• Texas Teen Deported After #ICE Linked Tattoos to Gang Activity Only Got Ink Because It ’Looked Cool’: Report

    Immigration authorities began detaining Latino men with tattoos under the assumption that they were tied to organized crime.

    A Texas teenager was deported after U.S. immigration authorities mistakenly linked his tattoos to gang activity, despite him claiming he only got them because they “looked cool,” according to reports.

    On March 15, President Donald Trump invoked the #Alien_Enemies_Act of 1798 to deport over 200 Venezuelan migrants, claiming they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, according to the New Republic.

    This move bypassed due process and resulted in individuals being detained and sent to a Salvadoran prison without a proper legal review. Among those deported were individuals with no criminal record, including a young man who had gotten a tattoo in Dallas purely for aesthetic reasons.

    “The men sent to do hard labor in a Salvadoran prison with no due process include: A tattoo artist seeking asylum who entered legally, a teen who got a tattoo in Dallas because he thought it looked cool, a 26-year-old whose tattoos his wife says are unrelated to a gang,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council wrote on X.

    Immigration authorities reportedly began detaining Latino men with tattoos under the assumption that they were tied to organized crime.

    Many of these individuals, including asylum seekers, were allegedly targeted based solely on body art, regardless of whether they had any gang affiliation.

    One detainee, Aguilera Agüero, had a tattoo featuring lyrics from Puerto Rican reggaeton star Anuel AA, which was reportedly wrongly cited as gang-related evidence.

    Trump’s invocation of the act has since been blocked by a federal judge, as reported by NPR. Families and legal experts are continuing to work on getting the detained migrants released.

    https://www.latintimes.com/texas-teen-deported-after-ice-linked-tattoos-gang-activity-only-got-ink-
    #déportation #expulsion #tattoo #tatouage #détention_administrative #rétention #USA #Etats-Unis #Trump #trumpisme #latinos #immigrés_vénézuéliens #El_Salvador #emprisonnement

    • “You’re Here Because of Your Tattoos”

      The Trump administration sent Venezuelans to El Salvador’s most infamous prison. Their families are looking for answers.

      On Friday, March 14, Arturo Suárez Trejo called his wife, Nathali Sánchez, from an immigration detention center in Texas. Suárez, a 33-year-old native of Caracas, Venezuela, explained that his deportation flight had been delayed. He told his wife he would be home soon. Suárez did not want to go back to Venezuela. Still, there was at least a silver lining: In December, Sánchez had given birth to their daughter, Nahiara. Suárez would finally have a chance to meet the three-month-old baby girl he had only ever seen on screens.

      But, Sánchez told Mother Jones, she has not heard from Suárez since. Instead, last weekend, she found herself zooming in on a photo the government of El Salvador published of Venezuelan men the Trump administration had sent to President Nayib Bukele’s infamous Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. “I realized that one of them was my husband,” she said. “I recognized him by the tattoo [on his neck], by his ear, and by his chin. Even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew it was him.” The photo Sánchez examined—and a highly produced propaganda video promoted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the White House—showed Venezuelans shackled in prison uniforms as they were pushed around by guards and had their heads shaved.

      The tattoo on Suárez’s neck is of a colibrí, a hummingbird. His wife said it is meant to symbolize “harmony and good energy.” She said his other tattoos, like a palm tree on his hand—an homage to Suárez’s late mother’s use of a Venezuelan expression about God being greater than a coconut tree—were similarly innocuous. Nevertheless, they may be why Suárez has been effectively disappeared by the US government into a Salvadoran mega-prison.

      Mother Jones has spoken with friends, family members, and lawyers of ten men sent to El Salvador by the Trump administration based on allegations that they are members of the Venezuelan organized crime group Tren de Aragua. All of them say their relatives have tattoos and believe that is why their loved ones were targeted. But they vigorously reject the idea that their sons, brothers, and husbands have anything to do with Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration recently labeled a foreign terrorist organization. The families have substantiated those assertions to Mother Jones, including—in many cases—by providing official documents attesting to their relatives’ lack of criminal histories in Venezuela. Such evidence might have persuaded US judges that the men were not part of any criminal organization had the Trump administration not deliberately deprived them of due process.

      On March 14, President Donald Trump quietly signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act—a 1798 law last used during World War II. The order declared that the United States is under invasion by Tren de Aragua. It is the first time in US history that the 18th-century statute, which gives the president extraordinary powers to detain and deport noncitizens, has been used absent a Congressional declaration of war. The administration then employed the wartime authority unlocked by the Alien Enemies Act to quickly load Venezuelans onto deportation flights from Texas to El Salvador.

      In response to a class action lawsuit brought by the ACLU and Democracy Forward, federal judge James Boasberg almost immediately blocked the Trump White House from using the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport Venezuelans, and directed any planes already in the air to turn around. But in defiance of that order, the administration kept jets flying to El Salvador. Now Suárez and others like him are trapped in the Central American nation with no clear way to contact their relatives or lawyers.

      Suárez, whose story has also been reported on by the Venezuelan outlet El Estímulo, is an aspiring pop musician who records under the name SuarezVzla. His older brother, Nelson Suárez, said his sibling’s tattoos were intended to help him “stand out” from the crowd. “As Venezuelans, we can’t be in our own country so we came to a country where there is supposedly freedom of expression, where there are human rights, where there’s the strongest and most robust democracy,” Nelson said. “Yet the government is treating us like criminals based only on our tattoos, or because we’re Venezuelan, without a proper investigation or a prosecutor offering any evidence.” (All interviews with family members for this story were conducted in Spanish.)

      The Justice Department’s website states that Suárez’s immigration case is still pending and that he is due to appear before a judge next Wednesday. Records provided by Nelson Suárez show that Arturo has no criminal record in Venezuela. Nor, according to his family, does Suárez have one in Colombia and Chile, where he lived after leaving Venezuela in 2016. They say he is one of millions of Venezuelans who sought a better life elsewhere after fleeing one of the worst economic collapses in modern history. (Just a few years ago, Secretary Rubio, then a senator from Florida, stressed that failure to protect Venezuelans from deportation “would result in a very real death sentence for countless” people who had “fled their country.”)

      The stories shared with Mother Jones suggest that Trump’s immigration officials actively sought out Venezuelan men with tattoos before the Alien Enemies Act was invoked and then removed them to El Salvador within hours of the presidential proclamation taking effect.

      “This doesn’t just happen overnight,” said immigration lawyer Joseph Giardina, who represents one of the men now in El Salvador, Frizgeralth de Jesus Cornejo Pulgar. “They don’t get a staged reception in El Salvador and a whole wing for them in a maximum-security prison…It was a planned operation, that was carried out quickly and in violation of the judge’s order. They knew what they were doing.”

      The White House has yet to provide evidence that the hundreds of Venezuelans flown to El Salvador—without an opportunity to challenge their labeling as Tren de Aragua members and “terrorists”—had actual ties to the gang. When pressed on the criteria used for their identification, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed to unspecified “intelligence” deployed to arrest the Venezuelans she has referred to as “heinous monsters.” Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has insisted—without providing specific details—that the public should trust ICE to have correctly targeted the Venezuelans based on “criminal investigations,” social media posts, and surveillance.

      Robert Cerna, an acting field office director for ICE’s removal operations branch, said the agency “did not simply rely on social media posts, photographs of the alien displaying gang-related hand gestures, or tattoos alone.” But Cerna also acknowledged that many of the Venezuelans deported under the Alien Enemies Act had no criminal history in the United States, a fact he twisted into an argument to seemingly justify the summary deportations without due process. “The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat,” Cerna wrote. “In fact, based upon their association with TdA, the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose. It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”

      The relatives who talked to Mother Jones painted a vastly different picture from the US government’s description of the men as terrorists or hardened criminals. Many said their loved ones were tricked into thinking they were being sent back to Venezuela, not to a third country. (The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to a detailed request for comment asking for any evidence that the Venezuelans named in this article have ties to Tren de Aragua.)

      Before leaving for the United States in late 2023, Neri Alvarado Borges lived in Yaritagua, a small city in north central Venezuela. His father is a farmer and his mother supports his 15-year-old brother, Neryelson, who has autism.

      Alvarado’s older sister, María, stressed in a call from Venezuela that her brother has no connection to Tren de Aragua. She said her brother was deeply devoted to helping Neryelson—explaining that one of his three tattoos is an autism awareness ribbon with his brother’s name on it and that he used to teach swimming classes for children with developmental disabilities. “Anyone who’s talked to Neri for even an hour can tell you what a great person he is. Truly, as a family, we are completely devastated to see him going through something so unjust—especially knowing that he’s never done anything wrong,” María said. “He’s someone who, as they say, wouldn’t even hurt a fly.”

      Still, Alvarado was detained by ICE outside his apartment in early February and brought in for questioning, Juan Enrique Hernández, the owner of two Venezuelan bakeries in the Dallas area and Alvarado’s boss, told Mother Jones. One day later, Hernández went to see him in detention and asked him to explain what had happened. Alvarado told Hernández that an ICE agent had asked him if he knew why he had been picked up; Alvarado said that he did not. “Well, you’re here because of your tattoos,” the ICE agent replied, according to Hernández. “We’re finding and questioning everyone who has tattoos.”

      The agent then asked Alvarado to explain his tattoos and for permission to review his phone for any evidence of gang activity. “You’re clean,” the ICE officer told Alvarado after he complied, according to both Hernández and María Alvarado. “I’m going to put down here that you have nothing to do with Tren de Aragua.”

      For reasons that remain unclear, Hernández said that another official in ICE’s Dallas field office decided to keep Alvarado detained. María Alvarado said her brother told her the same story at the time.

      Hernández spoke to Alvarado shortly before he was sent to El Salvador. “There are 90 of us here. We all have tattoos. We were all detained for the same reasons,” he recalled Alvarado telling him. “From what they told me, we are going to be deported.” Both assumed that meant being sent back to Venezuela.

      Hernández, a US citizen who moved to the United States from Venezuela nearly three decades ago, searched desperately for Alvarado when he didn’t show up in his home country that weekend. He was nearly certain that Alvarado was in El Salvador when he first spoke to Mother Jones on Thursday. “I have very few friends,” he said. “Very few friends and I have been in this country for 27 years. I let Neri into my house because he is a stand-up guy…Because you can tell when someone is good or bad.” Later that day, on Alvarado’s 25th birthday, Hernández got confirmation that his friend was in El Salvador when CBS News published a list of the 238 people now at CECOT.

      A centerpiece of Bukele’s brutal anti-gang crackdown, CECOT is known for due process violations and extreme confinement conditions. Last year, CNN obtained rare access to the remote prison, which can hold up to 40,000 people. The network found prisoners living in crowded cells with metal beds that had no mattresses or sheets, an open toilet, and a cement basin. Visitation and time outdoors are not allowed. A photographer who was allowed into the prison as the Venezuelans arrived earlier this month wrote for Time magazine that he witnessed them being beaten, humiliated, and stripped naked.

      The Trump administration has indicated in court records that the El Salvador operation was weeks, if not months, in the making. In a declaration, a State Department official said arrangements with the Salvadoran and Venezuelan governments for the countries to take back US deportees allegedly associated with Tren de Aragua had been made after weeks of talks “at the highest levels”—including ones involving Secretary of State Rubio—and “were the result of intensive and delicate negotiations.”

      As part of the deal, the US government will pay El Salvador $6 million to hold the Venezuelan men for at least one year. Calling the agreements a “foreign policy matter,” Rubio has claimed the outsourcing of deportees’ detention to Bukele’s “excellent prison system” is saving money for US taxpayers.

      It is unclear if, or when, anyone sent to CECOT will be able to return to Venezuela. A Human Rights Watch program director noted in a declaration that the organization “is not aware of any detainees who have been released from that prison.” During an appeals court hearing on March 24, the ACLU’s lead counsel Lee Gelernt said, “We’re looking at people now who may be in a Salvadoran prison the rest of their lives.”

      Joseph Giardina’s client Frizgeralth de Jesus Cornejo Pulgar thought he was set to return to Venezuela on a deportation flight. Carlos, Frizgeralth’s older sibling, said his 26-year-old brother called their sister, who lives in Tennessee, from the El Valle detention center in Texas. He said Frizgeralth told her he was going to be deported to Venezuela later that day. “He was happy that he was going to be here with us,” Carlos said from Caracas in a video call with Mother Jones.

      But Frizgeralth never arrived. Eventually, the family heard from the girlfriend of another Venezuelan set to be deported on the same flight as Carlos. She had identified him in videos shared on social media of the men who had been sent to the prison in El Salvador. On March 19, Carlos started scouring the internet and spotted his brother in a TikTok video. In it, Frizgeralth has his freshly shaved head pressed down, a rose tattoo on his neck peeking out from under a white t-shirt.

      “We felt very powerless and in a lot of pain,” Carlos said. “To see how they mistreat a person who doesn’t deserve any of that. It’s not fair.”

      Frizgeralth arrived in the United States in June 2024 after crossing the Darién Gap and waiting several months in Mexico for a CBP One appointment. The Biden-era program, which the Trump administration has since terminated, allowed migrants to schedule a date to present lawfully at a US port of entry. Carlos said Border patrol agents let Frizgeralth’s girlfriend and their other brother, as well as two friends, through but they held Frizgeralth back. He ended up detained at Winn Correctional Center, an ICE facility in Louisiana.

      In messages to his family from detention, Frizgeralth expressed concern he was being investigated because of his tattoos. He explained that none of the 20 or so images—including one on his chest of an angel holding a gun—he has tattooed on his body have any connection to gang activity. He also described feeling discouraged from hearing stories in detention of Venezuelans who had recently been redetained and said ICE agents picked them up over suspicions about their tattoos.

      Frizgeralth even had a declaration from his tattoo artist confirming the harmless nature of the artwork. “I never imagined being imprisoned just for getting a tattoo,” Frizgeralth, who owns a streetwear clothing brand with Carlos, wrote. “I never imagined being separated from my family. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, not even my worst enemy if I had one. It’s horrible, it’s mental torture every day.”

      Like Suárez and Alvarado, Frizgeralth had no criminal record in Venezuela, documents show. Giardina said his client also had no known criminal history in the United States. Nor did he have a final deportation order. During his preliminary court hearings, the US government never claimed or presented evidence that Frizgeralth had ties to Tren de Aragua. “He was doing everything he was supposed to do,” Giardina said. “He got vetted and checked when he came into the country. He was in detention the entire time. It’s insanity.” If anything, Giardina said, his client had a strong claim for asylum based on political persecution. He said Frizgeralth was being targeted by the colectivos, paramilitary groups linked to the Maduro regime.

      About a week prior to his deportation, they moved Frizgeralth to Texas. His next hearing, which is scheduled for April 10, still appears on the immigration court’s online system. “To detain them in this maximum security prison with no access to lawyers, no charges, just because you’re saying they’re terrorists…,” Giardina said. “I mean, what the hell?”

      Génesis Lozada Sánchez said she and her younger brother Wuilliam are from a rural Venezuelan “cattle town” called Coloncito near Colombia. Following Venezuela’s economic collapse, both she and Wuilliam lived in Bogota, where her brother saved up for the journey to the United States by making pants at a clothing factory. After he reached the border last January, Wuilliam was detained for more than a year, Génesis said.

      On Friday, March 14, he called a cousin in the United States to say that he was about to be deported to Venezuela. “But to everyone’s surprise, that’s not what happened. They were kidnapped,” Génesis said. “Why do I say kidnapped? These people have no ties to El Salvador. They haven’t committed any crimes there. And they’re not even Salvadoran. They don’t even cross into El Salvador after going through the Darién Gap on their way to the United States. So, it’s a kidnapping. They tricked these guys into signing papers by telling them they were being sent to Venezuela.”

      Like other men sent to El Salvador, Wuilliam has tattoos. But Génesis said that they have nothing to do with Tren de Aragua and that her brother has no criminal record. His goal had been to make enough money in the United States to help support their parents and to save up enough to hopefully open a clothing factory back home.

      Other reporting and court briefs further support the families’ suspicions that their loved ones were primarily targeted for deportation because of their tattoos. In one instance, a professional soccer player, whose attorney said had fled Venezuela after protesting against the Maduro regime and being tortured, was accused of gang membership based on a tattoo similar to the logo of his favorite team, Real Madrid.

      John Dutton, a Houston-based immigration attorney, said that he started noticing ICE officers detaining Venezuelans during check-ins due to their tattoos earlier this year. “If they notice they have a tattoo, they’re just taking them into custody,” he explained. “No more questions to ask.” Dutton estimated he now has about a dozen clients who have been arrested because of tattoos.

      One of his clients, Henrry Albornoz Quintero, was due in court for a bond hearing last Wednesday after being taken into detention at a routine ICE check-in. “I show up. The judge asked me where my client is,” the Houston lawyer said. “I asked the same question to the DHS attorney. She looked at her notes, shuffled papers around as if she’s gonna find the answer in there, looks up, and said, ‘Judge, I don’t know.’”

      Dutton told the judge that his client might be in El Salvador; his relatives had recognized him in one of the images of people at CECOT. The judge then decided not to hear the case on the grounds that he no longer had jurisdiction. “You could tell he wanted to help me,” Dutton added. “He just couldn’t. There’s nothing he could do.”

      The next day, Albornoz’s name appeared on the list of people imprisoned in El Salvador. So far, Albornoz is the only one of Dutton’s clients to be sent there. His wife is nine months pregnant with their first child.

      “They didn’t just deport these people and then set them free,” says Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University. “They sent them to El Salvador, where that country, at the behest of the United States, is incarcerating them for at least a year in their prison system. This is not just deportation without due process. This is imprisonment without due process in a foreign prison system that has terrible conditions. That’s a pretty blatant violation of the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, which says that you can’t take away people’s life, liberty or property without due process of law.”

      Until Thursday, March 20, Barbara Alexandra Manzo still wasn’t sure if her brother Lainerke Daniel Manzo Lovera was among those sent to El Salvador and transferred to CECOT. The family hadn’t heard from him since that Saturday, when he called from El Paso, Texas, to say they were deporting him to Venezuela or Mexico. Her confirmation also came when she saw his name on the CBS News list.

      Barbara Alexandra told Mother Jones that Lainerke didn’t even have a tattoo before he left Venezuela in December 2023. He got one—a clock on his arm—while living and working in Mexico, waiting for a CBP One appointment. It was a gift from a roommate who had been given a date before he did. Last October, Lainerke showed up at the border and was sent to ICE detention; first in San Diego, then briefly in Arizona. He had a court hearing scheduled for March 26.

      “My son went to look for a better future, the American Dream,” his mother Eglee Xiomara said in a video. “And it didn’t come true. That was the worst trip he has ever made in his life.”

      Lainerke has yet to meet his six-month-old daughter, who was born in the United States. “He’s never been in prison,” Barbara Alexandra said. “[We’re wondering] if he’s ok or if something is happening to him. And we’ll never know because we have no recourse.”

      Nelson Suárez fears that he, too, could meet the same fate as his brother Arturo, the Venezuelan musician. Even during the first Trump administration, the fact that Nelson has Temporary Protected Status and a pending asylum case would have been enough to protect him from deportation. But there are no guarantees that it will be now. If Judge Boasberg’s temporary restraining order is lifted or overturned, he could be immediately deported to Venezuela, or sent to El Salvador, without due process. He doesn’t know if he will walk out of a scheduled check-in with ICE in May free or in chains.

      “I’m really scared,” he said last week. “My three daughters are here with me. My wife is here. My kids are in school. I don’t know what could happen. Since this happened to my brother, I really haven’t been able to sleep. I have no peace, no sense of calm. I’m afraid to go out on the street. But at the same time, we have to go out to work and get things done.”

      https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/trump-el-salvador-venezulea-deportation-prison-cecot-bukele

      via @freakonometrics

  • Accordo Danimarca-Kosovo : un modello per la nuova politica migratoria dell’UE

    Il trattato che permette a Copenaghen di inviare in Kosovo fino a 300 detenuti, inclusi migranti soggetti a un ordine di rimpatrio, è il modello di esternalizzazione dei centri detentivi per il rimpatrio più vicino ai «return hubs» proposti dalla Commissione europea. I rischi di quel modello sono già evidenti

    C’è uno spettro che aleggia sulla nuova strategia della Commissione europea sui rimpatri , che condizionerà il dibattito sulla politica migratoria dei 27 Paesi membri dell’UE nei prossimi mesi. È un accordo finora poco considerato nel dibattito pubblico europeo che, con tutti i suoi rischi e punti controversi, potrebbe fungere da modello per l’esternalizzazione dei centri per il rimpatrio di persone migranti provenienti da Paesi esterni all’UE.

    È l’accordo tra Danimarca e Kosovo siglato nel 2021 – ma non ancora implementato –, che prevede per la Danimarca un parziale utilizzo della prigione kosovara di Gjilan. L’accordo permette, in sostanza, a uno stato membro dell’Unione europea di inviare detenuti dalla cittadinanza straniera in un Paese terzo esterno all’UE per scontare la pena, o anche nell’attesa del rimpatrio. «Si tratta del fenomeno della crimmigration: la migrazione viene sempre più trattata sotto un’ottica securitaria», avverte Silvia Carta, advocacy officer a PICUM, una rete europea di organizzazioni che si occupano dei diritti delle persone migranti prive di documenti.

    Sia l’accordo bilaterale cercato dal governo danese sia la nuova proposta presentata dalla Commissione europea contribuiscono a suggerire ai cittadini che esiste un nesso quasi immediato tra migrazione e criminalità, e che queste persone vengono trasferite in centri per il rimpatrio «perché se lo sono meritate».

    Questo nella realtà non è vero, spiega Carta, rimarcando che le deroghe in materia di diritti fondamentali per le persone considerate «un rischio per la sicurezza» possono essere usate "in maniera strumentale e discriminatoria, a prescindere dal fatto che la persona abbia ricevuto condanne in passato e conferendo ai rimpatri una funzione punitiva, al di là dei principi del diritto penale”.
    Il primo passo verso l’esternalizzazione della detenzione

    Era il 15 dicembre 2021 quando i governi di Copenaghen e Pristina siglavano il trattato per l’affitto di spazi carcerari in Kosovo «ai fini dell’esecuzione delle sentenze danesi». L’intesa prevede il trasferimento di 300 detenuti nell’istituto penitenziario di Gjilan – tutti cittadini stranieri che stanno scontando attualmente una pena in Danimarca, «comprese persone a cui è stato imposto un provvedimento di espulsione» e persone «in custodia» per l’esecuzione di tale provvedimento.

    Secondo quanto previsto dal trattato, l’affitto dell’istituto penitenziario di Gjilan ha una durata iniziale di cinque anni, con la possibilità di prorogarlo per altri cinque. In cambio il governo danese destina a Pristina 15 milioni di euro per ogni anno di durata dell’accordo (fino a un massimo di 150 milioni), oltre a 5 milioni per ristrutturare la struttura carceraria e dotarla degli standard detentivi previsti dai regolamenti danesi.

    Dopo la ratifica del 23 maggio 2024 da parte del Parlamento del Kosovo, l’accordo è ora formalmente in vigore, ma la sua attuazione deve ancora iniziare. «L’opinione pubblica non ha avuto informazioni e non c’è stato alcun dibattito sulla questione», spiega Fatmire Haliti, avvocata e responsabile di programma presso il Kosova Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims (KRCT), sottolineando come non ci sia finora mai stata alcuna consultazione con le associazioni per i diritti umani o altri meccanismi di monitoraggio.

    In una risposta scritta rilasciata a OBCT e Føljeton, il ministero della Giustizia danese sottolinea che, se un individuo non coopera con l’ordine di rimpatrio e «non può essere allontanato con la forza», il trattato prevede la possibilità di far rientrare il cittadino straniero in Danimarca, «temporaneamente o in modo più permanente». Tuttavia, alcune disposizioni prevedono che l’individuo possa essere tenuto in custodia nel carcere di Gjilan «se c’è una ragionevole possibilità che possa essere espulso nel suo Paese d’origine».
    Un nuovo modello per la politica migratoria UE?

    Uno dei punti più delicati dell’accordo Danimarca-Kosovo riguarda proprio il fatto che rende possibile nei fatti l’esternalizzazione del sistema detentivo di un Paese membro dell’UE, aggiungendo la prospettiva dell’espulsione «direttamente nel Paese d’origine dopo aver scontato la pena». Un modello che diventa ancora più rilevante ora che la Commissione europea ha presentato la sua nuova proposta di Regolamento UE sui rimpatri, che prevede anche i cosiddetti return hubs, o centri per il rimpatrio.

    Si tratta di centri collocati al di fuori del territorio dei 27 Paesi membri dell’UE, dove le persone la cui domanda di asilo è stata respinta potrebbero essere inviate prima del rimpatrio, fatta eccezione per i minori non accompagnati e le famiglie con minori. Un accordo specifico con il Paese terzo disposto ad accogliere uno o più di questi centri dovrà stabilire «le modalità di trasferimento e le condizioni per il periodo di permanenza», che potrà essere «a breve o a lungo termine», specifica il testo legislativo.

    A questo si aggiunge la questione del rimpatrio per chi è considerato un «rischio per la sicurezza» – una categoria molto estesa ("chi minaccia l’ordine pubblico, la sicurezza pubblica o la sicurezza nazionale") che può comportare una detenzione «separata» rispetto agli altri detenuti, senza un termine chiaro e con un divieto d’ingresso nell’Ue per ulteriori dieci anni.

    La proposta della Commissione lascia ampio margine di manovra agli Stati membri, ma è evidente che il modello lanciato dalla Danimarca con il Kosovo è molto in linea con la nuova proposta legislativa di Bruxelles. A partire dal fatto che a Gjilan possono essere inviate anche persone che si trovano in custodia per via di un provvedimento di espulsione, indipendentemente dalla presenza di un procedimento penale a loro carico.

    Tuttavia, «sappiamo che con le norme attuali non ci può essere la certezza che le procedure di asilo o di valutazione di altri rischi in materia di diritti fondamentali siano state compiute nel merito del caso individuale,» avverte ancora Silvia Carta di PICUM. Il rischio, dunque, è che una persona venga immessa nella procedura di rimpatrio «senza aver avuto tutte le possibili garanzie, come il diritto a presentare ricorso».

    L’accordo Danimarca-Kosovo ha già attirato l’attenzione di altri stati dell’Unione, come dimostra l’accordo di coalizione del nuovo governo belga guidato da Bart De Wever, che lo indica esplicitamente come un «esempio» da replicare. «Sappiamo che diversi Paesi hanno contattato il Kosovo in merito alla possibilità di firmare accordi simili a quello siglato con la Danimarca», conferma Fatmire Haliti, del Kosova Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims. Allo stato attuale, tuttavia, Pristina «non dovrebbe stipulare ulteriori accordi», dal momento che il Paese «non è adeguatamente preparato per la loro attuazione».
    L’impatto sui Paesi candidati

    Oltre alle preoccupazioni per il rispetto dei diritti umani, c’è un altro fattore di rischio da considerare: l’impatto sui Paesi terzi che potrebbero finire per ospitare questi centri detentivi. «Attualmente ci sono oltre 200 detenuti nel carcere di Gjilan, ma gli altri centri di detenzione del Kosovo non hanno la capacità di accoglierli. Qualsiasi piano di trasferimento porterebbe quindi al sovraffollamento», avverte Haliti. Questo tema si lega alla questione dei doppi standard nelle condizioni detentive. «Mentre il carcere di Gjilan sarà migliorato per soddisfare gli standard danesi, negli altri penitenziari del Kosovo gli standard rimarranno inferiori, creando disuguaglianza nel sistema carcerario», continua l’avvocata kosovara, che ricorda come l’investimento danese di 5 milioni di euro per la ristrutturazione «è quasi pari al costo sostenuto per la costruzione dieci anni fa».

    A tutto questo si somma un’altra questione che sta mettendo in agitazione le organizzazioni della società civile. «Se queste persone non potranno ritornare in Danimarca e non faranno richiesta di asilo in Kosovo, cosa succederà quando la condanna terminerà?», si chiede Orjana Demaliaj, responsabile di paese presso il Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). In base all’accordo, i detenuti saranno ri-trasferiti in Danimarca «prima della loro liberazione», a meno che non ci sia un accordo tra Copenaghen e un Paese terzo per il rimpatrio «al momento della liberazione». Se questo è ciò che si legge sulla carta, la realtà può essere molto più sfumata.

    Un cono d’ombra è rappresentato da tutte le persone che si trovano in custodia in attesa del rimpatrio, ma i cui Paesi di origine non accettano di collaborare sul trasferimento. L’esperienza sul campo indica che possono crearsi situazioni problematiche, in cui potrebbero cadere anche i casi più a rischio tra quelli inviati dalla Danimarca. «In Kosovo esistono centri di detenzione per stranieri che non hanno documenti di identificazione e non hanno presentato domanda di asilo, oppure che non hanno lasciato il Paese entro due settimane dopo il respingimento della domanda ma non hanno commesso reati», spiega Demaliaj.

    Non sono centri pensati per il rimpatrio, e «da lì non si può uscire per un anno», continua l’esperta del Jesuit Refugee Service. Ciò che succede al termine dell’anno di detenzione è «l’inizio di un circolo vizioso», dal momento che «semplicemente si apre la porta del centro, e il governo afferma che è stata risolta la questione senza dare ulteriori informazioni». Mentre queste persone migranti continueranno la rotta balcanica – o finiranno di nuovo in un centro di detenzione, se fermate dalle forze dell’ordine –, Demaliaj punta il dito contro le istituzioni, a cui «interessa solo mettere una ’x’ sui progressi nel Rapporto annuale sui criteri richiesti al Kosovo dall’Unione europea, anche in assenza di risultati».

    Gli accordi per l’esternalizzazione della detenzione e dei rimpatri di persone migranti si inseriscono esattamente in questo quadro. «I Paesi candidati sono disposti a siglare qualsiasi tipo di intesa pur di fare bella figura» con i Paesi membri e con Bruxelles, «in modo da accelerare il proprio processo di integrazione», è l’accusa di Demaliaj. Un’aspra critica non viene risparmiata nemmeno all’Unione europea, «che sta sfruttando questa disponibilità» per i propri fini – e per un preoccupante cambio di rotta nella politica migratoria.

    https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/aree/Kosovo/Accordo-Danimarca-Kosovo-un-modello-per-la-nuova-politica-migratoria

    #accord #Danemark #Kosovo #externalisation #migrations #réfugiés #asile #return_hubs #crimmigration #détention #prisons #Gjilan #pays_tiers #renvois #expulsions #emprisonnement

    –-

    ajouté à la métaliste sur les tentatives de différentes pays européens d’#externalisation non seulement des contrôles frontaliers (►https://seenthis.net/messages/731749), mais aussi de la #procédure_d'asile dans des #pays_tiers :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/900122

  • #Italie : fuite en avant répressive du gouvernement #Meloni

    La #loi_1660, approuvé par les députés italiens en septembre 2024, envoyait un message clair : #ordre et répression. Elle dévoile toute sa dimension anti-sociale. Prévoyant de sanctionner plus fermement les #contestations, elle durcit également les conditions imposées aux détenus dans les prisons – et ouvre la voie aux entreprises dans le système pénitentiaire. Par Carlotta Caciagli, traduction Letizia Freitas [1].
    Radicalisation de mesures pré-existantes

    De nombreuses larmes de crocodile ont été versées, de Marco Minniti [ancien ministre de l’Intérieur NDLR] et Maurizio Lupi [ancien ministre des Infrastructures et des Transports NDLR] jusqu’au dernier maire ayant mis en application le décret Daspo [qui interdit d’accès à un lieu déterminé pour des raisons d’ordre public NDLR]. Parmi les voix qui, aujourd’hui, s’indignent, de nombreuses ont soutenu des décrets répressifs ces quinze dernières années.

    De quelle manière le débat a-t-il pu se détériorer au point que la question des inégalités sociales et de la pauvreté puisse être traitée comme un simple problème d’ordre public ? Les mesures auparavant en vigueur étaient déjà inadaptées et, à bien des égards, anticonstitutionnelles. Une détérioration ultérieure était difficile à imaginer, mais le gouvernement italien y est parvenu. Comment ? Principalement par des modifications ad hoc et quelque peu artificielles du code de procédure pénale.

    Le projet de loi intervient essentiellement dans trois domaines : gestion des comportements individuels et collectifs dans l’espace public, conditions imposées aux détenus dans les prisons et prérogatives des forces de l’ordre. Si chacune des mesures se traduit par une réduction des droits sociaux et humains, elle sous-traite également à des acteurs privés des tâches autrefois assumées par les pouvoirs publics.

    En ce qui concerne l’espace public et urbain, des actions telles que « l’occupation arbitraire d’immeubles destinés à l’habitation d’autrui » sont qualifiées de criminelles. Une peine allant de deux à sept ans de réclusion est prévue pour toute personne qui occuperait des habitations ou des dépendances (garages, jardins, terrasses). Le projet ne prévoit pas de circonstances atténuantes pour l’occupant, mais uniquement des circonstances aggravantes fondées sur le profil du propriétaire dont le bien est occupé.

    Mais sur cette mesure comme sur d’autres, il faut bien reconnaître que Giorgia Meloni ne part pas de zéro. L’ancien ministre Maurizio Lupi n’avait-il pas ouvert la voie à l’actuelle réforme avec le Piano Casa, ce décret de 2014 visant à protéger le droit de propriété des immeubles contre les mouvements sociaux en faveur du droit au logement ?

    L’introduction d’une règle surnommée « anti-Gandhi » est plus digne d’attention encore. Elle vise à punir d’emprisonnement quiconque bloque une route ou une voie ferrée. Si les participants sont nombreux – c’est-à-dire si l’action prend une dimension politique – les peines sont durcies. Si, au cours de la manifestation, des dommages (de toute nature, y compris morale) sont causés à des agents publics, la peine est majorée. Tout comme elle l’est si « la violence ou la menace est commise dans le but d’empêcher la réalisation d’un ouvrage public ou d’une infrastructure stratégique ».

    Stratégique, comme le pont du détroit de Messine, comme la Tav [Treno ad alta velocità, TGV, NDLR] Turin-Lyon, et comme tous les incinérateurs, gazéificateurs et bases militaires que l’on tente régulièrement d’implanter sur le territoire. De plus, le Code pénal sera à son tour modifié afin de punir davantage les auteurs de délits commis à proximité des gares.
    Américanisation du système pénitentiaire ?

    En ce qui concerne la prison, le projet de loi intervient de deux manières. Tout d’abord, en tentant de réglementer les émeutes dans les établissements pénitentiaires – caractérisées comme des actes de violence, de menaces ou de résistance aux ordres – en introduisant le délit de « résistance passive ». Par « résistance passive », il faut entendre « les conduites qui, compte tenu du nombre de personnes impliquées et du contexte dans lequel opèrent les agents publics ou les chargés d’une mission de service public, empêchent l’accomplissement des actes nécessaires à la gestion de l’ordre et de la sécurité ». Sont ainsi visées les révoltes contre la malnutrition et les conditions dégradantes d’incarcération.

    Mais il y a plus : désormais, l’organisation du travail des détenus est révisée par décret. Les initiatives de promotion du travail entendent davantage impliquer… les entreprises privées. En somme, il s’agit de préparer une force de travail docile et peu chère à se mettre au service du privé.

    Limitations généralisée des droits ? Pas pour les forces de l’ordre. En plus de permettre aux policiers et aux gendarmes de porter leur arme en-dehors des heures de service, le projet introduit la possibilité, sans aucune contrainte, pour le personnel de police, de s’équiper de « dispositifs de vidéosurveillance portables adaptés à l’enregistrement de l’activité opérationnelle et de son déroulement ». Des appareils qui peuvent également être utilisés dans n’importe quel lieu où sont détenues des personnes soumises à une restriction de leur liberté personnelle.

    Ces mesures pourront être financées grâce à une autorisation de dépenses pour les années 2024, 2025 et 2026. Pour promouvoir le travail en milieu carcéral, on y fait entrer les entreprises, tandis que pour les « body cam » des agents de la Police ferroviaire, l’addition sera payée par les contribuables…

    Face à une attaque aussi massive contre les droits individuels et sociaux, s’indigner et dénoncer les « mesures fascistes » ne suffira pas. Il est nécessaire de reconstruire des organisations professionnelles, des syndicats et des partis d’opposition. Un exercice face auquel l’opposition italienne bute depuis des décennies.

    Note :

    [1] Article initialement publié par notre partenaire Jacobin Italia sous le titre « La repressione è servita »,

    https://lvsl.fr/italie-fuite-en-avant-repressive-du-gouvernement-meloni
    #Giorgia_Meloni #répression #détention #conditions_de_détention #forces_de_l'ordre #police #privatisation #espace_public #criminalisation #occupation #Piano_Casa #Maurizi_Lupi #droit_de_propriété #droit_au_logement #anti-Gandhi #emprisonnement #blocage #américanisation #système_pénitentiaire #émeutes #résistance_passive #vidéosurveillance #Etat_policier

  • L’Etiopia? Per i profughi eritrei è una nuova Libia

    Tre giovani eritrei sono stati uccisi dalla polizia ad Addis Abeba, verso la fine di gennaio, mentre, insieme a numerosi altri detenuti, tentavano di fuggire dalla prigione in cui erano finiti come “clandestini”. Altri due erano morti, sempre in un tentativo di fuga, ma in un quartiere della città, all’inizio del mese. Cinque vite spezzate nel volgere di pochi giorni.

    Uno di quei ragazzi, Hanibal, aveva appena 16 anni, terzo di tre fratelli di una famiglia di agricoltori. Veniva da Damba Mich, un piccolo centro nelle vicinanze del confine etiope all’altezza di Agordat. Studente, aveva lasciato la sua casa ormai da più di dieci mesi per sottrarsi alla chiamata di leva a tempo pressoché indeterminato che lo attendeva entro meno di due anni, prima ancora di finire il corso di studi, che avrebbe dovuto completare nella grande base militare di Sawa. Lo stesso motivo che aveva spinto a fuggire i due amici uccisi con lui e gli altri due giovani morti circa due settimane prima. Voleva raggiungere il fratello maggiore, Mussié Solomun, esule in Olanda ormai da tempo, ma non avendo il denaro per continuare la fuga, è rimasto bloccato ad Addis Abeba. Prima di lui era scappato dall’Eritrea anche il secondo fratello che, residente in una località più a nord di Damba Mich, aveva passato il confine con il Sudan dal Tigray pagando un ticket di 8 mila dollari a una organizzazione di trafficanti ma è stato fermato in Libia ed è ora intrappolato a Tripoli. Si è rivolto all’ufficio dell’Unhcr, che lo ha registrato tra i richiedenti asilo: ora è da mesi in lista d’attesa per un canale umanitario verso l’Europa.

    Hanibal non si è lasciato scoraggiare dalla sorte di questo fratello più grande e alla prima occasione ha raggiunto e superato a piedi la vicina frontiera con l’Etiopia, affidandosi alla fortuna. I familiari hanno saputo della sua fuga solo quando era ormai ad Addis Abeba. Per mesi hanno sperato che ci ripensasse e rientrasse a casa, dove sono rimasti solo i due genitori, entrambi avanti negli anni. Anche per questo forse, già in difficoltà per l’aiuto dato al secondo figlio, non avevano raccolto, magari con il contributo dei parenti della “famiglia allargata”, il denaro per consentirgli di proseguire il viaggio. Lui ha continuato a insistere che non sarebbe mai tornato indietro. Finché è incappato in un posto di controllo della polizia nel quartiere di Lafto, non lontano dalla casa in cui aveva trovato alloggio. Immediato l’arresto e il trasferimento in carcere. Era in attesa del rimpatrio forzato in Eritrea quando, pochi giorni dopo, il 21 gennaio, decine di detenuti hanno tentato la fuga. Hanibal si è unito a loro. Ma la reazione delle forze di sicurezza è stata immediata, sparando ad altezza d’uomo. Tre giovani sono stati uccisi e almeno sette feriti. Tra i primi a cadere senza vita è stato Hanibal. Il suo corpo è ancora nell’obitorio dell’ospedale San Paolo di Addis Abeba. Per poterlo riportare in Eritrea – hanno riferito alcuni parenti – le procedure prevedono una spesa di circa 6 mila dollari. Ma i genitori non sanno come metterli insieme. Nello stesso obitorio sono finiti i corpi degli altri due ragazzi uccisi, di cui uno, Ataklti Isayas, morto per le gravi ferite il 23 gennaio, due giorni dopo la sparatoria, e l’altro, di cui la polizia non ha comunicato l’identità, all’inizio di febbraio.

    Quando è accaduta questa tragedia la grande comunità di profughi eritrei che vive nel quartiere di Lafto stava già piangendo due ragazzi morti alcuni giorni prima. Fuggiti in momenti diversi dalla dittatura di Afewerki, i due si erano conosciuti ad Addis Abeba e, con l’aiuto di altri profughi, avevano trovato insieme un alloggio. Erano in casa quando sono stati sorpresi da un’irruzione della polizia. Le scale e l’uscita dell’edificio in cui si rifugiavano erano bloccate da numerosi agenti. Presi dalla disperazione hanno tentato il tutto per tutto calandosi da una finestra, a diversi metri dal suolo. Non ce l’hanno fatta. Precipitati nel vuoto l’uno dopo l’altro, sono rimasti a terra, gravemente feriti. Portati in ospedale sono morti entrambi in poche ore.

    Le due tragedie sono state raccontate da un esule eritreo che, ormai da anni a Bologna, ha il passaporto italiano: quando c’è stata l’evasione seguita dalla sparatoria era ad Addis Abeba e per certi versi ha vissuta direttamente quei giorni drammatici attraverso la comunità eritrea di Lafto, dalla quale ha appreso anche della morte degli altri due ragazzi, constatando di persona quale sia oggi in Etiopia la condizione dei profughi fuggiti dalla dittatura di Afewerki. Lui stesso non era ad Addis Abeba per caso: era stato costretto a partire dall’Italia per cercare di aiutare il fratello minore, Mussié, di 19 anni, a sua volta in fuga dal regime. Una fuga di per sé emblematica, per come si è sviluppata, della sorte dei rifugiati che in Etiopia trovano una situazione estremamente diversa dall’accoglienza incontrata fino allo scoppio della guerra in Tigray, nel novembre 2020.

    Mussié viene da Dekameré, una quarantina di chilometri a sud di Asmara. Per passare il confine, sul finire del mese di novembre 2024, si è affidato a un trafficante ed è stato incluso in un gruppo di 63 disperati che, in cambio di 6 mila dollari a testa, sono stati accompagnati a piedi fino alla frontiera. Il “passatore” che li guidava aveva assicurato che quel tratto di confine era “sicuro” ma proprio mentre lo stavano attraversando sono stati sorpresi da una pattuglia che ha cominciato a sparare. Nessuno è stato ferito ma la schiera si è rapidamente dispersa. Alcuni sono tornati indietro. Mussié e due compagni si sono addentrati di corsa nel territorio etiopico, allontanandosi il più in fretta possibile dal confine. Dopo un po’ hanno chiesto aiuto a un anziano, che li ha accolti in casa. Sembrava fatta e invece quell’anziano li ha venduti a una banda di trafficanti che hanno preteso da ciascuno 5 mila dollari per il rilascio. La famiglia ci ha messo diverse settimane per procurarsi il denaro ma quando ci è riuscita ha scoperto che Mussié era stato venduto a un’altra banda e per liberarlo sono serviti altri 2.500 dollari. Ora è ad Addis Abeba, ma in trappola: non può tornare in Eritrea perché finirebbe in una delle galere del regime e non riesce a continuare la fuga verso l’Europa perché tutte le vie sono bloccate.

    “La condizione dei profughi eritrei in Etiopia è da incubo, simile a quella della Libia – dice il fratello che lo ha raggiunto dall’Italia – Il sistema di accoglienza che funzionava da anni è stato spazzato via dalla guerra in Tigray. I quattro grandi campi che erano nel nord della regione non esistono più: devastati e sgomberati dalle truppe d’invasione di Afewerki, non sono stati mai riaperti. Nello stesso tempo il governo federale etiopico, sulla scia dell’alleanza con Asmara, ha cancellato le norme che garantivano lo status di rifugiati agli eritrei i quali, privi ormai di qualsiasi forma di tutela, sono esposti ad ogni genere di soprusi. Durante la guerra ci sono state persino numerosi arresti effettuati in Etiopia dalla polizia di Asmara. Ora queste retate condotte dagli eritrei sono finite ma si sono fatte sempre più stringenti e sistematiche le operazioni delle forze di sicurezza etiopi: una vera e propria “caccia” condotta lungo i confini, per le strade, nelle città, nei quartieri dove i rifugiati sono più numerosi. E quasi sempre gli arrestati vengono rimpatriati contro la loro volontà. Ci sono state almeno due deportazioni di massa, con un totale di oltre 700 disperati consegnati alla dittatura da cui erano fuggiti e praticamente ‘spariti’. Di loro non si sa più nulla”.

    In questo clima da coprifuoco i profughi sono costretti a vivere nascosti, chiusi in casa il più possibile per evitare il rischio delle retate o anche di un semplice controllo per strada.

    “Ad Addis Abeba quasi tutti gli eritrei fanno una vita da reclusi – riprende il fratello di Mussié – Per paura della polizia o di eventuali delazioni non possono lavorare. Anzi, non possono neanche andare dal medico o in ospedale. Sempre con la paura di essere catturati e rimpatriati. Per tirare avanti sono legati all’aiuto di familiari e amici che riescono a trovare il modo di inviare periodicamente un po’ di denaro. Sta dilagando l’hawala, il sistema che consente di trasferire contanti di nascosto attraverso persone fidate saltando il circuito bancario, visto che i profughi non possono certo presentarsi a uno sportello normale. Io, ad esempio, ho trovato un amico al quale verso di tanto in tanto una certa somma perché la faccia avere a Mussié. Ma è una situazione terribile. Non so per quanto tempo questi ragazzi riusciranno a resistere. Tanto più che la polizia ha cominciato a fare irruzioni anche direttamente nelle case, come è accaduto nel caso di quei due giovani che, come mi hanno raccontato, sono precipitati da una finestra nel tentativo di sottrarsi alla cattura. Un barlume di soluzione potrebbe essere quello di rivolgersi all’Unhcr, il Commissariato per i rifugiati delle Nazioni Unite, che ha una sede anche ad Addis Abeba. Qualcuno ci ha provato ma, per quanto ne so, persino l’Unhcr può fare molto poco perché il Governo ne limita al massimo l’attività. C’è solo da sperare che la sede centrale di Ginevra solleciti un chiarimento alle autorità federali etiopiche in modo da poter prendere sotto la tutela dell’Onu come richiedenti asilo gli eritrei presenti nel paese e poi organizzare dei canali umanitari, magari non necessariamente verso l’Europa ma, ad esempio, in Kenya o in Uganda”.

    Da queste testimonianze emerge una situazione simile a quella della Libia. Salvo il fatto che dall’Etiopia si può ovviamente fuggire solo per vie di terra.

    “Tentare la fuga da soli – spiega il fratello di Mussié, rientrato in Italia da una decina di giorni – è un azzardo enorme. Le strade sono fortemente presidiate, con frequenti posti di blocco. E tutte le linee di confine blindate: con il Kenya e il Sud Sudan ma soprattutto quella con il Sudan, nel nord, la via più battuta fino a qualche tempo fa dai profughi diretti verso la costa libica. La zona più a rischio è il Tigray, dove ad ogni passo si può essere fermati dalla polizia o intercettati dalle guardie di frontiera oppure anche dalle milizie amhara che hanno invaso la regione. Non solo. Lungo questo itinerario si sono organizzate bande di trafficanti che, specie nelle zone non troppo lontane dalla frontiera, intercettano e sequestrano chiunque capiti a tiro, da solo o in gruppi più o meno grandi, pretendendo poi dalle famiglie riscatti per migliaia di dollari. Nessuno ne parla ma per i profughi eritrei anche questo è un lascito della guerra che si è combattuta in Tigray tra il novembre 2020 e il novembre 2022. Ecco, quella guerra per i rifugiati eritrei non è mai finita. Ed ha trasformato l’Etiopia in una nuova Libia…”.

    https://tempi-moderni.net/2025/02/27/letiopia-per-i-profughi-eritrei-%C3%A8-una-nuova-libia
    #Ethiopie #réfugiés_érythréens #asile #migrations #réfugiés #violence #Addis_Abeba #emprisonnement #Lafto #chasse_aux_migrants #rafles #violences_policières #hawala #Tigray

  • Au #Maroc, #acharnement_judiciaire et #répression, contre les migrantEs

    Le 14 novembre 2024, la Cour d’appel de Nador a rendu un verdict extrêmement sévère à l’encontre de 14 migrants, leur infligeant dix ans de #prison ferme. Ils n’avaient pour seul objectif que de demander l’asile en Europe (la ville occupée Melilla), fuyant les guerres et la pauvreté sévissant dans leur pays d’origine.

    Arrêtés au début de l’année 2022, soit avant le massacre du 24 juin 2022 à Melilla, au nord du Maroc, ces migrants avaient initialement été condamnés à deux ans de prison ferme. Mais à la suite d’un appel formé par le procureur, la peine avait été doublée pour atteindre quatre ans de prison ferme, par décision de la Cour d’appel de Nador.

    #Criminalisation

    Cette spirale judiciaire, qui s’étire depuis juillet 2022, témoigne d’un acharnement inédit contre des personnes en quête de refuge. La section de l’Association marocaine des droits humains (AMDH) à Nador avait dénoncé cette cruauté : « Cet acharnement judiciaire est la poursuite de la répression que subissent les migrants et les réfugiés depuis le terrible drame du 24 juin. Ces procès expéditifs, où une seule version des faits semble dominer, constituent une criminalisation de la migration et de l’asile. »

    Après ce jugement inique de la Cour d’appel de 2022, les migrants ont été répartis entre les prisons de Nador et de Meknès. Leurs dossiers ont ensuite été soumis à la Cour de cassation de Rabat le 30 mai 2022, qui a annulé la décision de la Cour d’appel. Le dossier a alors été renvoyé par le procureur général de Nador devant une nouvelle juridiction de la Cour d’appel, qui a, le 14 novembre 2024, aggravé la peine de ces migrants à dix ans de prison ferme.
    Choc pour les migrantEs

    Ce verdict a été un choc terrible pour ces migrants, qui avaient déjà purgé trois ans de prison.

    Ces #condamnations reflètent une politique délibérée de l’État marocain, celle d’agir comme le gendarme de l’Union européenne et de ses institutions, telles que Frontex, pour bloquer l’immigration à ses frontières extérieures.

    https://lanticapitaliste.org/actualite/international/au-maroc-acharnement-judiciaire-et-repression-contre-les-migrantes
    #migrations #racisme #criminalisation_de_la_migration #emprisonnement

    ping @_kg_

  • En Tunisie, « les prisons sont remplies de migrants subsahariens » condamnés pour « séjour irrégulier » - InfoMigrants
    https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/61237/en-tunisie-les-prisons-sont-remplies-de-migrants-subsahariens-condamne

    En Tunisie, « les prisons sont remplies de migrants subsahariens » condamnés pour « séjour irrégulier »
    Par Leslie Carretero Publié le : 18/11/2024
    Depuis quelques semaines, les arrestations dans les rues tunisiennes visant les migrants se sont accentuées. Après leur interpellation, les exilés sont condamnés pour « séjour irrégulier » et écopent de plusieurs mois de détention. La situation est telle que, selon des exilés en contact avec InfoMigrants, « les prisons sont remplies de Subsahariens », enfermés aux côtés de prisonniers de droit commun.
    Un peu plus d’un mois après la réélection du président sortant Kaïs Saïed, avec 90 % des voix, la criminalisation des migrants en Tunisie a pris une nouvelle tournure. Les Noirs vivant dans le pays ne risquent plus seulement d’être abandonnés dans le désert, à la frontière algérienne ou libyenne, après une interpellation. Ils encourent désormais des peines de prison ferme, aux côtés de détenus tunisiens de droit commun.
    Ibrahim* en a fait l’amère expérience. Ce Guinéen de 23 ans sort tout juste du centre de détention de Mornaguia, à une vingtaine de kilomètres à l’ouest de Tunis. Il a été arrêté le 30 octobre dans une rue de la capitale tunisienne. « J’attendais un taxi pour rentrer chez moi quand des policiers m’ont interpellé », rapporte-t-il.
    Koffi*, un Ivoirien de 43 ans, raconte la même histoire. Le 20 octobre, trois policiers en civil sont venus l’arrêter dans l’entreprise de menuiserie pour laquelle il travaille au noir à Tunis, puis l’ont envoyé en prison.
    « Ce genre d’arrestations suivies d’une période d’incarcération, ce n’est pas nouveau. Mais ces derniers temps, c’est récurrent », assure Sakia Traoré, secrétaire fédéral de la Fédération des Ivoiriens en Tunisie (Faci), qui reçoit régulièrement des témoignages de migrants sortis de détention. « Les exilés sont arrêtés dans la rue, les transports en commun ou les gares... À Sousse, Sfax ou Tunis. Cela se passe dans tout le pays ».
    « En ce moment, c’est une véritable chasse à l’homme », lance Ibrahim. « Les policiers ciblent des quartiers où vivent les Subsahariens [comme le quartier Ariana, à Tunis, ndlr] et procèdent à des rafles. Plusieurs de mes amis ont vécu la même mésaventure que moi et certains ont été envoyés en prison deux ou trois fois », signale le Guinéen.Quelques-uns parviennent à éviter une interpellation en échange d’un pot-de-vin. Jean*, demandeur d’asile en Tunisie, a aidé plusieurs personnes à échapper à la prison. « L’autre jour, j’ai donné 100 dinars [près de 30 euros, ndlr] à un policier en civil pour qu’il laisse mon ami. Le lendemain, j’ai fait la même chose avec deux femmes de mon quartier, pour la même somme », raconte cet autre Ivoirien.
    Pour les moins chanceux, le processus reste toujours le même : les migrants interpellés sans titre de séjour sont envoyés quelques heures au poste de police, puis à la prison de Bouchoucha (à l’ouest de Tunis). Cette « maison d’arrêt, où sont regroupées les personnes placées en garde à vue à Tunis, est souvent présentée comme le pire lieu de détention de Tunisie », selon un rapport de l’ONG Avocats sans frontières.Les personnes ne passent que quelques jours dans cette prison, où s’entassent 60 à 70 prisonniers par cellule, avant de comparaître au tribunal.L’entrevue devant le juge se fait à marche forcée, en quelques minutes seulement. Trois questions suffisent aux magistrats pour rendre leur verdict : "Quel est votre identité ? Comment êtes-vous entré en Tunisie ? Avez-vous un titre de séjour ?"Les audiences pour « séjour irrégulier » se déroulent à la chaîne. Lors de son passage au tribunal début novembre, Ibrahim dit s’être retrouvé au côté d’une trentaine de Subsahariens, dont deux mineurs, une dizaine de femmes et une enceinte de huit mois. Tous ont été inculpés car en situation irrégulière sur le territoire tunisien.
    Mais impossible de savoir combien de personnes ont déjà été emprisonnées de cette manière, les autorités tunisiennes refusent de communiquer les chiffres des condamnations pour « séjour irrégulier ».
    Selon la loi n°68-7 du 8 mars 1968, relative à la condition des étrangers en Tunisie, un sans-papiers s’expose à une peine d’"emprisonnement d’un mois à un an et d’une amende de 6 à 120 dinars" (1,80 euros à 36 euros) pour « séjour irrégulier ». Dans les faits, ils sont le plus souvent condamnés à des peines de deux à six mois de prison. Ce texte, ancien mais jusque-là très peu appliqué, semble de plus en plus utilisé par les autorités tunisiennes pour enfermer les migrants en situation irrégulière. « Depuis février 2023 [date d’un discours virulent du président tunisien à l’encontre des Subsahariens, ndlr], on observe une hausse des condamnations pour ce motif. Et cela encore pris de l’ampleur ces dernières semaines », affirme Romadhane Ben Amor, du Forum tunisien économique et social (FTDES). « C’est une manière de criminaliser un peu plus les migrants ».
    Une fois condamnés, les exilés interpellés à Tunis sont ensuite transférés dans la prison de Mornaguia. Ce centre de détention « est rempli de Subsahariens, de toutes les nationalités », alerte Koffi. Pendant deux mois, cet Ivoirien a partagé sa cellule avec quelque 80 migrants dans une « chambre des étrangers », terme qui désigne les cellules occupées uniquement par des Noirs.Ibrahim a, lui, été enfermé 14 jours avec une centaine de personnes, des exilés mais aussi des Tunisiens condamnés pour usage de drogues, vols, ou violences. « Chaque jour, ça rentre, ça sort. Des Noirs sont libérés et d’autres arrivent, toujours pour le même motif. Les Subsahariens ne restent que quelques mois, alors que les Tunisiens passent plusieurs années derrière les barreaux », explique le jeune Guinéen.
    La proximité avec des prisonniers potentiellement dangereux est une épreuve supplémentaire pour les migrants. Dans chaque cellule partagée avec des Tunisiens, un chef – appelé par les détenus « kabran », qui signifie patron en arabe - organise la vie derrière les barreaux. « C’est lui qui fait la loi, on est obligé de faire ce qu’il dit sinon il nous frappe. S’il vous dit de vous coucher à 19h, vous devez dormir. C’est aussi lui qui vous attribue une place dans la cellule », se souvient Ibrahim.
    Comme à l’extérieur, le racisme et les mécanismes de domination ressurgissent dans les établissements pénitentiaires de Tunisie. Les Noirs sont parqués dans un coin de la pièce, le plus souvent près des toilettes. Ils doivent partager des lits à cinq ou six personnes, quand les Tunisiens dorment à deux sur la même couchette. Si la pièce est saturée, des exilés peuvent être contraints de dormir à même le sol.
    « La souffrance que j’ai vue dans les prisons tunisiennes, je ne l’ai jamais vu en Libye »
    Contrairement aux Tunisiens, les migrants n’ont pas de famille en Tunisie et ne peuvent donc pas recevoir de nourriture, de produits d’hygiène ou de vêtements de leurs proches. « Nous, on reste avec les mêmes habits. Pendant deux semaines, j’ai porté le même pantalon et le même tee-shirt », dit Ibrahim. « La nourriture est très mauvaise, on a droit à un seul repas par jour. Donc sans aide extérieur, c’est très dur. En fait, cela sert tout juste à nous maintenir en vie », renchérit Koffi. Les exilés affirment aussi que les prisons tunisiennes sont confrontées à des cas de gale et de tuberculose, et infestées de punaises de lit et de cafards.
    Autant de facteurs qui rendent le séjour des migrants dans les geôles tunisiennes particulièrement traumatisant. Même pour Ibrahim, qui a passé cinq ans dans « l’enfer libyen ». En contact avec InfoMigrants depuis de nombreuses années, le jeune Guinéen a raconté à plusieurs reprises ses différentes incarcérations en Libye, dans les prisons de Tarik el Siqqa ou encore de Zaouia. Des lieux où les violences sont légion et les droits des migrants continuellement bafoués. Et pourtant Ibrahim est catégorique : selon lui, la vie en prison demeure plus difficile en Tunisie qu’en Libye. « La souffrance que j’ai vue à Monarguia, je ne l’ai jamais vue en Libye. C’est vrai que les gardiens libyens sont violents, qu’on est victimes de travail forcé et d’agressions, mais en Tunisie les conditions de vie sont plus dures moralement », confie-t-il. « En Libye, on était tous dans la même situation. Ici, on est incarcéré aux côtés de criminels, de braqueurs… qui sont condamnés à 12 ou 15 ans de prison. Alors que toi tu es là seulement à cause d’un problème de papiers et tu es traité de la même manière qu’eux. Ce pays me fait de plus en plus peur ».

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#tunisie#incarceration#detention#violence#migrationirreguliere#sante#violence#vulnerabilite#droit

  • #Appel à la solidarité avec #Abdallah_Said

    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_

    • En Tunisie, Abdallah Saïd, figure de l’aide aux exilés, risque d’être poursuivi pour terrorisme

      Le fondateur de l’ONG Enfants de la Lune de Médenine a été interpellé et placé en garde à vue au pôle antiterroriste. La trésorière ainsi que deux employés de banque sont également inquiétés. La criminalisation des acteurs venant en aide aux exilés franchit un nouveau cap.

      C’estC’est la première fois qu’un représentant d’ONG, solidaire des personnes exilées, est attaqué au nom de la lutte antiterroriste en Tunisie, et peut-être même au Maghreb. Abdallah Saïd, fondateur de l’ONG Enfants de la Lune de Médenine, a été interpellé puis placé en garde à vue le 12 novembre dernier, avec la particularité d’être interrogé par le pôle antiterroriste.

      Selon nos informations, c’est d’abord la trésorière et la secrétaire générale de l’association qui ont été convoquées par les services (leurs noms ne seront pas dévoilés ici pour les préserver). Abdallah Saïd aurait choisi de les accompagner en soutien, sans trop savoir ce qui l’attendait. « Il ne nous a pas prévenus, sans doute parce qu’il pensait qu’il s’agirait d’une simple affaire », rapporte à Mediapart Romdhane Ben Amor, porte-parole du Forum tunisien des droits économiques et sociaux (FTDES).

      Deux salariés de la banque hébergeant les comptes de l’association sont également inquiétés. « La garde à vue peut durer cinq jours et peut être renouvelée pour cinq jours de plus », explique une membre d’Avocats sans frontières (ASF) à Tunis. Pendant les premières quarante-huit heures, « Abdallah ne pouvait pas être assisté par un avocat durant les interrogatoires », complète le représentant du FTDES. À terme, le pôle antiterroriste pourra valider les poursuites au titre de la lutte antiterroriste, ou passer la main au pôle financier. « Dans tous les cas, il aura des problèmes. »

      Pour celui qui a suivi les différentes vagues de répression du pouvoir tunisien contre des personnes solidaires des exilé·es, « on franchit ici une nouvelle étape dans le durcissement contre le travail humanitaire et associatif ». « C’est bien la première fois qu’une association qui travaille sur les questions migratoires est inquiétée par le pôle antiterroriste. » Ce type de procédure concerne surtout des structures proches du mouvement Ennahda ou de groupes salafistes, souligne-t-il.

      Le profil parfait pour la théorie du complot

      La membre d’ASF affirme elle aussi qu’il s’agit d’une première en Tunisie. « Les autres membres de la société civile arrêtés étaient visés par la brigade financière », rappelle-t-elle. « Son arrestation vient confirmer une tendance des autorités qui vise à criminaliser à la fois les gens en mobilité et toute solidarité à leur égard. » Le cas d’Abdallah a des spécificités, estime-t-elle, car il n’est pas tunisien d’origine et reste une « personne très active, connue et engagée à Médenine ».

      Pour le pouvoir, Abdallah Saïd serait le « profil type parfait » pour propager la thèse du « complot contre l’État », du fait de ses origines tchadiennes (il aurait acquis la nationalité tunisienne en 2012), abonde Romdhane Ben Amor. « Cela fait de lui une personne encore plus vulnérable que les autres. Les autorités ont pensé qu’il ne recevrait pas beaucoup de soutien de ce fait, et c’est pour cette raison que nous avons pris son cas très au sérieux dès le début. »

      Depuis les propos du président tunisien Kaïs Saïed sur les personnes migrantes, tenus au printemps 2023 et reprenant à leur compte la théorie raciste du « grand remplacement » en évoquant un « plan criminel mis en place depuis des décennies pour changer la composition démographique de la Tunisie avec des personnes ayant reçu de larges sommes d’argent pour donner la résidence à des Subsahariens », le harcèlement des personnes migrantes et de leurs aidant·es a décuplé.

      « À chaque fois, on franchit une nouvelle étape. Mais cette fois, en faisant le lien entrel’aide aux migrants et les affaires de terrorisme, on a atteint le cap le plus grave, relève Mohamed*, un associatif anciennement basé à Tunis. Peu importe ce qui sera mis en œuvre pour le défendre, il est plus difficile pour les citoyens de soutenir une personne accusée de terrorisme, car certains ne chercheront pas à comprendre la situation. »

      Des associatifs ont déjà fui la Tunisie

      Lui, comme beaucoup d’autres membres de la société civile, craint que de telles accusations ne viennent décourager la solidarité avec les exilé·es en Tunisie. « J’ai moi-même migré en Tunisie, j’ai été dans un entre-deux pendant un moment, ni en situation régulière ni en situation irrégulière. Le climat politique a précipité mon départ. » Il précise que comme lui, d’autres acteurs impliqués dans les migrations ont quitté le pays.

      Avant d’être placé en garde à vue, Abdallah Saïd a été victime, selon Romdhane Ben Amor, d’une campagne de haine et de racisme sur les réseaux sociaux, animée par la députée Fatma Mseddi, connue pour ses propos anti-immigration. « Elle a évoqué son activité lors d’un débat télévisé et c’est à partir de là qu’il a commencé à être harcelé », rappelle-t-il.

      La députée avait déclaré, sur Facebook, que « la vraie catastrophe à Sfax n’était pas les fortes précipitations, mais la forte présence des Subsahariens » et avait invité le président tunisien à les « déporter ».

      Avant Adballah Saïd et ses collègues de l’association Enfants de la Lune, les autorités s’en sont prises aux ONG travaillant elles aussi sur la question migratoire et ayant surtout des filières ou partenariats internationaux, comme pour Terre d’asile ou le Conseil tunisien pour les réfugiés (CTR).

      Ce dernier, qui travaillait en lien avec le Haut Commissariat aux réfugiés (HCR), a depuis vu son activité gelée et ses locaux fermés. « Cela permet de nourrir le récit de l’État, explique Romdhane Ben Amor. Pour la présidence, le “grand remplacement” se fait par l’activité de telles associations. »

      Ainsi ont été arrêté·es et placé·es en détention Sherifa Riahi, ancienne présidente de Terre d’asile, Yadh Bousselmi, son successeur, Mohamed Jouou de Terre d’asile, le directeur administratif et financier… De même que Saadia Mosbah, militante antiraciste et présidente de l’association Mnemty, et Abderrazek Krimi etMustafa Jammali, du Conseil tunisien pour les réfugiés. Tous et toutes sont en prison depuis. « Le résultat, c’est qu’il n’y a plus personne pour s’occuper des demandes d’asile en Tunisie », pointe le représentant du FTDES.

      Une longue liste de personnes à abattre

      Le 19 octobre dernier, le doctorant français Victor Dupont a été arrêté en Tunisie, sur ordre de la justice militaire, alors qu’il effectuait des travaux de recherche sur place sur la trajectoire socio-professionnelle des personnes ayant participé au Printemps arabe en 2011, suscitant un tollé en France et à l’étranger. Il a finalement été libéré le 12 novembre et a pu rentrer en France trois jours plus tard. Aucun motif n’a été communiqué pour son arrestation.

      Ces dernières semaines, plusieurs créateurs de contenus ont aussi été arrêtés et condamnés à de lourdes peines de prison, comme le souligne le site tunisien Business News, dans une chronique intitulée « Qui sera emprisonné cette semaine ? ».

      Que l’on parle ou pas, on sait que l’on est ou que l’on sera sur la liste un jour.
      Romdhane Ben Amor, porte-parole du FTDES

      « Opposants politiques, journalistes, hommes d’affaires, activistes de la société civile, influenceurs, présumés corrompus […]. La logique est claire : faire taire les voix discordantes pour garantir un contrôle absolu. Chaque nouvelle “menace” est neutralisée dans l’urgence. C’est une manière de détourner l’attention des problèmes plus graves et non résolus qui continuent de ronger le pays », écrit l’autrice.

      Comment la poignée de membres de la société civile restante peut-elle encore trouver le courage de s’exprimer et de dénoncer la répression grandissante qui frappe le pays ? Romdhane Ben Amor dit savoir que la situation est « critique ».

      Mais il souligne l’importance de rappeler, encore et toujours, qu’ils ne sont « ni des terroristes ni des criminels ». « Que l’on parle ou pas, on sait que l’on est ou que l’on sera sur la liste un jour. Nous sommes simplement engagés dans des causes humanitaires, sur un sujet qui ne plaît pas au pouvoir. »

      Pour Avocats sans frontières, la pression internationale, et le rôle de l’Union européenne dans la légitimation d’un régime avec lequel elle n’hésite pas à signer des accords pour contrôler notamment les migrations sans garantir le respect des droits humains, sera cruciale pour faire cesser, ou du moins freiner la répression qui s’empare de la Tunisie. « La solidarité et l’attention médiatique internationales sont aujourd’hui plus que nécessaires », conclut sa représentante.

      https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/211124/en-tunisie-abdallah-said-figure-de-l-aide-aux-exiles-risque-d-etre-poursui

    • Dal campo situato all’interno della struttura militare di Sde Teiman arrivano testimonianze e prove crescenti che rivelano le condizioni di trattamento e detenzione degli abitanti di Gaza nella struttura. Vari rapporti e un documento UNWRA che riportano le testimonianze di oltre 100 detenuti rilasciati indicano che centinaia di individui sono detenuti in recinti all’aperto, con le mani ammanettate e gli occhi coperti per l’intera giornata, e gli è proibito muoversi o parlare; in caso contrario, affrontano severe punizioni. Secondo tutte le testimonianze, questi detenuti subiscono regolarmente gravi violenze, con conseguenti fratture, emorragie interne e e in alcuni casi il decesso .

      Dall’inizio della guerra in corso e in particolare dopo l’invasione di terra di Israele della Striscia di Gaza, migliaia di abitanti di Gaza, tra cui minori, donne, anziani e decine di operatori sanitari, sono stati arrestati. Molti di loro prelevati da ospedali e scuole. Finora, tutti gli sforzi per localizzare o ottenere informazioni sulla loro condizione e e il luogo di detenzione si sono rivelati infruttuosi.

      Un rapporto della ong ”Physicians for Human Rights”(PHR) , Medici per i Diritti Umani che da 30 anni mobilita professionisti sanitari, scienziati forensi e altri esperti in tutto il mondo per indagare e denunciare accuse di abusi ,ad aprile aveva denunciato e raccolto le testimonianze dei detenuti rilasciati, le risposte (inadeguate) offerte dai funzionari, le discussioni con gli operatori sanitari e i dati relativi a decine di decessi in custodia. Sde Teiman è una struttura di detenzione segreta come Guantanamo e Abu Ghraib dove con la complicità del personale medico militare si torturano i prigionieri palestinesi.

      La CNN ha raccontato quello che accade nella struttura in un servizio televisivo in cui si è avvalsa della testimonianmza di alcuni operatori medici ,ne parliamo con Daniel che lavora presso la ong PHR e che si occupa come medico delle condizioni dei detenuti palestinesi .

      #Sde_Teiman #Israël #torture #emprisonnement #prison
      #audio #podcast

    • Shut Down the Sde Teiman Facility Now

      The circumstances at Sde Teiman, particularly concerning the medical treatment provided there, reflect a moral and professional low point. We firmly believe every physician, healthcare worker, and organization representing the healthcare community has a responsibility to oppose its continued existence.

      “Each of us, whether it is the medical personnel or you, the supervising authorities at the Health and Defense ministries, is implicated in breaching Israeli law. Even more concerning for me as a physician is the breach of my commitment to providing equal treatment to all patients—a vow I pledged to uphold upon graduating two decades ago.”

      This conclusion was shared earlier this month by a physician working at the field hospital located within the Sde Teiman military facility. His testimony adds to the mounting evidence revealing the treatment and detention conditions of Gazans at the facility. Various reports and a UNWRA document compiling the testimonies of over 100 released detainees indicate that hundreds of individuals are being held in open-air pens, with their hands cuffed and eyes covered for the entire day, and are prohibited from moving or speaking; otherwise, they face severe punishment. According to all testimonies, these detainees regularly endure severe violence, leading to cases of fractures, internal bleeding, and even death.

      Since the start of the current war and particularly following Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, thousands of Gazans, including minors, women, the elderly, and dozens of healthcare workers, have been detained. Many of them were apprehended from protected spaces such as hospitals and schools. So far, all efforts to locate or obtain information regarding their well-being and whereabouts have proven unsuccessful.

      The evidence and information disclosed to the public confirm the findings outlined in the ethical position paper we are releasing today. Within it, we analyze data collected from released detainees, the (inadequate) responses offered by officials, discussions with healthcare professionals, and data concerning dozens of deaths in custody. We are issuing this report because, drawing upon the lessons learned from secret detention facilities like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, it is crucial to prevent their continued operations and recognize the misconception that they can ever be “reformed.”

      As you may recall, Israel’s Ministry of Health declared that detained Gazans would not be treated in public hospitals and would instead be transferred to medical facilities operated by the Israel Prison Service or the military- regardless of whether these facilities were equipped to provide adequate care. Subsequently, the ministry issued medical treatment guidelines, which, as our report concludes, violate medical ethics and disregard the fundamental principles of the healthcare professions. These guidelines were reinforced by medical professionals who supported the refusal to treat detained Gazans, even when they were brought in by the military. The report cautions that in light of the current circumstances at the facility, its medical personnel risk committing severe breaches of medical ethics.

      The Ministry of Health’s guidelines for the Sde Teiman facility enable these violations by allowing the participation of medical personnel in actions that constitute inhumane treatment or torture. Considering the numerous testimonies from both detainees and medical staff regarding the conditions at the facility, we conclude that the Sde Teiman facility must be immediately shut down, and detained Gazans in need of medical care should be transferred to a civilian medical facility that upholds ethical and professional medical standards.

      Over 600 medical professionals have already endorsed this ethical position paper. If you are a medical professional, we urge you to actively express your support by adding your signature to the petition.

      The circumstances at Sde Teiman, particularly concerning the medical treatment provided there, reflect a moral and professional low point. We firmly believe every physician, healthcare worker, and organization representing the healthcare community has a responsibility to oppose its continued existence.

      https://www.phr.org.il/en/shut-down-the-sde-teiman-facility-now
      #rapport

    • Lord, I had a fall
      I had a fall in 1955
      Lord, I had a fall, bad
      In 1955
      The police picked me up
      Handcuffed me
      Carried me to jail
      Locked me down
      They tried me for my life
      April the 6th, 1956
      They sent me to Angola
      Not to lie, not to lie
      They tried me for my life
      Tried to electrocute the poor boy
      You know, I told ’em
      You can’t electrocute me, no, no
      I said, “I got a man in here in this courthouse
      Holds all power in his hand”
      They asked me “What man that you’se talking about?”
      I was looking dead down at the Bible, you know
      I said “God above
      Got all the power over me and you”
      Yeah, you gonna send me to your pen
      I ain’t think about your electric chair at all
      Oh, you gonna send me to your pen
      And I ain’t gonna be there long
      Oh, yeah, you gonna send me to your pen
      Lord, I ain’t gonna be there long
      Mhmmm, Lord
      Didn’t know you got the poor boy your way
      But that’s all right, that’s all right
      One of these old days, one of these old days
      Lord, I’m gonna walk out this old lonesome pen
      You can treat me dirty here
      But God got His eyes on you
      Yeah, you can treat me dirty here
      But God got His eyes on you
      They gave me my sentence
      Not to lie
      I said “That’s alright, that’s alright
      I’ll take that as His call”
      But I won’t be here long
      They sent me April the 6th
      1956
      Fifty nine, fifty nine *

      I was at home with my kin
      (quietly) Yeah, Lord, buddy
      Well, that’s when
      I met poor Hattie Mae *
      In the east country that Spring
      Mhmmm

      Less sure about this line. Maybe “I’ll take death as it comes” or something else entirely
      *
      As in 1959, the year he was released to “servitude parole”
      * Robert’s wife

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWS0d-UUMOo&t=32s


      #Robert_Pete_Williams #blues #chanson #musique #prison #emprisonnement

  • Abolir les #prisons, une « #utopie_réelle »

    Dans « Brique par brique, mur par mur », trois chercheurs tentent la première #histoire de l’#abolitionnisme_pénal, qui place la critique radicale de la #prison, de la #justice et de la #police au cœur de ses analyses. Une tradition militante et politique riche. Y compris en Europe.

    « Les #institutions_pénales ne sont pas seulement inefficaces pour nous protéger et régler nos différends, elles sont en plus préjudiciables et néfastes. » Avec Brique par brique, mur par mur (Lux Éditeur), qui paraît en France le 17 mai, #Gwenola_Ricordeau, professeure associée en justice criminelle à l’université de l’État de Californie, #Joël_Charbit, chercheur associé au Centre lillois d’études et de recherches sociologiques et économiques, et #Shaïn_Morisse, doctorant au Centre de recherches sociologiques sur le droit et les institutions pénales, retracent l’archéologie et l’actualité de l’abolitionnisme pénal, qui défend l’abolition de la justice, de la police et de la prison.

    À la faveur de la critique radicale de la prison et de l’incarcération de masse, ce mouvement intellectuel et militant a retrouvé aux États-Unis une vivacité récente. Mais dans le monde occidental, ses racines ont poussé en Europe, dans les années 1970. Souvent ignorée, quand elle n’est pas « calomniée », taxée d’utopique, la tradition de l’abolitionnisme pénal irrigue pourtant de nombreux mouvements de la gauche radicale globale. Entretien avec Shaïn Morisse, l’un des auteurs.

    Mediapart : La France compte un nombre historique de détenus. La surpopulation est endémique, les conditions de détention sont indignes depuis des décennies. Votre livre débute avec un constat : « Les services que les prisons sont censées rendre ne compenseront jamais les torts qu’elles créent depuis leur création »…

    Shaïn Morisse : La prison impose une souffrance institutionnelle. Elle est destructrice pour les individus, leurs proches et leurs communautés. Pour les abolitionnistes, elle perpétue, comme toutes les institutions du système pénal, un ordre social et racial inégalitaire, qui surcriminalise les populations socialement défavorisées et racisées.

    Qu’est-ce que l’abolitionnisme pénal ?

    Le point de départ de l’abolitionnisme, c’est de dire, là encore, que le coût social du système pénal est supérieur aux services qu’il est censé rendre. Il y a depuis deux siècles une critique permanente du système pénal. D’abord par des réformistes, jusqu’à l’apparition de l’abolitionnisme dans les années 1960-1970. La différence, c’est que les abolitionnistes ne contestent pas simplement le système pénal dans son fonctionnement ou dans ses dysfonctionnements. Mais dans sa légitimité même.

    Ils et elles estiment que le système pénal est injuste, coûteux et destructeur. Mais aussi qu’il est inefficace et inopérant : il ne dissuade pas, ne réhabilite pas. Il traite une partie infinitésimale des situations potentiellement criminalisables. Sa fonction rétributrice, c’est-à-dire la compensation d’une souffrance commise par une souffrance équivalente, voire supérieure, n’est pas non plus satisfaisante. Certes, il neutralise les individus, soit de façon définitive avec la peine de mort, soit pour un certain temps. Mais comme l’écrit [la militante et universitaire antiraciste – ndlr] Angela Davis, « la prison ne fait pas disparaître les problèmes, elle fait disparaître les êtres humains ».

    La prison semble pourtant plus que jamais plébiscitée, dans nos sociétés contemporaines, comme le meilleur moyen de punir. Et ce depuis des décennies, notamment en lien avec ce que vous nommez dans le livre le « durcissement pénal » à partir des années 1970. Pourquoi ?

    L’abolitionnisme se développe dans les années 1960-1970, dans un contexte d’espoir révolutionnaire et de grandes espérances politiques radicales à gauche. On assiste à une médiatisation de la question carcérale, à une politisation autour des questions pénales. Les prisonniers sont érigés en sujet politique, prennent la parole eux-mêmes. Il y a des mouvements de prisonniers, de la répression mais aussi des réformes pénales radicales. Des sociologues réalisent des études empiriques pour comprendre ce qu’est l’incarcération, ce qui se passe réellement en prison.

    À partir de la fin des années 1970, et plus particulièrement au milieu des années 1980, avec l’avènement du néolibéralisme, les discours abolitionnistes deviennent inaudibles. L’intérêt pour les structures disparaît. On ne voit plus que l’individu, qui serait entièrement responsable de sa destinée. C’est « la loi et l’ordre », l’avènement de discours purement punitifs qui ne voient pas l’aspect problématique de la prison. Pourtant, ce sont toujours les mêmes catégories de population qui se retrouvent en prison. Ce n’est donc pas juste une question d’individus qui n’arriveraient pas à se réinsérer dans la société. Il y a des logiques sociales et structurelles : l’abolitionnisme cherche ainsi à réencastrer le système pénal dans la société.

    L’abolition de la prison, mais aussi « de toutes les institutions qui forment le système pénal, comme la police et les tribunaux », apparaît dans ce contexte comme une « utopie ». C’est un terme que vous assumez d’ailleurs.

    L’abolitionnisme revendique la notion d’utopie, mais une « utopie réelle », ancrée dans les potentiels réels de l’humanité. Il s’agit de donner les moyens aux gens de régler ce que le système pénal nomme « délits » et « crimes » d’une manière pérenne et satisfaisante. L’abolitionnisme ne fournit pas un modèle unique, et ne formule pas des « alternatives ». C’est logique : l’idée n’est pas de remplacer le système pénal par une autre institution. De fait, il implique de changer les structures sociales. Car on ne peut pas régler les problèmes qui sont à la source de ce qu’on appelle communément « le crime » sans considérer la société, l’économie, les différents rapports de domination, que ce soit le patriarcat, le validisme ou le racisme.

    C’est-à-dire que l’abolitionnisme du système pénal n’est possible qu’une fois que la révolution aurait eu lieu ?

    Globalement, la tendance assez générale au sein de l’abolitionnisme est révolutionnaire, surtout aujourd’hui. Pour autant, l’abolition est un horizon politique, tout comme la révolution est un horizon. Si les abolitionnistes ne sont pas des réformistes — ils ne pensent pas que le système pénal peut devenir plus acceptable ou efficace –, ils sont aussi pragmatiques. Il y a eu dans les années 1970 des abolitionnistes social-démocrates, et d’autres qui considèrent qu’on peut s’accommoder d’un certain niveau d’inégalité, d’un peu de capitalisme.

    On a tendance à croire que l’abolitionnisme pénal est d’abord américain, dans un pays où l’esclavage est, comme vous l’écrivez « la matrice du système pénal ». Pour autant, vous montrez qu’il y a une tradition française et européenne riche de l’abolitionnisme. La France, écrivez-vous, a d’ailleurs « joué un rôle prépondérant dans la circulation internationale du modèle de la prison »…

    Avec ce livre, nous voulions faire la première histoire générale de l’abolitionnisme, montrer que c’est un mouvement qui a cinquante ans. Raconter, aussi, que ce n’est pas, comme on le pense, un courant récent importé des États-Unis. La première vague de l’abolitionnisme s’est d’abord développée en Europe. La seconde vague, à partir des années 1990, démarre aux États-Unis. Elle est liée aux mouvements de libération africaine américaine, avec Angela Davis et la fondation du groupe Critical Resistance, qui va être très important pour toute la structuration des luttes abolitionnistes. Mais Angela Davis elle-même a lu des auteurs européens ! Ce qui est vrai, c’est que la question de la race, le féminisme, étaient les grands impensés de l’abolitionnisme européen. À partir des années 1990, l’abolitionnisme états-unien va enrichir la réflexion et intégrer ses questions.

    Avec le mouvement Black Lives Matter, les manifestations immenses qui ont suivi le meurtre policier de George Floyd en 2020, un large mouvement social aux États-Unis réclame le « définancement et le désarmement de la police ». Ce mouvement a obtenu des victoires locales. Pourquoi une telle vitalité de l’abolitionnisme pénal aux États-Unis alors qu’il reste chez nous une pensée marginalisée ?

    Cela tient d’abord à l’exceptionnalisme pénal états-unien : à partir des années 1980, une incarcération de masse a été mise en place. La population carcérale a quintuplé, devenant la plus grande du monde, devant la Russie et la Chine. Dans le même temps, l’État social s’est effondré totalement. Comme le souligne le sociologue Loïc Wacquant, l’État pénal s’est renforcé quand l’État social s’effondrait. Les conséquences ont été profondes. C’est de là qu’est repartie la reconfiguration de l’abolitionnisme aux États-Unis, mais aussi en Amérique du Sud. Mais ces dernières années, il y a tout un renouvellement des enjeux de l’abolitionnisme. C’est aussi vrai en Europe, en lien avec les questions de féminisme, d’antiracisme, en lien aussi avec l’action de la police, la question des frontières, ou la question des centres de rétention administrative (CRA).

    Pour beaucoup de victimes, la peine infligée à l’auteur est une reconnaissance, le début d’un chemin de réparation. Vouloir abolir la prison et la justice pénale, n’est-ce pas les priver de cette réparation possible ?

    Vu l’évidence culturelle du système pénal, il est normal que les gens attendent de lui une forme de reconnaissance du préjudice. Mais l’abolitionnisme affirme que le système pénal néglige profondément les intérêts et les besoins de tout le monde : les victimes, mais aussi les personnes criminalisées. Les abolitionnistes s’intéressent donc à des modes alternatifs de régulation des conflits, de manière radicale, c’est-à-dire en faisant en sorte qu’ils ne se reproduisent pas à l’avenir.

    En quoi consistent-ils ?

    Différents courants se sont développés depuis les années 1970-1980, qui ont pris le nom par exemple de « justice restauratrice » ou « réparatrice » au Canada. Les infractions ne sont plus considérées uniquement comme des transgressions à la loi, qui doivent être sanctionnées, mais comme des conflits ou des situations problématiques qui ont des répercussions personnelles sur la vie des gens et qui doivent être réparées. Donc il ne s’agit pas de punir, mais de remédier au tort subi par les victimes et de reconstituer le lien social.

    À partir des années 1990, ce courant de la justice restauratrice, pensé hors du système pénal, a commencé à être digéré par les différents systèmes pénaux. Elle a été utilisée comme un supplément à la peine : par exemple, elle a été intégrée dans la loi en France avec la loi Taubira en 2014.

    A alors émergé la justice transformatrice, notamment sous l’impulsion de l’abolitionniste canadienne Ruth Morris. Elle ne cherche pas juste à réparer le lien social, mais aussi à changer les individus et la société en général. Depuis plus de dix ans, il y a tout un essor militant et éditorial de la justice transformatrice, souvent initiée par des groupes qui, parce qu’ils sont souvent criminalisés, ne peuvent pas forcément recourir à la police.

    C’est le cas, surtout aux États-Unis (avec des groupes comme Generation Five, CARA, Creative Interventions). On peut citer aussi l’activiste Mariame Kaba. En France, c’est aussi la démarche du collectif Fracas. La justice transformatrice recourt à des pratiques de médiation et de guérison. Elle mobilise une palette de mesures adaptées à chaque problème (refuge, groupe de soutien, etc.). Son but est aussi de changer les valeurs, pratiques et structures qui ont rendu la commission de la violence possible, par un travail culturel et politique.

    Le Code pénal prévoit des crimes et des délits. La vision abolitionniste critique la notion de crime, la « figure mythologique du criminel » comme vous l’écrivez. Est-ce à dire que les crimes n’existent pas ?

    Les abolitionnistes considèrent que le crime est une catégorie « éponge », qui regroupe des actes qui n’ont aucune similitude la plupart du temps, que ce soit sur les situations que ça implique ou les impacts concrets que ça va avoir sur la vie des personnes. Pour les abolitionnistes, la grammaire de la criminalisation ne permet pas de comprendre les situations vécues, les circonstances, les expériences des personnes concernées. C’est pour eux une abstraction qui décontextualise, qui réduit la complexité des situations.

    C’est-à-dire qu’il n’y a pas de victimes et il n’y a pas d’auteurs ?

    Ces actes déplorables qu’il y a derrière la notion de « crime » ils sont là, ils existent. Mais les abolitionnistes partent de ces actes et de ces situations pour ensuite proposer une multiplicité d’interprétations de ces situations et de réponses possibles. Beaucoup d’entre eux remettent en cause la dichotomie auteur-victime, car beaucoup d’auteurs sont aussi victimes d’autres systèmes d’oppression. Les abolitionnistes vont dire que le « crime » n’est pas un point de départ utile pour cadrer les problèmes. Ils vont partir des actes et des situations concrètes.

    Il ne s’agit pas d’excuser telle ou telle personne pour avoir commis tel acte : l’abolitionniste cherche à reproblématiser la question de la responsabilité, pas à dédouaner la personne qui a commis l’acte. Mais c’est aussi hypocrite de voir uniquement la responsabilité individuelle comme le fait le système pénal ; et de ne pas regarder toutes les logiques sociales qui ont permis à cette situation d’advenir.

    https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-et-idees/230424/abolir-les-prisons-une-utopie-reelle
    #abolitionnisme #emprisonnement

    • Brique par brique, mur par mur. Une histoire de l’abolitionnisme pénal

      Il y a d’abord une évidence : les services que les prisons sont censées rendre ne compenseront jamais les torts qu’elles causent. Depuis les années 1960, ce constat d’un immense gâchis a amené un vaste mouvement à œuvrer à l’abolitionnisme pénal : en finir avec toutes les prisons, mais aussi avec les autres institutions qui forment le système pénal, comme la police et les tribunaux. Ce projet politique poursuit ainsi un objectif ambitieux : rendre vraiment justice aux victimes et répondre à leurs besoins, en plus de prévenir les violences systémiques et interpersonnelles.

      En prenant appui sur les trajectoires transnationales des mouvements politiques qui ont mis au cœur de leur démarche la critique radicale du système carcéral et judiciaire, cet ouvrage, le premier du genre en langue française, offre une documentation indispensable pour inspirer les luttes contemporaines.

      https://luxediteur.com/catalogue/brique-par-brique-mur-par-mur
      #livre

  • Espagne : des jeunes migrants se déclarant mineurs incarcérés pour avoir conduit des canots

    En Espagne, les cas de jeunes migrants se disant mineurs enfermés dans les prisons du pays pour avoir piloté des canots se multiplient, à mesure que les arrivées irrégulières augmentent. Les adultes, eux aussi, subissent le même sort. Comme en Grèce et au Royaume-Uni, deux États qui incarcèrent également des exilés vus à la barre d’un canot, les associations et les militants espagnols estiment que le gouvernement se trompe de cible.

    B.C. a quitté la prison de Las Palmas, sur l’île de Grande Canarie, jeudi 14 mars. Le jeune Sénégalais de 17 ans, accusé par la justice d’être un passeur pour avoir conduit un canot de migrants, était incarcéré dans ce centre pour adultes depuis presque trois mois.

    Quelques heures plus tôt, le tribunal avait ordonné sa libération en raison de son âge. « Les conclusions [de l’examen] médico-légal » effectué sur B.C. ne permettent pas d’affirmer avec « certitude que le sujet est majeur », avait estimé le juge.

    Depuis son incarcération le 21 décembre 2023, le Sénégalais répétait inlassablement qu’il n’avait que 17 ans. Une photocopie de son acte de naissance transmis à l’administration n’avait pas suffi à mettre fin à son emprisonnement. Ni même un test médical qui avait conclu que « l’âge estimé du mineur présumé est compatible avec l’âge qu’il a mentionné ».

    L’ONU s’était emparé du sujet et avait exhorté le 11 mars les autorités espagnoles à libérer l’adolescent et à le traiter conformément à la Convention internationale des droits de l’enfant. L’organisation avait rappelé qu’en cas de doute sur l’âge d’une personne se déclarant mineure, elle doit être prise en charge en tant qu’enfant.

    Après la décision du tribunal de Las Palmas, B.C. a été transféré dans un centre fermé pour mineurs sur l’île de Ténérife en attendant son procès.
    Plusieurs jeunes enfermés en prison

    Comme ce garçon originaire du Sénégal, d’autres Subsahariens connaissent le même sort : arrivés aux Canaries à bord d’une pirogue surchargée, ils ont été accusés de piloter le canot, et n’ont pas été considérés comme des mineurs. Depuis, ils croupissent dans les prisons canariennes.

    C’est le cas d’Alioune (prénom d’emprunt), un Gambien de 16 ans enfermé depuis octobre 2023 à Ténérife, après avoir été désigné comme le « patron » de l’embarcation dans laquelle il se trouvait en arrivant dans l’archipel. À l’intérieur, le corps d’un enfant de 13 ans avait été retrouvé et 10 personnes avaient péri pendant la dangereuse traversée de l’Atlantique.

    Comme B.C., Alioune a fourni un acte de naissance prouvant son âge, et s’est soumis à des tests osseux, via une radiographie de la main. Les résultats signalaient alors que « la personne examinée a un âge osseux supérieur à 18 ans », tout en rappelant qu’il « n’est pas possible d’établir avec certitude l’âge réel ».

    On peut aussi citer l’histoire d’A.G., emprisonné avec B.C. alors qu’il n’avait que 15 ans. Ce Sénégalais a passé un mois et demi derrière les barreaux avant qu’un juge de surveillance pénitentiaire ordonne son transfert vers un centre fermé pour mineurs et que des tests prouvent sa minorité.

    Hausse du nombre d’#emprisonnement

    Alors, les jeunes étrangers seraient-ils de plus en plus nombreux à remplir les prisons espagnoles ? Difficile à affirmer en raison du manque de données sur le sujet, l’enfermement des mineurs étant interdit par la loi. Mais pour Daniel Arencibia, avocat en droit des étrangers, les affaires de ce type se multiplient.

    Il dit observer ces derniers mois une hausse des cas et regrette « beaucoup d’erreurs pour déterminer l’âge » d’un migrant. Cette recrudescence des emprisonnements s’explique, selon lui, par l’augmentation du nombre de mineurs débarqués en Espagne. « En 2020, il y avait moins de 400 mineurs aux Canaries. Aujourd’hui, ils sont plus de 5 000 », précise l’avocat.

    Un chiffre qui coïncide avec la hausse des débarquements en Espagne : on comptait en 2023, plus de 56 000 arrivées de migrants dans le pays, soit un bond de 82% par rapport à 2022. Parmi eux, près de 40 000 ont été enregistrés aux Canaries, une hausse de 154% par rapport à l’année précédente.
    Des peines différentes selon les provinces espagnoles

    Les jeunes ne sont pas les seuls à subir le même sort. Les migrants adultes aussi se voient désigner comme passeurs, pour avoir piloté leur embarcation. Et selon le lieu de leur arrestation, les peines diffèrent de plusieurs années, révèle une étude de Daniel Arencibia.

    Ce dernier a analysé plus de 200 condamnations portées contre des exilés dans les provinces espagnoles – sur les îles et sur la péninsule – les plus touchées par les arrivées irrégulières, du 1er janvier 2021 à aujourd’hui. Et le constat est sans appel : les migrants jugés aux Canaries écopent de peines plus lourdes pour les mêmes chefs d’accusation que dans les autres régions du pays.

    « Aux Baléares, ils sont condamnés à deux ans de prison, et aux Canaries à trois voire cinq ans », affirme l’avocat dans une interview accordée au média local Diario de Canarias.

    Pour avoir conduit une pirogue, et être poursuivi en tant que passeur, les exilés encourent jusqu’à huit ans de prison en Espagne. Une circulaire stipule cependant que dans le cas où la personne cherche également à obtenir une protection, une circonstance atténuante peut être appliquée et permet de réduire la peine.

    Daniel Arencibia a également découvert que le jugement pouvait être plus clément si le migrant renonce à son procès et se déclare donc coupable : dans ce cas, le Parquet réclame trois années de prison, en vertu de la circulaire évoquée précédemment. Dans le cas inverse, il demande sept ans d’emprisonnement. « Dans la province de Las Palmas [sur l’île de Grande Canarie, ndlr], 91% des accusés ont signé le document et accepte la peine de trois ans », renonçant à faire reconnaitre leur innocence.

    Rien d’étonnant pour l’avocat car, selon lui, les exilés n’ont d’autres choix : « Le migrant ne comprend pas la langue, a peur et on lui dit : ‘Si vous ne signez pas ce papier, vous ferez sept ans de prison au lieu de trois’ », résume-t-il.

    Comme en Grèce et au Royaume-Uni, deux États qui incarcèrent aussi des exilés vus à la barre d’un canot, les associations et les militants espagnols estiment que le gouvernement se trompe de cible. Les migrants emprisonnés « n’appartiennent pas à des mafias, ce sont de pauvres pêcheurs pour la plupart. Nous dépensons des millions pour mettre en prison des pêcheurs mais nous n’avons pas le budget nécessaire pour poursuivre ceux qui deviennent réellement millionnaires, au Maroc ou en Mauritanie », déplore l’avocat.

    https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/55997/espagne--des-jeunes-migrants-se-declarant-mineurs-incarceres-pour-avoi
    #scafisti #criminalisation_de_la_migration #migrations #asile #réfugiés #Espagne #détention #mineurs #enfants #enfance #route_Atlantique #Canaries #îles_Canaries

  • Slovenia, carceri sovraffollate di passeur della Rotta Balcanica. Sono quasi la metà

    Gli arresti compiuti nei confronti dei trafficanti di esseri umani, colloquialmente noti come passeur, sta generando un sovraffollamento delle carceri della Slovenia. La Rotta Balcanica e in generale l’immigrazione clandestina si ripercuote pertanto anche sul sistema carcerario sloveno; un problema noto a Trieste e in Friuli Venezia Giulia dove la mancanza di spazi e di condizioni adeguate per i detenuti costituiscono una problematica sollevata più volte dalle istituzioni attive nell’ambito.
    Le centinaia di arresti compiuti negli ultimi anni hanno portato a una saturazione delle carceri della Slovenia. Vi sono 1808 persone detenute in totale; in particolare “tutte le sezioni maschili sono sovraffollate” ha comunicato l’amministrazione slovena alla STA – Slovenian Press Agency.
    La situazione maggiormente grave è, qual è naturale, a Lubiana dove l’occupazione sfonda il 200%; a Maribor è del 171%, a Celje del 165%; il carcere di maggiori dimensioni in Slovenia, a Dob, ha un’occupazione pari al 128%.
    Sugli odierni 1808 carcerati, 850 figurano come cittadini stranieri implicati nella tratta di esseri umani.

    Vi è attualmente un nuovo carcere in via di costruzione a Dobrunje, a est di Lubiana, il cui completamento è previsto entro il 2025. Tuttavia, anche se venisse inaugurato in questi giorni, non risolverebbe il sovraffollamento odierno. In mancanza di alternative, similmente a quanto avviene in Italia, ci si limita a spostare i condannati di carcere in carcere; si sta inoltre valutando se ridurre o meno la durata della pena. Non migliora la situazione la carenza di personale addetto al sistema penitenziario; appena 550 addetti per gestire quasi duemila detenuti. Parte del personale penitenziario è inoltre prossimo alla pensione.
    Man mano che la Rotta Balcanica, col giungere della primavera -estate 2024, ritornerà a essere attiva il problema si ripresenterà tanto in Slovenia, quanto in Friuli Venezia Giulia, dove le difficoltà di gestione delle carceri costituiscono un argomento ricorrente.

    https://www.triesteallnews.it/2024/03/slovenia-carceri-sovraffollate-di-passeur-della-rotta-balcanica-sono-
    #Slovénie #criminalisation_de_la_migration #trafiquants #passeurs #asile #migrations #réfugiés #emprisonnement #prisons #frontière_sud-alpine #Balkans #route_des_Balkans

  • En Serbie, rendre invisibles les exilés

    La Serbie est le dernier pays non-membre de l’Union européenne de la route des Balkans. Traversée depuis des siècles, elle l’est aujourd’hui encore par de nombreux étrangers venus de Syrie, d’Afghanistan, de Turquie, même du Maroc… Car la Serbie reste le dernier rempart de la forteresse Europe. Ce petit pays de presque 7 millions d’habitants, entouré de huit frontières dont quatre avec l’Union européenne, applique une politique migratoire orchestrée par celle-ci.

    En effet, la Serbie demande son adhésion depuis plus de dix ans.

    Depuis le mois de décembre, après un contexte politique tendu, ce pays de transit tente de rendre invisibles les exilés, déjà soumis aux passeurs et aux lois en matière d’asile et d’immigration. En plein cœur de l’hiver, reportage entre Belgrade et la frontière croate de l’Europe.

    https://www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/grand-reportage/20240219-en-serbie-rendre-invisibles-les-exil%C3%A9s

    #emprisonnement #Serbie #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Belgrade #route_des_Balkans #Balkans #squat #opération_policière #peur #sécurité #insécurité #Sid #Šid #frontières #Croatie #transit #invisibilisation #Frontex #passeurs #frontières_extérieures #externalisation #visas #camps #solidarité #camps_de_réfugiés #refoulements #push-backs #migration_circulaire #game #the_game
    #audio #podcast

  • Regista e attrice curda in carcere in Italia, scambiata per scafista

    #Maysoon_Majidi, regista e attrice curda iraniana, molto nota per aver combattuto esponendosi in prima persona contro il regime islamista è in cella nel carcere femminile di Castrovillari dai primi di gennaio con l’accusa di essere una scafista.

    L’interprete che avrebbe dovuto tradurre lei e due testimoni ha travisato quasi tutto quel che ha sentito. L’aveva anche rassicurata: “Tranquilla, ti liberano subito”. Invece, per una serie di errori inauditi ed assai frequenti, lei è in cella nel carcere femminile di Castrovillari dai primi di gennaio con l’accusa di essere una scafista. E non capisce perché. Secondo il decreto Cutro con quest’accusa si rischia fino a trent’anni se ci sono morti. In questo caso non ci sono vittime, quindi lei rischia una pena dai cinque ai dieci anni. Da quando è in prigione è riuscita a parlare solo venerdì alle 14 con il suo avvocato, Giancarlo Liberati, che ha assunto l’incarico due settimane fa. Ha 27 anni, si chiama Maysoon Majidi ed è una regista e attrice curda iraniana, molto nota per aver combattuto esponendosi in prima persona contro il regime islamista.

    Non ci voleva molto a capire chi fosse. Basta digitare il suo nome in rete e piovono documentari suoi di denuncia della violazione dei diritti in Iran. Parla di lei il sito della Bbc, ci sono in rete molte sue fotografie. Fa parte dell’organizzazione per i diritti umani Hana human rights organization, ha manifestato a suo rischio e pericolo contro l’omicidio di Masha Amini ed è persona nota agli uffici Onu. In realtà sarebbe stato sufficiente chiederle, appena fermata a Crotone dalla Guardia di finanza, se parlasse inglese, lingua che lei conosce. Ma nessuno gliel’ha chiesto.

    Quindi, per una assurda storia di fischi presi per fiaschi, da un mese è in cella con l’accusa di essere una trafficante di esseri umani. Invece era una delle 59 persone stipate sottocoperta nella barca a vela incagliatasi senza affondare a Capodanno nella costa crotonese. Usando il gommoncino di bordo lei ed altre quattro persone – incluso suo fratello e un cittadino turco, Ufu Aktur, che ha poi confessato di essere il capitano della barca a vela – sono arrivate a terra.

    La Procura di Crotone sostiene che due migranti a bordo l’accusano. I due, nel frattempo andati in Germania, rintracciati dall’avvocato Liberati, hanno raccontato di non aver mai detto che la ragazza era una scafista, ma di aver detto – interrogati appena fermati quindi nella confusione totale nella quale vengono puntualmente prese e non vagliate queste dichiarazioni di persone che hanno fretta di potersi allontanare liberamente – che lei li aveva aiutati. Dice l’avvocato Liberati: “Li ho rintracciati io in Germania e mi hanno mandato due video in cui spiegano che lei era una passeggera, stava sotto coperta come loro e che loro non hanno mai detto alla Guardia di finanza quel che viene loro attribuito”.

    Sarebbe stato sufficiente mettere a confronto l’accusata con i testimoni, invece ai due dichiaranti dalle cui parole travisate è stata estrapolata l’accusa, è stato permesso di lasciare l’italia e a più di un mese dall’arresto nessuno ha ancora disposto l’incidente probatorio. Agli inquirenti di Crotone non è bastata nemmeno la confessione del cittadino turco, Ufu Aktur, che ha ammesso di essere lui il capitano della barca e ha spiegato che Maysoon Majidi era una dei migranti a bordo. Lei ha con sé la ricevuta del pagamento di 8500 dollari fatto per imbarcarsi. Hanno pagato 8500 dollari a testa lei e suo fratello in Turchia. Dopo averne pagati altri 15mila a dei truffatori per un viaggio mai fatto. Maysoon ha con sé anche un certificato dell’Agenzia per i rifugiati delle Nazioni Unite, che dimostra che lei è una richiedente asilo. L’ha avuto nell’agosto del 2023 in Iraq dove si era rifugiata.

    Dice l’avvocato Liberati: “Siamo nella fase delicatissima delle indagini preliminari, sto facendo richiesta di interrogatorio per informazioni fondamentali di cui sono in possesso. Sa, io non ce l’ho coi magistrati perché spesso assumono decisioni sulla base di informazioni fuorvianti ed errate. Ha avuto un ruolo in tutto ciò una chiamiamola asimmetria informativa per pessima traduzione. Ma le traduzioni di queste dichiarazioni prese subito dopo lo sbarco andrebbero mostrate perché io ne ho viste centinaia e sono quasi tutte uguali, sembrano fatte col copia incolla. Comunque ora Maysoon finalmente si è un po’ rasserenata, è scappata da una situazione drammatica e non capisce perché diavolo si trovi in prigione ora che è in Italia. Un dettaglio può in parte descrivere la situazione terrificante di disperazione in cui si trovano tutte queste persone alle quali poi, nella confusione più totale, spesso di notte appena toccato terra, si prendono dichiarazioni tradotte dio sa come che poi diventano accuse. “Maysoon – dice il suo difensore – mi ha confermato di essere stata sempre sotto coperta tutto il viaggio, l’ultimo giorno di viaggio ha avuto le mestruazioni ed è riuscita ad ottenere il permesso di salire sovracoperta per respirare perché si sentiva male. E questo, nella disperazione generale, può aver generato l’invidia e l’equivoco”.

    Al pubblico ministero Rosaria Multari della Procura di Crotone verrà chiesta dalla difesa l’interrogatorio e, quanto meno, la sostituzione delle misure cautelari.

    https://www.osservatoriorepressione.info/regista-attrice-curda-carcere-italia-scambiata-scafista

    #scafista #migrations #criminalisation_de_la_migration #asile #réfugiés #emprisonnement #passeurs #scafisti

  • #José_Vieira : « La #mémoire des résistances face à l’accaparement des terres a été peu transmise »

    Dans « #Territórios_ocupados », José Vieira revient sur l’#expropriation en #1941 des paysans portugais de leurs #terres_communales pour y planter des #forêts. Cet épisode explique les #mégafeux qui ravagent le pays et résonne avec les #luttes pour la défense des #biens_communs.

    Né au Portugal en 1957 et arrivé enfant en France à l’âge de 7 ans, José Vieira réalise depuis plus de trente ans des documentaires qui racontent une histoire populaire de l’immigration portugaise.

    Bien loin du mythe des Portugais·es qui se seraient « intégré·es » sans le moindre problème en France a contrario d’autres populations, José Vieira s’est attaché à démontrer comment l’#immigration_portugaise a été un #exode violent – voir notamment La Photo déchirée (2001) ou Souvenirs d’un futur radieux (2014) –, synonyme d’un impossible retour.

    Dans son nouveau documentaire, Territórios ocupados, diffusé sur Mediapart, José Vieira a posé sa caméra dans les #montagnes du #Caramulo, au centre du #Portugal, afin de déterrer une histoire oubliée de la #mémoire_collective rurale du pays. Celle de l’expropriation en 1941, par l’État salazariste, de milliers de paysans et de paysannes de leurs terres communales – #baldios en portugais.

    Cette #violence étatique a été opérée au nom d’un vaste #projet_industriel : planter des forêts pour développer économiquement ces #territoires_ruraux et, par le même geste, « civiliser » les villageois et villageoises des #montagnes, encore rétifs au #salariat et à l’ordre social réactionnaire de #Salazar. Un épisode qui résonne aujourd’hui avec les politiques libérales des États qui aident les intérêts privés à accaparer les biens communs.

    Mediapart : Comment avez-vous découvert cette histoire oubliée de l’expropriation des terres communales ou « baldios » au Portugal ?

    José Vieira : Complètement par hasard. J’étais en train de filmer Le pain que le diable a pétri (2012, Zeugma Films) sur les habitants des montagnes au Portugal qui sont partis après-guerre travailler dans les usines à Lisbonne.

    Je demandais à un vieux qui est resté au village, António, quelle était la définition d’un baldio – on voit cet extrait dans le documentaire, où il parle d’un lieu où tout le monde peut aller pour récolter du bois, faire pâturer ses bêtes, etc. Puis il me sort soudain : « Sauf que l’État a occupé tous les baldios, c’était juste avant que je parte au service militaire. »

    J’étais estomaqué, je voulais en savoir plus mais impossible, car dans la foulée, il m’a envoyé baladé en râlant : « De toute façon, je ne te supporte pas aujourd’hui. »

    Qu’avez-vous fait alors ?

    J’ai commencé à fouiller sur Internet et j’ai eu la chance de tomber sur une étude parue dans la revue de sociologie portugaise Análise Social, qui raconte comment dans les années 1940 l’État salazariste avait pour projet initial de boiser 500 000 hectares de biens communaux en expropriant les usagers de ces terres.

    Je devais ensuite trouver des éléments d’histoire locale, dans la Serra do Caramulo, dont je suis originaire. J’ai passé un temps fou le nez dans les archives du journal local, qui était bien sûr à l’époque entièrement dévoué au régime.

    Après la publication de l’avis à la population que les baldios seront expropriés au profit de la plantation de forêts, plus aucune mention des communaux n’apparaît dans la presse. Mais rapidement, des correspondants locaux et des éditorialistes vont s’apercevoir qu’il existe dans ce territoire un malaise, qu’Untel abandonne sa ferme faute de pâturage ou que d’autres partent en ville. En somme, que sans les baldios, les gens ne s’en sortent plus.

    Comment sont perçus les communaux par les tenants du salazarisme ?

    Les ingénieurs forestiers décrivent les paysans de ces territoires comme des « primitifs » qu’il faut « civiliser ». Ils se voient comme des missionnaires du progrès et dénoncent l’oisiveté de ces montagnards peu enclins au salariat.

    À Lisbonne, j’ai trouvé aussi une archive qui parle des baldios comme étant une source de perversion, de mœurs légères qui conduisent à des enfants illégitimes dans des coins où « les familles vivent presque sans travailler ». Un crime dans un régime où le travail est élevé au rang de valeur suprême.

    On retrouve tous ces différents motifs dans le fameux Portrait du colonisé d’Albert Memmi (1957). Car il y a de la part du régime un vrai discours de colonisateur vis-à-vis de ces régions montagneuses où l’État et la religion ont encore peu de prise sur les habitants.

    En somme, l’État salazariste veut faire entrer ces Portugais reculés dans la modernité.

    Il y a eu des résistances face à ces expropriations ?

    Les villageois vont être embauchés pour boiser les baldios. Sauf qu’après avoir semé les pins, il faut attendre vingt ans pour que la forêt pousse.

    Il y a eu alors quelques histoires d’arrachage clandestin d’arbres. Et je raconte dans le film comment une incartade avec un garde forestier a failli virer au drame à cause d’une balle perdue – je rappelle qu’on est alors sous la chape de plomb du salazarisme. D’autres habitants ont aussi tabassé deux gardes forestiers à la sortie d’un bar et leur ont piqué leurs flingues.

    Mais la mémoire de ces résistances a peu été transmise. Aujourd’hui, avec l’émigration, il ne reste plus rien de cette mémoire collective, la plupart des vieux et vieilles que j’ai filmés dans ce documentaire sont déjà morts.

    Comment justement avez-vous travaillé pour ce documentaire ?

    Quand António me raconte cette histoire d’expropriation des baldios par l’État, c’était en 2010 et je tournais un documentaire, Souvenirs d’un futur radieux. Puis lorsqu’en 2014 un premier incendie a calciné le paysage forestier, je me suis dit qu’il fallait que je m’y mette.

    J’ai travaillé doucement, pendant trois ans, sans savoir où j’allais réellement. J’ai filmé un village situé à 15 kilomètres de là où je suis né. J’ai fait le choix d’y suivre des gens qui subsistent encore en pratiquant une agriculture traditionnelle, avec des outils de travail séculaires, comme la roue celte. Ils ont les mêmes pratiques que dans les années 1940, et qui sont respectueuses de l’écosystème, de la ressource en eau, de la terre.

    Vous vous êtes aussi attaché à retracer tel un historien cet épisode de boisement à marche forcée...

    Cette utopie industrialiste date du XIXe siècle, des ingénieurs forestiers parlant déjà de vouloir récupérer ces « terres de personne ». Puis sous Salazar, dans les années 1930, il y a eu un débat intense au sein du régime entre agrairistes et industrialistes. Pour les premiers, boiser ne va pas être rentable et les baldios sont vitaux aux paysans. Pour les seconds, le pays a besoin de l’industrie du bois pour décoller économiquement, et il manque de bras dans les villes pour travailler dans les usines.

    Le pouvoir central a alors même créé un organisme étatique, la Junte de colonisation interne, qui va recenser les baldios et proposer d’installer des personnes en leur donnant à cultiver des terres communales – des colonies de repeuplement pour résumer.

    Finalement, l’industrie du bois et de la cellulose l’a emporté. La loi de boisement des baldios est votée en 1938 et c’est en novembre 1941 que ça va commencer à se mettre en place sur le terrain.

    Une enquête publique a été réalisée, où tout le monde localement s’est prononcé contre. Et comme pour les enquêtes aujourd’hui en France, ils se sont arrangés pour dire que les habitants étaient d’accord.

    Qu’en est-il aujourd’hui de ces forêts ? Subsiste-t-il encore des « baldios » ?

    Les pinèdes sont exploitées par des boîtes privées qui font travailler des prolos qui galèrent en bossant dur. Mais beaucoup de ces forêts ont brûlé ces dernière décennies, notamment lors de la grande vague d’incendies au Portugal de 2017, où des gens du village où je filmais ont failli périr.

    Les feux ont dévoilé les paysages de pierre qu’on voyait auparavant sur les photos d’archives du territoire, avant que des pins de 30 mètres de haut ne bouchent le paysage.

    Quant aux baldios restants, ils sont loués à des entreprises de cellulose qui y plantent de l’eucalyptus. D’autres servent à faire des parcs d’éoliennes. Toutes les lois promues par les différents gouvernements à travers l’histoire du Portugal vont dans le même sens : privatiser les baldios alors que ces gens ont géré pendant des siècles ces espaces de façon collective et très intelligente.

    J’ai fait ce film avec en tête les forêts au Brésil gérées par les peuples autochtones depuis des siècles, TotalEnergies en Ouganda qui déplace 100 000 personnes de leurs terres pour du pétrole ou encore Sainte-Soline, où l’État aide les intérêts privés à accaparer un autre bien commun : l’eau.

    https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-et-idees/021223/jose-vieira-la-memoire-des-resistances-face-l-accaparement-des-terres-ete-

    #accaparement_de_terres #terre #terres #dictature #histoire #paysannerie #Serra_do_Caramulo #communaux #salazarisme #progrès #colonisation #colonialisme #rural #modernité #résistance #incendie #boisement #utopie_industrialiste #ingénieurs #ingénieurs_forestiers #propriété #industrie_du_bois #Junte_de_colonisation_interne #colonies_de_repeuplement #cellulose #pinèdes #feux #paysage #privatisation #eucalyptus #éoliennes #loi #foncier

  • La Polonia che imprigiona i migranti nei campi, ostaggio dei “geni della manipolazione”

    Il 15 ottobre, con le elezioni generali, i cittadini polacchi saranno chiamati a esprimersi su un referendum xenofobo indetto dal partito di estrema destra al potere. Rut Kurkiewicz, co-autrice del documentario “We are prisoners of the Polish State” e tra le poche voci indipendenti del Paese, racconta la situazione dei transitanti e rifugiati

    “Sei d’accordo con l’ammissione di migliaia di immigrati illegali dal Medio Oriente e dall’Africa, a seguito del meccanismo di ricollocamento forzato imposto dalla burocrazia europea?”. “Sei d’accordo con la rimozione delle barriere al confine tra Polonia e Bielorussia?”. Sono due dei quattro quesiti che figurano nel referendum indetto dal partito polacco di estrema destra Diritto e Giustizia (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, Pis), attualmente al potere. Si vota il 15 ottobre, stesso giorno delle elezioni governative.

    Rut Kurkiewicz, una delle poche voci indipendenti nel panorama dell’informazione polacca sulla situazione delle persone rifugiate e transitanti, chiama “geni della manipolazione” gli artefici di quelle domande, che trovano la loro ratio nello spostare l’attenzione su un nemico esterno piuttosto che sui temi che davvero dovrebbero trovare posto in una campagna elettorale.

    Dall’inizio della cosiddetta crisi dei rifugiati al confine tra Polonia e Bielorussia nell’estate del 2021, Kurkiewicz, con il suo lavoro giornalistico, racconta che cosa accade alle persone in movimento una volta entrate nel Paese. Nel 2022, insieme a Wojciech Szumowski, ha pubblicato “We are prisoners of the Polish State”, documentario riguardante la situazione dei centri di detenzione in Polonia. È stato trasmesso sulla prima televisione nazionale, raggiungendo almeno mezzo milione di persone.

    Kurkiewicz, quale è la situazione attuale delle persone in movimento tra Bielorussia e Polonia, a due anni dalla cosiddetta crisi del confine?
    RK Non è cambiato nulla. Ogni anno decine di migliaia di persone tentano di attraversare questo confine, in particolare nella stagione estiva. Non si sa quante riescano effettivamente a passare e quante siano respinte; la polizia di frontiera ogni giorno pubblica sui propri canali social il numero di persone intercettate, ma non si sa quanto questi dati siano affidabili. La cosa di cui siamo certi è che dal 2021 sono 50 le salme ritrovate al confine. Sono decine anche gli scomparsi. I gruppi di attivisti che operano su questo confine vengono contattati tutti i giorni dai familiari di persone di cui non si hanno più tracce. L’argomento sembra dimenticato, sia in Polonia sia fuori: ci sono tre gruppi di attivisti che intervengono come possono in forma volontaria ma nessuna grande organizzazione, nessun organismo europeo o internazionale.

    Che ruolo gioca la polizia di frontiera in tutto questo?
    RK Ogni giorno opera respingimenti, indipendentemente da chi si trova di fronte. Di recente gli attivisti hanno trovato un ragazzo somalo in condizioni critiche, respirava con difficoltà, sembrava essere disidratato. I volontari hanno chiamato l’ambulanza. Al suo posto è arrivata la polizia di frontiera, hanno messo il ragazzo su un autocarro militare, gli hanno detto di sorridere e nel frattempo lo hanno ripreso: il video è sui social della polizia di frontiera, si vede evidentemente che il ragazzo sta male. Probabilmente poi è stato respinto, perché non si trova nei registri dei centri di detenzione. La famiglia ha perso i contatti con lui.

    Dal febbraio 2022 milioni di ucraini in fuga dalla guerra hanno attraversato il vicino confine tra Ucraina e Polonia. In questo caso la grande maggioranza è stata accolta, non riscontrando alcun ostacolo alla frontiera. Come mai questa differenza?
    RK Su entrambi i confini ci sono persone che scappano da guerre. Su uno, iracheni, afghani, siriani, sull’altro, ucraini. Ma gli standard sono stati opposti: da una parte respingimenti e violenze, dall’altra apertura e accoglienza. Esiste un razzismo istituzionalizzato alle frontiere e in questo caso è stato lampante. Chi era nero, anche sul confine ucraino-polacco, veniva fermato, i bianchi no. Questa differenza si è vista anche nella reazione dei cittadini polacchi: c’è stata un’enorme mobilitazione per ospitare le persone ucraine, tantissima gente comune ha aperto le porte di casa, è stato bello. Allo stesso tempo per le persone non ucraine nulla di questo. Nel mio giro di amici alcuni hanno ospitato persone ucraine per settimane. Una volta ho provato a chiedere loro di ospitare una persona irachena per due notti: non ho trovato nessuno. C’è paura, un razzismo profondo nelle nostre menti. Gli Stati Uniti hanno fatto un grande lavoro dopo l’11 settembre: hanno vinto, adesso tutta l’Europa è razzista.

    Nel tuo ultimo documentario “We are prisoners of the Polish State” racconti della situazione carceraria a cui vengono costrette le persone una volta in Polonia. Quale è la situazione attuale?
    RK Adesso sono cinque i campi di detenzione in Polonia, all’interno dei quali si trovano circa 500 persone, a fine 2021 ce n’erano molte di più. Dopo i report di alcuni giornali e associazioni il campo più grande a Wędrzyn ha chiuso i battenti, era come l’inferno.

    Come mai le persone che vogliono fare domanda di asilo, una volta in Polonia, vengono rinchiuse nei centri detentivi?
    RK Quando le persone in movimento sorpassano “illegalmente” il confine, se vengono intercettate dalla polizia di frontiera polacca e non vengono respinte in Bielorussia, con buona probabilità vengono portate in un centro di detenzione. È paradossale: da una parte la Polonia non vuole persone migranti, dall’altra una volta che entrano non vuole che queste lascino il Paese, rinchiudendole in un centro. La situazione legale è poco chiara: alcune persone rimangono lì due anni, altre tre mesi, anche se provengono dallo stesso Paese, anche se hanno una storia simile. Non si capisce quale sia la logica.

    Il 5 settembre, nel campo di detenzione di Prezmy, le persone detenute hanno cominciato uno sciopero della fame per protestare contro le condizioni di prigionia. Pensi che questo cambierà qualcosa?
    RK Speriamo. È un evento unico, ci sono stati altri scioperi della fame, ma questa è la prima volta che quasi tutte le persone all’interno del campo partecipano. Sono 100 detenuti in sciopero della fame. Protestano contro il trattamento disumano delle guardie del centro. Queste utilizzano taser per far rispettare l’ordine, identificano i detenuti con dei numeri e non con nomi e cognomi. Nel campo non si possono utilizzare social network, impedendo così ai detenuti di avere contatti con famiglie e amici. Il cibo e gli oggetti per l’igiene sono centellinati. Qualche settimana fa nel centro è morto un ragazzo siriano di 27 anni. La polizia ha inizialmente nascosto quanto accaduto, ma adesso il caso è già in corte. Era ammalato, ha più volte chiesto l’intervento di un dottore. Lo hanno picchiato per porre fine alle sue richieste. Alla fine, è morto nel campo di detenzione, senza l’intervento di nessuno. La polizia nei campi si sente al di sopra delle leggi nazionali e internazionali. A Prezmy stanno protestando per tutto questo.

    Il tuo documentario sui centri di detenzione è stato trasmesso in prima serata sulla prima televisione polacca. Sono state organizzate proiezioni in altri Paesi dell’Unione europea, quale è l’impatto che questo tuo importante lavoro sta avendo sull’opinione pubblica?
    RK Difficile da dire. Il vantaggio di un documentario che va in televisione, rispetto agli articoli o ai report sui giornali, è che raggiunge un pubblico più vasto: l’hanno visto in 500mila. Capitava che alcune persone mi fermavano per le strade, nei negozi, dicendomi: “Non sapevamo che stesse accadendo questo, è terribile”. Concretamente però non è cambiato nulla, le guardie di polizia dei centri detentivi continuano ad agire nello stesso modo. Voglio però credere che il nostro lavoro abbia cambiato le menti di qualcuno. I polacchi non potranno dire: “Non lo sapevamo”. Adesso sanno dell’esistenza di questa enorme oppressione.

    https://altreconomia.it/la-polonia-che-imprigiona-i-migranti-nei-campi-ostaggio-dei-geni-della-

    #militarisation_des_frontières #frontières
    #Pologne #référendum #xénophobie #racisme #migrations #barrières_frontalières #murs #mourir_aux_frontières #morts_aux_frontières #décès #réfugiés_ukrainiens #catégorisation #tri #Prezmy #détention_administrative #rétention #emprisonnement #camps_de_réfugiés

    –—

    sur le film, voir aussi:
    https://seenthis.net/messages/1018549

  • „We were prisoners of the Polish state“

    Since the summer of 2021, many people from Middle East and Africa seeking protection have been entering Poland and thus the European Union via Belarus. This new migration route leads through forests and swamps and finally a frontier that is highly equipped and shielded by border troops from Poland. A lot of people die on this way, yet it is still perceived by many as safe to reach Europe. Those caught by Polish border guards, however, face two scenarios: Being illegally pushed back to Belarus or being locked up in Polish refugee prisons.

    https://www.cilip.de/2023/08/28/we-were-prisoners-of-the-polish-state

    #film #documentaire #film_documentaire #Pologne #Biélorussie #forêt #migrations #réfugiés #emprisonnement #détention_administrative #rétention #frontières #push-backs #refoulements

  • Luigi Ferrajoli sul processo a Lucano e la costituzione della terra

    «L’importante è abbandonare la logica del nemico. Cancellare la parola nemico dal lessico della politica interna e dalla politica internazionale. Non esistono nemici. Certamente non esistono tra i popoli. Sono delle creazioni artificiali allo scopo di legittimare politiche aggressive. Non esistono nemici. Non c’è nessuna ragione per cui ucraini e russi siano nemici. Statunitensi e cinesi, europei o africani. Sono i confini che dobbiamo contestare e superare, che non sono i baluardi delle nostre libertà, come una volta pensavamo, ma sono i muri nei quali i popoli sono imprigionati e che vanno precisamente abbattuti quanto più possibile, andando incontro ad una cittadinanza universale, o alla soppressione della cittadinanza. La identificazione fa la figura del cittadino e della persona. So bene che questa è una perspettiva di lunghissimo periodo, ma è l’unica alternativa che abbiamo a un futuro di catastrofi.»

    (à partir de la minute 13’03)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27vShLSmUw


    #frontières #logique_de_l'ennemi #citoyenneté #citoyenneté_universelle #citation #ennemi #liberté #murs #emprisonnement #contre_les_murs

  • Study: A legal vacuum - the systematic criminalisation of migrants for driving a boat or car to Greece

    The fight against migrant smuggling has been a top priority of European migration policy since 2015, with a vast amount of resources being invested into this policy goal. This study gives new and in-depth insights about the criminalisation of people on the move for “smuggling” in Greece, analysing the current legal framework as well as its practical enforcement. It shows that instead of protecting the rights of smuggled migrants and asylum seekers, these policies criminalise them and expose them to long prison sentences with the accusation of smuggling, all simply for having crossed the border by boat or car.

    This is made possible both by the legal framework set up in Greece and the EU, which is formulated very broadly, and further reinforced by an implementation that is characterised by gross rights violations such as arbitrary arrests, torture, abuse, coercion, and lack of access to legal support and interpretation.

    Individuals are typically arrested immediately upon arrival, held in pre-trial detention for months, and have very limited options to defend themselves and access support. The trials that tackle these accusations are very short and flout basic standards of fairness.

    The report examines a total of 81 trials of 95 people who were arrested and tried in Greece for smuggling in eight different locations, namely in Komotini, Thessaloniki, Rhodes, Samos, Lesvos, Crete, Syros and Kalamata. The findings are alarming:

    Main findings

    - Arresting boat / car drivers or other individuals on board for the offence of smuggling is a routine practice by law enforcement, with little regard for the actual involvement or intention of the accused;

    – Smuggled people themselves, including asylum seekers, are systematically convicted of smuggling because they (allegedly) drove or assisted in driving the boat or car;

    – At least 1374 people were arrested for smuggling in 2022;

    – Arrests and preliminary investigations are riddled with gross human rights violations; including arbitrary arrests, violence and coercion, little to no access to interpretation or legal support as well as problems in accessing the asylum procedure during detention;

    – 84% of the cases are subjected to pre-trial detention, lasting an average of 8 months. As of February 28, 2023 there are 634 people in pre-trial detention for smuggling.

    – Judgements are issued on the basis of limited and questionable evidence, such as the testimony of a single police or coast guard officer; the police or coast guard officers who provided the testimony on which the indictments were based did not appear in 68% of all documented cases to be cross-examined;

    – On average, trials last for 37 minutes, which drops to 17 minutes in trials with state-appointed lawyers; the shortest trial we documented lasted 6 minutes;

    – Trials lead to an average prison sentence of 46 years and a fine of 332.209 Euros;

    - 52% of all convicted people are serving a prison sentence of 15 years to life;

    - As of February 28, 2023 there are 2154 people who are detained in Greek prisons with the accusation of smuggling (which remains the second largest group per crime); nearly 90% of them are third-country nationals (1897).

    https://www.borderline-europe.de/unsere-arbeit/studie-ein-rechtsfreier-raum-die-systematische-kriminalisierung-vo

    #criminalisation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Grèce #scafisti #rapport #passeurs #trafiquants #emprisonnement #Borderline_Europe #Boderline-Europe

  • #Rafik_Chekkat : En train d’assister aux #audiences de #comparutions_immédiates des personnes arrêtées à #Marseille ces derniers jours. Une #justice_expéditive. 15 mins à peine pour revenir sur des faits, un parcours de vie, le contexte général. Les peines requises puis prononcées sont lourdes.

    Gros incident d’audience. La prise de parole virulente de l’avocat de la Métropole (partie civile) entraîne des réactions du public présent dans la salle. La présidente fait immédiatement évacuer tout le public par les forces de l’ordre. L’audience continue donc à huis clos.

    Les premières peines tombent : 4 mois de prison ferme pour une jeune femme de 19 ans rentrée dans le magasin Snipes sans avoir rien pris ; 1 an ferme pour des vols au Monoprix ; 10 mois ferme pour un étudiant malien en Master à Aix pour le vol de deux pantalons chez Hugo Boss.

    La Procureure fait des réquisitions d’ordre très général. Elle demande à chaque fois de la prison ferme « pour l’exemple ». Mais les faits jugés ne sont pas exemplaires mais terriblement communs (un pantalon, une paire de lunettes..). Aucune des personnes poursuivies n’a de casier

    Les audiences se poursuivent. 3 hommes (sans casier) poursuivis pour recel. Ils ont ramassé des pantalons Hugo Boss devant le magasin après qu’il ait été pillé. Les vidéos montrent que les 3 ne sont pas entrés dans le magasin. La Procureure demande de la prison ferme.

    Les faits ne sont pas clairement établis. Les 3 hommes ont sans doute touché les objets, mais rien n’indique qu’ils les aient pris. Les éléments d’enquête sont en réalité très minces. On juge à la chaîne en fonction du climat davantage qu’en fonction des éléments matériels.

    Les 3 hommes ont été reconnus coupables et condamnés à une peine d’un an avec sursis. Un lycéen (majeur) a été reconnu coupable et condamné à un an de prison dont 10 mois avec sursis. Il passera l’été en prison.

    Un homme de 58 ans est jugé pour recel pour avoir ramassé des objets au sol des heures après les pillages. Les avocats des parties civiles (Métropole ou enseignes de luxe comme Hugo Boss) tiennent des propos très durs. Ils invoquent un préjudice moral qui me semble assez suspect

    L’homme de 58 ans a été déclaré coupable de recel et condamné à une peine d’un an de prison ferme. Pour avoir ramassé des objets au sol 3h après les pillages. Du jamais vu

    3 hommes (21, 34 et 39 ans) jugés pour avoir pénétré dans le magasin Monoprix. Pour 2 les faits ont été requalifiés en tentative de vol (ils n’avaient pas de nourriture en leur possession). Ils ont été condamnés à 10 mois ferme. Le 3e homme à 1 an ferme. La Présidente a ordonné le maintien en détention. Pas de témoins ni de vidéos. Seuls les PV d’interpellation font foi.

    le maintien en détention. Sans témoignages ni exploitation des vidéos, seul le PV d’interpellation fait foi. Les 3 hommes ne se connaissent pas. Ils ont été jugés ensemble uniquement pour avoir été interpellés en même temps. Peine assortie de 3 ans d’interdiction du territoire.

    Un homme (29 ans) accusé du vol de 2 t-shirts (marque Rive Neuve). Il conteste être entré dans le magasin et demande l’exploitation des vidéos. Seul le PV d’interpellation des policiers fait foi (pas de témoignages, vidéos ou confrontations). « Pourquoi avez vous fui la police ? »

    Demande la Présidente ? Après son interpellation le Préfet a émis une OQTF alors qu’une demande de régularisation est en cours. Il a été relaxé en l’absence flagrante d’éléments. La Présidente lui précise que ça ne signifie pas qu’il n’a pas commis les faits, mais pas de preuves.

    2 hommes (25 et 28 ans) interpellés ensemble alors qu’ils étaient en scooter. Le conducteur dit avoir été gazé par la police et perdu le contrôle du scooter. On a retrouvé sur eux du fromage en provenance de Monoprix, une paire de lunettes et un peu de résine de cannabis.

    Le conducteur a été reconnu coupable de refus d’obtempérer (qu’il conteste) et de recel d’objets volés (fromage et lunettes). Il est condamné à un an ferme pour le refus, 6 mois ferme pour le recel et 3 d’interdiction du territoire. Le 2e homme est condamné à 8 mois avec sursis.

    Un homme (31 ans) poursuivi pour avoir jeté une pierre en direction d’une zone où il y avait des policiers. Il est reconnu une heure après par un policier et a reconnu tout de suite être l’auteur du jet. Il est placé en GAV puis incarcéré. Il souffre de graves problèmes de santé

    L’homme vient d’être condamné à 18 mois de prison ferme. C’est jusque-là la peine la plus lourde prononcée.

    3 hommes (53, 37 et 34 ans) qui ne se connaissent pas interpellés au même moment par des agents de la BAC. 2 dans le magasin Auchan, le 3e devant le magasin. 2 disent avoir été frappés par les policiers. L’un a la mâchoire et 2 doigts cassés. L’autre blessé à la jambe, boitille

    Un policier de la BAC dit avoir reçu un coup de casque au visage (5 jours ITT) mais son certificat médical n’indique aucune blessure au visage. C’est parole contre parole. Le policier dit avoir perdu une chaîne en or d’une valeur de 500€. Son avocate demande son remboursement.

    Les 3 hommes sont poursuivis pour tentative de vol. 2 sont aussi poursuivis pour rébellion (pour avoir résisté selon les policiers à l’interpellation). L’un des hommes dit être rentré pour prendre des fruits, car il n’en mange plus depuis 2 ans à cause de l’inflation

    Aucun des 3 n’a de casier. Les avocats ont soulevé des exceptions de nullité pour des manquements sérieux lors de la GAV (absence de notification de droits, pas d’intervention du magistrat, etc.). Exceptions non retenues. Là aussi, pas de témoignages, vidéos ou confrontations.

    L’homme rentré pour les fruits est condamné à 6 mois avec sursis (simple). Celui qui a les doigts et la mâchoire cassée (et qui exerce comme chauffeur poids lourds) à 1 an, dont 10 mois avec sursis. Le dernier à 18 mois ferme, 1 000 € à verser au policier de la BAC au titre du Préjudice moral, 500 € en dédommagement de la chaîne en or perdue et 800 € au titre de l’article 475-1 du CPP. Dans ce dossier, c’était la parole des policiers de la BAC Nord contre celle des accusés.

    La Procureure a rendu hommage aux forces de l’ordre et déclaré : « Dans une société hiérarchisée, on ne parle pas aux policiers comme à des égaux, on obtempère ».

    Dernier cas de la journée (pour ce qui est de la salle 4) : Clément, 18 ans, SDF depuis 2 ans. Il souffre de multiples troubles psychiatriques (dont schizophrénie). Interpellé dans le magasin Louis Vuiton et poursuivi pour tentative de vol. Dit avoir voulu voler pour se nourrir

    Il bénéficie d’un suivi médical. La Procureure a requis 1 an ferme. Ajoutant :"Il aura en détention le temps de réfléchir et de se prendre en main médicalement". Il a été reconnu coupable et écope d’une peine de 4 mois (aménagée). Il avait l’air totalement perdu.

    https://twitter.com/r_chekkat/status/1675864605703254016

    #tribunal #Marseille #Nahel #émeutes #révolte #vols #justice #emprisonnement #peines #prison_ferme

  • « Il n’y a pas de justice pour nous » : à Pontoise, l’écrasement judiciaire de la révolte se poursuit
    https://www.revolutionpermanente.fr/Il-n-y-a-pas-de-justice-pour-nous-a-Pontoise-l-ecrasement-judic

    Quand vient le moment des délibérés, des policiers envahissent les petites salles d’audience du Tribunal de Pontoise et enserrent de façon anxiogène les rangs du public. Un homme noir, installé dans le public, regarde un instant son téléphone, un policer le menace immédiatement de le poursuivre pour outrage. Du côté des détenus aussi, derrière les vitres, le nombre de policiers est doublé, faisant pressentir à tout le monde la lourdeur des peines à venir et la colère que l’institution judiciaire est consciente qu’elle va déclencher.

    Le couperet tombe enfin et comme partout, les peines sont insoutenables. Pourtant la plupart sont sans casier, les dossiers vides, les preuves très faibles, comme le répètent les avocats, mais la plupart prennent des peines de prison ferme. Le groupe d’adolescents de 18 ans, poursuivis pour « groupement… », obtient une peine de 8 mois d’emprisonnement à domicile avec bracelet électronique. « On est soulagés qu’ils ne retournent pas en prison ce soir même si une peine de 8 mois d’emprisonnement à domicile, c’est énorme pour des gens sans casier et pour des faits comme ceux-là. Ils écopent aussi d’une interdiction de paraître à Argenteuil, alors qu’ils y vivent… » conclut Louisa.

    Partout les familles et les amis sont brisés par les condamnations. Un lycéen de 18 ans, sans casier prend 12 mois de prison ferme avec mandat de dépôt (départ en prison depuis l’audience). Il est accusé d’avoir fourni le briquet qui aurait servi à l’incendie d’une voiture. A la lecture du délibéré, sa mère s’effondre. Dans une autre salle, on annonce qu’un chauffeur de bus, père de famille, part en prison lui aussi pour 12 mois ferme. On lui reproche d’avoir transporté des feux d’artifice et d’avoir été interpellé avec du cannabis sur lui.

    Dans la foulée, un jeune homme est condamné lui aussi à 12 mois ferme avec mandat de dépôt pour conduite sans permis et refus d’obtempérer, sans participation aux émeutes. A la nouvelle, sa compagne, enceinte, s’effondre par terre et fait une crise d’épilepsie. Derrière la vitre, son mari la voit, paniqué, et est violemment immobilisé par les policiers autour de lui. Pendant ce temps la juge s’époumone en hurlant sur la famille de quitter la salle, alors même que la jeune femme est inanimée par terre face à elle. Une femme de la famille, est en pleurs : « On a moins quand on est un violeur aujourd’hui en France ».

  • #Prison_insider

    Prison Insider est une #plateforme de production et de diffusion d’informations sur les prisons dans le #monde. Son objectif est d’informer, comparer et témoigner sur les #conditions_de_détention au regard des #droits_fondamentaux.
    À cette fin, Prison Insider recense et vérifie les données disponibles ; produit des informations, des connaissances et des savoirs et les rend accessibles au plus grand nombre (vulgarisation, diffusion, traduction,…). Prison Insider développe, mobilise et anime un réseau diversifié d’acteurs impliqués à travers le monde. Sa finalité est de donner les moyens d’agir.

    https://www.prison-insider.com
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeSATljy2Dw&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.prison-insider.


    #prisons #emprisonnement #témoignages #privation_de_liberté

  • Grèce : au moins 78 morts dans un naufrage, le plus meurtrier de l’année dans le pays

    Au moins 78 migrants se sont noyés mercredi dans le naufrage de leur embarcation en mer méditerranée, dans le sud-ouest de la Grèce, tandis que 104 ont pu être secourus par les garde-côtes grecs. Selon des médias locaux, le bateau transportait au moins 600 personnes. Les recherches se poursuivaient mercredi pour tenter de retrouver d’autres survivants. Il s’agit du naufrage le plus meurtrier de l’année en Grèce.

    Au moins 78 personnes ont trouvé la mort dans un naufrage dans la nuit de mardi 13 à mercredi 14 juin au large de la Grèce. Quelques 104 naufragés ont pu être secourus par les garde-côtes grecs et transférés vers la ville de Kalamata, un port situé au sud ouest du pays.

    Les chaînes de télévision grecques ont montré les images de rescapés, couvertures grises sur les épaules et masques hygiéniques sur le visage, descendre d’un yacht portant l’inscription Georgetown, la capitale des îles Caïmans. D’autres étaient évacués sur des civières. Quatre d’entre eux ont été conduits à l’hôpital de Kalamata en raison de symptômes d’hypothermie.

    D’après les informations délivrées par les autorités grecques, les exilés sont majoritairement originaires d’Égypte, de Syrie et du Pakistan. Selon les premières informations, le bateau aurait quitté Tobrouk, à l’est de la Libye, en direction de l’Italie, vendredi 9 juin.

    600 migrants à bord du bateau

    Le nombre de passagers présents sur le bateau n’a pas été confirmé par les autorités grecques. Mais des médias locaux parlent d’au moins 600 personnes, ce qui laisse craindre la disparition de centaines de naufragés.

    L’opération de sauvetage se poursuivait mercredi après-midi dans les eaux internationales situées au large de la ville grecque de Pylos. Elle implique six navires des garde-côtes, un avion et un hélicoptère militaires ainsi qu’un drone de Frontex, l’agence européenne de surveillance des frontières.

    https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1668913096667144193

    La Grèce a connu de nombreux naufrages d’embarcations de migrants, souvent vétustes et surchargées, mais il s’agit jusqu’ici du bilan humain le plus lourd depuis un précédent le 3 juin 2016 au cours duquel au moins 320 personnes avaient péri ou disparu.

    L’embarcation avait été repérée une première fois mardi par les garde-côtes italiens, qui ont alerté leurs homologues grecs et européens. Les migrants à bord « ont refusé toute aide », selon les autorités grecques. La plateforme d’aide aux migrants en mer, Alarm Phone, a signalé sur Twitter avoir été alertée le même jour par des exilés en détresse, non loin du lieu du naufrage.

    Selon une journaliste basée en Grèce, chaque passager avait payé 4 500 dollars (environ 4 000 euros) la traversée.

    Une année particulièrement meurtrière

    Depuis un an, on observe de plus en plus de départs de bateaux de migrants depuis l’est de la Libye. « Ce n’est pas inhabituel que des bateaux fassent cette route. Les départs depuis l’est de la Libye sont plus fréquents » depuis l’été dernier, expliquait l’an dernier à InfoMigrants Frederico Soda, chef de mission Libye auprès de l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM). Les exilés prennent désormais la mer depuis cette zone, afin d’éviter les interceptions des garde-côtes libyens, qui se concentrent à l’ouest du pays.

    Mais la traversée n’est pas sans risque. L’est de la Libye est considérablement plus éloigné de l’Italie que la partie ouest, d’où embarquent la majorité des migrants. À titre d’exemple, 1 200 km séparent les deux villes côtières de Tobrouk (à l’Est) et Tripoli (à l’Ouest), situé en-dessous de la Sicile. Un trajet démarré depuis l’est de la Libye est ainsi « beaucoup plus long », précisait encore Federico Soda.

    La route méditerranéenne reste la plus meurtrière au monde. En 2022, 2 406 migrants ont péri dans cette zone maritime, soit une augmentation de 16% sur un an, selon le dernier rapport de l’OIM. Et l’année 2023 risque d’établir un nouveau record : depuis janvier, ce sont déjà 1 166 personnes qui ont péri ou ont disparu dans ces eaux, dont 1030 en Méditerranée centrale. Un tel nombre n’avait pas été observé depuis 2017.

    https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/49667/grece--au-moins-78-morts-dans-un-naufrage-le-plus-meurtrier-de-lannee-
    #Pylos #Grèce #naufrage #asile #migrations #décès #morts #tragédie #mourir_aux_frontières #morts_aux_frontières #14_juin_2023 #Méditerranée #Mer_Méditerranée #13_juin_2023

    • Après le naufrage en Grèce, les autorités grecques et européennes sous le feu des critiques

      À la suite de l’annonce de la disparition de plusieurs centaines de personnes dans un naufrage survenu mercredi au large de la Grèce, des dirigeants européens ont fait part de leurs condoléances. Ils ont reçu de nombreuses critiques condamnant les politiques migratoires européennes.

      C’est sans doute le naufrage le plus meurtrier depuis 2013. Mercredi 14 juin, vers 2h du matin, un bateau surchargé de migrants a fait naufrage au large de Pylos, dans le sud-ouest de la Grèce. Au moins 78 personnes sont mortes dans le drame et des centaines d’autres sont toujours portées disparues. Selon les témoignages des rescapés, qui ont donné des chiffres différents, entre 400 et 750 exilés se trouvaient sur le bateau parti de Tobrouk, dans l’est de la Libye.

      À la suite de ce drame, de nombreuses personnalités politiques grecques et européennes ont exprimé leur émotion sur les réseaux sociaux. La présidente de la Commission européenne Ursula von der Leyen s’est dit « profondément attristée par la nouvelle du naufrage au large des côtes grecques et par les nombreux décès signalés ». « Nous devons continuer à travailler ensemble, avec les États membres et les pays tiers, pour éviter de telles tragédies », a-t-elle ajouté.

      Ylva Johansson, commissaire européenne aux Affaires intérieures, s’est quant à elle dit « profondément affectée par cette tragédie meurtrière au large des côtes grecques ». « Nous avons le devoir moral collectif de démanteler les réseaux criminels. La meilleure façon d’assurer la sécurité des migrants est d’empêcher ces voyages catastrophiques... », a également indiqué la responsable.

      Les messages de soutien des deux dirigeantes ont entraîné de très nombreuses critiques d’internautes. Des défenseurs des droits des migrants, avocats et journalistes ont notamment dénoncé le « cynisme » des autorités européennes, les accusant de promouvoir une politique migratoire européenne dure.

      « Vies innocentes »

      La classe politique grecque a également réagi au drame. En campagne électorale en vue des législatives du 25 juin, l’ancien Premier ministre conservateur, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a décidé d’annuler un rassemblement électoral prévu pour la fin de journée à Patras, le grand port de cette région du Péloponnèse, a annoncé son parti Nouvelle Démocratie (ND).

      « Nous sommes tous choqués par le tragique naufrage survenu aujourd’hui dans les eaux internationales de la Méditerranée, au sud-ouest du Péloponnèse. Je suis attristé par la perte de tant de vies innocentes », a-t-il déclaré sur Twitter.

      Ce responsable politique s’est par ailleurs entretenu au téléphone avec le Premier ministre par intérim, Ioannis Sarmas. Il a également décrété trois jours de deuil dans le pays.

      Sur les réseaux sociaux, l’ancien Premier ministre n’a pas non plus été épargné par des internautes l’accusant d’hypocrisie face au drame de Pylos. Le dirigeant a mené une politique très dure envers les exilés durant ses quatre années à la tête du gouvernement. Athènes a été à de très nombreuses reprises accusée de pratiquer des refoulements illégaux de migrants en mer Égée et dans la région de l’Evros.
      Des bateaux escortés hors des SAR zones

      De nombreux membres d’organisations internationales ont également réagi au drame de Pylos. Vincent Cochetel, envoyé spécial du Haut-commissariat des nations unies aux réfugiés (HCR), en charge de la Méditerranée de l’ouest et centrale s’est dit « très attristé par cette nouvelle tragédie ». Le responsable a également confié son inquiétude « de voir ces derniers mois certains États côtiers escorter des bateaux en mauvais état en dehors de leur zone SAR pour s’assurer qu’ils atteignent d’autres zones SAR ».

      De son côté, Federico Soda, directeur du département des urgences à l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM), a plaidé pour la mise en place de « mesures concrètes pour donner la priorité à la recherche et au sauvetage » et de « voies d’accès sûres pour les migrants ».

      L’agence européenne de surveillance des frontières (Frontex) s’est, quant à elle, déclarée « profondément touchée » par le drame. Dans le même message posté sur Twitter, l’agence assure que son avion de surveillance a repéré le bateau le mardi 13 juin au matin et affirme avoir « immédiatement informé les autorités compétentes ».

      Selon les autorités portuaires grecques, un avion de surveillance de Frontex avait effectivement vu le bateau mardi mais il n’est pas intervenu car les passagers ont « refusé toute aide ».

      Les ONG actives dans l’aide aux exilés ont également fait part de leur effroi face au drame de Pylos. Interrogé par Libération, le président de SOS Méditerranée France, François Thomas, a condamné une « nouvelle tragédie insupportable ». « Il n’existe aucune solidarité européenne. Les moyens de sauvetage sont de moins en moins importants, alors que l’Europe a des moyens. Quand est-ce que tout cela va s’arrêter ? », a-t-il dénoncé.

      Médecins sans frontières (MSF), qui intervient en Méditerranée centrale avec son navire humanitaire le Geo barents , a déclaré être « attristé et choqué » par le drame survenu mercredi. L’ONG précise que ses équipes en Grèce se tiennent prêtes à intervenir pour aider autant que possible les rescapés.

      Enquête ouverte

      Enfin, le pape François, très sensible à la thématique migratoire, est « profondément consterné » par le naufrage, a rapporté jeudi le Vatican dans un communiqué.

      « Sa sainteté le pape François envoie ses prières sincères pour les nombreux migrants qui sont morts, leurs proches et tous ceux qui ont été traumatisés par cette tragédie », peut-on lire dans un télégramme signé par le N.2 du Saint-Siège, le cardinal Pietro Parolin, et publié par le Vatican.

      Les opérations de secours se poursuivaient jeudi matin pour tenter de retrouver des survivants. Des moyens aériens et maritimes sont déployés mais les espoirs s’amenuisent à mesure que le temps passe. Jusqu’à présent, 104 personnes ont pu être secourues mais Athènes redoute que des centaines d’autres ne soient portées disparues, d’après les témoignages des survivants.

      Une enquête a été ouverte par la justice grecque sur le sauvetage de l’embarcation. La Cour suprême grecque a également ordonné une enquête pour définir les causes du drame qui a choqué le pays.

      https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/49698/apres-le-naufrage-en-grece-les-autorites-grecques-et-europeennes-sous-

    • “They are urgently asking for help”: the SOS that was ignored

      The Hellenic Coast Guard attributed its failure to proceed to a rescue mission of the migrants before their trawler sunk to their refusal to receive assistance. International law experts, as well as active and former Coast Guard officials, refute the argument. And emails sent by the Alarm Phone group to authorities which are in Solomon’s possession, prove that the passengers of the vessel had sent out an SOS – one that was ignored.

      The first recovered bodies of the people who lost their lives 80 km southwest of Pylos between the 13th and 14th of June are transferred to the cemetery of Schisto. At least 78 dead and hundreds remain missing. 104 people have been rescued so far, while the search for survivors continues.

      But critical questions about possible mishandling by the Hellenic Coast Guard of the tragedy that led to the deadliest shipwreck recorded in recent years in the Mediterranean remain.

      The same goes for the responsibilities of Greece and Europe, whose policies have diverted asylum seekers to the deadly Calabria route, which bypasses Greece (for obvious reasons), while also failing to establish legal and safe routes.
      “Denied assistance“

      In the briefings and timeline of the events leading up to the tragedy, the HCG attributes the failure to rescue the migrants before the sinking of the fishing boat to their repeated “refusal to receive assistance” in their communications with the vessel.

      The HCG had been aware of the vessel since the early morning hours of Tuesday, 13/6, and was, according to its own log, in contact with the vessel from as early as 14:00 local time. But no rescue action was undertaken, because “the trawler did not request any assistance from the Coast Guard or Greece,” the HCG reported.

      The same argument is repeated at 18:00: “Repeatedly the fishing boat was asked by the merchant ship if it required additional assistance, was in danger or wanted anything else from Greece. They replied, “we want nothing more than to continue to Italy”.

      But does this absolve the Coast Guard of responsibility?

      International law experts as well as former and active members of the Coast Guard question the legal and humanitarian basis of this argument, even if there was indeed a “refusal of assistance”. And they point out to Solomon that the rescue operation should have begun immediately upon detection of the fishing vessel. For the following reasons, among others:

      - The vessel was obviously overloaded and unseaworthy, with the lives of the peopled on board, who did not even have life-saving equipment, being in constant danger.

      – Accepting a denial of rescue or other intervention by the HCG could make sense only if the vessel carried a state flag, had proper documents, had a proper captain and was safe. None of these applies in the case of the sunk trawler.

      - Coast Guard officials had to objectively assess the situation and take the necessary actions regardless of how the passengers of the trawler – or, to be precise, whoever the Coast Guard was in contact with- themselves assessed their own situation.

      - The fishing vessel was undoubtedly in a state of distress that mandated its rescue at the latest from the moment the Coast Guard received, through Alarm Phone, an SOS message, which was transmitted to the group by the passengers. This SOS call is not mentioned anywhere in the Coast Guard’s communications.

      Proof the Coast Guard knew of the danger

      In its own chronology of events, Watch the Med-Alarm Phone says it contacted the authorities at 17:53 local GR time.

      The email to the competent authorities, which is available to Solomon, indicates the coordinates where the overloaded vessel was located. It states that there are 750 people on board, including many women and children, and includes a telephone number for contacting the passengers themselves.

      “They are urgently asking for help,” the email reads.

      From this message, it follows also that FRONTEX, the HQ of the Greek Police and the Ministry of Citizen Protection, as well as the Coast Guard in Kalamata, were also informed.

      The message was also communicated to the UNCHR in Greece and Turkey, to NATO, as well as to Greece’s Ombudsman.

      Listen to the interview given to Solomon by Maro, an Alarm Phone member:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV4SptggF2U&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwearesolomon.com%2F

      Solomon contacted the Hellenic Coast Guard, asking detailed questions: why was there no rescue operation after the migrants’ distress signal via Alarm Phone? Does a refusal to rescue exculpate the HCG? Why was the vessel (for security and identification purposes) not even checked, given it was not flying a flag? Why was the operation launched only after the vessel sank?

      A spokesman for the HCG did not answer the specific questions but instead referred to the Coast Guard’s press release.

      Solomon also contacted UNHCR, which confirmed receipt of the email.

      “Our Office was indeed notified yesterday (ed. note: 13/06) afternoon in correspondence received from Watch The Med – Alarm Phone, which referred to a vessel in distress southwest of the Peloponnese with a large number of passengers. We immediately informed the competent Greek authorities requesting urgent information about the coordination of a search and rescue operation to bring the people to safety”.

      “Please be informed that Frontex has immediately relayed the message to the Greek authorities,” Frontex responded to Alarm Phone’s message, in an email seen by Solomon.

      “Duty of rescue, not stand by and watch”

      The Coast Guard had to treat the incident as a vessel in distress from the very first moment and take all measures to rescue the people, explains Nora Markard, Professor of International Public Law and International Human Rights at the University of Münster.

      “As soon as the distress call was received via Alarm Phone, there was clearly distress. But when a ship is so evidently overloaded, it is in distress as soon as it leaves port, because it is unseaworthy. Even if the ship is still moving. And when there is distress, there is a duty to rescue, not to stand by and watch.

      International law defines distress as a situation where there is a reasonable certainty that a vessel or a person is threatened by grave and imminent danger and requires immediate assistance.

      “That requires an objective assessment. If a captain completely misjudges the situation and says the ship is fine, the ship is still in distress if the passengers are in grave danger by the condition of the ship,” Dr. Markard explains.

      International law unambiguously states that, on receiving information ‘from any source’ that persons are in distress at sea, the master of a ship that is in a position to render assistance must ‘proceed with all speed to their assistance’.

      In this particular case, the fishing vessel was not flying a flag, so the incident does not even fall under the category of respect for the sovereignty of the flag state.

      “When a ship doesn’t fly a flag at all, as it appears to be the case here, the law of the sea gives other states a right to visit the ship. This includes the right to board the ship to check it out,” says Markard.

      Apart from the distress call itself, the Hellenic Coast Guard, therefore, had the additional authority to examine the situation.

      “All ships and authorities alerted of the distress have an obligation to rescue, even if the ship in distress is not in their territorial waters but at high sea. Search and rescue zones often include waters that belong to the high sea,” explains Markard.

      “If the distress occurs in a state’s search and rescue zone, that state also has an obligation to coordinate the rescue. For example, it can requisition merchant ships to render assistance.”
      Coast Guard officer: “This was the definition of a vessel in distress”

      A former senior officer of the Greek Coast Guard with vast relevant experience seconds this and raises additional questions.

      Speaking to Solomon on condition of anonymity, he explained that the vessel was manifestly unseaworthy and the people on board in danger. Even a refusal to accept assistance was not a reason to leave it to its fate.

      The same official also points out there were delays in the response of the HCG (“valuable time was lost”) and an inadequate force of assets. He confirmed that refusal of assistance would only make sense in the case of a legal, documented, seaworthy and flagged vessel. “This was the definition of a vessel in distress”.

      Similar statements regarding the claims of the Greek Coast Guard were made by retired admiral of the Coast Guard and international expert, Nikos Spanos, to Greece’s public broadcaster ERT:

      “It’s like saying I can just watch you drown and do nothing. We don’t ask the crew on a boat in distress if they need help. They absolutely need help, from the moment the boat is adrift.”

      https://wearesolomon.com/mag/focus-area/migration/they-are-urgently-asking-for-help-the-sos-that-was-ignored

    • Chi c’era a bordo della barca naufragata al largo della Grecia

      Moshin Shazad, 32 anni, era un uomo con l’espressione seria, due figli piccoli, la moglie e la madre da mantenere. Per questo aveva deciso di partire da Lalamusa, una città nel Punjab, in Pakistan. Non riusciva a trovare un lavoro stabile e le bocche da sfamare erano diventate troppe, dopo la nascita del secondo figlio. Voleva raggiungere il cugino, Waheed Ali, che dal 2019 vive in Norvegia.

      È partito con altri quattro ragazzi, quattro amici, tra cui Abdul Khaliq e Sami Ullah. Ha telefonato al cugino poco dopo essere salito sul peschereccio stracarico che è partito da Tobruk, in Libia, ed è naufragato il 14 giugno, a 47 miglia da Pylos, in Grecia. “Diceva che sarebbe arrivato in Italia”, racconta Waheed Ali, che ora sta cercando il cugino tra i 108 sopravvissuti, di cui molti sono stati sistemati in un magazzino abbandonato di Kalamata, in Grecia, mentre una trentina sono stati trasferiti in ospedale. Molti erano in ipotermia. Ma Shazad potrebbe anche essere tra i dispersi.

      Shawq Muhammad al Ghazali, 22 anni, era uno studente originario di Daraa, in Siria, ed era rifugiato in Giordania, dove al momento vivono la sua famiglia e suo zio Ibhraim al Ghazali. Il ragazzo era partito da Amman per la Libia, e da lì, da Tobruk, si era imbarcato per raggiungere l’Europa. “Non ho sue notizie dall’8 giugno, il giorno della partenza dalla Libia”, dice lo zio. Secondo molti familiari, le autorità greche non stanno aiutando le famiglie ad avere notizie dei parenti o a capire se sono tra i vivi o tra i dispersi.

      I superstiti sono per lo più siriani (47) ed egiziani (43), poi ci sono dodici pachistani e due palestinesi, secondo le autorità greche. Tutti uomini. “Non riesco a sapere se è sopravvissuto, sono io che sto dando notizie alla famiglia in Pakistan, ma sono disperato, non riesco a capire e a sapere nulla. Del naufragio ho saputo dalla televisione”, afferma Waheed Ali.

      L’imbarcazione su cui viaggiavano Moshin Shazad e gli altri era partita da Tobruk l’8 giugno, era diretta in Italia, lungo una rotta da cui sono arrivati nel 2023 la metà dei migranti partiti dalla Libia.

      “Secondo le prime testimonianze sarebbe corretta la stima di 700-750 persone a bordo, tra cui almeno quaranta bambini, che probabilmente erano nella stiva. Se questi numeri fossero confermati, si tratterebbe del secondo naufragio più grave avvenuto nel Mediterraneo dopo quello dell’aprile 2015”, racconta Flavio Di Giacomo, dell’Organizzazione internazionale per le migrazioni (Oim). Settantotto corpi sono stati recuperati finora in mare al largo della penisola del Peloponneso. Ma l’Oim ha affermato di “temere che altre centinaia di persone” siano annegate. Il portavoce della guardia costiera greca Nikos Alexiou ha detto che l’imbarcazione è naufragata, dopo che le persone si sono spostate bruscamente su un lato. L’imbarcazione è affondata in quindici minuti.

      Frontex li aveva avvistati
      Secondo le autorità greche, un aereo di sorveglianza dell’agenzia europea Frontex aveva avvistato la barca il 13 giugno. In un comunicato Frontex ha confermato di avere visto l’imbarcazione in mattinata, alle 9.47 del giorno precedente al naufragio e di averlo comunicato alle autorità preposte al soccorso, cioè alla guardia costiera greca. Anche la guardia costiera italiana e due mercantili avevano segnalato alle autorità greche l’imbarcazione in difficoltà. Ma secondo la guardia costiera greca, i passeggeri dell’imbarcazione “hanno rifiutato qualsiasi aiuto”, perché i migranti si stavano dirigendo verso l’Italia.

      “Nel pomeriggio, una nave mercantile si è avvicinata alla barca e le ha fornito cibo e rifornimenti, mentre i (passeggeri) hanno rifiutato ogni ulteriore assistenza”, ha detto la guardia costiera greca in un comunicato. Una seconda nave mercantile in seguito ha offerto più rifornimenti e assistenza. Ma anche questa volta sono stati rifiutati, secondo i greci.

      In serata, una motovedetta della guardia costiera ha raggiunto la nave “e ha confermato la presenza di un gran numero di migranti sul ponte”, è scritto nel comunicato delle autorità greche. “Ma hanno rifiutato qualsiasi assistenza e hanno detto che volevano continuare in Italia”. Tuttavia le leggi internazionali sul soccorso in mare avrebbero imposto in ogni caso ai greci di intervenire per le condizioni in cui l’imbarcazione stava navigando. Diverse testimonianze contestano la versione delle autorità greche.

      Il motore della barca si è rotto poco prima delle 23 (gmt) del 13 giugno, da quel momento la barca è andata alla deriva. I naufraghi hanno chiesto aiuto, telefonando alla rete di volontari Alarmphone, già dal 13 giugno, dicendo di avere contattato anche “la polizia”. L’attivista Nawal Soufi, che vive in Italia, ha raccontato che i migranti con cui era in contatto telefonico le hanno detto che alcune imbarcazioni si sono avvicinate, distribuendo delle bottigliette di acqua.

      “Il 13 giugno 2023, nelle prime ore del mattino, i migranti a bordo di una barca carica di 750 persone mi hanno contattata comunicandomi la loro difficile situazione. Dopo cinque giorni di viaggio, l’acqua era finita, il conducente dell’imbarcazione li aveva abbandonati in mare aperto e c’erano anche sei cadaveri a bordo. Non sapevano esattamente dove si trovassero, ma grazie alla posizione istantanea del telefono Turaya (telefono satellitare, ndr), ho potuto ottenere la loro posizione esatta e ho allertato le autorità competenti”, scrive Soufi, condividendo la sua ricostruzione su Facebook.

      “La situazione si è complicata quando una nave si è avvicinata all’imbarcazione, legandola con delle corde su due punti della barca e iniziando a buttare bottiglie d’acqua. I migranti si sono sentiti in forte pericolo, poiché temevano che le corde potessero far capovolgere la barca e che le risse a bordo per ottenere l’acqua potessero causare il naufragio. Per questo motivo, si sono leggermente allontanati dalla nave per evitare un naufragio sicuro”, continua l’attivista nel suo post.

      “Durante la notte, la situazione a bordo dell’imbarcazione è diventata ancora più drammatica. Io sono rimasta in contatto con loro fino alle 23 ore greche, cercando di rassicurarli e di aiutarli a trovare una soluzione”. Fino all’ultima chiamata in cui “l’uomo con cui parlavo mi ha espressamente detto: ‘Sento che questa sarà la nostra ultima notte in vita’”, conclude. Il parlamentare greco Kriton Arsenis, che ha parlato con i sopravvissuti a Kalamata, ha confermato la versione dell’attivista Soufi e ha dichiarato che l’imbarcazione si è ribaltata dopo essere stata trainata con delle corde dai greci. Secondo Arsenis, i greci volevano spingere l’imbarcazione di migranti nelle acque di ricerca e soccorso italiane.

      https://www.internazionale.it/notizie/annalisa-camilli/2023/06/15/naufragio-grecia
      #Frontex

    • Grecia, strage di Pylos. «Nessuna pace per gli assassini»

      Mentre il mare inghiotte i corpi e lo Stato rinchiude i sopravvissuti si riempiono le strade delle città greche

      Da tempo, definiamo la politica migratoria europea “necropolitica”, ovvero – seguendo Achille Mbembe – una politica che crea le condizioni strutturali per produrre la morte di un gruppo di persone.

      Un’architettura di morte, che vediamo ogni giorno nel regime europeo del confine, sempre più legale, sofisticata, diffusa. Ci accorgiamo ora che ci hanno tolto anche la morte, nel senso che personalmente e collettivamente – noi “vivi” – le diamo, facendo esperienza di quella degli altri, vicini e lontani. Ci hanno tolto anche la morte perché hanno tolto il lutto a chi ha perso una persona cara, la possibilità di piangere un corpo morto, la possibilità di conoscerne il nome, di sapere chi, dove, quando, quanti.

      Probabilmente non sapremo mai quante persone sono affogate nella strage avvenuta tra martedì 13 e mercoledì 14 giugno ad 80 chilometri al largo del porto di Pylos. Gli stessi migranti, al telefono con l’attivista Nawal Soufi, parlavano di 750 persone a bordo, di cui molti bambini. La Guardia costiera ellenica dice 646. Le foto e le informazioni disponibili fino ad ora confermano quest’ordine di grandezza, ma le cifre sono destinate a rimanere indicative. Il naufragio è avvenuto nella zona con il mare più profondo di tutto il Mediterraneo: circa 60 km a sud-ovest di Pylos si trova la Fossa di Calipso, una depressione che supera i 5.000 metri di profondità. Gli esperti dicono che il recupero dei corpi sarà quindi particolarmente difficoltoso, il mare li inghiottirà per sempre. Ad oggi, sono solo 104 i superstiti, difficilmente questo numero aumenterà.

      Oltre la produzione della morte si situa forse l’annullamento, l’annientamento della persona (della vita). Sono parole che, chiaramente, richiamano il nazismo. Non sapere chi, non sapere quanti, non poter riavere i corpi – massivamente e sistematicamente – è qualcosa che, credo, si avvicina all’annientamento.

      I dettagli che iniziano a trapelare dipingono un quadro dei fatti che non solo seppellisce ogni retorica della “tragica fatalità”, ma svela le responsabilità dirette della HCG (Hellenic Coast Guard) nel causare il “capovolgimento” della barca. Come ricostruito dall’attivista Iasonas Apostolopoulos, sulla base delle dichiarazioni del parlamentare Kriton Arsenis, che ha potuto parlare con i sopravvissuti a Kalamata, la HCG avrebbe legato il peschereccio con delle corde e provato a trascinarlo. Sarebbe stato proprio questo tentativo di rimorchio a far ribaltare la barca. Queste ricostruzioni si allineano con i primi racconti di Nawal Soufi.

      https://twitter.com/ABoatReport/status/1669301668259741696/history

      Evidentemente, la differenza – se esiste – tra uccidere e lasciar morire sfuma: non è “solo” indifferenza complice, non è “semplicemente” girarsi dall’altra parte. L’omissione di soccorso è la punta dell’iceberg di un sistema complesso – quello dei confini europei – progettato per annientare la vita. Sistema di cui la guardia costiera è solo un tassello. Non è l’Europa che finge di non vedere, è l’Europa che, strutturalmente, con delle politiche precise e radicate nel tempo, produce morte.

      La versione ufficiale della HCG descrive invece il capovolgimento come frutto di una maldestra manovra – in mare piatto – del peschereccio stesso. Dall’altra parte, puntano tutto sulla colpevolizzazione delle vittime: “Ripetevano costantemente di voler salpare per l’Italia e di non volere alcun aiuto dalla Grecia”, si ribadisce ossessivamente nel comunicato. Ma è assodato che questo improbabile “non volevano essere aiutati”, secondo il diritto del mare, non giustifica il mancato soccorso, come chiarito dall’ordine degli avvocati di Kalamata – che si è offerto di supportare gratuitamente i sopravvissuti. Così come è assodato che la HCG sapeva tutto dalla mattina di martedì 13 giugno, alla luce dell’avvistamento da parte del velivolo di Frontex e degli SOS diffusi da Alarm Phone – pubblicati da wearesolomon – e inoltrati anche ad UNCHR, NATO, e al difensore civico greco.

      Ma non lasciamo non detti: probabilmente l’HCG voleva trascinare il peschereccio in zona SAR maltese o italiana. Questa volontà è stata più forte di quella di salvare 750 vite umane in evidente pericolo. Forse anche per questo, ai giornalisti è stato impedito di parlare con i sopravvissuti. Dopo delle pressioni, è stato permesso solo ai parlamentari.

      Come da copione, nove di loro, egiziani, sono stati arrestati accusati di traffico di esseri umani ed omicidio 1, mentre la maggior parte (71 persone) è stata trasferita nel campo di Malakasa 2, nel “centro di accoglienza e identificazione”: una struttura chiusa, controllata, isolata, priva di supporto psicologico e assistenza medica adeguata. Sono siriani, egiziani, pakistani e palestinesi. Non devono poter raccontare, devono capire che non c’è pietà, che nulla gli sarà concesso.

      Nel porto di Kalamata, sembra di rivivere i giorni di Cutro: arrivano i familiari da tutta Europa e non solo. Alcuni trovano i propri cari, molti non li troveranno. Nessun aiuto da parte dello Stato, nessuna informazione, dicono. Non c’è pace per i vivi, non c’è pace per i morti. Finora sono stati recuperati ed identificati 78 corpi, saranno trasportati con dei camion frigorifero al cimitero di Schisto.

      Intanto, si riempiono le strade della Grecia. Dal porto di Pylos ad Atene, Salonicco, Patrasso, Karditsa, Kalamata, migliaia di persone si sono messe in marcia. Ad Atene, giovedì sera, una marea umana si è scontrata con i soliti gangster in divisa.

      La risposta dello Stato è sempre la stessa, anche con i solidali. Sono piazze commosse ma piene di rabbia. Una rabbia degna. Puntano chiaramente il dito verso gli assassini: non solo la guardia costiera, ma lo Stato greco, l’Unione Europea, Frontex, questo sistema coloniale e razzista.

      Domenica 18 giugno nel pomeriggio un altro corteo, chiamato dalla Open Assembly Against Pushbacks and Border Violence, si muoverà dal Pireo verso gli uffici di Frontex: l’agenzia europea non potrà giocare la parte dei “buoni” che avevano segnalato per tempo la barca in pericolo.

      Dalle strade, si leva una promessa: non dimentichiamo, non perdoniamo.

    • Did migrants reject help before deadly Greek wreck, or beg for it? Coast guard, activists disagree

      This undated handout image provided by Greece’s coast guard on Wednesday, June14, 2023, shows scores of people covering practically every free stretch of deck on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece. A fishing boat carrying migrants trying to reach Europe capsized and sank off Greece on Wednesday, authorities said, leaving at least 79 dead and many more missing in one of the worst disasters of its kind this year.(Hellenic Coast Guard via AP)
      1 of 14
      This undated handout image provided by Greece’s coast guard on Wednesday, June14, 2023, shows scores of people covering practically every free stretch of deck on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece. A fishing boat carrying migrants trying to reach Europe capsized and sank off Greece on Wednesday, authorities said, leaving at least 79 dead and many more missing in one of the worst disasters of its kind this year.(Hellenic Coast Guard via AP)

      This much is clear: On June 9, an old steel fishing trawler left eastern Libya for Italy, carrying far too many people.

      As many as 750 men, women and children from Syria, Egypt, the Palestinian territories and Pakistan were on board, fleeing hopelessness in their home countries and trying to reach relatives in Europe.

      Five days later, the trawler sank off the coast of Greece in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean Sea. Only 104 people, all men, survived. The remains of 78 people were recovered.

      There are still more questions than answers about what led up to one of the worst shipwrecks in recent Mediterranean history.

      Activists, migration experts and opposition politicians have criticized Greek authorities for not acting earlier to rescue the migrants, even though a coast guard vessel escorted the trawler for hours and watched helplessly as it sank.

      Below is a timeline of events based on reports from Greek authorities, a commercial ship, and activists who said they were in touch with passengers. They describe sequences of events that at times converge, but also differ in key ways.

      The Greek Coast Guard said that the overcrowded trawler was moving steadily toward Italy, refusing almost all assistance, until minutes before it sank. This is in part supported by the account of a merchant tanker that was nearby.

      But activists said that people on board were in danger and made repeated pleas for help more than 15 hours before the vessel sank.

      International maritime law and coast guard experts said that conditions on the trawler clearly showed it was at risk, and should have prompted an immediate rescue operation, regardless of what people on board may have said.

      Much of these accounts could not immediately be independently verified.

      Missing from this timeline is the testimony of survivors, who have been transferred to a closed camp and kept away from journalists.

      All times are given in Greece’s time zone.

      FIRST CONTACT

      Around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Italian authorities informed Greece that a fishing trawler packed with migrants was in international waters southwest of the Peloponnese. Greece said the Italian authorities were alerted by an activist.

      Around the same time, human rights activist Nawal Soufi wrote on social media that she had been contacted by a woman on a boat that had left Libya four days earlier.

      The migrants had run out of water, Soufi wrote, and shared GPS coordinates through a satellite phone showing they were approximately 100 km (62 miles) from Greece.

      “Dramatic situation on board. They need immediate rescue,” she wrote Tuesday morning.

      Over the course of the day, Soufi described some 20 calls with people on the trawler in a series of social media posts and a later audio recording. The Associated Press could not reach Soufi.

      A surveillance aircraft from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex spotted the overcrowded trawler at 11:47 p.m. and notified Greek authorities, the agency told AP. On Saturday, Frontex told AP its plane had to leave the scene after 10 minutes due to a fuel shortage but that it had also shared with Greece details and photos of the “heavily overcrowded” trawler.

      DIFFERING ACCOUNTS OF CONDITIONS ON BOARD

      At 2 p.m., Greek authorities established contact with someone on the trawler. The vessel “did not request any assistance from the Coast Guard or from Greece,” according to a statement.

      But activists said that people on the boat were already in desperate need by Tuesday afternoon.

      At 3:11 p.m., Soufi wrote, passengers told her that seven people were unconscious.

      Around the same time, Alarm Phone, a network of activists with no connection to Soufi who run a hotline for migrants in need of rescue, said they received a call from a person on the trawler.

      “They say they cannot survive the night, that they are in heavy distress,” Alarm Phone wrote.

      At 3:35 p.m., a Greek Coast Guard helicopter located the trawler. An aerial photo released showed it packed, with people covering almost every inch of the deck.

      From then until 9 p.m., Greek authorities said, they were in contact with people on the trawler via satellite phone, radio, and shouted conversations conducted by merchant vessels and a Coast Guard boat that arrived at night. They added that people on the trawler repeatedly said they wanted to continue to Italy and refused rescue.

      MERCHANT SHIPS BRING SUPPLIES

      At 5:10 p.m., Greek authorities asked a Maltese-flagged tanker called the Lucky Sailor to bring the trawler food and water.

      According to the company that manages the Lucky Sailor, people on the trawler “were very hesitant to receive any assistance,” and shouted that “they want to go to Italy.” Eventually, Eastern Mediterranean Maritime Limited wrote in a statement, the trawler was persuaded to accept supplies.

      Around 6 p.m., a Greek Coast Guard helicopter reported that the trawler was “sailing on a steady course and heading.”

      But at 6:20 p.m., Alarm Phone said that people on board reported that they were not moving, and that the “captain” had abandoned the trawler in a small boat.

      “Please any solution,” someone on board told Alarm Phone.

      The Greek authorities’ account suggested the trawler stopped around that time to receive supplies from the Lucky Sailor.

      At 6:55 p.m., Soufi wrote, migrants on board told her that six people had died and another two were very sick. No other account so far has mentioned deaths prior to the shipwreck, and the AP has not been able to verify this.

      Around 9 p.m., Greek authorities asked a second, Greek-flagged, merchant vessel to deliver water, and allowed the Lucky Sailor to leave.

      Then, at around 10:40 p.m., a Coast Guard boat from Crete reached the trawler, and remained nearby until it sank. According to the Coast Guard, the vessel “discreetly observed” the trawler from a distance. Once again, the Coast Guard said, the trawler did not appear to have any problems and was moving “at a steady course and speed.”

      THE FINAL HOURS

      According to Soufi’s account, attempts to deliver supplies may have contributed to the trawler’s troubles.

      Shortly after 11 p.m., she wrote that the trawler began rocking as its passengers tried to catch water bottles from another vessel. According to people on board, ropes were tied to the ship, destabilizing it and causing a “state of panic,” she said.

      The report from the Lucky Sailor said no lines were tied to the trawler, and supplies were delivered in watertight barrels tied to a rope.

      “Those on board the boat caught the line and pulled,” the company managing the Lucky Sailor told the AP.

      The other merchant vessel did not immediately reply to the AP’s questions.

      A spokesman for the Greek Coast Guard said late Friday that its vessel had briefly attached a light rope to the trawler at around 11 p.m. He stressed that none of the vessels had attempted to tow the trawler.

      Commander Nikos Alexiou told Greek channel Ant1 TV that the Coast Guard wanted to check on the trawler’s condition, but people on board again refused help and untied the rope before continuing course.

      Soufi’s last contact with the trawler was at 11 p.m. She said later in a voice memo that “they never expressed the will to continue sailing to Italy,” or refused assistance from Greece. “They were in danger and needed help.”

      THE WRECK

      According to authorities, the trawler kept moving until 1:40 a.m. Wednesday, when its engine stopped. The Coast Guard vessel then got closer to “determine the problem.”

      A few minutes later, Alarm Phone had a final exchange with people on the trawler. The activists were able to make out only: “Hello my friend … The ship you send is …” before the call cut off.

      At 2:04 a.m., more than 15 hours after Greek authorities first heard of the case, the Coast Guard reported that the trawler began rocking violently from side to side, and then capsized.

      People on deck were thrown into the sea, while others held onto the boat as it flipped. Many others, including women and children, were trapped below deck.

      Fifteen minutes later, the trawler vanished underwater.

      In the darkness of night, 104 people were rescued, and brought to shore on the Mayan Queen IV, a luxury yacht that was sailing in the vicinity of the shipwreck. Greek authorities retrieved 78 bodies. No other people have been found since Wednesday.

      As many as 500 people are missing.

      https://apnews.com/article/migrants-shipwreck-rescue-greece-coast-guard-c160027a00d1ad2f859b97e3e8e7643

    • Après le naufrage, des survivants dénoncent les gardes-côtes grecs et Frontex

      La version officielle grecque sur l’un des pires naufrages en Méditerranée est mise à mal par les témoignages de survivants. Le rôle de Frontex, l’agence européenne chargée des frontières extérieures, est également pointé du doigt. Une enquête a été ouverte.

      Plus de quatre jours après le naufrage d’un bateau de pêche en provenance de Libye, où s’étaient embarquées jusqu’à 750 personnes – notamment des ressortissantes et ressortissants égyptiens, syriens et pakistanais –, l’espoir est mince de retrouver des survivant·es au large des côtes sud de la Grèce.

      Les questions sont nombreuses en particulier sur l’action des gardes-côtes grecs, accusés par certains témoignages d’avoir provoqué l’accident. La Cour suprême grecque a ordonné une enquête sur les circonstances du drame, l’un des pires naufrages en Méditerranée avec des centaines de morts. Pour l’heure, 104 personnes ont été rescapées et 78 corps récupérés.

      Jeudi après-midi, Kriton Arsenis, ancien eurodéputé, a rencontré des survivants dans le port de Kalamata, sur la péninsule du Péloponnèse, en tant que membre de la délégation de Mera25, le parti de Yánis Varoufákis. « Les réfugiés nous ont dit que l’embarcation a chaviré pendant qu’elle était tirée par le bateau des gardes-côtes », a-t-il raconté.

      « Les survivants nous disent que le bateau a basculé alors qu’il faisait l’objet d’une manœuvre où il était tiré par les gardes-côtes helléniques, a déclaré de son côté Vincent Cochetel, envoyé spécial du Haut Commissariat aux réfugiés pour la Méditerranée occidentale et centrale. Ils nous disent qu’il était tiré non pas vers les côtes grecques, mais en dehors de la zone de secours en mer grecque. »

      Ces témoignages vont à l’encontre de la version officielle, qui, jusqu’à vendredi, expliquait que les gardes-côtes n’étaient pas intervenus.

      La Grèce est régulièrement accusée de refouler des migrant·es en mer, provoquant la crainte, derrière une aide supposée, d’être en réalité éloigné·es du territoire – une pratique illégale au regard du droit international maritime et de la Convention de Genève, qui doivent permettre à toute personne en situation de détresse d’être secourue et acheminée vers un port dit « sûr » et de pouvoir, si elle le souhaite, déposer une demande d’asile dans le pays qu’elle tentait de rallier.

      En mai dernier, des révélations du New York Times ont mis en lumière cette pratique, grâce à une vidéo d’un « push-back » prise sur le fait. Mediapart avait documenté un cas semblable en 2022, qui avait provoqué la mort de deux demandeurs d’asile.
      Le patron de Frontex sur place

      Le rôle de Frontex, l’agence européenne chargée des frontières extérieures, est également mis en question, car selon les autorités portuaires grecques, un avion de surveillance de Frontex avait repéré le bateau mardi après-midi mais les secours ne sont pas intervenus car les passagers ont « refusé toute aide ». Son patron Hans Leijtens s’est rendu à Kalamata pour établir les faits et « mieux comprendre ce qui s’est passé car Frontex a joué un rôle » dans ce naufrage « horrible ».

      « On ne demande pas aux personnes à bord d’un bateau à la dérive s’ils veulent de l’aide […], il aurait fallu une aide immédiate », a affirmé pour sa part à la télévision grecque ERT Nikos Spanos, expert international des incidents maritimes. D’après Alexis Tsipras, le chef de l’opposition grecque de gauche, qui s’est entretenu avec des rescapés, « il y a eu un appel à l’aide ».

      Le HCR et l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM), deux agences des Nations unies, se sont félicités des enquêtes « qui ont été ordonnées en Grèce sur les circonstances qui ont conduit au chavirement du bateau et à la perte de tant de vies », tout en rappelant que « le devoir de secourir sans délai les personnes en détresse en mer est une règle fondamentale du droit maritime international ».

      Le HCR et l’OIM ont rappelé vendredi que depuis le début de l’année, au moins 72 778 migrants sont arrivés en Europe (dont 54 205 en Italie), par les routes migratoires en Méditerranée orientale, centrale, et occidentale ou par le nord-ouest de l’Afrique. Dans le même temps, au moins 1 037 migrants sont morts ou portés disparus.

      Neuf Égyptiens ont été arrêtés dans le port de Kalamata. Ils sont âgés de 20 à 40 ans et soupçonnés de « trafic illégal » d’êtres humains. Parmi les suspects, qui devraient comparaître lundi devant le juge d’instruction, figure le capitaine de l’embarcation qui a chaviré, d’après une source portuaire à l’AFP.

      Areti Glezou, travailleuse sociale au sein de l’ONG grecque Thalpo était en première ligne aux côtés des rescapés. Manifestement choquée, elle se souviendra longtemps de certains détails à glacer le sang. « Un homme me racontait qu’il a nagé pendant deux heures au côté de corps d’enfants avant d’être secouru. » Elle s’arrête, reprend son souffle et, les larmes aux yeux, elle poursuit : « Oui, ça, ils me l’ont tous dit, les cales étaient remplies de femmes et d’enfants. » Aucun n’aura été retrouvé vivant.

      Plus de 120 Syriens se trouvaient à bord et un grand nombre d’entre eux sont portés disparus, ont indiqué vendredi à l’AFP des membres de leurs familles et des militants locaux. La plupart sont originaires de la province instable de Deraa dans le sud du pays. Berceau du soulèvement antirégime déclenché en 2011, elle est revenue sous le contrôle des forces gouvernementales en juillet 2018. Plusieurs d’entre eux ont gagné la Libye, d’où était parti le bateau, en transitant par des pays voisins comme le Liban, la Jordanie ou encore l’Arabie saoudite.

      Vendredi matin, on a cependant vu des larmes de joie sur le port de Kalamata. Des deux côtés des barrières qui entourent le hangar où logent les rescapés, deux frères se sont aperçus. Fardi a retrouvé Mohamed vivant. Le grand a retrouvé le petit. Autour d’eux les sourires fleurissent sur les visages. Pour quelques brefs instants, journalistes, humanitaires et hommes en uniformes redeviennent d’abord des êtres humains. Comme un rayon de lumière qui illumine soudain un océan de tristesse.

      Une demi-heure plus tard, des bus viennent chercher les rescapés pour les emmener au camp de Malakasa dans la région d’Athènes. Le hangar est désormais vide.

      https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/170623/apres-le-naufrage-des-survivants-denoncent-les-gardes-cotes-grecs-et-front

    • Naufrage de migrants en Méditerranée : ce que l’on sait sur les responsabilités des garde-côtes grecs

      Depuis le naufrage dramatique qui a fait 78 morts et possiblement plusieurs centaines d’autres mercredi 14 juin, les critiques ciblent l’absence d’intervention préalable des gardes-côtes grecs. Ces derniers rejettent la faute sur les passagers du navire.

      Le naufrage d’un bateau de migrants mercredi 14 juin avec des centaines de personnes à bord, au large de la Grèce, a soulevé de nombreuses questions sur les responsabilités des autorités. Voici ce que l’on sait depuis que ce chalutier vétuste a chaviré et coulé dans les eaux internationales, faisant au moins 78 morts.
      L’opération de sauvetage

      Les garde-côtes grecs ont affirmé mercredi matin « avoir été prévenus mardi par les autorités italiennes concernant un bateau avec à bord un grand nombre d’étrangers ». Des patrouilleurs grecs ont été mobilisés pour le repérer. « C’est un appareil aérien de Frontex [la décriée agence européenne de gardes-frontières, ndlr] qui a le premier repéré le bateau mardi après-midi, puis deux bateaux qui naviguaient dans la zone », selon les garde-côtes.

      Nawal Soufi, une bénévole travaillant pour la ligne téléphonique d’assistance à des migrants en danger Alarm Phone, assure sur son compte Facebook avoir reçu un SOS d’un bateau avec 750 personnes à bord en provenance de Libye.

      A 22 h 40 mardi, le chalutier notifie une panne du moteur. Le patrouilleur à proximité « a immédiatement tenté d’approcher le chalutier pour déterminer le problème », ont noté les garde-côtes. Vingt-quatre minutes plus tard, le patron du patrouilleur a annoncé par radio que le bateau avait chaviré. Il a coulé en quinze minutes.
      La défausse grecque contre les migrants

      Selon les garde-côtes grecs, « il n’y a pas eu de demande d’aide » des personnes à bord du bateau de pêche. « Après de nombreux appels du centre opérationnel des garde-côtes grecs pour les secourir, la réponse du bateau de pêche a été négative », selon le communiqué. « La salle des opérations […] a été en contact répété avec le bateau de pêche. Ils ont constamment répété qu’ils souhaitaient naviguer vers l’Italie », selon la même source.

      Le porte-parole du gouvernement a également expliqué vendredi que « les garde-côtes se sont rapprochés du bateau, ils ont jeté une corde pour le stabiliser, mais les migrants ont refusé l’aide ». « Ils disaient ‘‘No help, Go Italy’’ [’’Pas d’aide, on va en Italie’’, ndlr] », a-t-il ajouté.

      Pour sa part, le porte-parole de la police portuaire Nikolaos Alexiou a souligné qu’on ne pouvait « pas remorquer un bateau avec un si grand nombre de gens à bord par la force, il faut qu’ils coopèrent ».

      Selon un réfugié syrien en Allemagne, Reber Hebun, arrivé en Grèce pour retrouver son frère de 24 ans, survivant du naufrage, « les garde-côtes grecs n’ont rien fait pour les aider au début alors qu’ils étaient près d’eux », a-t-il dit après avoir parlé avec son frère. « Un bateau commercial a donné de l’eau et de la nourriture et tout le monde s’est précipité, le bateau a été déstabilisé à ce moment », selon lui.
      Les critiques envers les garde-côtes grecs

      Des experts et des ONG ont mis en cause les garde-côtes grecs qui auraient dû intervenir quoi qu’il arrive, selon eux. Pour Vincent Cochetel, envoyé spécial du Haut-Commissariat de l’ONU pour les réfugiés (HCR) pour la Méditerranée centrale et occidentale, « l’argument grec selon lequel les personnes ne voulaient pas être secourues pour poursuivre leur route vers l’Italie ne tient pas ». « C’est aux autorités grecques qu’il incombait de procéder ou, au moins, de coordonner une opération de sauvetage, en utilisant soit leurs propres navires de sauvetage soit en faisant appel à tout autre bateau sur zone, y compris à des navires marchands », a-t-il jugé. « Selon le droit maritime international, les autorités grecques auraient dû coordonner plus tôt cette opération de sauvetage, dès lors que Frontex avait repéré ce bateau en détresse », a-t-il poursuivi.

      « On ne demande pas aux personnes à bord d’un bateau à la dérive s’ils veulent de l’aide […] il aurait fallu une aide immédiate », a critiqué pour sa part Nikos Spanos, expert international des incidents maritimes.

      Hans Leijtens, le patron de Frontex, s’est rendu jeudi à Kalamata pour chercher à « mieux comprendre ce qui s’est passé car Frontex a joué un rôle » dans cet « horrible » naufrage.

      Vendredi, l’ONU a demandé des investigations rapides et des mesures « urgentes et décisives » pour éviter de nouveaux drames. « Il doit avoir une enquête approfondie sur les événements qui se sont déroulés au cours de cette tragédie. Et j’espère que nous pourrons trouver des réponses et apprendre de l’expérience », a souligné Jeremy Laurence, porte-parole du Haut-Commissariat aux droits de l’homme.
      Des centaines de personnes à bord

      78 corps ont jusqu’ici été retrouvés en mer au large des côtes de la péninsule du Péloponnèse, selon les garde-côtes grecs, et 104 personnes ont pu être secourues à temps. Mais le bilan serait en réalité bien plus lourd. Le porte-parole du gouvernement grec, Ilias Siakantaris, avait assuré mercredi que des informations non confirmées faisaient état de 750 personnes à bord du chalutier. L’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM) « redoute que des centaines de personnes supplémentaires » se soient noyées « dans l’une des tragédies les plus dévastatrices en Méditerranée en une décennie ».

      Parmi les personnes qui se trouvaient à bord, figuraient notamment plus 120 Syriens, et un grand nombre d’entre eux sont portés disparus, ont déploré vendredi des membres de leurs familles et des militants locaux. La plupart de ces migrants sont originaires de la province instable de Deraa dans le sud de la Syrie. Plusieurs d’entre eux ont gagné la Libye, d’où était parti le bateau, en transitant par des pays voisins comme le Liban, la Jordanie ou encore l’Arabie Saoudite, selon les mêmes sources.

      Les recherches se poursuivent mais les espoirs de retrouver des survivants s’amenuisent, trois jours après le drame. De nombreuses femmes et enfants auraient voyagé dans la cale du navire, qui a sombré dans une zone de la Méditerranée de plusieurs milliers de mètres de profondeur, la fosse Calypso.

      Par ailleurs, 9 personnes de nationalité égyptienne soupçonnées d’être des passeurs ont été arrêtées à la suite du drame.

      https://www.liberation.fr/international/europe/naufrage-de-migrants-en-mediterranee-ce-que-lon-sait-sur-les-responsabili

    • Message de Vicky Skoumbi envoyé sur la mailing-list de Migreurop, le 18 juin 2023 :

      une vidéo glaçante avec un #témoignage de survivants qui fait état de la #responsabilité criminelle des #garde-côtes_grecs, avec la traduction d’un post d’Iasonas Apostolopoulos

      https://www.facebook.com/519820384/videos/5877893008981441

      « Les garde-côtes grecs se sont approchés de nous et nous ont lancé une corde bleue. Ils ont commencé à nous remorquer. La façon dont ils nous tiraient n’était pas correcte. Nous criions. Le navire a alors commencé à prendre de la gîte sur la gauche, les garde-côtes se sont tournés vers le côté opposé et notre navire a commencé à prendre de la gîte sur le côté et à couler.

      Nous essayions de grimper sur le bateau, nous voulions survivre.

      Les garde-côtes ont détaché la corde. Nous criions à l’aide. Ils ont fait tourner leur navire, créant une grosse vague, et notre bateau a complètement chaviré. Les personnes qui se trouvaient sur le côté du bateau se sont retrouvées en dessous. Nous pouvions entendre les gens dans la cale frapper sur la tôle en fer.

      Le bateau a complètement coulé ».

      –—

      Le journaliste Fallah Elias de la chaîne allemande WDR a partagé sur Twitter le témoignage absolument choquant et horrifiant d’un naufragé secouru.

      https://twitter.com/falahelias/status/1670127871170322432

      Dans la vidéo, d’autres survivants pakistanais confirment que les garde-côtes grecs ont fait couler le bateau en le remorquant.

      Ni une, ni deux, ni trois, de nombreux témoignages désignent le gouvernement grec et les garde-côtes comme les seuls responsables du naufrage et de la noyade de centaines de personnes à Pylos. Au lieu de les secourir, ils ont tiré le bateau avec une corde jusqu’à ce qu’il chavire. Probablement pour les faire sortir de la zone de sauvetage grecque.

      Selon certaines informations, une centaine d’enfants figureraient parmi les morts.

      Si tout cela est vrai, il s’agit du plus grand homicide de l’histoire de l’Europe d’après-guerre.

      NE LAISSONS PAS L’AFFAIRE ÊTRE ÉTOUFFÉE !

      https://twitter.com/falahelias/status/1670127871170322432?s=46&t=0dqDdxigZeccg_TvNxhfAA

    • Möglicherweise waren Push-Backs der Küstenwache Schuld am Bootsunglück in Griechenland

      Es gibt Vorwürfe, dass das Boot mit Geflüchteten vor Griechenland wegen Push-Backs der griechischen Küstenwache gesunken ist. WDR-Journalist Bamdad Esmaili berichtet im Interview, was Überlebende des Unglücks erzählen.

      Nach dem Bootsunglück vor Griechenland mit hunderten Toten gibt es schwere Vorwürfe gegen die griechische Küstenwache, das Unglück verursacht zu haben. Die Rede ist von so genannten Push-Backs. Darunter versteht man Maßnahmen, mit denen flüchtende Menschen daran gehindert werden, die Grenze zu übertreten und einen Asylantrag zu stellen. In der EU-Grundrechte-Charta wird das Recht auf Asyl gemäß der Genfer Flüchtlingskonvention allerdings garantiert.

      Die Küstenwache weist den Vorwurf von Push-Backs zurück - jetzt soll die europäische Polizeibehörde Europol ermitteln. WDR-Journalist Bamdad Esmaili ist in Griechenland und hat mit seinem Team mit Überlebenden sprechen können.

      WDR: Es gibt Vorwürfe gegen die griechische Küstenwache. Worum geht es da?

      Bamdad Esmaili: Es geht darum, dass es Vorwürfe gibt, dass die griechische Küstenwache dieses Boot in die Richtung von italienischem Gewässer gezogen hat - dass sie es sozusagen gepushbackt hat. Diesen Vorwurf hatten wir bislang nur gehört, gestern Abend gelang es meinem Kollegen, der arabisch spricht, dann mit ungefähr zehn überlebenden Geflüchteten zu sprechen. Sie haben unabhängig voneinander berichtet, dass dieses Boot tatsächlich gezogen wurde - nicht nur einmal, nicht nur zweimal, sondern insgesamt dreimal. Und dabei ist das Schiff dann ins Wanken gekommen und ist gesunken.

      WDR: Das heißt, das Ziehen dieses Bootes, der Versuch es nach Italien zu ziehen und damit aus der Zuständigkeit Griechenlands herauszuholen, ist für dieses Unglück - so scheint es zumindest im Moment - verantwortlich?

      Esmaili: Das ist der Vorwurf, der im Raum steht. Das muss natürlich erstmal bewiesen werden. Die Griechen lehnen das vehement ab und dementieren das. Sie sagen nach wie vor immer noch, dass sie Hilfe angeboten haben und das Schiff habe diese Hilfe nicht gewollt, weil sie demnach nach Italien wollten.

      WDR: Wir können davon ausgehen, dass es jetzt eine größere Untersuchung geben wird. Wie wird in Griechenland darüber diskutiert, was hören Sie da?

      Esmaili: Das ist zum Politikum geworden, weil nächste Woche Parlamentswahlen in Griechenland sind. Vor allem die Opposition nutzt dieses Thema jetzt aus und kritisiert die Regierung. Und es ist für drei Tage eine Staatstrauer angeordnet worden. Es gibt auch Proteste, Kundgebungen, es gab einen Trauermarsch in Athen, also das ist ein Riesenthema hier in Griechenland.

      WDR: Sie haben erwähnt, dass Sie mit Überlebenden sprechen konnten. Wie haben diese denn die Situation auf dem Schiff beschrieben? Abgesehen von der Frage, ob sie gezogen wurden und damit das Unglück ausgelöst wurde.

      Esmaili: Man muss sich das so vorstellen: Ein Schiff, das 30 Meter lang ist, war völlig überfüllt. Die Überlebenden erzählen uns, dass sie von den Schleppern gehört haben, dass 747 Personen auf diesem Schiff waren. Deswegen ist auch immer von knapp 750 Personen die Rede und die waren überall: Unten, oben auf dem Deck, seit Tagen unterwegs, ohne Nahrung, ohne Wasser. Da kann man sich vorstellen, wie die Stimmung auf dem Schiff war.

      WDR: Das heißt, man muss davon ausgehen, dass das Unglück zu hunderten Toten geführt hat. Was geschieht jetzt mit den Menschen, die gerettet wurden - auch mit denen, mit denen Sie gesprochen haben?

      Esmaili: Wir sind jetzt in Malakasa in der Nähe von Athen und dort sind 71 Personen untergebracht, die kommen ganz normal ins Asylverfahren. Knapp 30 Personen sind noch in Kalamata im Krankenhaus, die werden behandelt und dann kommen sie vermutlich auch ins ganz normale Asylverfahren.

      WDR: Ganz normale Asylverfahren nach dem, was sie erlebt haben, das ist sicherlich auch eine schwierige Situation. Wurde die Suche nach Überlebenden denn inzwischen eingestellt?

      Esmaili: Das kann ich so nicht bestätigen. Wir haben gestern Abend noch gehört, dass noch weiter gesucht wird, aber natürlich kann man nach so vielen Tagen und bei so vielen Menschen davon ausgehen, dass man kaum noch Überlebende aus dem Meer retten kann. Rund 100 Kinder sollen auch mit an Bord gewesen sein.

      https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/bootsunglueck-mittelmeer-interview-bamdad-esmaili-100.html

    • Frontex statement following tragic shipwreck off Pylos

      We are shocked and saddened by the tragic events that unfolded off the coast of Greece. The Frontex Executive Director, who travelled to Greece after learning about the tragedy, has offered any support the authorities may need.

      People smugglers have once again trifled with human lives by forcing several hundred migrants on a fishing boat not designed to fit such a number of people. Many were trapped underneath the deck. Our thoughts go out to the families of the victims.

      On 13 June before noon, a Frontex plane spotted the fishing vessel inside the Greek search and rescue region in international waters. The ship was heavily overcrowded and was navigating at slow speed (6 knots) direction north-east.

      Frontex immediately informed the Greek and Italian authorities about the sighting, providing them with information about the condition of the vessel, speed and photos.

      The plane kept monitoring the vessel, constantly providing updates to all relevant national authorities until it ran out of fuel and had to return to base.

      As a Frontex drone was to patrol the Aegean on the same day, the agency offered to provide additional assistance ahead of the planned and scheduled flight. The Greek authorities asked the agency to send the drone to another search and rescue incident south off Crete with 80 people in danger.

      The drone, after attending to the incident south off Crete, flew to the last known position of the fishing vessel. The drone arrived at the scene four hours later at 04:05 (UTC) in the morning, when a large-scale search and rescue operation by Greek authorities was ongoing and there was no sign of the fishing boat. No Frontex plane or boat was present at the time of the tragedy.

      https://frontex.europa.eu/media-centre/news/news-release/frontex-statement-following-tragic-shipwreck-off-pylos-dJ5l9p

      –-
      Commentaire de Lena K. sur twitter :

      This might be important. According to Frontex, they offered a drone to fly over the location of the Pylos shipwreck in the evening of 13th, but the Greek authorities decided to send it to another distress incident south of Crete. Convenient (for both).

      https://twitter.com/lk2015r/status/1670143075040088068

    • Naufrage en Grèce : le bateau dérivait, contrairement à la version des garde-côtes

      Que s’est-il passé dans les heures précédant le terrible naufrage au large du Péloponnèse ? Les garde-côtes grecs affirment que le chalutier bondé faisait route vers l’Italie à une vitesse régulière et n’avait pas besoin d’être secouru. Une enquête de la BBC affirme le contraire : le chalutier était à l’arrêt et nécessitait une aide urgente.

      Version contre version. Depuis le terrible naufrage du mercredi 13 juin au large de la Grèce, qui a coûté la vie à au moins 500 personnes (https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/49759/au-moins-200-pakistanais-parmi-les-victimes-du-naufrage-en-grece), les autorités grecques campent sur leurs positions : le chalutier, qui comptait au moins 700 exilés à bord, n’était pas en danger imminent. Du moins, pas dans les heures précédant le naufrage.

      Selon le communiqué officiel du Premier ministre grec (https://www.primeminister.gr/2023/06/14/32002), Kyriakos Mitsotakis, le bateau, parti de Tobrouk en Libye, naviguait en direction de l’Italie. « À 15h35, le navire de pêche a été repéré par l’hélicoptère de la Garde côtière [grecque] naviguant à vitesse régulière », peut-on lire sur le communiqué. Il avait été repéré pour la première fois vers 11h du matin, et depuis, les autorités grecques le surveillait à distance. Pourquoi ne pas le secourir immédiatement ? Parce qu’il ne semblait pas en difficulté, se défendent les Grecs. « Le navire navigu[ait] avec un cap et une vitesse constantes », écrivent-ils dans leur rapport.

      Cette ligne de défense sera la même tout au long de la journée. À partir de 15h30 jusqu’à 21h, les autorités helléniques affirment avoir été à de nombreuses reprises en communication avec le bateau via téléphone satellite. À chaque fois, les garde-côtes notent que le chalutier navigue à vitesse régulière. Et que les exilés ne réclament aucune aide. « Les migrants criaient : ’Pas d’aide, on va en Italie’ », expliquait déjà vendredi 16 juin le porte-parole des garde-côtes grecs, Nikos Alexiou.

      Dans un autre communiqué publié le 19 juin (https://www.hcg.gr/el/drasthriothtes/dieykriniseis-anaforika-me-eyreia-epixeirhsh-ereynas-kai-diaswshs-allodapwn-se-d), Athènes maintient sa position et affirme que le bateau a parcouru une distance de 24 nautiques marins - soit 44 km - depuis le moment où il a été repéré jusqu’à son naufrage.

      « Le navire ne bouge pas »

      Seulement, l’enquête menée par la BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65942426) contredit la version grecque. Grâce aux coordonnées GPS des autres navires présents dans la zone méditerranéenne, la BBC est arrivée à la conclusion que le bateau n’a pas bougé entre 18h et 21h, mardi 13 juin. Un premier chalutier – le Lucky sailor – s’en est approché, sur ordre des garde-côtes grecs, à 18h pour lui fournir des vivres et de l’eau. Trois heures plus tard, c’est au même point de coordonnées maritimes qu’un second navire – le Faithfull Warrior - s’est rendu pour un autre ravitaillement.

      Et la BBC de continuer. « Une vidéo – qui aurait été tournée depuis le Faithful Warrior – prétend montrer des vivres livrés au navire via une corde dans l’eau. La BBC a vérifié ces images et a découvert que le navire - qui ne bouge pas – correspond à la forme du navire de migrants en détresse. Les conditions météorologiques correspondent à celles signalées à l’époque. »

      Pourtant, dans le dernier communiqué du 19 juin, les Grecs ne parlent pas d’immobilisation du navire. « Dans la soirée, le navire de patrouille côtière [...] est arrivé dans la région et a repéré [le chalutier] se déplaçant par ses propres moyens, à faible vitesse », maintiennent-ils.

      Et d’insister. Lors des deux ravitaillements, le navire a dans un premier temps poursuivi sa route avant de finalement s’arrêter. « Une fois le processus [de ravitaillement] terminé, les occupants du bateau ont commencé à jeter les fournitures à la mer », notent-ils encore dans leur document.

      « Navire secoué par le vent et les vagues »

      Enfin, à 22h40, les garde-côtes affirment s’être approché du chalutier tout en restant « à distance ». Là encore, ils ne détectent aucun problème de navigation. Et proposent de l’aide au navire en difficulté. « [Le chalutier] s’est de nouveau arrêté quelques minutes à l’approche [de la garde-côtière] puis a continué son chemin ».

      Entre le dernier ravitaillement et l’immobilisation du chalutier - à cause d’une panne mécanique -, une distance d’environ 6 mille nautiques (11 km) a été parcouru. À aucun moment, selon Athènes, le navire n’a donc été immobile.

      À l’échelle de la Méditerranée, ces dizaines de mille nautiques parcourus par le chalutier ne signifie pas qu’il naviguait de plein gré, insiste la BBC. Mais plutôt qu’il se déplaçait à peine « ce que l’on peut attendre d’un navire en détresse secoué par le vent et les vagues dans la partie la plus profonde de la mer Méditerranée », explique la BBC. Selon le média, les garde-côtes auraient donc dû procéder au sauvetage.

      Vers 2h du matin, dans la nuit du mardi à mercredi, le bateau fera naufrage. Le bilan provisoire fait toujours état de 78 morts, et des centaines de disparus.

      https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/49764/naufrage-en-grece--le-bateau-derivait-contrairement-a-la-version-des-g

    • Il video di Frontex e quel barcone stracarico in balia del mare

      Nel video di Frontex il barcone stracarico di migranti in navigazione tra la Libia, da dove era partito quattro giorni prima, e l’Europa. Le immagini sono state registrate il 13 giugno alle ore 9.48 Utc. Il naufragio è avvenuto la notte tra il 13 e il 14 giugno.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Drz5OVIkWi0&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fw

      Salgono a 80 le vittime accertate del tragico naufragio avvenuto a sud del Peloponneso, in Grecia, la settimana scorsa. I soccorsi hanno recuperato i corpi di altri due uomini a largo di Pylos. Le persone tratte in salvo sono ancora 104, mentre mancano all’appello almeno 600 persone, tra cui 100 bambini che al momento del naufragio si trovavano nella stiva. I corpi sono stati trasportati nel porto di Kalamata. Proseguono intanto le ricerche della Guardia costiera.

      Il racconto di un sopravvissuto

      «La Guardia costiera greca ci ha detto che ci avrebbe portato in acque italiane, che ci stavano spingendo. Era una nave da guerra. Poi la nostra barca si è ribaltata. Sono finito in mare, urlavo, non hanno fatto nulla per salvarci. Ho cercato di rimanere a galla per mezz’ora poi quando sono arrivate le barche della Guardia costiera mi sono allontanato perchè avevo paura. Ho visto la luce di una nave commerciale in lontananza e l’ho raggiunta». E’ la testimonianza-choc che sta circolando in queste ore su twitter. Si Tratta di un sopravvissuto siriano che racconta cosa è successo quella notte, fra martedì e mercoledì di una settimana fa, quando il barcone, partito dalla Libia, si è inabissando portandosi dietro almeno 600 persone (fra cui 100 bambini).

      La ricostruzione della Guardia costiera greca
      «In totale, il peschereccio ha percorso una distanza di circa 30 miglia nautiche dal momento del rilevamento al momento dell’affondamento» ha dichiarato la Guardia costiera greca in un comunicato. «Il chiarimento», precisa la nota, arriva a seguito delle «pubblicazioni della stampa internazionale e nazionale» secondo cui il peschereccio sovraffollato non si è mosso per almeno 7 ore prima di capovolgersi. «Nelle ore pomeridiane» di martedì 13 giugno, l’imbarcazione dei migranti «è stata avvicinata da una nave cisterna per fornire assistenza», continua il comunicato della Guardia costiera costiera sul naufragio del peschereccio a largo di Pylos. Nel testo si specifica nuovamente che i migranti a bordo avevano fatto resistenza e che poi il peschereccio si è fermato ed «è iniziato il rifornimento di viveri». Dalle ricostruzioni delle autorità elleniche si legge anche che una seconda nave cisterna si è impegnata ad avvicinarsi all’imbarcazione dei migranti per fornire provviste, ma il peschereccio avrebbe fatto resistenza e si sarebbe spostato verso ovest. Alla fine, la nave cisterna ha iniziato la procedura di rifornimento ma al termine di questa i migranti «hanno iniziato a gettare le provviste in mare». «L’intero processo di rifornimento di provviste agli occupanti del peschereccio da parte delle due navi commerciali è durato in totale più di quattro ore e trenta minuti», aggiunge la Guardia costiera, specificando che «nelle ore serali» è arrivata nella zona una loro motovedetta e «ha avvistato il peschereccio che si muoveva autonomamente, a bassa velocità». Secondo la ricostruzione delle autorità elleniche, la motovedetta «ha avviato una procedura di avvicinamento all’imbarcazione per accertarsi delle condizioni attuali del natante e dei suoi occupanti», mentre «la nave si è fermata di nuovo per alcuni minuti durante l’avvicinamento da parte della motovedetta e poi ha continuato la sua rotta».
      «Dal momento in cui è stato completato il processo di rifornimento fino all’immobilizzazione del peschereccio a causa di un guasto meccanico, il peschereccio ha percorso una distanza di circa 6 miglia nautiche» conclude la Guardia costiera greca.

      Islamabad: 300 cittadini pachistani annegati a Pylos
      Più di 300 pachistani sono annegati nel naufragio del peschereccio al largo delle coste greche del Peloponneso: il numero delle vittime è stato reso noto dal presidente del Senato di Islamabad Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani inviando le condoglianze alle famiglie. Lo scrive la Cnn. «I nostri pensieri e le nostre preghiere sono con voi e preghiamo che le anime defunte trovino la pace eterna», ha detto Sanjrani. «Questo devastante incidente sottolinea l’urgenza di affrontare e condannare l’esecrabile traffico illegale di esseri umani». Le autorità greche non hanno ancora confermato il bilancio delle vittime pakistane.

      https://www.avvenire.it/attualita/pagine/naufragio-in-grecia-la-versione-dei-greci

    • A survivor of #Pylos shipwreck shared harrowing details:

      ➡️Two people died from thirst and hunger on the 4th and 5th days of the journey
      ➡️On the 4th day, people started drinking from the boat engine’s water. On the 5th day, a state of “slow death” was announced

      ➡️On 16 June, they started calling for any coastguard as they didn’t know they were in the Greek waters.
      ➡️A luxury yacht provided 4 boxes of water for almost 750 people & this created tension between people due to thirst.

      ➡️A giant Greek ship threw ropes to people & towed the boat. Then, they started throwing water bottles at them leading to an imbalance in the boat
      ➡️The boat started sinking. We started to beg to be rescued and showed them the dead bodies but the ship wasn’t qualified for rescue

      ➡️Around sunset, a Greek military ship with masked people wearing black approached, towed them with only one blue robe & increased their ship’s speed
      ➡️That was when the ship capsized. People started shouting as they sink. People on the Greek military ship were just watching
      Full testimony here:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOzLIXa1cQ8

      https://twitter.com/ecre/status/1670739249417560064

    • I superstiti del naufragio di Pylos accusano la Guardia costiera greca

      Nella notte tra il 13 e il 14 giugno le autorità greche avrebbero tentato di trainare il peschereccio partito dalla Libia con a bordo oltre 700 persone, provocandone l’inabissamento. Le testimonianze dei sopravvissuti, confinati subito dopo aver toccato terra, smontano la versione di Atene. Le vittime sarebbero almeno 643

      Secondo diverse testimonianze dei sopravvissuti il peschereccio con oltre 700 persone a bordo è affondato al largo delle coste greche, nelle prime ore di mercoledì 21 giugno, durante un tentativo fallito di rimorchio da parte della Guardia costiera greca. L’accusa è contenuta nelle dichiarazioni rilasciate da alcuni naufraghi all’autorità giudiziaria di Kalamata, città meridionale greca –visionate dall’Ap news (https://apnews.com/article/greece-migrant-shipwreck-smugglers-9daf86915e8bd89a1697dd1ee75504ac) e dal quotidiano ellenico Kathimerini- che smentiscono la versione delle autorità greche secondo cui la barca non sarebbe stata scortata nelle sue ultime ore di navigazione e non ci sarebbe stato alcun tentativo di abbordarla.

      “La nave greca ha gettato una corda ed è stata legata alla nostra prua -ha spiegato Abdul Rahman Alhaz, 24 anni, palestinese che è riuscito a salvarsi-. Dopo hanno iniziato a muoversi e a tirare, per poco più di due minuti. Noi gridavamo ‘Stop, stop’ perché la barca era sovraccarica. Poi ha cominciato a inclinarsi”.

      L’inabissamento del peschereccio partito dalla Libia avrebbe provocato almeno 643 vittime, secondo quanto è stato possibile ricostruire dalle testimonianze dei 104 sopravvissuti. Sarebbero 100 i bambini, sempre secondo i racconti di chi si è salvato dal naufragio, che con le donne erano stipati nella stiva della nave. Sulle dinamiche dell’incidente, però, fin da subito erano emersi versioni contrastanti.

      Un’inchiesta realizzata dalla BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65942426) mostra che il peschereccio sovraffollato non si è mosso per almeno sette ore prima di capovolgersi mentre la guardia costiera, invece, nel comunicato stampa rilasciato successivamente al naufragio sottolinea che dalle 15.30 all’1.40 la navigazione è proseguita a “velocità e rotta costante”. La versione della BBC si basa sui dati di Marin traffic, che traccia i movimenti delle imbarcazioni nel Mediterraneo, e che confermerebbe che le navi inviate dalle autorità greche per fornire supporto all’imbarcazione carica di naufraghi siano intervenute tutte nella stessa zona e che quindi la nave avrebbe percorso “meno di poche miglia nautiche, come ci si può aspettare da una nave colpita dal vento o dalle onde nella parte più profonda del Mar Mediterraneo”. Inoltre, sempre secondo la testata inglese, la foto dell’imbarcazione pubblicata dai guardacoste ellenici giovedì 15 giugno, riferita a poche ore prima del capovolgimento, dimostra che la nave era ferma e soprattutto smentisce la versione secondo cui le stesse autorità “avevano osservato da una distanza discreta il susseguirsi dei fatti”.

      “Abbiamo lanciato una richiesta di soccorso il giorno prima del naufragio verso le 8 del mattino -ha raccontato un sopravvissuto alla Ong Consolidated rescue group- (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOzLIXa1cQ8

      ). Non sapevamo neanche che fossimo in Grecia”. Alle 9.47 del mattino Frontex, l’Agenzia che sorveglia le frontiere europee, ha comunicato alle autorità italiane e greche la presenza di un peschereccio sovraffollato e la Centrale operativa di Roma intorno alle 11 ha comunicato la posizione della nave, nel Sud del Peloponneso, al centro operativo di Atene. Alle 13.50 da Mitilini si è alzato un elicottero della Guardia costiera greca diretto verso il peschereccio, raggiunto verso le 15.35. Le stesse autorità greche, intanto, stavano chiedendo alle imbarcazioni che navigavano nell’area di cambiare rotta. “Una barca ci ha rifornito di quattro boxes d’acqua da sei bottiglie l’una: le persone si colpivano per prenderla -continua il sopravvissuto-. Questa nave ci ha lanciato una corda per avvicinarci ma ci ha detto che non era loro compito salvarci e che presto sarebbe arrivata la Guardia costiera”. La situazione a bordo era tesa, racconta sempre l’uomo intervistato dal Consolidated rescue group, al quarto giorno di navigazione non c’era né acqua né cibo, due persone erano morte e giacevano sul vascello: al quinto giorno, quello precedente al naufragio, qualcuno beveva dal motore perché l’acqua era finita. Ma anche nel racconto dell’uomo quello che succede al calar del sole di martedì scorso, dopo l’intervento delle navi civili, ripercorre le testimonianze di decine di altri naufraghi. “La Guardia costiera, una volta arrivata, ci ha detto di seguirli così l’Italia ci avrebbe salvato. Lo abbiamo fatto per mezz’ora, poi il motore si è rotto. Erano vestiti di nero e mascherati, senza segni militari. Ci hanno tirati con una corta e poi sono ripartiti, la nave ha perso stabilità e poco dopo è affondata”.

      Da Atene le autorità hanno dichiarato che i naufraghi hanno più volte rifiutato il loro intervento perché volevano proseguire verso l’Italia. Diverse testimonianze dei naufraghi smentiscono questa versione. Nawal Soufi, attivista rifugiata indipendente che quel giorno ha lanciato per prima l’Sos per la barca in avaria, ha dichiarato di essere stata in contatto con le persone sulla barca fino alle 23 di martedì. “L’uomo con cui stavo parlando mi ha detto espressamente: ‘Sento che questa sarà la nostra ultima notte viva’”, ha scritto. Poco prima di mezzanotte il motore si è spento.

      El Pais (https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-06-20/greece-imposes-silence-around-shipwreck-of-overcrowded-migrant-boat.) ha accusato le autorità greche di “imporre il silenzio” ai sopravvissuti al naufragio. Durante la loro permanenza nel porto di Kalamata, i 104 naufraghi avevano infatti mobilità limitata e scarso accesso alle comunicazioni: la Guardia costiera, secondo quanto ricostruito dal quotidiano spagnolo, li avrebbe confinati all’interno di un complesso recintato da cui non è stato permesso loro di uscire. Successivamente, venerdì 16 giugno, sono stati trasferiti a Malakasa, un campo per richiedenti asilo vicino ad Atene. Ma anche in questa nuova sistemazione la possibilità di uscire e avere contatti con l’esterno è risultata limitata

      Intanto martedì 20 giugno il tribunale di Kalamata ha convalidato l’arresto di nove uomini di origine egiziana accusati di essere i membri dell’equipaggio: omicidio colposo, naufragio e partecipazione a un’organizzazione criminale sono i capi d’accusa. L’avvocato Athanassios Iliopoulos, che rappresenta un presunto trafficante di 22 anni, ha dichiarato all’Associated Press che tutti e nove i sospettati hanno negato le accuse in tribunale affermando di essere essi stessi naufraghi. Iliopoulos ha detto che il suo cliente ha riferito di aver venduto il suo camion preso in prestito dai suoi genitori per raccogliere 4.500 euro per il viaggio. Anche in Pakistan, dove è stato proclamato il lutto nazionale per le vittime del naufragio, l’ufficio del primo ministro Shehbaz Sharif ha annunciato che sono state arrestate dieci persone accusate di far parte dell’organizzazione. “Intensificheremo gli sforzi nella lotta contro le persone coinvolte nell’atroce crimine della tratta di esseri umani”, ha dichiarato il capo del governo. Per la presidente della Commissione europea Ursula von der Leyen “è urgente agire”, sottolineando che l’Ue dovrebbe aiutare i Paesi africani come la Tunisia, da cui molte persone partono, a stabilizzare le loro economie. Non ha in questo caso menzionato la Libia, luogo da cui il peschereccio del naufragio è partito.

      La Grecia è stata più volte accusata di violare sui propri confini le norme sul salvataggio in mare e i diritti delle persone in transito. A maggio 2023 un’inchiesta del New York Times ha mostrato, con tanto di video ad alta definizione, le autorità greche riportare indietro verso le coste turche decine di profughi già arrivati sul territorio, tra cui anche bambini, lasciando alla deriva l’imbarcazione. Altro che attività di search and rescue. Il portale di inchiesta Solomon (https://wearesolomon.com/mag/focus-area/migration/just-007-of-819m-border-budget-to-greece-earmarked-for-search-and-resc) ha ricostruito come degli 819 milioni di euro forniti ad Atene all’interno del “Fondo di gestione delle frontiere europee” appena lo 0,07% (neanche 600mila euro) sarà destinato allo sviluppo delle attività di ricerca e soccorso in mare. La maggior parte del denaro riguarda invece l’approvvigionamento di attrezzature di deterrenza come droni, veicoli di ogni tipo, termocamere, elicotteri e sistemi di sorveglianza automatizzati. Tutto ciò che non è servito per salvare 640 persone.

      https://altreconomia.it/i-superstiti-del-naufragio-di-pylos-accusano-la-guardia-costiera-greca

    • Greece shipwreck survivors were ’abandoned for 10 minutes’

      Survivors of the June 14 shipwreck off Greece have made serious accusations against the country’s Coast Guard in witness statements.

      Statements gathered from some of the 104 survivors of a recent shipwreck off Greece contain serious accusations against the Greek Coast Guard.

      Search operations for more corpses continue after the fishing vessel, which is believed to have been carrying up to 800 migrants, capsized last week south of Greece’s Peloponnese.
      Survivors blame Greek Coast Guard

      “When the ship capsized, the Coast Guard cut the rope and continued on its way. It went farther away as we were all screaming. After 10 minutes, they came back with small boats to pick up people but they did not go as far as the ship itself. They only picked up those who managed to swim away,” one survivor told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, recounting the last minutes of shipwreck that left at least 82 dead and hundreds missing.

      Surviving witnesses have been questioned by the Kalamata port authority.

      Every person interviewed confirmed — with slight variations in their reconstructions — that the shipwreck had been caused by a Greek Coast Guard patrol boat.

      One of the survivors said the Coast Guard’s attempt to tow the overcrowded fishing vessel created turbulence in the water that eventually caused the ship to capsize.

      “They tried to pull it using force for two or three minutes and everyone whistled to try to make them stop, since they were pulling it strongly and creating waves,” one said.

      Another added that, “for the first few minutes we went forward, but then the Coast Guard turned to the right and the ship overturned.”
      Polemics inflame political conflict prior to vote

      These witness statements run counter to the Coast Guard’s official version. Captains aboard the patrol boat say they only hooked up to the vessel for a few minutes to check the situation onboard before the ship wrecked.

      The situation has inflamed political conflict ahead of Greece’s government elections, which will be held Sunday.

      https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/49846/greece-shipwreck-survivors-were-abandoned-for-10-minutes

    • They knew the boat could sink. Boarding it didn’t feel like a choice.

      The story of how as many as 750 migrants came to board a rickety blue fishing trawler and end up in one of the Mediterranean’s deadliest shipwrecks is bigger than any one of the victims. But for everyone, it started somewhere, and for #Thaer_Khalid_al-Rahal it started with cancer.

      The leukemia diagnosis for his youngest son, 4-year-old Khalid, came early last year. The family had been living in a Jordanian refugee camp for a decade, waiting for official resettlement after fleeing Syria’s bitter war, and doctors said the United Nations’ refugee agency could help cover treatment costs. But agency funds dwindled and the child’s case worsened. When doctors said Khalid needed a bone-marrow transplant, the father confided in relatives that waiting to relocate through official channels was no longer an option. He needed to get to Europe to earn money and save his son.

      “Thaer thought he didn’t have a choice,” said his cousin, Abdulrahman Yousif al-Rahal, reached by phone in the Jordanian refugee camp of Zaatari.

      In Egypt, the journey for #Mohamed_Abdelnasser, 27, started with a creeping realization that his carpentry work could not earn enough to support his wife and two sons.

      For #Matloob_Hussain, 42, it began the day his Greek residency renewal was rejected, sending him back to Pakistan, where his salary helped put food on the table for 20 extended family members amid a crippling economic crisis.

      “Europe doesn’t understand,” said his brother Adiil Hussain, interviewed in Greece where they had lived together. “We don’t leave because we want to. There is simply nothing for us in Pakistan.”

      On Matloob’s earlier journey to Europe, he had been so scared of the water that he kept his eyes closed the whole time. This time, the smugglers promised him they would take him to Italy. They said they would use “a good boat.”

      The trawler left from the Libyan port city of #Tobruk on June 8. Just 104 survivors have reached the Greek mainland. Eighty-two bodies have been recovered, and hundreds more have been swallowed by the sea.

      As the Mediterranean became a stage for tragedy on June 14, a billionaire and several businessmen were preparing for their own voyage in the North Atlantic. The disappearance of their submersible as it dove toward the wreckage of the Titanic sparked a no-expenses-spared search-and-rescue mission and rolling headlines. The ship packed with refugees and migrants did not.

      About half the passengers are believed to have been from Pakistan. The country’s interior minister said Friday that an estimated 350 Pakistanis were on board, and that many may have died. Of the survivors from the boat, 47 are Syrian, 43 Egyptian, 12 Pakistani and two Palestinian.

      Some of the people on the trawler were escaping war. Many were family breadwinners, putting their own lives on the line to help others back home. Some were children. A list of the missing from two towns in the Nile Delta carries 43 names. Almost half of them are under 18 years old.

      This account of what pushed them to risk a notoriously dangerous crossing is based on interviews with survivors in Greece and relatives of the dead in Pakistan, Jordan and Egypt, as the news sent ripples of distress throughout communities from North Africa to South Asia. Some people spoke on the condition of anonymity, because they feared being drawn into government crackdowns on human smuggling networks.

      Rahal’s family said they do not know how he contacted the smugglers in Libya, but remember watching as he creased under the fatigue and shame of having to ask anyone he could for the thousands of dollars they were requesting for safe passage to Italy.

      Thirteen men left from El Na’amna village, south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in the hope of achieving the same. Ten miles away in Ibrash, another village, Abdelnasser left the house as he usually did for his 2 a.m. factory shift but joined a packed car to Libya instead, along with 29 other young men and boys. “He told us nothing,” said his father, Amr. “We would have stopped him.”

      Many of the families said the departures caught them by surprise and that local intermediaries working for the smugglers later communicated with relatives in Egypt to gather the requested funds.

      In El Na’amna, several people said the figure was $4,500 per person — a sum impossibly high for most rural Egyptians. In Ibrash, Abdelnasser’s uncle said, two of the delegates who arrived to collect the money were disguised in women’s dress. Another woman did the talking. She collected the money, photographed receipts, and then told the family that the deal was done.

      ‘He said the boat was very bad’

      The time spent waiting in Libya was harder than the migrants expected, said family members who spoke with them throughout that period. The port city of Tobruk had become a transit hub for people, and the migrants reported that the smugglers treated them like goods to be traded. The lucky ones rented cramped apartments where they could wait near the bright blue sea.

      Travelers who had arranged to meet their intermediaries in the city of Benghazi were transported in large refrigerator trucks to the desert. One survivor described a house there “with a big yard and big walls and people at the door with guns.” It was so busy that people slept in the yard outside. Inside, a 24-year-old Pakistani migrant, Bilal Hassan, tried to lighten the mood by reciting Punjabi poetry. He is smiling in the video he sent his family, but other men in the room look tense.

      Some migrants told their families they were getting anxious and didn’t trust their smugglers. Others sent brief messages to reassure and say that they were fine.

      Rahal spoke to his wife, Nermin, every day. A month passed with no news of onward passage and his mood darkened. He worried about Khalid. In Jordan, the boy kept asking when he would see his father again. “I don’t know,” Rahal texted in reply. When one smuggler’s offer fell through, he found another who promised to get the job done faster. In voice messages to his cousin, he sounded tired.

      “I’ll manage to get the money,” he said.

      His last call to his wife was June 8. Men from the smuggling network were yelling at the migrants to pack together as closely as possible in rubber dinghies that would take them to the trawler. Up ahead, the blue fishing boat looked like it was already full.

      Matloob Hussein, the Pakistani who had lived in Greece, called his brother from the trawler. “He said the boat was very bad,” Adiil recounted. “He said they had loaded people on the boat like cattle. He said he was below deck and that he preferred it so he didn’t have to see that he was surrounded by water.”

      When Adiil asked why his brother hadn’t refused to board, Matloob said the smugglers had guns and knives. As the boat pulled out of Tobruk’s concrete port, he told Adiil he was turning his phone off — he did not expect to have a signal again until they arrived.

      After the calls to loved ones stopped, from the foothills of Kashmir to the villages of the Nile Delta, families held their breath.

      It felt, said one relative, like a film that had just stopped halfway through.

      In hometowns and villages, waiting for news

      News of the blue trawler’s capsize trickled out on the morning of June 14. The coast guard’s initial report said that at least 17 people had drowned while noting that more than 100 had been saved. On the Greek mainland, relatives waited for updates in the baking sun outside a migrant reception center. Back in hometowns and villages, some people kept their cellphones plugged into the power sockets so they did not risk missing a call.

      The residents of El Na’amna and Ibrash didn’t know what to do. Police arrested a local smuggler but provided no updates on the whereabouts of the missing. Rumors swirled that most were dead. The mother of 23-year-old Amr Elsayed described a grief so full that she felt as if she were burning.

      A Pakistani community leader in Greece, Javed Aslam, said he was in direct contact with more than 200 families asking for news. Accounts from survivors suggested that almost all the Pakistani passengers, along with many women and children, had been stuck on the lower levels of the boat as it went down.

      Adiil came looking for his brother. He was turned away from the hospital where survivors had been treated, but left his details anyway. Outside the Malakasa reception center, where the survivors were staying, 15 miles north of Athens, several Pakistanis seemed to know Matloob as “the man in the yellow T-shirt.” No one had seen him since the wreck.

      Perhaps it was crazy, Adiil said Thursday, but somehow he still had hope. He had registered his DNA with the local authorities and he had spoken to other families there every day. Now he didn’t know what to do with himself. His eyes were red from crying. He carried creased photographs of his brother in his pocket.

      In one image, Matloob is standing with his dark-eyed daughter, 10-year-old Arfa. Adiil had told the girl that her father was in the hospital, but that fiction was weighing more on him by the day as she kept asking why they couldn’t speak.

      Khalid had been asking for his father, too, but no one knew how to make a 4-year-old understand something they barely understood themselves.

      Nermin, relatives said, was “in bad shape.” She had a funeral to organize without a body. But first she had to take Khalid to the hospital for his biopsy, to learn how far the cancer had spread.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/06/24/greek-migrant-boat-victims

    • ‘If they had left us be, we wouldn’t have drowned:’ CNN investigation raises questions about Greek coast guard’s account of shipwreck tragedy

      The hull of the fishing trawler lifted out of the water as it sank, catapulting people from the top deck into the black sea below. In the darkness, they grabbed onto whatever they could to stay afloat, pushing each other underwater in a frantic fight for survival. Some were screaming, many began to recite their final prayers.

      “I can still hear the voice of a woman calling out for help,” one survivor of the migrant boat disaster off the coast of Greece told CNN. “You’d swim and move floating bodies out of your way.”

      With hundreds of people still missing after the overloaded vessel capsized in the Mediterranean on June 14, the testimonies of those who were onboard paint a picture of chaos and desperation. They also call into question the Greek coast guard’s version of events, suggesting more lives could have been saved, and may even point to fault on the part of Greek authorities.

      Rights groups allege the tragedy is both further evidence and a result of a new pattern in illegal pushbacks of migrant boats to other nations’ waters, with deadly consequences.

      This boat was carrying up to 750 Pakistani, Syrian, Egyptian and Palestinian refugees and migrants. Only 104 people have been rescued alive.

      CNN has interviewed multiple survivors of the shipwreck and their relatives, all of whom have wished to remain anonymous for security reasons and the fear of retribution from authorities in both Greece and at home.

      One survivor from Syria, whom CNN is identifying as Rami, described how a Greek coast guard vessel approached the trawler multiple times to try to attach a rope to tow the ship, with disastrous results.

      “The third time they towed us, the boat swayed to the right and everyone was screaming, people began falling into the sea, and the boat capsized and no one saw anyone anymore,” he said. “Brothers were separated, cousins were separated.”

      Another Syrian man, identified as Mostafa, also believes it was the maneuver by the coast guard that caused the disaster. “The Greek captain pulled us too fast, it was extremely fast, this caused our boat to sink,” he said.

      The Hellenic Coast Guard has repeatedly denied attempting to tow the vessel. An official investigation into the cause of the tragedy is still ongoing.

      Coast guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told CNN over the phone last week: “When the boat capsized, we were not even next to (the) boat. How could we be towing it?” Instead, he insisted they had only been “observing at a close distance” and that “a shift in weight probably caused by panic” had caused the boat to tip.

      The Hellenic Coast Guard has declined to answer CNN’s specific requests for response to the survivor testimonies.

      Direct accounts from those who survived the wreck have been limited, due to their concerns about speaking out and the media having little access to the survivors. CNN interviewed Rami and Mostafa outside the Malakasa migrant camp near Athens, where journalists are not permitted entry.

      The Syrian men said the conditions on board the migrant boat deteriorated fast in the more than five days after it set off from Tobruk, Libya, in route to Italy. They had run out of water and had resorted to drinking from storage bottles that people had urinated in.

      “People were dying. People were fainting. We used a rope to dip clothes into the sea and use that to squeeze water on people who had lost consciousness,” Rami said.

      CNN’s analysis of marine traffic data, combined with information from NGOs, merchant vessels and the European Union border patrol agency, Frontex, suggests that Greek authorities were aware of the distressed vessel for at least 13 hours before it eventually sank early on June 14.

      The Greek coast guard has maintained that people onboard the trawler had refused rescue and insisted they wanted to continue their journey to Italy. But survivors, relatives and activists say they had asked for help multiple times.

      Earlier in the day, other ships tried to help the trawler. Directed by the Greek coast guard, two merchant vessels – Lucky Sailor and Faithful Warrior – approached the boat between 6 and 9 p.m. on June 13 to offer supplies, according to marine traffic data and the logs of those ships. But according to survivors this only caused more havoc onboard.

      “Fights broke out over food and water, people were screaming and shouting,” Mostafa said. “If it wasn’t for people trying to calm the situation down, the boat was on the verge of sinking several times.”

      By early evening, six people had already died onboard, according to an audio recording reviewed by CNN from Italian activist Nawal Soufi, who took a distress call from the migrant boat at around 7 p.m. Soufi’s communication with the vessel also corroborated Mostafa’s account that people moved from one side of the boat to the other after water bottles were passed from the cargo ships, causing it to sway dangerously.

      The haunting final words sent from the migrant boat came just minutes before it capsized. According to a timeline published by NGO Alarm Phone they received a call, at around 1:45 a.m., with the words “Hello my friend… The ship you send is…” Then the call cuts out.

      The coast guard says the vessel began to sink at around 2 a.m.

      The next known activity in the area, according to marine traffic data, was the arrival of a cluster of vessels starting around 3 a.m. The Mayan Queen superyacht was the first on the scene for what soon became a mass rescue operation.

      A responsibility to rescue

      Human rights groups say the authorities had a duty to act to save lives, regardless of what people on board were saying to the coast guard before the migrant boat capsized.

      “The boat was overcrowded, was unseaworthy and should have been rescued and people taken to safety, that’s quite clear,” UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Vincent Cochetel told CNN in an interview. “There was a responsibility for the Greek authorities to coordinate a rescue to bring those people safely to land.”

      Cochetel also pointed to a growing trend by countries, including Greece, to assist migrant boats in leaving their waters. “That’s a practice we’ve seen in recent months. Some coastal states provide food, provide water, sometimes life jackets, sometimes even fuel to allow such boats to continue to only one destination: Italy. And that’s not fair, Italy cannot cope with that responsibility alone.”

      Survivors who say the coast guard tried to tow their boat say they don’t know what the aim was.

      There have been multiple documented examples in recent years of Greek patrol boats engaging in so-called “pushbacks” of migrant vessels from Greek waters in recent years, including in a CNN investigation in 2020.

      “It looks like what the Greeks have been doing since March 2020 as a matter of policy, which is pushbacks and trying to tow a boat to another country’s water in order to avoid the legal responsibility to rescue,” Omer Shatz, legal director of NGO Front-LEX, told CNN. “Because rescue means disembarkation and disembarkation means processing of asylum requests.”

      Pushbacks are state measures aimed at forcing refugees and migrants out of their territory, while impeding access to legal and procedural frameworks, according to the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). They are a violation of international law, as well as European regulations.

      And such measures do not appear to have deterred human traffickers whose businesses prey on vulnerable and desperate migrants.

      In an interview with CNN last month, then Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis denied that his country engaged in intentional pushbacks and described them as a “completely unacceptable practice.” Mitsotakis is widely expected to win a second term in office in Sunday’s election, after failing to get an outright majority in a vote last month.

      A series of Greek governments have been criticized for their handling of migration policy, including conditions in migrant camps, particularly following the 2015-16 refugee crisis, when more than 1 million people entered Europe through the country.

      For those who lived through last week’s sinking, the harrowing experience will never be forgotten.

      Mostafa and Rami both say they wish they had never made the journey, despite the fact they are now in Europe and are able to claim asylum.

      Most of all, Mostafa says, he wishes the Greek coast guard had never approached their boat: “If they had left us be, we wouldn’t have drowned.”

      https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/23/europe/greece-migrant-boat-disaster-investigation-intl-cmd/index.html
      #témoignage

    • Greece shipwreck survivors faced ’unacceptable’ conditions on arrival in country

      NGOs say survivors of sinking are being held in a closed centre with limited access to psychological support

      Survivors of the Pylos shipwreck, which has left an estimated 500 people missing, faced an “unacceptable” reception in Greece and continue to be held in conditions unsuitable for vulnerable people, NGO workers say.

      The overloaded fishing trawler carrying an estimated 750 people capsized and sank in front of the Greek coastguard last week, following an allegedly botched attempt by the coastguard to tow the vessel.

      The survivors, put at 104 and all men - as no women or children are said to have survived the wreck - were taken to Kalamata, a city on the Peloponnese peninsula, where they were kept in a storage warehouse for two to three days before being transferred to an asylum registration facility at Malakasa, north of Athens.

      “We witnessed an unacceptable reception of extremely vulnerable people in Kalamata,” Eleni Spathanaa, a volunteer lawyer for Refugee Support Aegean, an organisation providing legal advice for the survivors of the wreck, told Middle East Eye.

      Survivors slept on mattresses on the warehouse floor, and the area around it was ringed with fencing. A video posted on Twitter showed a Syrian teenager attempting to embrace his brother through the bars.

      According to Spathanaa, in the first few days no concerted effort was made by authorities to facilitate contact with the survivors’ families, although the Greek Red Cross was providing some access to mobile phones.

      A suffocating experience

      The survivors were transported to a registration facility in Malakasa on 16 and 17 June.

      According to Spathanaa, conditions at #Malakasa are not much of an improvement on those at Kalamata. Survivors are housed in shared shipping containers, and, as at #Kalamata, the facility is ring-fenced, with access severely restricted.

      The prison-like conditions came as a shock.

      “We witnessed... people devastated [and in] shock. They could not even understand where they were,” said Spathanaa. "I could not understand why they were put in a closed centre. Of course, these conditions are not suitable for people who have just survived a shipwreck.

      “These people were [contained], after such a suffocating experience - all of them have lost friends, some of them close relatives... they cannot even conceive what has happened.”

      According to Spathanaa, some of the survivors’ basic needs are not being met at the facility, with some reporting that requests for extra clothing to keep warm at night have been refused. Requests for tea, coffee and cigarettes were also reportedly denied.

      Spathanaa and her colleagues also found that, despite suffering from acute distress, the survivors were being “fast-tracked” through the process of registration for asylum applications.

      “This was quite problematic because most of the people [we met] had not even seen a lawyer before passing through this process,” she said.

      Emergency psychological and medical aid at the facility is being provided by the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF). “We saw a lot of distress,” MSF head of mission Sonia Balleron told MEE. “The medical team is clear that [the survivors] are all potentially at risk of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder].”

      The team have reported treating chemical burns, injuries from exposure to the sun and sea water, as well as hypo-glycaemic shock (the effect of low blood sugar), due to the people aboard the boat being deprived of food for up to six days.

      According to Balleron, many of the survivors are suffering from sleep disorders and night terrors in the wake of the disaster.

      “What we hear mostly... is people [recalling] seeing their friends dying in front of their eyes,” said Balleron. “They also talk about not knowing who survived and who died, which is causing a lot of stress. Families are calling a lot to try to understand if their relatives are among the survivors or not.”
      A political choice

      For Spathanaa, the conditions experienced by the survivors of the wreck on arrival in Kalamata and Malakasa are no accident, but a “political choice”.

      At the end of 2022, the ESTIA accommodation scheme, an EU funded housing programme for vulnerable asylum seekers, was terminated. The programme, which was started in 2015, was intended to assist families with children, people with disabilities and survivors of torture with suitable housing and medical care.

      When it closed on 16 December, vulnerable asylum seekers were transferred from ESTIA accommodation to remote camps with as little as 24 hours’ notice. Human rights groups warned that the curtailment of the scheme could exacerbate isolation of asylum seekers and “re-traumatise” survivors of violence and torture.

      “We have these vulnerable survivors, and we don’t have the option of sheltering them in dignified and suitable conditions,” said Spathanaa. “I don’t think if the shipwreck’s passengers were tourists, that they would treat them like that. They wouldn’t put them in a warehouse.”

      This is not lost on the international community. Social media posts in the wake of the disaster have highlighted the discrepancy in the efforts by the Greek coastguard to prevent last week’s wreck with the resources expended on recovering the missing Titan submarine in the Atlantic Ocean.

      Widespread protests in Greece over the authorities’ inaction to the disaster have also highlighted the inequities that play out in the waters of the Mediterranean: on 18 June, two cruise ships were greeted at Thessaloniki port with a banner reading: “Tourists enjoy your cruise in Europe’s biggest migrants cemetery.”

      https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/greece-shipwreck-survivors-unacceptable-conditions-upon-arrival
      #emprisonnement #survivants

    • On the night of June 14, Captain Richard Kirkby is piloting the Mayan Queen IV, a luxury yacht belonging to a Mexican multibillionaire, through the calm, black waters of the Mediterranean when he receives an emergency call. “Ship sinking. Large number of people. Vessels in the vicinity are requested to initiate search and rescue operations.” The crew hears the screams from people drowning before they can see them.

      The shipwreck that takes place that night would turn out to be the deadliest in the Mediterranean in many years. Around 750 people are thought to have been on board the fishing boat that went down off the coast of the Peloponnese. When the Mayan Queen IV reaches the site at 2:55 a.m., only the lights of another ship can be seen. They belong to the Greek Coast Guard, vessel LS 920 – according to investigation files that DER SPIEGEL and its partners have acquired.

      But the Greeks cannot be reached via radio. So three crew members from the Mayan Queen IV climb into a life boat and start searching for survivors, constantly heading toward the cries for help. They stay as quiet as they can so as not to miss a single voice. Ultimately, they will pull 15 people out of the water.

      Early in the morning, the Greek Coast Guard requests permission to bring additional survivors on board. The Greek vessel is too small to safely bring all the survivors to shore. But the Mayan Queen IV – a ship with four decks, tinted windows and a helicopter landing pad – is large enough. At 7:20 a.m., the yacht sets course for Kalamata. On board are 100 of a total of 104 survivors – migrants wrapped in silver emergency blankets cowering where the super-rich are normally sunning themselves.
      Survivors if the shipwreck in the port of Kalamata: “Ship sinking. Large number of people.”

      Hundreds of refugees don’t survive this night – despite the fact that the Greek Coast Guard arrived at the site several hours before the accident. As early as the morning of the previous day, an Italian agency had sent them a warning and a non-governmental organization had forwarded an SOS from the fishing boat. Even the European Union border control agency Frontex had identified the ship’s plight and offered additional assistance. How can it be that hundreds of migrants died anyway? It is a question that has plagued the Greek Coast Guard for the last two weeks.

      The accusations that survivors have leveled at the Greeks are serious: Did the Coast Guard leave the people to their fate for too long? Were they trying to pull the ship into Italian waters – as some testimony seems to indicate? Perhaps to keep hundreds of migrants from landing in Greece?

      A team of reporters from DER SPIEGEL joined forces with the nonprofit newsroom Lighthouse Reports, investigative journalism consortium Reporters United, the Spanish newspaper El País, the Syrian investigative reporting outlet Siraj and the German public broadcaster ARD to explore these questions. The reporters interviewed survivors, many of whom had already turned to the aid organization Consolidated Rescue Group. They examined leaked investigative reports, videos and geodata and spoke with sources inside Frontex.

      The reporting indicates that, at the very least, the Greek Coast Guard may have made grave errors. Sixteen refugees have accused the Greeks, for example, of causing the fishing boat to capsize, while seven are convinced that Greek rescue attempts were hesitant at best – which would mean they were willing to accept the deaths of hundreds of people. There are also serious doubts about the willingness of Greek authorities to thoroughly investigate the disaster. The leaked investigation reports raise questions as to whether Greek officials may have altered testimony in their favor.

      One of those who survived, we’ll call him Manhal Abdulkareem, tells his story in mid-June from the Greek camp Malakasa. He requests that we not use his real name or even describe him out of fear of how the Greek authorities might react. What he has to say does not paint them in a positive light.

      The Syrian once worked as a stonemason in Jordan. Last spring, he decided to risk the crossing to Italy. He traveled to Libya and boarded the vessel in the port city of Tobruk on June 9. Abdulkareem is one of hundreds of people who crowded onto the vessel, and he was one of the lucky ones: He was able to buy himself a place on deck. Later, it would save his life.

      Other refugees crowded into the boat’s cold storage room. According to survivors, women and children were below decks, many of them from Pakistan. For them, the belly of the ship would turn into a coffin.

      Abdulkareem’s account of the initial days onboard the ship is consistent with the stories told by other survivors. He says that they began running out of water on the third of five days onboard, that the motor cut out on several occasions and that the captain seemed to have lost his orientation. The goal of reaching Italy was more distant than ever.

      The Greek Coast Guard was also aware of the dire situation onboard the fishing boat. On the morning of June 13, they received the first warning from the Italian Coast Guard. Frontex agents filmed the ship from the air at midday. At 5:13 p.m. local time, the non-governmental organization Alarmphone wrote an email to the Greek authorities. The email noted that there were 750 people on the ship. “They are requesting urgent assistance.”

      At the time of the call for help, the fishing vessel was around 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the coast of the Peloponnese. Nevertheless, the Greek Coast Guard sent a ship that was anchored in far-away Crete.

      At least two freighters supplied the fishing vessel with water, but they didn’t take anyone onboard. Abdulkareem and other survivors say that by this point, two passengers on the boat had already died. The Greek Coast Guard ship only arrived at 10:40 p.m.

      There are two versions for what then took place.

      Manhal Abdulkareem reports that the Greek Coast Guard escorted their ship for a time, until the fishing boat’s engine again cut out. Then, he says, the Coast Guard attached a rope to the vessel. “We thought they knew what they were doing,” says Abdulkareem.

      The Coast Guard, he says, towed the vessel at a rapid speed, first to the right, then the left, and then back to the right – and then it capsized. Fifteen additional survivors tell a similar story. Some believe the behavior of the Coast Guard was accidental. Others think it was intentional.

      When the vessel capsized, there were people trapped inside its hull. One survivor says he heard them knocking. Those who were on deck jumped into the water. “People were falling on us,” says one man from Egypt. Some clung to the sinking vessel, while others grabbed in a panic for anything that was floating, including other people.

      “I know how to swim, but that wasn’t enough,” Abdulkareem would later say. He says he had to avoid others so that he wouldn’t be pulled down into the depths. Four survivors say that the Coast Guard put those in the water in even greater danger by maneuvering in such a way that created large waves.

      While still in the water, Abdulkareem began searching for his brother, but was unable to find him. As the vessel was sinking, say survivors, the Greek Coast Guard ship pulled back to a distance of hundreds of meters.

      Abdulkareem and six others accuse the Greeks of delayed rescue efforts and only launching inflatable dinghies after significant time had passed. Some estimate that several minutes passed before they took any action at all. Others say the delay was fully half an hour. “They could have saved many people,” says a survivor from Syria. Abdulkareem’s brother still hasn’t been found.

      The Greek Coast Guard has a competing account for what took place. According to an official log from June 14, their ship reported on the evening prior to the disaster that the refugees were “on a stable course” – a claim that video evidence and tracking data refute. The people on board, according to the official account, rejected assistance because they “wanted nothing more than to continue onward to Italy.” If the Greek Coast Guard is to be believed, the fishing boat capsized shortly after 2 a.m. The first official log provides no cause for the accident.

      Later, the Greek government spokesman said that the Coast Guard had attached a rope to the boat. But only to “stabilize” the vessel. By the time of the accident, the rope had already been cast off, the spokesman said, and the fishing vessel had never been towed. The rope, he insists, was not the cause of the shipwreck. In an interview with CNN, a Coast Guard spokesman speculated that panic may have broken out onboard, leading to the boat listing to one side.

      There is no proof for either version. But doubts about the Greek account are significant, even within Frontex. At the agency’s headquarters in Warsaw, EU border guards can follow in real time what is taking place on the EU’s external borders. In this case, the agents must have realized early on the danger that the migrants were in.

      On two occasions – at 6:35 p.m. and at 9:34 p.m. – they offered to send the airplane back to the ship that the migrants had already seen at midday. It was refueled and ready to take off, according to an internal memo that DER SPIEGEL has obtained. But the Greek Rescue Coordination Center in Piraeus, Frontex says, ignored the offer. The plane remained on the ground.

      The only other available aircraft, a Frontex drone, was initially sent to another distress call, according to Frontex. It only arrived at the scene after the fishing vessel had sunk. In Brussels, hardly anyone believes that the rebuff of Frontex was an accident. Many see a pattern: Greek authorities systematically send away Frontex units, says one Brussels official. That happens particularly often, the official says, in situations that later turn out to be controversial.

      The mistrust with which Athens now finds itself confronted – even from EU institutions – has a lot to do with previous violations of international law on the Aegean. The Greek Coast Guard has repeatedly towed groups of refugees back into Turkish waters – before then abandoning them on life rafts with no means of propulsion.

      Proof for such pushbacks has become so overwhelming that the Frontex fundamental rights officer recently recommended that the organization suspend cooperation with the Greek Coast Guard. The “strongest possible measures” are necessary to ensure that the Greeks once again begin complying with applicable law, reads an internal memo that DER SPIEGEL has obtained. Joint missions can only be resumed once a new basis for trust has been established, the memo continues.

      The skepticism has become so great that Frontex has even sent a team to Greece to question survivors itself. Two Frontex officials say that the results of investigations conducted thus far seem to contradict the Greek version of events. One Greek lawyer is even demanding an official state investigation of the Coast Guard for manslaughter through failure to render aid.

      Most survivors, though, don’t believe that the Greek state will investigate the role played by its own Coast Guard. The treatment they received in the days following the catastrophe was too poor for such optimism.

      Sami Al Yafi, a young Syrian, is one of them. He, too, has asked that his real name not be printed out of fear of the Greek authorities. He accuses the Coast Guard of manipulating his statement. He claims to have clearly testified that the Coast Guard had caused the ship to capsize, but he was unable to find that statement in the transcript of his interview. An additional survivor says that he had a similar experience.

      There are also corresponding inconsistencies in the investigation file. In six instances, according to the file, survivors said nothing about a tow rope in their first interview with the Coast Guard – or at least there is no mention of such in the minutes taken by the Coast Guard. Later, in interviews with public prosecutors, they then accused the Coast Guard of causing the capsizing by towing the vessel.

      Moreover, the minutes taken by the Greek Coast Guard frequently include the exact same formulations. According to those minutes, four survivors used exactly the same words in describing the events – despite the fact that the interviews were led by different interpreters. In one case, a member of the Coast Guard apparently acted as an interpreter.

      When approached for comment, Greek officials said they were unable to comment on the accusations. The accounts, they said, are part of a confidential investigation. They said they were also unable to comment on the actions of the Coast Guard.

      Manhal Abdulkareem, the man who lost his brother, isn’t satisfied. “We are a group of 104 survivors,” he says. All of them know, he says, who caused the boat to capsize.

      On at least one occasion, Greek officials have been found guilty of accusations similar to those that have now been lodged by Abdulkareem and other survivors. It was left up to the European Court of Human Rights to pass that verdict. Last year, the court found that the Greek Coast Guard in 2014 towed a refugee boat until it capsized. Three women and eight children died in that incident. Then, too, the Coast Guard claimed that panic had broken out onboard the vessel and that the refugees themselves had caused the boat to capsize. It is the exact same story they are currently telling.

      https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/new-accusations-against-the-greek-coast-guard-we-thought-they-knew-what-they

    • Everyone Knew the Migrant Ship Was Doomed. No One Helped.

      Satellite imagery, sealed court documents and interviews with survivors suggest that hundreds of deaths were preventable.

      From air and by sea, using radar, telephone and radio, officials watched and listened for 13 hours as the migrant ship Adriana lost power, then drifted aimlessly off the coast of Greece in a slowly unfolding humanitarian disaster.

      As terrified passengers telephoned for help, humanitarian workers assured them that a rescue team was coming. European border officials, watching aerial footage, prepared to witness what was certain to be a heroic operation.

      Yet the Adriana capsized and sank in the presence of a single Greek Coast Guard ship last month, killing more than 600 migrants in a maritime tragedy that was shocking even for the world’s deadliest migrant route.

      Satellite imagery, sealed court documents, more than 20 interviews with survivors and officials, and a flurry of radio signals transmitted in the final hours suggest that the scale of death was preventable.

      Dozens of officials and coast guard crews monitored the ship, yet the Greek government treated the situation like a law enforcement operation, not a rescue. Rather than send a navy hospital ship or rescue specialists, the authorities sent a team that included four masked, armed men from a coast guard special operations unit.

      The Greek authorities have repeatedly said that the Adriana was sailing to Italy, and that the migrants did not want to be rescued. But satellite imagery and tracking data obtained by The New York Times show definitively that the Adriana was drifting in a loop for its last six and a half hours. And in sworn testimony, survivors described passengers on the ship’s upper decks calling for help and even trying to jump aboard a commercial tanker that had stopped to provide drinking water.

      On board the Adriana, the roughly 750 passengers descended into violence and desperation. Every movement threatened to capsize the ship. Survivors described beatings and panic as they waited for a rescue that would never come.

      The sinking of the Adriana is an extreme example of a longtime standoff in the Mediterranean. Ruthless smugglers in North Africa cram people onto shoddy vessels, and passengers hope that, if things go wrong, they will be taken to safety. But European coast guards often postpone rescues out of fear that helping will embolden smugglers to send more people on ever-flimsier ships. And as European politics have swung to the right, each new arriving ship is a potential political flashpoint.

      So even as passengers on the Adriana called for help, the authorities chose to listen to the boat’s captain, a 22-year-old Egyptian man who said he wanted to continue to Italy. Smuggling captains are typically paid only when they reach their destinations.

      The Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs said it would not respond to detailed questions because the shipwreck was under criminal investigation.

      Despite many hours of on-and-off surveillance, the only eyewitnesses to the Adriana’s final moments were the survivors and 13 crew members aboard the coast guard ship, known as the 920. A Maritime Ministry spokesman has said that the ship’s night-vision camera was switched off at the time. Court documents show that the coast guard captain gave the authorities a CD-ROM containing video recordings, but the source of the recordings is unclear, and they have not been made public.

      Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece defended the coast guard during comments in Brussels this past week, calling its critics “profoundly unfair.” The sinking has brought rare public criticism from officials in the European Union, which has remained silent as the Greek government has hardened its stance toward migrants.

      In Greece, nine Egyptian survivors from the Adriana were arrested and charged with smuggling and causing the shipwreck. In sworn testimonies and interviews, survivors said that many of the nine brutalized and extorted passengers. But interviews with relatives of those accused paint a more complicated picture. At least one of the men charged with being a smuggler had himself paid a full fee of more than $4,000 to be on the ship.

      Collectively paying as much as $3.5 million to be smuggled to Italy, migrants crammed into the Adriana in what survivors recalled was a hellish class system: Pakistanis at the bottom; women and children in the middle; and Syrians, Palestinians and Egyptians at the top.

      An extra $50 or so could earn someone a spot on the deck. For some, that turned out to be the difference between life and death.

      Many of the passengers, at least 350, came from Pakistan, the Pakistani government said. Most were in the lower decks and the ship’s hold. Of them, 12 survived.

      The women and young children went down with the ship.
      Setting Sail

      Kamiran Ahmad, a Syrian teenager, a month shy of his 18th birthday, had arrived in Tobruk, Libya, with hopes for a new life. He had worked with his father, a tailor, after school. His parents sold land to pay smugglers to take him to Italy, praying that he would make it to Germany to study, work and maybe send some money home.
      Editors’ Picks
      We Have a Taylor Swift Concert Crisis. How Do We Solve It?
      You Really Are a Tick Magnet
      How Amazon Taught Alexa to Speak in an Irish Brogue
      Continue reading the main story

      “We had no choice but to send him by sea,” his father said in an interview.

      But as the Adriana set sail at dawn on June 9, Kamiran was worried. His cousin, Roghaayan Adil Ehmed, 24, who went with him, could not swim. And the boat was overcrowded, with nearly twice as many passengers as he had been told.

      No life vests were available, so Roghaayan paid $600 to get himself, Kamiran and a friend to an upper deck.

      They were part of a group of 11 young men and boys from Kobani, a mainly Kurdish city in Syria devastated by more than decade of war. The group stayed in dingy, rented rooms in Beirut, Lebanon, then flew to Egypt and on to Libya.

      The youngest, Waleed Mohammad Qasem, 14, wanted to be a doctor. When he heard that his uncle Mohammad Fawzi Sheikhi was going to Europe, he begged to go. On the flight to Egypt, the two smiled for a selfie.

      Haseeb ur-Rehman, 20, a motorcycle mechanic from the Pakistan-administrated Kashmir, felt he had to leave home to help his family survive. Together with three friends, he paid $8,000 and left for Libya.

      He was one of the few Pakistanis who managed to snatch a spot on deck.

      The journey, if all went well, would take three days.

      As early as the second day, survivors recalled, the engine started breaking down.
      Lost

      By Day 3, food and clean drinking water had run out. Some migrants put dried prunes in seawater, hoping the sweetness would mellow the saltiness. Others paid young men $20 for dirty water.

      Unrest spread as it became clear that the captain, who was spending most of his time on a satellite phone, had lost his way.

      When Pakistanis pushed toward the upper deck, Egyptian men working with the captain beat them, often with a belt, according to testimony. Those men, some of whom are among the nine arrested in Greece, emerged as enforcers of discipline.

      Ahmed Ezzat, 26, from the Nile Delta, was among them. He is accused of smuggling people and causing the shipwreck. In an interview, his brother, Islam Ezzat, said that Ahmed disappeared from their village in mid-May and re-emerged in Libya weeks later. He said a smuggler had sent someone to the family home to collect 140,000 Egyptian pounds, or $4,500, the standard fee for a spot on the Adriana.

      Islam said he did not believe Ahmed had been involved in the smuggling because he had paid the fee. He said the family was cooperating with the Egyptian authorities. Ahmed, like the others who have been charged, has pleaded not guilty.
      ‘They Will Rescue You’

      By Day 4, according to testimonies and interviews, six people in the hold of the ship, including at least one child, had died.

      The next day, June 13, as the Adriana lurched toward Italy between engine breakdowns, migrants on deck persuaded the captain to send a distress call to the Italian authorities.

      The Adriana was in international waters then, and the captain was focused on getting to Italy. Experts who study this migratory route say that captains are typically paid on arrival. That is supported by some survivors who said their fees were held by middlemen, to be paid once they had arrived safely in Italy.

      The captain, some survivors recalled, said the Italian authorities would rescue the ship and take people to shore.

      Just before 1 p.m., a glimmer of hope appeared in the sky. A plane.

      Frontex, the European Union border agency, had been alerted by the Italian authorities that the Adriana was in trouble and rushed to its coordinates. There was no doubt the ship was perilously overloaded, E.U. officials said, and unlikely to make it to any port without help.

      Images of the rusty blue fishing boat appeared in the Frontex command center in Warsaw, where two German journalists happened to be touring, a Frontex spokesman said. The Adriana was a chance to showcase the agency’s ability to detect ships in distress and save lives.

      Now that Frontex had seen the ship, which was in Greece’s search-and-rescue area of international waters, the Greek authorities would surely rush to help.

      Two hours later, a Greek Coast Guard helicopter flew past. Its aerial photographs show the ship’s upper decks crammed with people waving their hands.

      Nawal Soufi, an Italian activist, fielded calls from frantic migrants.

      “I’m sure that they will rescue you,” she told them. “But be patient. It won’t be immediate.”
      Mayday

      Around 7 p.m. on June 13, almost seven hours after Frontex spotted the Adriana, the Greek authorities asked two nearby commercial tankers to bring the migrants water, food and diesel to continue their journey, according to video recordings and court documents.

      A crucial part of the Greek authorities’ explanation for not rescuing the Adriana is their claim that it was actively sailing toward Italy. When the BBC, using data from neighboring vessels, reported that the Adriana had been practically idle for several hours before it sank, the Greek government noted that the ship had covered 30 nautical miles toward Italy since its detection by Frontex.

      But satellite imagery and data from the ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic show that the Adriana was adrift for its final seven hours or so. Radar satellite imagery from the European Space Agency shows that by the time the Greeks summoned the commercial ships, the Adriana had already reached its closest point to Italy.

      From then on, it was drifting backward.

      The first tanker, the Lucky Sailor, arrived within minutes. The second, the Faithful Warrior, arrived in about two and a half hours. The captain of the Faithful Warrior reported that some passengers had thrown back supplies and screamed that they wanted to continue to Italy. How many people actually rejected help is unclear, but they included the Adriana’s captain and the handful of men who terrorized the passengers, according to survivors’ testimonies and interviews.

      Others were placing distress calls. Alarm Phone, a nonprofit group that fields migrant mayday calls, immediately and repeatedly told the Greek authorities, Frontex and the United Nations refugee agency that people on the Adriana were desperate to be rescued. Several passengers testified that they had tried to jump aboard the Faithful Warrior. But the migrants said that the frenzy only destabilized the Adriana, so the Faithful Warrior withdrew.

      As night fell, the Faithful Warrior’s captain told the Greek control center that the Adriana was “rocking dangerously.”

      Radio transmission records show that, over five hours, the Greek control center transmitted five messages across the Mediterranean using a channel reserved for safety and distress calls.

      Henrik Flornaes, a Danish father of two on a yacht far from the area, said he heard two mayday relay signals that night. They provided coordinates near the location of the Adriana, he said.

      A mayday relay directs nearby ships to begin a search and rescue.

      But the Greek Coast Guard itself mounted no such mission at this point.
      An End Foretold

      As midnight of June 14 approached, the Greek Coast Guard vessel 920, the only government ship dispatched to the scene, arrived alongside the Adriana.

      The presence of the 920 did not reassure the migrants. Several said in interviews that they were unsettled by the masked men. In the past, the Greek government has used the coast guard to deter migration. In May, The Times published video footage showing officers rounding up migrants and ditching them on a raft in the Aegean Sea.

      The mission of the 920 is unclear, as is what happened after it arrived and floated nearby for three hours. Some survivors say it tried to tow the Adriana, capsizing it. The coast guard denied that at first, then acknowledged throwing a rope to the trawler, but said that was hours before it sank.

      To be sure, attempts to remove passengers might have backfired. Sudden changes in weight distribution on an overcrowded, swaying ship could have capsized it. And while the 920 was larger was than the Adriana, it was not clear if had space to accommodate the migrant passengers.

      But Greece, one of the world’s foremost maritime nations, was equipped to carry out a rescue. Navy ships, including those with medical resources, could have arrived in the 13 hours after the Frontex alert.

      Exactly what capsized the ship is unclear. The coast guard blames a commotion on the ship. But everyone agrees that it swayed once to the left, then to the right, and then flipped.

      Those on deck were tossed into the sea. Panicking people stepped on each other in the dark, desperately using each other to come up for air, to stay alive.

      At the water’s surface, some clung to pieces of wood, surrounded by drowned friends, relatives and strangers. Others climbed onto the ship’s sinking hull. Coast guard crew members pulled dozens of people from the sea. One person testified that he had initially swum away from the 920, fearing that the crew would drown him.

      Waleed Mohammad Qasem, the 14-year-old who wanted to be a doctor, drowned. So did his uncle, who had posed with him for a selfie. The ship’s captain also died.

      Hundreds of people, including the women and young children, inside the Adriana stood no chance. They would have been flipped upside down, hurled together against the ship as the sea poured in. The ship took them down within a minute.

      Haseeb ur-Rehman, the Pakistani motorcycle mechanic on the top deck, survived. “It was in my destiny,” he said from a migrant camp near Athens. “Otherwise, my body would have been lost, like the other people in the boat.”

      Near the end, Kamiran Ahmad, the teenager who had hoped to study in Germany, turned to his cousin Roghaayan. From the migrant center in Greece, the older cousin remembered his words: “Didn’t I tell you we were going to die? Didn’t I tell you we were already dead?”

      Both went into the water. Kamiran’s body has not been recovered.

      https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/world/europe/greece-migrant-ship.html

  • #Santé_mentale et migration

    #Marie-Caroline_Saglio-Yatzimirski, directrice adjointe de l’Institut Convergence Migrations, anthropologue et psychologue, explique comment les vécus pré-migratoires (#violences extrêmes, #tortures, #viols, #emprisonnement…), migratoires (séparations, pertes familiales…) et post-migratoires (déracinement, perte identitaire, précarité et stigmatisation, conditions d’accueil…) peuvent détériorer la santé mentale.
    Parmi ces personnes, certaines vivent dans des conditions particulièrement précaires (rue, camps), certaines sont très vulnérables (jeunes mères, mineurs non accompagnés…).

    Les violences sont répétées dans les longs parcours migratoires et les conditions d’accueil ont tendance à dégrader la santé mentale des personnes. En conséquence, il y a une prévalence des troubles stress post-traumatiques et des dépressions chez les migrants.
    Malgré leur besoin de prise en charge, ces personnes rencontrent des difficultés d’accès aux soins.

    #Andréa_Tortelli, psychiatre et chercheuse à l’INSERM, souligne que de nombreuses barrières s’opposent à la prise en charge des migrants : la nécessité d’interprétariat par exemple, l’absence d’adresse stable, des services psychiatriques peu concentrés sur les pathologies des migrants. Quant aux personnes migrantes, la #santé n’est pas prioritaire par rapport aux besoins vitaux de se nourrir, de nourrir les enfants. Ils sont isolés et ont une méconnaissance du système. La #prise_en_charge est surtout un travail de #prévention des facteurs de #détresse : accompagnement social, somatique, et psychiatrique. La prise en charge idéale est globale.
    Ces personnes ont fait de longs parcours et ont déjà fait preuve de facteurs de résilience.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYmqTxHRVnA&t=5s

    #migrations #réfugiés #précarité #vulnérabilité