che non prende in esame la singola posizione della persona che ha di fronte, la sua storia o i rischi che può correre in caso di rimpatrio.

In questo senso sono emblematiche diverse vicende raccolte da attivisti e volontari della società civile. “O. stava mangiando un panino all’aperto in pausa pranzo, visto che una casa non ce l’ha, ed è stato allontanato da Bolzano con l’accusa di aver tenuto ‘un comportamento lesivo del decoro della quiete pubblica’”, racconta Federica Franchi, attivista di Bozen Solidale. “Ma dove dovrebbe andare se è costretto a vivere per strada?”.

Il caso più eclatante -denunciato anche da una lettera della campagna LasciatCIEntrare-, ad oggi, però, è senza dubbio quello di M., giovane uomo di origine irachena. Il ragazzo ha 13 anni quando, nel 2010, in seguito all’uccisione del padre, scappa dall’Iraq con la madre e i suoi sette fratelli. M. arriva quindi a Bolzano con la sua famiglia, dove vive uno zio. In Alto Adige il giovane commette alcuni reati che lo portano a scontare delle pene detentive. Chiude definitivamente i conti con la giustizia a maggio di quest’anno e qualche giorno dopo viene fermato in strada a Bolzano per un controllo. Invitato a recarsi in questura per rinnovare il permesso di soggiorno per motivi familiari che attende da tempo, quando si presenta all’appuntamento non trova il tanto agognato documento, bensì un decreto di espulsione con trasferimento immediato al Cpr di Gradisca d’Isonzo (GO).

M. è considerato persona socialmente pericolosa, senza legami familiari in termini di convivenza e, poiché non ha mai richiesto protezione internazionale, dev’essere rispedito in Iraq. Così il 27enne viene portato all’aeroporto di Bologna e imbarcato su un volo diretto a Baghdad. I tentativi di intervento degli avvocati e delle attiviste di LasciateCIEntrare sono inutili. M. sbarca da solo in un Paese che non conosce più e che aveva abbandonato per sfuggire alla morte.

Secondo i dati del Sole 24 Ore, nel 2022 in provincia di Bolzano si sono registrati 16.258 delitti denunciati, con una media di 30,48 denunce ogni mille abitanti. I numeri altoatesini si mantengono sotto la media nazionale di 38,1 denunce ogni mille abitanti.

L’azione della questura di Bolzano, accolta con favore dal mondo politico e da larga parte della società e della stampa altoatesina, è accompagnata da una pesante strategia comunicativa. Se fino allo scorso primo marzo, infatti, la sezione “I fatti del giorno” del sito della questura di Bolzano contava in media una o due notizie mensili, da marzo a luglio un deciso cambio di passo ha portato alla pubblicazione di più di 70 contenuti -una media di 14 al mese- e a sfornare comunicati stampa a ritmo incessante.

In questo modo, il gioco di sponda con alcune testate -in particolare Dolomiten e Alto Adige, principali quotidiani del gruppo editoriale Athesia, che da solo controlla circa l’80% dei media della provincia di Bolzano- da un lato contribuisce alla criminalizzazione di attivisti politici e soggetti marginalizzati, dall’altro favorisce la diffusione di un senso di paura e insicurezza tra i cittadini.

E proprio la percezione del pericolo sembra essere la principale preoccupazione del questore, al di là dei numeri reali dei crimini commessi sul territorio provinciale. A conferma di questo, in un’intervista rilasciata al portale di informazione locale Salto, lo stesso Sartori ha ammesso che “anche se tutti i fenomeni criminali sono in decrescita, il divario tra percezione della sicurezza e sicurezza reale è più ampio” e per questo “la gente vuol vedere i lampeggianti”. Costi quel che costi.

▻https://altreconomia.it/lossessione-dellalto-adige-per-la-sicurezza-colpisce-attivisti-e-migran
#frontière_sud-alpine #migrations #anti-migrants #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #criminalisation_de_la_migration #Bolzano #Haut-Adige
#sécurité #répression #dangerosité_sociale #marginalisation

A Como c’è uno scontro sulla solidarietà: «Basta dare colazioni ai senzatetto»

Il sindaco attacca i sacerdoti che aiutano i più poveri. Dura replica delle opposizioni che hanno ricordato che il primo a dare cibo agli indigenti fu don Roberto Malgesini.

Una polemica inaspettata, divampata a margine del Consiglio comunale di Como nel quale si discuteva del Regolamento di Polizia locale per dotare alcuni agenti del taser, la pistola a impulsi elettrici. La consigliera di minoranza Patrizia Lissi (Pd), nel dibattito, ha portato in aula una riflessione condivisa con don Giusto Della Valle, parroco della comunità pastorale di Rebbio-Camerlata, da sempre impegnato nell’accoglienza di migranti e persone in difficoltà: «per rendere le città più sicure sarebbe utile intervenire sulle cause dell’insicurezza», a partire da povertà e marginalità. Da qui la replica del sindaco #Alessandro_Rapinese, che ha indicato in don Giusto l’esempio di un’accoglienza indiscriminata, che non si interroga su chi abbia i titoli per stare in Italia. A Como, ha osservato, «gli arresti da metà aprile a oggi» interessano persone che «nemmeno dovrebbero stare qui». E, tornando a don Giusto, il sindaco si è chiesto perché «distribuire le colazioni ai senza dimora», creando assembramenti che poi mettono in difficoltà i residenti. Immediata la reazione delle minoranze: accoglienza e colazioni sono due percorsi separati e la parrocchia di Rebbio è un rifugio per chi non ha dove andare. Senza dimenticare che le colazioni sono un servizio nato con don Roberto Malgesini, ucciso 4 anni fa proprio mentre stava per portare cibo ai senza dimora e al quale l’amministrazione Rapinese ha assegnato, alla memoria, la massima onorificenza cittadina, l’Abbondino d’Oro.

All’indomani delle polemiche i primi a voler spegnere ogni focolaio sono proprio coloro che, quotidianamente, stanno accanto alle marginalità di Como. Il gruppo delle colazioni, che ha raccolto il testimone dalle mani di don Malgesini, è composto da una quarantina di persone. I punti di distribuzione, in città, sono due: uno in piazza San Rocco, dove abitava don Roberto, l’altro a Porta Torre. In ogni ritrovo convergono una quarantina di persone: senza dimora, italiani e stranieri, ma anche chi una casa ce l’ha e fatica ad arrivare a fine mese (le colazioni e la mensa solidale di Casa Nazareth diventano l’unico modo per poter mangiare). Riusciamo a raggiungere telefonicamente don Giusto: è con un gruppo di giovani disoccupati. Li ha accompagnati nei boschi alla periferia di Como dove stanno tagliando legna per conto di una piccola realtà del territorio. «Ho solo letto qualche titolo», confida. Nel frattempo, è arrivata un’ordinanza urgente dal Comune che intima alla società proprietaria di un’area dismessa a ridosso del cimitero, dove una volta c’era un supermercato, di rendere inaccessibile l’area, visto che, nelle ultime ore, lì sono state sgomberate una dozzina di persone (9 stranieri, 3 italiani). «Como ha bisogno di strutture di bassa soglia – è la riflessione di Marta Pezzati, dell’associazione “Como Accoglie” –. Per cinque sere alla settimana usciamo e incontriamo i senza dimora che sono in città (si calcola almeno 350 – ndr), distribuiamo cibo, beni di prima necessità, ma soprattutto relazioni».

C’è la consapevolezza che il problema non è di immediata risoluzione. «Ci sono persone psicologicamente fragili o con dipendenze importanti – riconosce Pezzati – ma ci sono anche tanti giovani con ottime risorse. Incontriamo ragazzi con buoni contratti di lavoro che non hanno una casa, perché a Como è ormai difficile per chiunque affittare un appartamento, ancora di più se sei straniero». Nel frattempo, gli sgomberati del supermercato si sono spostati in piazza San Rocco e un sacerdote spiega: «noi continueremo ad aiutare le persone bisognose, perché la carità è il nostro primo compito».

▻https://www.avvenire.it/attualita/pagine/como-scontro-colazioni

#Côme #Italie #migrations #réfugiés #frontière_sud-alpine #solidarité #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #SDF #sans-abri #urban_matter #villes #espace_public #anti-pauvres #nourriture #distribution_de_nourriture

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malheureusement, ce n’est pas nouveau, voir 2018 et 2017:
►https://seenthis.net/messages/748276

Why is Italy forbidding NGO planes from departing from Sicily?

NGO planes are forbidden from departing from five Italian airports near migrant routes on the Mediterranean, officials said this week. Here’s more background on the decision.

NGO planes that patrol Mediterranean waters for migrant vessels in distress will no longer be able to depart from airports in Sicily, Italy’s civil aviation authority announced this week.

Here’s some background on the specifics of the decision.
No flights from Sicilian airports

Italy’s National Entity for Civil Aviation (#ENAC) — a department of the Ministry of Transport, which is headed by Matteo Salvini — signed five ordinances barring NGO planes from departing the Sicilian airports of Palermo (Punta Raisi and Bocca di Falco), Lampedusa, Pantelleria and Trapani.

According to the ordinance, these civil airplanes not only violate “the regulative legal framework of the Search and Rescue missions” but also risk “compromising the safety of migrant people who are not assisted by the current protocols approved by the Maritime Authority.”

ENAC, in the ordinance, further stated that “anyone who takes part in Search and Rescue operations outside the legal provisions of the framework currently in place is punished with sanctions listed in the navigation code, and additional sanctions such as the administrative detention of the airplane.”
Nadir rescue

While the new ordinance was announced, German NGO Resquship vessel Nadir rescued a dinghy carrying 57 migrants in international waters.

▻https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/56955/why-is-italy-forbidding-ngo-planes-from-departing-from-sicily

#sauvetage #Seabird #avions #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #Méditerranée #mer_Méditerranée #migrations #réfugiés #Colibrì #Pilotes_Volontaires #Italie #aéroports

Bulgaria : Road to Schengen. Part One : the EU’s external border.

On the 31st of March, Bulgaria - alongside Romania - joined Schengen as a partial member by air & sea. The inclusion of land crossings for full accession of these countries was blocked by an Austrian veto over concerns(1) that it would lead to an increase in people wanting to claim asylum in the EU.

What is significant about Bulgaria becoming a Schengen member is that, what has been seen in the lead up, and what we will see following accession, is a new precedent of aggressively fortified borders set for the EU’s external Schengen borders. Which in turn may shape EU wide standards for border management.

The EU’s external border between Bulgaria and Turkey has become infamous for a myriad of human rights violations and violence towards people who are forced to cross this border ‘illegally’. People continually face the violence of these crossings due to the lack of safe and legal routes allowing people to fulfill their right to seek asylum in Europe.

In 2022 it was along this border that live ammunition(2) was first used against people seeking asylum in the EU. Shot by the Bulgarian authorities. In the same year it was reported(3) that people were illegally detained for up to 3 days in a cage-like structure attached to the police station in the border town of Sredets. It was also known that vehicles belonging to the European border force Frontex - who are responsible for border management and supposedly upholding fundamental rights - were present in the vicinity of the cages holding detained people.

The EU’s illegal border management strategy of pushbacks are also well documented and commonplace along this border. Testimonies of pushbacks in this region are frequent and often violent. Within the past year Collective Aid has collected numerous testimonies from survivors of these actions of the state who describe(4) being stripped down to their underwear, beaten with batons and the butts of guns, robbed, and set on by dogs. Violence is clearly the systematic deterrence strategy of the EU.

Similar violence occurs and is documented along Bulgaria’s northern border with Serbia. During an assessment of the camps in Sofia in March, outside of the Voenna Rampa facility, our team spoke to an Afghan man who, 6 months prior, was beaten so badly during a pushback that his leg was broken. Half a year later he was still using a crutch and was supported by his friends. Due to the ordeal, he had decided to try and claim asylum in Bulgaria instead of risking another border crossing.

Despite the widespread and well documented violations of European and international law by an EU member state, at the beginning of March Bulgaria was rewarded(5) with its share of an 85 million Euro fund within a ‘cooperation framework on border and migration management’. The money within this framework specifically comes under the Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI) 2021 – 2027, designed to ‘enhance national capabilities at the EU external borders’. Within the instrument Bulgaria is able to apply for additional funding to extend or upgrade technology along its borders. This includes purchasing, developing, or upgrading equipment such as movement detection and thermo-vision cameras and vehicles with thermo-vision capabilities. It is the use of this border tech which enables and facilitates the illegal and violent practices which are well documented in Bulgaria.

Close to the town of Dragoman along the northern border with Serbia, we came across an example of the kind of technology which used a controlled mounted camera that tracked the movement of our team. This piece of equipment was also purchased by the EU, and is used to track movement at the internal border.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5bb60214f4755a2662bea695/d94a6eae-19d1-42b1-bdae-33b239fdedd6/tower+small.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5bb60214f4755a2662bea695/614c5b50-1cff-4f80-a437-2cc48ae1f6f8/sign+small.jpg

The cooperation framework also outlines(6) a roadmap where Frontex will increase its support of policing at Bulgaria’s border with Turkey. In late February, in the run up to Bulgaria becoming a Schengen member, on a visit to the border with Turkey, Hans Leijtens - Frontex’s executive director - announced(7) an additional 500 - 600 additional Frontex personnel would be sent to the border. Tripling the numbers already operational there.

Meanwhile Frontex - who have been known(8) to conceal evidence of human rights violations - are again under scrutiny(9) for their lack of accountability in regards to the upholding of fundamental rights. Two days prior to the announcement of additional Frontex staff an investigation(10) by BIRN produced a report from a Frontex whistleblower further highlighting the common kinds of violence and rights violations which occur during pushbacks at this border. As well as the fact that Frontex officers were intentionally kept away from ‘hot spots’ where pushbacks are most frequent. The investigation underlines Frontex’s inability to address, or be held accountable for, human rights violations that occur on the EU’s external borders.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5bb60214f4755a2662bea695/bee46049-0dbb-486b-b7a4-2ee16776941b/oink+small.jpg

The awarded money is the next step following a ‘successful’ pilot project for fast-track asylum and returns procedures which was started in March of the previous year. The project was implemented in the Pastrogor camp some 13km from the Turkish border which mostly houses people from the Maghreb region of northwest Africa. A 6 month project report(11) boasts a 60% rejection rate from around 2000 applicants. In line with the EU’s new migration pact, the project has a focus on returns whereby an amendment to national legislation has been prepared to allow a return decision to be made and delivered at the same time as an asylum rejection. As well as the launch of a voluntary return programme supported by the 2021-2027 Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). Through which cash incentives for voluntary returns will be increased across the board. These cash incentives are essentially an EU funded gaslighting project, questioning the decisions of people to leave their home countries based on their own survival and safety.

Our team visited the former prison of the Pastrogor camp in March. Which at the time held only 16 people - some 5% of its 320 capacity.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5bb60214f4755a2662bea695/5d2df1e4-a96a-41d4-822a-09ca0606c49e/pastrojor+small.jpg

The implementation of this pilot project and the fortification of the border with Turkey have been deemed a success by the EU commision(12) who have praised both as indicators of Bulgaria’s readiness to join the Schengen area.

Unsurprisingly, what we learn from Bulgaria’s accession to becoming a Schengen member is that the EU is not only deliberately ignoring Bulgaria’s dire human rights history in migration and border management. But, alongside the political and economic strengthening brought with Schengen accession, they are actively rewarding the results of such rights violations with exceptional funding that can sustain the state’s human rights infringements. All while the presence of Frontex validates the impunity enjoyed by Bulgaria’s violent border forces who show no respect for human rights law. In early April the European Commision gave a positive report(13) on the results from EU funding which support this border rife with fundamental rights abuses. In a hollow statement Bulgaria’s chief of border police stated: “we are showing zero tolerance to the violation of fundamental rights”.

What the changes in border management strategies at the EU’s external border to Turkey- in light of Bulgaria’s entry to the Schengen - mean in reality is that people who are still forced to make the crossing do so at greater risk to themselves as they are forced deeper into both the hands of smuggling networks and into the dangerous Strandzha national park.

The Strandzha national park straddles the Bulgarian-Turkish border. It is in this densely forested and mountainous area of land where people are known to often make the border crossing by foot. A treacherous journey often taking many days, and also known to have taken many lives - lighthouse reports identified 82 bodies of people on the move that have passed through three morgues in Bulgaria. Many of whom will have died on the Strandzha crossing.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5bb60214f4755a2662bea695/96e3db36-957b-4f3e-b1cd-e8da7224bb45/sign+2+small.jpg

It is reported(14) that morgues in the towns of Burgas and Yambol - on the outskirts of the Strandzha national park - are having difficulty finding space due to the amount of deaths occurring in this area. So much so that a public prosecutor from Yambol explained this as the reason why people are being buried without identification in nameless graves, sometimes after only 4 days of storage. It is also reported that families who tried to find and identify the bodies of their deceased loved ones were forced to pay cash bribes to the Burgas morgue in order to do so.

Through networks with families in home countries, NGOs based nearby make efforts to alert authorities and to respond to distress calls from people in danger within the Strandzha national park. However, the Bulgarian state makes these attempts nearly impossible through heavy militarisation and the associated criminalisation of being active in the area. It is the same militarisation that is supported with money from the EU’s ‘cooperation framework’. Due to these limitations even the bodies that make it to morgues in Bulgaria are likely to be only a percentage of the total death toll that is effectively sponsored by the EU.

Local NGO Mission Wings stated(15) that in 2022 they received at most 12 distress calls, whereas in 2023 the NGO stopped counting at 70. This gives a clear correlation between increased funding to the fortification of the EU’s external border and the amount of lives put in danger.

People are also forced to rely more on smuggling networks. Thus making the cost of seeking asylum greater, and the routes more hidden. When routes become more hidden and reliant on smuggling networks, it limits the interaction between people on the move and NGOs. In turn, testimonies of state violence and illegal practices cannot be collected and violations occur unchallenged. Smuggling networks rely on the use of vehicles, often driving packed cars, vans, and lorries at high speed through the country. Injuries and fatalities of people on the move from car crashes and suffocating are not infrequent in Bulgaria. Sadly, tragic incidents(16) like the deaths of 18 innocent people from Afghanistan in the back of an abandoned truck in February last year are likely only to increase.

▻https://www.collectiveaidngo.org/blog/2024/5/3/bulgaria-road-to-schengen-part-one-the-eus-external-border
#Bulgarie #frontières #Schengen #migrations #frontières_extérieures #asile #réfugiés #Balkans #route_des_Balkans #violence #Turquie #Sredets #encampement #Frontex #droits_humains #Serbie #Sofia #Voenna_Rampa #Border_Management_and_Visa_Instrument (#BMVI) #aide_financière #technologie #Dragoman #Pastrogor #camps_de_réfugiés #renvois #expulsions #retour_volontaire #Asylum_Migration_and_Integration_Fund (#AMIF) #Strandzha #Strandzha_national_park #forêt #montagne #Burgas #Yambol #mourir_aux_frontières #décès #morts_aux_frontières #identification #tombes #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #morgue

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ajouté à ce fil de discussion :
Europe’s Nameless Dead
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/1029609

Acquitté, Mimmo Lucano rêve de propager le modèle d’accueil de son village à travers l’Europe

Lourdement condamné en septembre 2021 pour « association de malfaiteurs aux fins d’immigration irrégulière », l’ancien maire calabrais Mimmo Lucano a été presque totalement blanchi par la justice le 12 avril. Il salue une « #victoire_morale » et se présente aux élections municipales et européennes qui se tiendront en juin.

L’ancienL’ancien maire de Riace garde le sourire, malgré le véritable « périple judiciaire » qu’il a dû traverser ces dernières années. Domenico Lucano, que tout le monde surnomme « Mimmo », insiste : sa propre personne ne compte pas. Il regrette surtout que l’image de Riace, petite commune de Calabre où il vit, et dont il a été le maire entre 2004 et 2018, ait été entachée par les accusations dont il a fait l’objet.

À travers son acquittement récent, et quasi total, il estime que l’accueil de l’autre est enfin reconnu « comme une solution et une renaissance », notamment pour les terres désertées par la population. « C’est avant tout une victoire morale », souligne-t-il. Ce modèle vertueux d’accueil et de solidarité, ce « Village global » qu’il a contribué à développer au fil des ans, Mimmo Lucano aimerait le voir élargi à toute l’Europe, à l’heure où celle-ci tend plutôt à se barricader.

Pour tenter d’y parvenir, il a choisi de se présenter aux prochaines élections municipales, à Riace, qui se tiendront en même temps que les élections européennes, pour lesquelles il est également candidat sur une liste d’alliance entre les Verts et la gauche italienne. « Ce qu’on voudrait, c’est une nouvelle Europe qui deviendrait le salut du monde. Pas celle des barbelés, dont les politiques ont provoqué la mort de dizaines de milliers de personnes », dit-il. Entretien.

Mediapart : Vous sortez d’un sacré feuilleton judiciaire…

Domenico Lucano : Oui. Un périple judiciaire. C’est mon histoire, mais c’est surtout celle d’une petite communauté, celle de Riace. Un petit bout de la périphérie européenne, avec sa mer Méditerranée, une sorte d’autoroute des pays arabes vers l’Europe. Mais c’est aussi la mer de la tragédie du monde. La Méditerranée a malheureusement changé de couleur, passant du bleu, du vert, au rouge, la couleur du sang. Le sang de beaucoup d’hommes et de femmes qui ne sont pas arrivés au bout de leur chemin. La mer est devenue un piège à leur tentative de bonheur. Elle a pris la couleur de la mort. Au cœur de l’histoire de Riace, il y a surtout un combat, devenu très médiatique, pour l’accueil de l’autre et pour un idéal politique différent.

Beaucoup de réfugiés afghans fuyant les talibans sont arrivés en Calabre. Je pense aussi à cette tragique nuit d’hiver, le 26 février 2023, durant laquelle les secours ne sont pas venus. Le ministère de l’intérieur a organisé l’arrivée de la douane plutôt que celle des gardes-côtes, qui avaient pourtant les moyens de les sauver. Quatre-vingt-quatorze personnes ont perdu la vie, après avoir passé cinq jours en mer, dont beaucoup d’enfants. En 2022, l’actuel ministre de l’intérieur a utilisé ces mots terribles s’agissant des migrants : il s’agit de « charges résiduelles ». Le gouvernement italien fêtait l’anniversaire de Salvini pendant que les familles pleuraient leurs morts. C’est sans doute le moment le plus déplorable. Il ne sert à rien d’être parmi les grandes puissances mondiales ou de surveiller sa croissance économique quand on est capables d’un tel cynisme face à la vie humaine. La droite a montré son vrai visage.

La droite et l’extrême droite ?

Je crois qu’il n’y a pas de différence en Italie. « Extrême » est un adjectif, mais la droite est le lieu commun de la déshumanisation. On a vu différentes tentatives du ministère de l’intérieur pour empêcher les migrants de débarquer en Italie. Le paradoxe, c’est de constater qu’un gouvernement indigne, qui s’illustre par son inhumanité, grimpe dans les sondages. Faire face à ce gouvernement en Italie, en usant d’une parole libre, ne provoque en retour que des coups de matraque. C’est du jamais-vu. Il y a une dérive de la droite en Italie.

Ce contexte politique vous a aussi valu une lourde condamnation en 2021 – 13 ans de prison et 500 000 euros d’amende, pour « association de malfaiteurs aux fins d’immigration irrégulière ». Comment l’avez-vous vécue ?

Le 4 octobre 2018, à l’aube, j’ai vu des voitures arriver chez moi pour m’arrêter. Cela a marqué le début d’une histoire hallucinante, qui a duré presque sept ans. Quand j’ai été condamné en première instance le 30 septembre 2021, le sentiment qu’il s’agissait d’un procès politique s’est vite propagé en Italie. On m’a contraint à m’éloigner de Riace durant onze mois, alors que j’avais donné ma vie pour cette terre. Il y a eu une manifestation d’ampleur à Rome, un ex-sénateur a lancé une collecte de fonds destinée à régler l’amende dont je faisais l’objet.

La collecte a rencontré un succès fou. Mais je lui ai dit que je n’en voulais pas. Je voulais simplement continuer d’accueillir les réfugiés à Riace, et on a construit le « Village global », avec une crèche pour 12 enfants immigrés et plein d’activités. On a tout fait pour continuer de faire exister ce monde-là. J’ai donc vécu cette condamnation avec sérénité, parce que j’ai pu profiter de la solidarité de la population italienne et du reste du monde, qui se raccrochait à la seule perspective de la fraternité.

Je suis conscient que le fait qu’un petit village de Calabre puisse devenir un exemple pour l’accueil des personnes exilées a beaucoup gêné. Le modèle « Riace » a fait peur au système néolibéral. Mais l’ennemi n’est pas l’étranger ou celui qui lui vient en aide : ce n’est autre que cette nouvelle vague de fascisme qu’il y a en Europe et dans le monde, qui ne cherche qu’à fermer les frontières et à créer des forteresses. Je regrette d’avoir vu après tant d’années de propagande une forme d’égoïsme s’installer dans l’esprit des gens, tel un consensus politique.

Comment vous sentez-vous aujourd’hui, après cette réhabilitation par la justice ?

Je vais bien. Deux de mes enfants sont à Rome, le troisième habite avec mon épouse, et je suis seul à Riace. La plupart de mes proches ont vécu l’acquittement comme une libération. Au niveau local, il y a eu une solidarité immédiate, y compris de la part de personnes qui ne partageaient pas ma vision politique. Mais le plus merveilleux dans cette fin de feuilleton, ce n’est pas l’acquittement en soi, ce sont les motivations des juges. Ces derniers ont attendu 90 jours pour les rendre publiques et signifier au reste de monde qu’on ne touchera pas au message politique pour lequel je me suis battu.

Ils ont rétabli la vérité et confirmé que je n’avais pas pensé à profiter une seconde du système d’accueil que j’avais mis en place à Riace, ni que j’avais pu m’enrichir par ce biais. Ce n’est donc pas un acquittement technique ou juridique. C’est un acquittement moral. Et pour la première fois dans l’histoire des migrations, l’immigration en Italie peut enfin être regardée sous une lumière totalement opposée à celle proposée par certains politiciens. L’accueil de l’autre est enfin reconnu comme une solution et une renaissance. C’est avant tout une victoire morale, et cela vaut plus que tout.

Vous avez fait le choix de revenir en politique, en vous présentant aux municipales à Riace mais aussi aux européennes, sur la liste des Verts et de l’Alliance de gauche (Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra) – élections qui se tiendront toutes deux les 8 et 9 juin prochains. Est-ce que votre acquittement a joué dans votre décision ?

Non, car je n’ai jamais perdu ce désir d’engagement politique. La politique, pour moi, se résume à l’espoir, et je n’ai jamais été fatigué à l’idée de continuer d’espérer. Dès le départ, le Village global a été conçu comme un laboratoire politique au niveau local. Cela a d’ailleurs été l’opportunité de multiples réunions, prises de décision collectives et autres activités communes. C’est dans cette démarche que nous avons donc voulu réunir la gauche au-delà du Parti démocrate (Partito Democratico), dont Elly Schlein est la secrétaire.

Ça n’a pas été facile. Les responsables du parti n’en ont pas tenu compte, alors on a trouvé une coalition a gauche du Parti démocrate. Les Verts et l’Alliance de gauche italienne m’ont demandé si je voulais participer aux européennes. Et avec tous les camarades de Riace, on a dit oui. C’était une envie partagée, parce que les positions qu’ils défendent contre la guerre, en faveur de l’accueil des exilés ou encore pour une loi pour le salaire minimum en Italie correspondaient à mes choix politiques. Un jour, j’aimerais qu’il y ait un panneau « Village de l’accueil » un peu partout dans les communes d’Europe !

Mais force est de constater que l’on observe plutôt une politique de rejet en Europe…

À Riace, on a réussi à l’échelle d’une toute petite réalité. Un village de quatre cents habitants est désormais connu pour sa politique d’accueil. À l’échelle européenne, nous ne serons peut-être plus là pour observer ce changement de paradigme. Mais je suis persuadé que d’une petite chose peut naître une grande chose. Je suis heureux que figure sur notre liste la candidate Ilaria Salis, arrêtée par Viktor Orbán en Hongrie pour son engagement contre le fascisme. Nous avons une histoire similaire, elle se bat pour le respect des droits humains. Lorsque j’ai vu les images d’elle à la télévision, la montrant menottée, j’ai été fier de la savoir à mes côtés dans cette aventure au niveau européen.

Le pacte migratoire européen a été adopté dans la douleur il y a peu. Êtes-vous inquiet de voir cette politique de repli concrétisée à l’échelle européenne à travers ces textes ?

Ce pacte est absurde. Je n’en partage pas les objectifs, évidemment. On voit partout des tentatives d’affaiblir le droit d’asile, y compris en Italie, ou de créer des sortes de voies de déportation vers des pays tiers comme l’Albanie, où le respect des droits humains n’est pas garanti. C’est triste quand on voit ce qu’on a été capables de faire à notre petite échelle. Je pense que la droite souffre d’un syndrome de la peur de l’être humain. C’est ce qu’on observe en Italie mais aussi en Europe. Ce qu’on voudrait, c’est une nouvelle Europe qui deviendrait le salut du monde. Pas celle des barbelés, dont les politiques ont provoqué la mort de dizaines de milliers de personnes.

Pourquoi vous présenter à deux élections, à deux échelles différentes ?

C’est une question redoutable (rires). Je ne veux pas devenir un bureaucrate. Je mettrai la même conviction à l’échelle européenne et je ne ferai de concession à personne : les profits de la politique ne m’intéressent pas. Et j’ajouterai que paradoxalement, je suis d’accord avec la manière dont Matteo Salvini m’a défini un jour, lorsqu’une personne lui a demandé ce qu’il pensait de moi. Il a répondu : « Il vaut zéro. » Ça me convient assez bien, je considère que je ne suis personne. Ce qui est sûr, c’est que j’ai à cœur de poursuivre mon engagement au niveau local et européen. En Italie, la loi permet d’être à la fois maire et député européen.

Alors, bien sûr, les possibilités sont multiples : je peux être élu maire de Riace, être élu député européen ou les deux, ou pas élu du tout. Je continuerai dans tous les cas à développer le modèle Riace, et j’aimerais élargir ce modèle d’accueil à d’autres communes en Italie, et à d’autres États en Europe, un modèle en faveur de l’accueil qui permet aussi de contrer le déclin démographique. Et pour aller plus loin, j’aimerais également créer une collectivité de communes qui partagerait une monnaie unique, pour nous permettre de sortir de ce néolibéralisme, qui détruit notre économie et notre démocratie, tout en valorisant le travail fourni au sein de la communauté.

►https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/040524/acquitte-mimmo-lucano-reve-de-propager-le-modele-d-accueil-de-son-village-

#Riace #Mimmo_Lucano #Domenico_Lucano #accueil #réfugiés #migrations #Italie #Calabre #justice #acquittement #entretien #interview #solidarité #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #villes-refuge #périple_judiciaire #condamnation #réhabilitation #libération #acquittement_moral #engagement_politique

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Ce fil de discussion est la suite de celui-ci :
11 octobre 2023, verdict en cour d’appel pour le #procès contre #Mimmo_Lucano, ancien maire de #Riace
►https://seenthis.net/messages/1020950

signalé par @olaf ici :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/1052451

ping @_kg_

#Christian_Estrosi voit sa #condamnation confirmée pour #diffamation envers un universitaire engagé dans une association d’aide aux migrants

La cour d’appel d’Aix-en-Provence a confirmé ce mercredi 20 mars la condamnation du maire de Nice pour diffamation envers un universitaire azuréen, engagé dans une association d’aide aux migrants.

Christian Estrosi (Horizons) a vu sa condamnation pour diffamation confirmée ce mercredi 20 mars par la cour d’appel d’Aix-en-Provence, dans les Bouches-du-Rhône.

#Pierre-Alain_Mannoni, géographe niçois, avait été poursuivi pour avoir brièvement hébergé trois Erythréennes dans un centre de vacances français désaffecté, avant de les conduire en voiture à une gare pour qu’elles puissent être soignées à Marseille.

Une décision de relaxe en 2017, qui a été définitivement confirmée en 2020, avait provoqué la colère du maire de Nice qui avait alors estimé que Pierre-Alain Mannoni « favorisait le travail des passeurs ».

« Comment ces individus peuvent-ils nous certifier qu’ils ne font pas rentrer des terroristes sur notre sol en violant la loi comme ils le font ? », avait écrit l’élu sur X, anciennement Twitter. L’élu a depuis quitté ce réseau social.

#Plainte pour diffamation

Pierre-Alain Mannoni avait alors porté plainte pour diffamation. En première instance, en juin 2021, le tribunal correctionnel de Nice avait condamné le maire à 3.000 euros d’amende et 5.000 euros de dommages et intérêts.

En janvier 2022, la cour d’appel d’Aix-en-Provence avait infirmé ce jugement et relaxé M. Estrosi. Mais, en juin 2023, la Cour de cassation avait invalidé cette décision et l’avait renvoyée à la cour d’appel. Mercredi, cette dernière a confirmé le jugement de première instance.

« Justice a été faite, le maire de la cinquième ville de France a jeté mon client en pâture et il a été sanctionné. » (Maeva Binimelis, avocate de Pierre-Alain Mannoni à l’Agence France-Presse)

L’avocat de M. Estrosi, Me Gérard Baudoux, a annoncé un nouveau pourvoi en Cassation.

▻https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/provence-alpes-cote-d-azur/alpes-maritimes/nice/christian-estrosi-condamne-pour-diffamation-envers-un-u

#frontière_sud-alpine #asile #migrations #réfugiés #solidarité #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #justice #Alpes_Maritime

L’Europe doit mettre fin à la répression des défenseurs des droits humains qui aident les réfugiés, les demandeurs d’asile et les migrants

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« Dans toute l’Europe, il est de plus en plus fréquent que des organisations et des individus soient harcelés, intimidés, victimes de violences ou considérés comme des délinquants simplement parce qu’ils contribuent à protéger les droits humains des réfugiés, des demandeurs d’asile et des migrants. Les États européens doivent mettre fin à cette répression », a déclaré aujourd’hui la Commissaire aux droits de l’homme du Conseil de l’Europe, Dunja Mijatović, à l’occasion de la publication d’une Recommandation sur la situation des défenseurs des droits humains qui aident les réfugiés, les demandeurs d’asile et les migrants en Europe.

Cette Recommandation, intitulée Protéger les défenseurs : mettre fin à la répression des défenseurs des droits humains qui aident les réfugiés, les demandeurs d’asile et les migrants en Europe, donne un aperçu des défis auxquels sont confrontés les défenseurs des droits humains et présente les mesures que les États membres du Conseil de l’Europe devraient prendre pour les protéger.

Dans le contexte de politiques d’asile et de migration répressives, sécuritaires et militarisées, les États négligent de plus en plus leur obligation de veiller à ce que les défenseurs des droits humains puissent travailler dans un environnement sûr et favorable. En conséquence, de multiples formes de répression s’exercent sur les défenseurs qui participent à des opérations de sauvetage en mer, fournissent une aide humanitaire ou une assistance juridique, mènent des opérations de surveillance des frontières, assurent une couverture médiatique, mènent des activités de plaidoyer, engagent des procédures contentieuses, ou soutiennent par d’autres moyens encore les réfugiés, les demandeurs d’asile et les migrants en Europe.

La Recommandation examine les problèmes auxquels sont confrontés les défenseurs des droits humains, notamment :

- des propos hostiles et stigmatisants tenus par des représentants gouvernementaux, des parlementaires et certains médias ;
– des violences et des menaces, et le manque de réaction des autorités pour y répondre ;
– la criminalisation du travail humanitaire ou de défense des droits humains mené auprès des réfugiés, des demandeurs d’asile et des migrants, due à une application trop large des lois sur le trafic illicite de migrants ;
– le refus d’accès à des lieux où il est essentiel d’assurer un suivi de la situation des droits humains ou de fournir une aide, tels que des centres de détention ou d’accueil ou des zones frontalières.

« Les gouvernements européens devraient voir les défenseurs des droits humains comme des partenaires qui peuvent contribuer de manière déterminante à rendre les politiques d’asile et de migration plus efficaces et respectueuses des droits humains. Au lieu de cela, ils les traitent avec hostilité. Cette politique délibérée porte atteinte aux droits humains des acteurs de la société civile et des personnes auxquelles ils viennent en aide. Par extension, elle ronge le tissu démocratique des sociétés », a déclaré la Commissaire.

Afin d’inverser cette tendance répressive, la Commissaire appelle à prendre d’urgence une série de mesures, dont les suivantes :

- réformer les lois, politiques et pratiques qui entravent indûment les activités des défenseurs des droits humains ;
– veiller à ce que les lois sur le trafic illicite de migrants ne confèrent le caractère d’infraction pénale à aucune activité de défense des droits humains ou d’aide humanitaire menée auprès des réfugiés, des demandeurs d’asile et des migrants ;
- lever les restrictions d’accès aux lieux et aux informations ;
- mettre fin au discours stigmatisant et dénigrant ;
- établir des procédures de sécurité efficaces pour les défenseurs confrontés à des violences ou à des menaces et veiller à ce que ces cas fassent l’objet d’enquêtes effectives.

▻https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/view/-/asset_publisher/ugj3i6qSEkhZ/content/id/264775174?_com_liferay_asset_publisher_web_portlet_AssetPublisherPortlet_INSTAN
#criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #asile #migrations #réfugiés #solidarité #recommandation #conseil_de_l'Europe #répression #assistance_juridique #sauvetage #aide_humanitaire #violence #menaces #hostilité #droits_humains #rapport

"We know who you are": Hostile migration politics and the criminalisation of solidarity actors in #France and Morocco.

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The study – conducted in collaboration with Dr Maria Hagan – explores how NGO practitioners, activists, and other solidarity actors in France and Morocco increasingly face intimidation, repression, and prosecution from state authorities amidst hostile and violent policies aimed at curbing migration. Whilst high-profile court cases (especially regarding sea rescue operations) have gained some attention in public debates, there has been little exploration of more ordinary, insidious forms of criminalisation and repression targeting solidarity actors, especially beyond European countries. In collaboration with advocacy organisations and artists, the study addresses this gap through ethnographic research carried out in northern France and Morocco. Several academic and creative outputs for the wider public are in gestation– watch this space.

▻https://sebastienbachelet.com/crimes-of-solidarity
#rapport #Maroc #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #solidarité #asile #migrations #réfugiés #intimidation #répression #poursuites #poursuites_judiciaires

ping @karine4

#Sara_Mardini - Nager pour l’humanité
▻https://fusion.molotov.tv/arts/i/446x588/Ch8SHQoUu-FlT_rNZVkap54IHW-yOOghNNwSA2pwZxgB/jpg

Contrainte à l’exil par la guerre, la nageuse syrienne Sara Mardini a secouru d’autres migrants à #Lesbos. Arrêtée pour cette activité humanitaire, elle encourt aujourd’hui vingt ans de prison... Portrait poignant d’une infatigable militante.

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11 octobre 2023, verdict en cour d’appel pour le #procès contre #Mimmo_Lucano, ancien maire de #Riace

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Ce fil de discussion est la suite de celui-ci :
Le 20.09.2023 la défense de #Mimmo_Lucano a prononcé le plaidoyer final dans le cadre de l’#appel à la condamnation de l’ancien maire de #Riace...
►https://seenthis.net/messages/1018103

#accueil #migrations #solidarité #asile #réfugiés #Italie #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #acquittement #justice #Xenia

Empêcher les migrations : #dissuasion, #répression

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La #politique_migratoire européenne est marquée par la doctrine dite de l’#appel_d’air [...]. Tout s’oriente vers des stratégies de dissuasion pour circonscrire l’entrée comme le séjour dans le territoire de l’Union européenne (UE), les pays usant pour cela de l’arsenal juridique, administratif ou militaro-policier dont ils disposent [...].

Sont visées principalement, souvent sur une base raciste, les personnes qui tentent de franchir les #frontières, menacées, pourchassées, voire accusées de trafic d’êtres humains et condamnées, alors même qu’elles ne font que s’assister mutuellement. Mais aussi, dans la même logique, celles qui leur viennent en aide, ainsi que, le cas échéant, leurs organisations, toutes motivations confondues.

Volontiers qualifiées de criminelles en référence à la figure honnie du « passeur », montrées du doigt sinon punies, les unes et les autres font l’objet d’un éreintement multiforme, l’imagination des forces de répression étant sans limite.

▻http://migreurop.org/article3195.html?lang_article=fr
#migrations #asile #réfugiés #Migreurop #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #passeurs

Respingimenti e ostacoli all’asilo. Ritorno sulla frontiera Italia-Svizzera

Da gennaio ad aprile 2023 a Como-Ponte Chiasso oltre 1.300 persone migranti sono state “riammesse” indietro dalle autorità elvetiche. È il confine terrestre italiano con i dati più alti. Quattro su 10 sono afghani: la protezione è un miraggio

Ahmed, diciassettenne afghano, è partito da Kabul nell’autunno del 2021 per non finire tra le fila dell’esercito talebano. A un anno e mezzo dalla partenza, dopo aver percorso una delle diramazioni della rotta balcanica, passa per la stazione di Milano, dove non si ferma neanche una notte: la prossima tappa da raggiungere è Zurigo, l’obiettivo ultimo la Germania. Che cosa lo aspetta al confine italo-svizzero? Seppur poco raccontato, secondo i dati del ministero dell’Interno, su questa frontiera nei primi quattro mesi del 2023 sono state registrate 1.341 riammissioni passive, ovvero le pratiche di polizia a danno di persone straniere considerate irregolari che, a un passo dall’arrivo sul territorio elvetico, vengono costrette a ritornare in Italia.

A far da contraltare all’approccio di frontiera finalizzato al respingimento, una parte della società civile su entrambi i lati del confine testimonia ormai da anni un’accoglienza possibile ma sempre più difficile nei confronti dei transitanti. La collaborazione tra i due Paesi si rifà all’accordo italo-svizzero del 1998 “sulla riammissione delle persone in situazione irregolare”, mai ratificato dal Parlamento italiano. Il 31 maggio scorso quell’impegno bilaterale è stato ribadito nell’incontro tra il ministro dell’Interno Matteo Piantedosi e la sua omologa svizzera, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, per contrastare, parole del Viminale, la “criminalità organizzata”, il “terrorismo internazionale” e monitorare i “foreign fighters di rientro dai teatri di guerra”. Il tutto, ha assicurato la consigliera elvetica, garantendo “sempre il rispetto dei diritti umani dei migranti”. Retorica politica che propone un concetto di sicurezza e promette di proteggere tutti, ma poi nella pratica minaccia le stesse persone in cerca di una maggior sicurezza.

Già nel 2016 l’Associazione per gli studi giuridici sull’Immigrazione (Asgi) aveva evidenziato l’illegittimità delle riammissioni previste dall’accordo bilaterale per diversi motivi: ostacolano la domanda di asilo, implicano controlli sistemici e discriminatori lungo una frontiera Schengen e sono considerabili espulsioni collettive; infine, essendo procedure informali, non permettono di presentare un eventuale ricorso.

Nonostante le rassicurazioni sul “rispetto dei diritti umani” di Baume-Schneider, le riammissioni, con le annesse criticità sottolineate nel 2016, continuano anche oggi. I dati relativi ai primi mesi dell’anno, comunicati dal Viminale dopo un’istanza di accesso civico di Altreconomia, sono eloquenti. Per quanto riguarda il settore terrestre di Como-Ponte Chiasso, da gennaio ad aprile 2023 sono state registrate 1.341 riammissioni verso l’Italia (numeri alti, basti pensare che per il più conosciuto accordo bilaterale tra Italia e Slovenia erano state 1.240 le persone riammesse nel 2020, anno di picco).

Quello con la Svizzera si conferma quindi il confine terrestre italiano dove vengono registrate più riammissioni passive (si veda, a questo proposito, l’articolo sui respingimenti ai confini italiani nel numero di febbraio di Altreconomia). Dal gennaio 2022, infatti, in media, 330 persone ogni mese sono costrette dalla polizia svizzera a ritornare sui propri passi. Quattro su dieci sono afghani, proprio come Ahmed. Seguono siriani, turchi, marocchini e poi bengalesi e tunisini.

Entrare nel merito di ciascun episodio è impossibile, ma si può ipotizzare che in molti casi la riammissione abbia ostacolato l’accesso alla domanda di protezione internazionale per persone provenienti da zone di conflitto. Ciò che permette un così alto numero di riammissioni è l’esteso sistema di controllo elvetico. “Il Ticino ha il più alto numero di poliziotti pro-capite di tutta la Svizzera”, spiega Donato Di Blasi di Casa Astra, centro di prima accoglienza per persone in emergenza abitativa nella Svizzera italiana. Nel territorio, infatti, si conta un agente ogni 305 abitanti, a fronte della media nazionale di uno ogni 466 secondo i dati della Radiotelevisione svizzera. “I pattugliamenti della polizia svizzera si estendono sui treni fino a Lugano, a 30 chilometri dalla stazione di confine di Ponte Chiasso”, continua Di Blasi.

Spesso i controlli avverrebbero sistematicamente nei confronti di persone con caratteristiche somatiche apparentemente non di origine europea, in violazione delle normative che vietano la profilazione etnica (racial profiling). Un ragazzo egiziano di 16 anni che vive attualmente a Como racconta: “Una volta rientrando da Milano mi sono addormentato sul treno, superando per sbaglio la fermata di Como. Alla stazione di Chiasso mi hanno svegliato i poliziotti, mi hanno perquisito fino a lasciarmi in mutande, poi mi hanno riportato in Italia. Ero l’unico sul treno a cui è successo così”. Il monitoraggio frontaliero delle forze dell’ordine si inoltra anche nelle zone di transito percorribili in auto o a piedi. Per sorvegliare al meglio queste aree, l’ufficio federale dell’armamento (Armasuisse) aveva annunciato già nel 2015 l’acquisto di sei droni di fabbricazione israeliana che entreranno a pieno regime entro la fine del 2024.

Nonostante la fitta rete di controlli e i numeri delle riammissioni, le realtà comasche che supportano le persone transitanti concordano nel dire che la situazione per le strade di Como non è minimamente paragonabile a quella dell’estate del 2016, quando fino a 500 persone dormivano nei pressi della stazione di San Giovanni in attesa di superare il confine. “Sono sporadici i casi di persone riammesse dalla Svizzera presenti sulle strade di Como”, racconta Anna Merlo di Porta Aperta, sportello di Caritas per i senza dimora. “Dato l’alto numero delle riammissioni, ci chiediamo: dove vanno le persone una volta riportate in Italia?”, si domanda don Giusto Della Valle, parroco di Rebbio, realtà solidale con le persone transitanti e attualmente luogo di accoglienza per decine di minori stranieri non accompagnati in attesa di una sistemazione definitiva. L’impressione è che chi viene riammesso non si fermi in città, provando a continuare il viaggio in altre zone di frontiera, vicine e lontane.

Ahmed ha avuto fortuna, è riuscito a superare l’ennesimo confine, ma questo non significa la fine degli ostacoli. Infatti, dalle informazioni raccolte, è frequente che le persone transitanti, intercettate dalle forze dell’ordine sul territorio svizzero, dopo aver provato a fare domanda di asilo vengano riportate in Italia alla centrale di polizia di Ponte Chiasso. “Per essere certi che la domanda di asilo venga presa in carico e le persone non vengano respinte, l’unico modo è accompagnarle fisicamente alla questura di Chiasso per contestare un’eventuale riammissione; lo abbiamo fatto più volte in passato -spiega Gabriela Giuria Tasville di Azione posti liberi, fondazione che segue dal punto di vista legale i richiedenti asilo in Ticino-. A peggiorare il quadro, inoltre, è impossibile, per le persone in transito, soggiornare anche temporaneamente in Svizzera, perché dal 2008 è entrata in vigore una legge federale che vieta qualsiasi forma di accoglienza e penalizza chiunque aiuti le persone transitanti in situazione di irregolarità”. Questa legge infatti punisce “con una pena detentiva sino a un anno o con una pena pecuniaria chiunque […] facilita o aiuta a preparare l’entrata, la partenza o il soggiorno illegali di uno straniero” (articolo 116, 1.a). Le autorità, da una parte, non permettono alle persone transitanti di regolarizzare la loro posizione sul territorio e quindi di accedere alle strutture di accoglienza; dall’altra, puniscono chiunque aiuti il soggiorno di una persona che è in una situazione di irregolarità a causa del mancato accesso alla procedura di asilo.

Questa legge, ormai arrivata al suo quindicesimo anno d’età, ha fatto sì che realtà come Casa Astra, che già nel 2004 accoglieva sans papier provenienti dall’Ecuador, non possano più supportare persone in situazione di emergenza abitativa senza documenti. Ancora più eclatante è il caso del centro sociale autogestito il Molino a Lugano, unica realtà che fino al 2021 accoglieva apertamente le persone transitanti. Nel maggio di due anni fa è stato raso al suolo su provvedimento della polizia cantonale. Al contrario della solida collaborazione tra le autorità di frontiera dei due Paesi, costruire e mantenere una rete solidale a livello locale e transfrontaliero di supporto alle persone in transito, in questo contesto, sembra quasi impossibile.

▻https://altreconomia.it/respingimenti-e-ostacoli-allasilo-ritorno-sulla-frontiera-italia-svizze

#Italie #Suisse #frontières #push-backs #refoulements #asile #migrations #réfugiés #frontière_sud-alpine #réadmissions #réadmissions_passives #foreign_fighters #terrorisme #statistiques #chiffres #2023 #2022 #profilage_racial #drones #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité

New GCR report reveals violence against refugees at the Greek-Turkish borders and criminalization of legal aid organizations

https://i.imgur.com/0LSI8aw.png

Pushbacks and intimidation of human rights defenders are a systematic part of an unofficial but carefully planned migration and border policy

A new report by the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) documents extreme violence against people seeking asylum at Europe’s external border. Pushbacks of refugees to Turkey are widespread, and involve humiliation, illegal detention, intimidation, physical and sexual violence, and arbitrary confiscation of personal belongings.

Pushback cases before ECtHR and/or Greek Public Prosecutor

This report contributes to an existing body of extensive evidence of the Greek state’s illegal pushbacks practice, by providing particularly detailed descriptions of 11 pushback cases at the Evros border region and the Aegean islands, and 2 cases of pullbacks by the Turkish authorities in Evros.

Illegal detention in official and unofficial detention sites

In all cases detailed in the report, asylum seekers were arbitrarily held in official or unofficial detention sites, for periods ranging from a few hours to a full day before eventually being pushed back. In three cases, people identified their place of detention as the Neo Cheimonio Border Guard Station.

Sexual Violence

In all the reported cases, asylum seekers were subjected to strip search during their unofficial detention. In at least three cases, people reported incidents of sexual violence, ranging from humiliation to sexual assault and rape.

Pushback of two Palestinian recognized refugees

In June 2022, two Palestinians recognised by the Greek authorities as refugees and legally residing in the island of Kos were illegally apprehended in the middle of the street. They were brought to a small storage room with other people, body searched and then raped. Twelve hours later, the guards tied their legs, put them in a van and boarded them in a boat. They threw them in the sea on a half-deflated raft until the Turkish coast guard rescued them.

Criminalization of legal aid organizations

Evidence from the report also shows how human rights defenders supporting refugees, including NGOs like the Greek Council for Refugees, are increasingly intimidated and obstructed in their work by the Greek authorities. Instead of stopping these rights violations, the Greek government is targeting those who support refugees, framing them as enemies of the state and smugglers in an attempt to silence them and hinder their human rights work.

Alkistis Agrafioti Chatzigianni, Advocacy Officer at the Greek Council for Refugees, said:

“This research shows that unless the EU and Greek authorities finally put an end to these illegal border policies, they will only become more violent and widespread. The government must immediately cease all violations at its borders and allow human rights defenders to do their important work of supporting people seeking asylum.”

Kleio Nikolopoulou, Advocacy Officer at the Greek Council for Refugees, said:

“Pushbacks and border violence have become the rule rather than the exception in Greece. They are an unacceptable symptom of a broken European asylum policy and what is even more alarming is the EU standing by as these rights violations become a common trend throughout European borders. The EU needs to put in place a migration system that upholds asylum rights.”

▻https://www.gcr.gr/en/news/press-releases-announcements/item/2111-new-gcr-report-reveals-violence-against-refugees-at-the-greek-turkish-borde

Pour télécharger le rapport:
▻https://www.gcr.gr/media/k2/attachments/GCR_Pushback_Criminalization_Report.pdf

#rapport #GCR #Grèce #Turquie #frontières #asile #migrations #réfugiés #push-backs #refoulements #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #violence #humiliation #détention_illégale #enfermement #violence_sexuelle #frontières_extérieures #Evros #îles #Thrace