More than three dozen migrant children in Chicago shelters infected with coronavirus | TheHill
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#US#centrederetention#mineurnonaccompagne
▻https://thehill.com/homenews/news/492718-more-than-three-dozen-migrant-children-in-chicago-shelters-infected-
Loir-et-Cher : la crise sanitaire pénalise les plus fragiles
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#France#mineurnonaccompagne
▻https://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/loir-et-cher/la-crise-sanitaire-penalise-les-plus-fragiles
Grèce : Remettre en liberté les enfants migrants non accompagnés
14 avril 2020 12:00AM EDT
Dans le contexte du COVID-19, une nouvelle campagne appelle à héberger ces enfants au lieu de les maintenir en détention
(Athènes) – Le Premier ministre Kyriakos Mitsotakis devrait faire libérer les centaines d’enfants migrants non accompagnés qui sont détenus dans des cellules de postes de police et des centres de détention insalubres en Grèce, a déclaré Human Rights Watch aujourd’hui. Libérés de leurs conditions de détention abusives, ils seraient mieux protégés de l’infection dans le contexte de la pandémie de coronavirus.
La campagne #FreeTheKids, qui débute le 14 avril 2020, incite le public à faire pression sur le Premier ministre Mitsotakis afin qu’il ordonne la libération immédiate des enfants migrants non accompagnés qui sont en détention et leur transfert vers des lieux d’hébergement sûrs et adaptés aux enfants. Human Rights Watch lance cette campagne après des années de recherche et de plaidoyer portant sur la pratique de la Grèce consistant à enfermer, dans des cellules de postes de police et des centres de détention, les enfants qui se trouvent en Grèce sans un parent ou un proche. L’organisation a déjà exhorté les gouvernements successifs de mettre fin à ces graves atteintes aux droits humains.
« Garder des enfants enfermés dans les cellules crasseuses des postes de police a toujours été une erreur, mais désormais cela les expose de surcroît au risque d’infection par le COVID-19 », a déclaré Eva Cossé, chercheuse sur la Grèce à Human Rights Watch. « Le gouvernement grec a le devoir de faire cesser cette pratique abusive et de veiller à ce que ces enfants vulnérables reçoivent les soins et la protection dont ils ont besoin. »
D’après le Centre national pour la solidarité sociale, une instance gouvernementale, à la date du 31 mars, 331 enfants étaient détenus par la police en attente d’un transfert vers un refuge, ce qui représente une forte hausse par rapport à janvier, où 180 enfants non accompagnés étaient derrière les barreaux.
Les maladies infectieuses telles que le COVID-19 représentent un risque élevé pour les populations vivant dans des institutions fermées comme les prisons et les centres de détention migratoire. Or il a souvent été constaté que ces institutions fournissaient des soins médicaux inadéquats, même dans des circonstances normales. Dans de nombreux centres de détention, les salles d’eau communes et l’hygiène défaillante font qu’il est quasiment impossible de mettre en place les mesures basiques de prévention d’une épidémie de COVID-19.
Les autorités grecques décrivent la détention des enfants non accompagnés comme un « régime de garde préventive » et prétendent qu’il s’agit d’une mesure temporaire de protection prise dans le meilleur intérêt de l’enfant. En pratique, pourtant, cette détention est tout sauf une protection. En vertu de la loi grecque, les enfants non accompagnés devraient être transférés vers un hébergement sûr, mais la Grèce connaît une pénurie chronique de places dans les lieux de vie adaptés, comme les refuges pour enfants non accompagnés.
En conséquence de quoi, ont montré les recherches de Human Rights Watch, les enfants subissent des détentions arbitraires et prolongées ainsi que des traitements abusifs dans des conditions insalubres et dégradantes, y compris le fait d’être détenus avec des adultes et des mauvais traitements aux mains de la police. Souvent ils n’ont pas accès aux soins médicaux, au soutien psychologique ou à l’aide juridique, et peu d’entre eux connaissent les raisons de leur détention ou le temps qu’ils passeront derrière les barreaux. La détention a de graves répercussions à long terme sur le développement et la santé mentale des enfants, avec notamment une prévalence plus élevée de l’anxiété, de la dépression et du trouble de stress post-traumatique.
En 2019, la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme s’est prononcée à deux reprises contre la pratique de la Grèce consistant à détenir les enfants non accompagnés, jugeant que leur détention violait leur droit à la liberté et que leurs conditions de vie les exposaient à des traitements dégradants.
Le 24 novembre 2019, le Premier ministre grec a annoncé un plan nommé No Child Alone (« aucun enfant seul ») visant à protéger les enfants non accompagnés, notamment en créant davantage de refuges. Mais ce plan ne met pas fin au régime de « garde préventive » et n’élimine pas le risque, pour les enfants, de subir une détention dommageable.
Afin d’honorer ses obligations envers ces enfants durant la pandémie de COVID-19, la Grèce devrait créer, à destination de ceux qui sont actuellement détenus, davantage de places dans des lieux d’hébergement adaptés aux enfants, comme des hôtels et des familles d’accueil, ainsi que des appartements pour les enfants non accompagnés âgés de 16 à 18 ans, dans le cadre d’un programme d’aide à la vie autonome.
La Grèce devrait également œuvrer à augmenter sa capacité d’hébergement à long terme et à mettre en place un système général de familles d’accueil qui bénéficierait aussi aux enfants grecs. Les lois et les pratiques grecques devraient être adaptées pour se conformer aux normes et règles internationales, en établissant que la détention d’enfants pour des raisons liées à leur statut migratoire constitue une violation de leurs droits et qu’elle n’est jamais dans le meilleur intérêt de l’enfant, même dans le cas des enfants non accompagnés.
▻https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2020/04/14/grece-remettre-en-liberte-les-enfants-migrants-non-accompagnes
#Covid-19 #Migration #Migrant #Balkans #Grèce #Camp #Enfant #Mineursnonaccompagnés #Transfert
Patel refuses to take children from Greek camps threatened by Covid-19
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/12/patel-refuses-to-take-children-from-greek-camps-threatened-by-covid-19
The home secretary has ignored pleas from charities, as refugees already accepted to join family in the UK are trapped in travel chaos
Priti Patel has refused pleas to accept more unaccompanied children from the notoriously overcrowded refugee camps on the Greek islands amid dire warnings of an impending humanitarian catastrophe.
The charity Médecins Sans Frontières wrote to the home secretary on 13 March asking her to “significantly increase” the number of child refugees transferred to the UK as well as “facilitate the urgent evacuation” of those with chronic and complex health conditions.
Patel did not respond. Instead the Foreign Office replied on 31 March, saying the UK would continue to support the implementation of the EU-Turkey deal, which for the past four years has aimed to prevent asylum seekers from travelling to Europe.
Vickie Hawkins, executive director of MSF UK, described the response as “shameful”, arguing that the deal was ostensibly a containment policy and an abandonment of the EU’s responsibilities towards refugees. “This cynical deal traps thousands of people – many of them children or deeply vulnerable – in squalid conditions on the Greek islands,” she said.
“The UK government must stop sacrificing basic refugee rights for the sake of its migration agenda.”
Holding facilities on all five Aegean isles, including Moria, the squalid refugee camp on Lesbos, opposite the Turkish coast, are currently six times over capacity. Humanitarian organisations have warned that a coronavirus outbreak in the camps, where social distancing is impossible for many, could prompt a public health emergency.
The European parliament’s civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee recently urged the evacuation of 42,000 people on the islands as “an urgent preventive” measure.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are continuing to process Dublin cases, including children, as far as the current restrictions in place across Europe permit.
“It is widely known that arrangements to complete a transfer are the responsibility of the sending state.
“This is a fast-changing situation and we, along with EU member states, will be subject to wider decisions from respective governments, including travel restrictions related to coronavirus.”
’Coronavirus doesn’t respect barbed wire’: concern mounts for Greek camps
Read more
It has also emerged that charities recently asked EU countries to help “decongest” the Greek island camps ahead of a possible Covid-19 outbreak. Again, the UK government is understood to have refused to offer assistance, with MSF saying that a number of EU countries including Germany, France, Luxembourg, Finland, Belgium and Bulgaria had volunteered to help transfer 2,000 children from the islands.
Aurélie Ponthieu, MSF’s forced migration team coordinator, said: “The UK has so far not volunteered to help the children. These measures are symbolic; if these camps get the virus it’s going to be a disaster. Access to healthcare is very limited.”
The legal charity Safe Passage last week sent the Home Office a list of unaccompanied children and vulnerable adult refugees who have been legally accepted for transfer to join family in the UK, but who are now trapped on the Greek islands because of the coronavirus travel chaos.
Beth Gardiner-Smith, chief executive of Safe Passage International, said: “The government cannot now sit on its hands. We have a small window of opportunity to evacuate all those unaccompanied children and vulnerable adults who have families here in the UK waiting to receive them now at grave risk in overcrowded and unsanitary camps and settlements.
“We know children will be leaving on charter flights to the EU next week, why not to the UK too?” she added.
• This article was amended on 13 April 2020 to include a comment from the Home Office.
#Covid-19 #Migration #Migrant #Balkans #Grèce #Camp #Royaume-Uni #mineursnonaccompagnés #transferts
Are You Syrious (AYS)
AYS Daily Digest 07/04/20
▻https://medium.com/are-you-syrious/ays-daily-digest-07-04-20-luxembourg-and-germany-agree-to-take-in-small-numb
AYS Daily Digest 07/04/20
FEATURE Luxembourg and Germany are finally going to take in some children suffering in Greece’s island camps.
Germany is going to take in 50 and Luxembourg will take in…12. There are at least 5,500 unaccompanied minors currently in Greece. A group of countries decided last week to collectively bring in 1,600 of these unaccompanied children, but COVID-19 has slowed this process.
Luxembourg is the first country escort any these children; their 12 being on Lesvos and Chios currently. Their relocation will happen sometime next week. At least 5,488 unaccompanied children will remain living in horrid conditions afterwards.
#Covid-19 #Migration #Migrant #Balkans #Grèce #Camp #Luxembourg #Allemagne #Enfant #mineursnonaccompagnés #Lesbos #Chios #transfert
*
3rd day of hunger strike in Moria Prison
On April 5th, the prisoners in Moria’s pre-removal detention centre went on strike for their immediate removal. No Border Kitchen Lesvos explains:
“These days governments across the world have been releasing people with short sentences from prison, while the Greek state continues to insist that no migrant detainees will be released. The men here in the prison are held in administrative detention and have committed no crime. They are detained only because of their status. Some because of their nationality, some because their asylum claim was rejected, some because they tried to leave the islands, some even because they signed up for supposed “voluntary return”. Many of those with rejected claims haven’t even had the opportunity to apply for asylum, because of recent legal changes discriminating against people who don’t speak the colonialist language of the country they fled from. They are awaiting deportation to Turkey, despite there being no deportations scheduled for the foreseeable future.”
#Moria #Camp #Expulsion #Turquie #Grèvedelafaim #Asile #Retourvolontaire
*
Migration Minister’s page says medical staff is recruited for detention centres:
“today began(…) recruitment of emergency staff(…), lasting three (3) months to meet the extraordinary needs of the Reception and Identification Centers and Temporary Supply and Supply Structures for Hosting Services. A total of 150 people will be hired at the KYT of #Lesvos, #Chios, #Samos, #Leros and #Kos, as well as at the Structures of #Malakassa and #Sintiki” and #Evros #prison #outpost.”
“new arrivals from March 1 have not been taken to the Reception and Identification Centers of the Islands but in separate quarantine areas, however there are difficulties to do so(…). So far, the Ministry has not received a positive response from the municipalities for hotel rentals for the removal of vulnerable groups from the KYT to the islands. “The European Commission has offered to cover hotels for the most vulnerable for a short time now due to the crisis, we have a written response from the local municipality that it refuses to use hotels to get the most vulnerable out of #Moria. What some are calling for a mass decongestion of Moria, that is, for 15,000 people to come from Moria to mainland Greece amid the crisis of the corona (…).there are no 15,000 vacancies in the hinterland and if there were they would be in structures like Ritsona. And in the end, it is not a given which place is safer “, the Minister stressed.
**
#Ritsona #camp has been in lock down for 5 days now
…no asylum seeker in or out since at least 23 out of 2,700 people living in the camp have tested positive for COVID-19.
The 23 people who tested positive for the virus continue to live with their families, who most likely will contact it soon, and none of them show any symptoms of the virus as of yet. Therefore, they are said to feel discriminated by the tests and are refusing to move to the camp’s designated quarantine areas.
All 23 persons are from African nations, which is unfortunately increasing acts of #racism in the camp. One of the residents said that the other refugees are avoiding African nationals.
Testing has stalled in the camp because the medical professionals can only go in to conduct the tests with police, but fewer police are willing to enter now.
Germany to take in 50 refugee children from Greek islands
Germany will take in fifty unaccompanied minors from the Greek islands next week. Critics say this is too little, too late, given that tens of thousands of migrants and refugees remain in the overcrowded camps.
The German interior ministry announced on Tuesday that the federal cabinet was set to approve the transfer of 50 unaccompanied minors to Germany on Wednesday.
The children and teenagers will be brought to Germany “in the following week if possible,” the ministry said. After their arrival, they will be quarantined for two weeks and then send to different states across the country.
In an interview with German TV stations RTL and n-tv on Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that Germany would take in a total of 350 to 500 minors over the next few weeks. He also said that Germany and Luxembourg were currently the only countries within the European Union (EU) willing to take in refugees and migrants from Greece.
According to Maas, Germany and Luxembourg will try to carry out a charter flight together next week.
Plans to relocate refugees stalled by coronavirus
In early March, the three governing parties in Germany had agreed on taking in between 1,000 and 1,500 foreign minors that were particularly vulnerable (i.e. either seriously ill or under the age of 14 and without their families) from Greece.
Also in early March, several EU states had announced that they would take in a total of 1,600 vulnerable refugees from the Greek island camps. Eight other EU countries had agreed to take in underage refugees and migrants from the Greek islands, according to a recent statement by the German interior ministry. These countries were France, Portugal, Ireland, Finland, Croatia, Lithuania, Belgium and Bulgaria. But due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, these countries’ relocation plans seem to have been largely suspended.
Critics: government not doing enough
Several opposition politicians and activists in Germany criticized the German government’s handling of the situation in Greece, saying that taking in just 50 minors was far too little.
Claudia Roth, a prominent member of the Green Party, said the interior ministry’s plans were “long overdue” and only amounted to a drop in the ocean.
Günter Burkhardt, the head of the Pro Asyl NGO, said that the camps in Greece should be completely evacuated to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 - the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Erik Marquardt, a migrants’ rights activist, Green Party politician and member of the European Parliament, tweeted: “Germany wants to evacuate 50 children. On Lesbos alone this will mean that the government coalition will sacrifice 19,950 people … They are bringing 80,000 workers to Germany to harvest asparagus but fail to (help) a few thousand people in mortal danger. What a sad embarrassment.”
▻https://twitter.com/ErikMarquardt/status/1247572330575994880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E12
Marquardt in his statement referred to the fact that an estimated 20,000 people live in the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. Germany recently announced it would bring in 80,000 foreign farmworkers for the harvest, in spite of various border closures across the EU.
Camps extremely overcrowded
Experts and migrant rights activists have long been worried about the situation on several Greek islands, where tens of thousands of migrants are sill living in overcrowded camps. The situation is particularly dire on Lesbos. The Moria camp there was built for no more than 3,000 people – yet around 20,000 migrants and refugees currently live in and around the camp.
The Greek government has put the migrants camps on partial lockdown to prevent a potential coronavirus outbreak, but many believe that these measures are insufficient to protect the residents.
In Greece, there have been 1,832 confirmed coronavirus cases and 269 deaths, according to John Hopkins University (as of midday on Wednesday, CEST). There have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in camps on the Greek islands thus far. But there has been at least one case on Lesbos among the island’s native population, and there have also been outbreaks at two camps on the Greek mainland.
►https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/23949/germany-to-take-in-50-refugee-children-from-greek-islands
#Allemagne #asile #réfugiés #Grèce #relocalisation #transfert #îles #mineurs #enfants #coronavirus #covid-19
Et le #Luxembourg...
Coronavirus. Des enfants migrants vont être « probablement » accueillis au Luxembourg
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/839391
Migrant children on Greek islands to be flown to Luxembourg
Luxembourg to take in 11 minors after member states and Switzerland pledge to find homes for 1,600.
Eleven children trapped on Greek islands will be flown to Luxembourg next week, the first of a European Union migrant relocation scheme that highlights the uncertain fate of thousands.
The group will leave Chios and Lesbos for Luxembourg as part of an EU voluntary effort to help the most vulnerable quit Greece’s desperately overcrowded refugee and migrant island camps.
They are expected to be the first to move since eight member states and Switzerland pledged last month to take in 1,600 unaccompanied minors.
“They are boys and girls all under the age of 12 and will fly out next Wednesday,” said Manos Logothetis, the Greek migration ministry’s general secretary. “This is a crucial first step, the start of a process that we hope can set an example,” he told the Guardian.
“In an ideal world they would leave tomorrow but there is the issue of getting through bureaucracy that is there to protect the children, meeting the criteria set by the member states and, of course, coronavirus.”
The pandemic has complicated relocation plans, with flights cancelled and restrictions on the movement of officials working with refugees. One volunteer country, Croatia, lost a building it had planned to house the children in last month’s earthquake.
The virus has also required extra medical tests being conducted on the children in addition to those needed to help check their age. European commission officials, who are co-ordinating the scheme, have been urging recipient countries to carry out tests on arrival to avoid delays.
Greece’s centre-right government, which has itself described the Aegean island facilities as “ticking health bombs”, has been pushing for resettlement of the children since September.
In an interview with the Guardian last month, the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said: “We sent out a letter to all the member states and got zero response. We’ve been pushing very hard for a long time on this issue.”
On Wednesday, Berlin said it was willing to accept 350-500 children “in the next few weeks”, 50 of whom would be taken as a matter of urgency. But Birgit Sippel, a German Social Democrat MEP, who sits on the European parliament’s home affairs committee, said the delay in Germany fulfilling its pledge was the result of “a political game” and reluctance among Christian Democrats in the governing grand coalition to act. Describing the number of 50 as “ridiculous”, she said it did “not [send] a strong signal regarding solidarity … from one of the biggest countries in Europe”.
Even if the pandemic had caused problems with organising flights, the German government had, she pointed out, repatriated EU travellers from around the world. While welcoming the decision, Greek officials said the process would probably be further complicated by Berlin’s demand for the unaccompanied children to be exclusively girls below the age of 14.
“Coming up with the perfect match isn’t easy,” said one official.
At the end of February, Unicef counted 5,463 unaccompanied migrant children in Greece, including 1,752 living in overcrowded reception centres on the islands. Since that date the number is likely to have increased, as people have continued to arrive either seeking asylum or better prospects. More than three-quarters of the unaccompanied children are from three countries: Afghanistan (44%), Pakistan (21%) and Syria (11%).
The UN children’s agency is urging volunteer member states not to impose conditions on the children they accept, but instead to follow criteria based on need, such as the child’s age, health and any disabilities.
Aaron Greenberg, regional adviser for child protection at Unicef, said the organisation was concerned that host countries could apply sub-criteria, such as taking in only girls, under-14s or certain nationalities, which would be a problem as the majority of unaccompanied children are boys aged between 14 and 18.
“We need collective action in supporting Greece to handle this situation over the medium term,” Greenberg added. “Migration levels have ticked down, but it’s not over. We are still seeing a large number of unaccompanied children coming through. We are relieving stress, but the stress could build back up again. We need a comprehensive European agenda that goes beyond the emergency.”
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/migrant-children-in-greek-island-camps-to-be-relocated-across-eu
47 asylum-seeking minors fly to Germany
Forty-seven unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors were relocated from Greece to Germany Saturday.
Germany’s interior minister, Horst Seehofer, said the evacuation was “the result of months of preparation and intense talks with our European partners" and expressed hope that other countries would also begin taking in refugee children soon.
The children come from Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea. Four are girls and there are several siblings among the group.
“The Greek government has been trying to sensitize other EU countries to (the plight) of the young children, which have fled war and persecution, to find new families and start a new life. I’m glad this program is finally being implemented,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotsakis told reporters at the Athens airport, where he met the departing children, alongside Germany’s Ambassador to Greece, Ernst Reichel.
Mitsotakis added that he hopes that over 1,500 minors will be relocated over the next months.
“Greece will continue to treat all persecuted people that arrive in our country with great sensitivity. But, at the same time, it has the obligation to guard and protect its borders. We have proven, as a country, that we can do both,” Mitsotakis said.
This was the second flight taking unaccompanied minor refugees to another European country. On Wednesday, 12 children travelled to Luxembourg.
According to the United Nations Secretary-General’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, there were over 5,200 unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in Greece in early April “in urgent need of durable solutions, including expedited registration, family reunification and relocation” Dujarric said earlier this week.
Eight EU countries have agreed to take up 1,600 of those children, ages 5-16, who now live in migrant camps on the islands of Chios, Lesvos and Samos. Germany pledged last month to take in at least 350 children, but the plan has stalled in some countries due to the coronavirus pandemic.
►https://www.ekathimerini.com/251827/article/ekathimerini/news/47-asylum-seeking-minors-fly-to-germany
Aldo Brina | C’est à quel moment qu’il faut applaudir ?
Aldo Brina, chargé d’information sur l’asile au CSP Genève, revient sur l’annonce faite par le gouvernement suisse de son soutien à la Grèce, notamment de l’accueil de 22 requérants d’asile mineurs non accompagnés. Alors que la communication officielle et les médias ont salué cet élan de générosité, l’auteur relativise. D’une part, par ce que le nombre est insignifiant face aux multitudes de personnes et d’enfants encore bloqués dans des conditions de vie insalubres et insécures. D’autre part, parce que la Suisse par ce geste ne fait qu’appliquer le règlement Dublin duquel elle est partie prenante. Rien d’héroïque à cela donc. Au contraire, la Suisse pourrait et se doit d’en faire plus.
C’est à quel moment qu’il faut applaudir ?
Le Secrétariat d’État aux Migrations a annoncé la semaine dernière que la Suisse renforçait son soutien à la Grèce dans le domaine de l’ « asile » de diverses manières : financer des projets humanitaires, fournir des tentes et des lits pour les camps de réfugiés, envoyer des garde-frontières en renfort, accueillir vingt-deux requérants d’asile mineurs non accompagnés en Suisse. Les médias ont repris l’information : la Suisse offre son « soutien » à la Grèce, « propose » d’accueillir des mineurs…
Quelle hypocrisie !
En effet, ces mesures ne sont que le corollaire bas de gamme d’une politique qui n’apparaît qu’en creux dans la communication de Karin Keller-Sutter et des autres dirigeants européens : utiliser la Grèce comme rempart contre les réfugiés. Les îles grecques sont débordées parce que les réfugiés ne peuvent plus circuler plus loin vers la riche Europe ? La situation dégénère ? Elle est catastrophique sur les plans humains et sanitaire ? Qu’à cela ne tienne : nous enverrons des couvertures à croix-blanche et de l’aspirine pour les malades. Et la Direction du Développement et de la Coopération d’être mise à contribution pour pallier quelque peu aux effets de cet endiguement prémédité… quelle faillite morale pour l’aide humanitaire suisse !
Pire, nous (oui je dis « nous », car Karin Keller-Sutter nous représente) nous tressons des couronnes à annoncer que nous accueillerons généreusement vingt-deux requérants d’asile mineurs non accompagnés. Vingt-deux ? 40’000 personnes en demande d’asile s’entassent dans les îles grecques, plus de 5’000 d’entre elles sont des mineurs non accompagnés.
Le chiffre annoncé par l’administration fédérale est dérisoire, mais il y a pire encore.
Les autorités suisses présentent l’accueil de ces vingt-deux mineurs, qui doivent remplir la condition d’avoir de la famille en Suisse, comme un acte de solidarité… sauf qu’envoyer les requérants d’asile mineurs vers un pays où ils ont des proches qui peuvent s’occuper d’eux, c’est justement ce que prévoit le Règlement européen Dublin III à son article 8. Vous ne rêvez pas : sous l’emballage cadeau avec un joli nœud rose, le SEM n’annonce peut-être rien d’autre que la banale application du cadre légal en vigueur. C’est comme si en payant un arriéré d’impôts, vous envoyiez un communiqué de presse pour vous féliciter de votre généreux soutien à l’État. C’est à quel moment qu’il faut applaudir ?
Sur le terrain, en Suisse, les permanences juridiques font en ce moment-même des pieds et des mains pour obtenir le regroupement familial de proches, coincés en Grèce, des personnes en demande d’asile en Suisse. Quand ces demandes ne sont pas refusées, elles traînent parfois pendant des mois. L’autorité fait donc montre d’un certain culot en annonçant simultanément une généreuse opération d’accueil de vingt-deux mineurs.
Heureusement qu’il reste la société civile. Le prochain numéro de la revue Vivre Ensemble informe avec précision sur ce qui se passe en Grèce, lisez-le. Un Appel de Pâques, lancé par diverses organisations et personnalités, demande « au Conseil fédéral et au Parlement de faire venir en Suisse le plus grand nombre possible de réfugiés de la mer Égée », signez-le. En Suisse, le nombre de demandes d’asile est au plus bas depuis 2008 ; en mer Egée, la situation est catastrophique. Notre pays sera affecté par une crise économique post-covid-19 ? La Grèce ne le sera pas moins. C’est le moment de se montrer solidaires, et de démasquer les tartufes qui feignent de l’être.
Aldo Brina, chargé d’information sur l’asile du CSP Genève
►https://asile.ch/2020/04/28/aldo-brina-cest-a-quel-moment-quil-faut-applaudir
#Suisse
Finland preparing to fly 100 unaccompanied migrant children from Greece
Finland is the latest EU country to announce it is preparing to fly about 100 unaccompanied children from overcrowded camps on the Greek islands to the capital Helsinki.
On Thursday, Greece’s migration ministry announced it was preparing to fly around 100 unaccompanied children and about 30 adults, with relatives already in Finland, from the overcrowded camps on the Greek islands to the Finnish capital Helsinki.
According to the Daily Sabah, the announcement came after a call between the Deputy Migration Minister Giorgios Koumoutsakos and Finland’s Interior Ministry Official Olli-Poika Parviainen.
This was described by a spokesperson at Greece’s migration ministry as a “decision of practical solidarity,” on the part of Finland.
According to the German press agency dpa, Switzerland has also announced it will fly out 22 unaccompanied children “in the next two weeks.”
Transfering the vulnerable
The latest UNHCR data for the week April 20-26 shows that despite efforts by the Greek authorities to transfer some of the most vulnerable from the Greek islands, there are still about 38,700 migrants living in overcrowded conditions on the islands.
About a third of that population are children and about 13% of those are unaccompanied; the majority of them hail originally from Afghanistan.
To date no new arrivals were regsitered on the islands, and about 139 of the most vulnerable were transferred out of the camps to hotels providing temporary accommodation in order to shield them during the coronavirus pandemic.
On April 2, the Finnish interior ministry released a statement showing how it would apply for EU funding to host a total of 175 asylum seekers to be transferred from the Greek islands.
▻https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/24464/finland-preparing-to-fly-100-unaccompanied-migrant-children-from-greec
Les relocalisations d’enfants mineurs non accompagnés sont possibles malgré le COVID-19
C’est presque inimaginable. Les relocalisations d’enfants mineurs non accompagnés bloqués depuis des mois sur les îles grecques sont enfin possibles et ce malgré la fermeture des frontières dues au COVID-19. Il suffit de volonté politique et de bonne coordination pour permettre à des enfants non accompagnés (3 à 15 ans) bloqués depuis des mois en Grèce de faire le voyage vers le Luxembourg et l’Allemagne. Les images montrant des enfants très jeunes monter dans l’avion qui doit les mener en Allemagne font tellement de bien.
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UGhTJfbImQ&feature=emb_logo
Elan de solidarité envers les enfants mineurs non accompagnés en Grèce
Début mars, de nombreuses organisations humanitaires ont alerté les Etats membres de l’Union européenne sur la situation humanitaire inquiétante dans les centres hotspots en Grèce et demandé à ce que les enfants mineurs non accompagnés soient rapidement relocalisés. Plusieurs Etats ont répondu à cet appel. C’est le cas de l’Allemagne, la Belgique, la Bulgarie, la Croatie, la Finlande, la France, l’Irlande, la Lituanie, le Luxembourg et le Portugal, qui se sont mis d’accord sur la relocalisation progressive de 1600 mineurs non accompagnés bloqués sur les îles grecques depuis des mois. Les promesses de relocalisation concernent aussi des mineurs non accompagné sans attaches familiales en Europe.
Premières opérations de relocalisation
Le 15 avril, 11 enfants se sont envolés vers le Luxembourg, le 18 avril 49 enfants (entre 3 et 15 ans) sont arrivés en Allemagne, d’autres opérations de relocalisations vont suivre ces prochaines semaines. La Suisse rejoindra l’effort avec le transfert imminent de 22 mineurs non accompagnés qui ont de la famille en Suisse (1).
En Grèce, l’organisation METAdrasi a participé aux quatres missions d’accompagnement des enfants sélectionnés pour les relocalisations vers le Luxembourg et l’Allemagne et parle des missions les plus complexes et les plus exigeantes jamais réalisées sur les 5 100 missions entreprises au cours de neuf dernières années (2). Selon Lora Pappa, fondatrice de l’organisation “ces transferts représentent une grande réjouissance et montrent que les choses se font rapidement lorsqu’il y a la volonté politique.”
La détermination de l’intérêt supérieur des enfants et le rôle des tuteurs
De la récupération des enfants dispersés sur les îles, à leur embarquement en dernière minute sur les ferry en partance pour Athène, à l’entretien, aux examens médicaux, à leur décollage, il n’a fallu qu’une courte semaine pour organiser le départ de plus de 50 enfants entre 3 et 15 ans. Un véritable parcours du combattant.
A commencer par l’entretien personnalisé appelé “BID” (Best Interest Determination). Cette étape est très importante puisqu’elle doit établir l’intérêt supérieur de l’enfant surtout lorsqu’il est supposé rejoindre non pas un père ou une mère, un frère ou une soeur, mais un cousin adulte, une tante éloignée ou … personne. En amont de cette étape, ce sont les tuteurs responsables de l’accompagnement de l’enfant dès son arrivée en Grèce qui connaissent le mieux le dossier de l’enfant. Leur rôle est donc principal (3).
“C’est l’intérêt supérieur de l’enfant qui compte. Nos tuteurs sont en contact réguliers avec les enfants non accompagnés sur les îles et aussi sur le continent. Ce sont eux qui connaissent les enfants, leurs dossiers, leurs parcours, leurs liens familiaux en Europe lorsqu’il y en a. C’est pour ça que notre rôle est important dans l’organisation des relocalisations, ce que les autorités grecques et le Haut-commissariat des Nations unies (UNHCR) reconnaissent”, m’explique Lora Pappa.
Dans quelques jours, l’Agence de droits fondamentaux de l’UE (FRA) publiera un document sur les bonnes pratiques de réinstallations d’enfants non accompagnés depuis la Grèce. Les recommandations se basent sur une recherche et près de 50 entretiens menés entre novembre 2019 et mars 2020 en Belgique, Finlande, France, Allemagne, Grèce, Irlande, Italie, Malte, aux Pays-Bas et au Portugal. L’une de ses recommandations est la création d’un pôle de tuteurs exclusivement destinés à l’organisation des relocalisations d’enfants mineurs non accompagnés. Le rapport mentionne d’ailleurs l’expertise de METAdrasi et recommande qu’elle puisse continuer de jouer un rôle clé dans cette procédure en collaboration avec le Centre national de la solidarité sociale (EKKA).
Examens médicaux de rigueur
L’autre étape importante est l’examen médical surtout avec l’épidémie du Covid-19. Aucun enfant malade n’est admis pour le transfert. Tous les enfants sélectionnés pour les relocalisation sont soumis au test de dépistage du Covid-19 ainsi qu’à d’autres examens médicaux. Pour l’instant les autorités n’ont pas annoncé avoir décelé de cas d’infection au Covid-19 parmi les requérants d’asile sur les îles. Seulement sur le continent dans trois camps différents placés en quarantaine (3).
Renoncer aux conditions de relocalisations trop restrictives
Le Luxembourg et l’Allemagne ont d’abord poser des conditions trop restrictives à la relocalisation. En acceptant initialement 12 enfants de Syrie âgés de moins de 14 ans sans perspectives de regroupement familial, le Luxembourg posait des conditions irréalisables car la grande majorité des enfants syriens ont de la famille dans d’autres pays européens et n’auraient pas été éligibles. L’Allemagne quant à elle demandait au départ que les enfants ne soient que des filles de moins de 14 ans ayant de graves problèmes de santé. Puis elle a inclu les garçons de moin de 14 ans sans restriction de pays d’origine et elle a accepté d’accueillir des enfants qui pour la plupart n’ont pas de famille en Allemagne.
Le règlement Dublin établit les critère de responsabilité dans l’examen de la demande d’asile de mineurs non accompagnés. Il prévoit que ce dernier pourra rejoindre un membre de sa famille (père, mère frère, soeur) ou un proche (oncle, tante, cousin) situé dans un autre Etat Dublin en respectant le principe de l’intérêt supérieur de l’enfant et que si nécessaire les Etats membres peuvent déroger aux critères de responsabilité pour des motifs humanitaires et de compassions (article 8, para. 13, 16, 17). Ainsi la relocalisation d’enfants mineurs non accompagnés sans perspectives de regroupement familial est déjà prévu dans le règlement Dublin. Dans l’application de ce texte, les Etats parties, dont la Suisse, ont pour habitude de “minimiser leurs propres responsabilités et maximiser les responsabilités d’autrui” et ils ont longtemps agit, comme l’explique le Professeur Francesco Maiani, “à la limite de ce qui est permis par le Règlement (…) en imposant des exigences excessives de preuves de liens familiaux.”(5)
Engagements de la Suisse
Le 21 avril, la Suisse annonçait renforcer son aide aux mineurs dans les camps de réfugiés en Grèce avec un crédit supplémentaire de 1,1 million de francs pour des projets menés par des organisations d’aide. Cette aide avait déjà été annoncée en février dernier. En plus la Suisse a promis de faire venir 22 enfants non accompagnés qui ont de la famille en Suisse. Leur arrivée est imminente. Cette aide est un bon départ. Mais le gouvernement suisse doit aller plus loin.
“La Suisse pourrait être un centre de transit pour les enfants mineurs non accompagnés devant rejoindre leur familles dans d’autres pays européens conformément à ce qui est prévu par le Règlement Dublin. La Suisse rendrait un immense service à la Grèce qui serait déchargée du travail administratif lourd impliquant les démarches compliquées de réunification. Cela aiderait surtout beaucoup les enfants concernés, confinés depuis des mois dans des camps invivables, dangereux et malsains. La Suisse devrait aussi envisager, comme d’autres pays européens, accueillir des enfants mineurs non accompagnés sans liens familiaux en Suisse,”suggère Lora Pappa.
De plus en plus de voix s’élèvent pour que la Suisse fasse encore davantage pour la Grèce. Plus de 100 organisations humanitaires en Suisse, de nombreux commentateurs dans les médias suisses et certains politiciens et partis politiques suisses ont appelé le gouvernement suisse à accueillir une partie des réfugiés pris au piège dans le camp de réfugiés de Moria surpeuplé et insalubre sur l’île de Lesbos en Grèce.
Peut-être que le vent tourne. Le 23 avril la Commission des institutions politiques du Conseil national s’est penchée sur la situation des réfugiés en Grèce. Elle a décidé de déposer une motion chargeant le Conseil fédéral de “s’engager au niveau européen pour une amélioration substantielle de la situation dans les îles égéennes et de s’investir en faveur d’une réforme des accords de Dublin, afin qu’une répartition plus juste et plus équilibrée des réfugiés soit opérée” (6).
Comme l’explique Alexandra Dufresne (7) pour Swissinfo.ch “la Suisse est, par habitant, l’un des pays les plus riches du monde avec une forte tradition humanitaire. Elle dispose d’une communauté d’ONG exceptionnelle, bien organisée et solide, désireuse et disposée à aider.”
Lire aussi :
METAdrasi fondé par Lora Papa, reçoit le Prix Conrad N. Hilton pour son travail auprès des requérants d’asile en Grèce, Le temps des réfugiés, 15.10.2019
Des suggestions pour une aide suisse efficace en Grèce, Le temps des réfugiés, 20.2.2020
65 organisations demandent la relocalisation urgente de 1’800 mineurs non accompagnés bloqués sur les îles grecques, Le temps des réfugiés, 5.3.2020
Agir pour éviter que le COVID-19 ne tue dans les camps de réfugiés et bien au-delà, Le temps des réfugiés,18.3.2020
Relocation of unaccompanied children from Greece FRA input on the initiative of the European Commission and a group of Member States to relocate unaccompanied children, 17 mars 2020.
Covid-19 : Evacuation of squalid greek camps more urgent that ever in light of the coronavirus pandemic, MSF, 3 April 2020.
Amid Covid-19, Switzerland should heed calls to host trapped refugees, by Alexandra Dufresne, Swissinfo.ch
▻https://blogs.letemps.ch/jasmine-caye/2020/04/28/les-relocalisations-denfants-mineurs-non-accompagnes-sont-possibles-ma
Le Portugal va accueillir 500 mineurs isolés des îles grecques
Le Portugal a annoncé mardi qu’il allait accueillir 500 mineurs non accompagnés vivant dans les camps surpeuplés des îles grecques. D’autres pays, dont l’Allemagne, l’Irlande, la France et le Luxembourg, sont également impliqués dans cette initiative.
Ils vont bientôt pouvoir sortir de l’enfer des camps surpeuplés des îles grecques. Cinq cents mineurs non accompagnés vont être accueillis par le Portugal dès que les restrictions de mouvements imposées pour contenir la propagation du coronavirus seront levées, a déclaré mardi 12 mai le ministre portugais des Affaires étrangères, Augusto Santos Silva.
Cette annonce intervient alors que la députée socialiste Isabel Santos a annoncé samedi que 60 enfants des camps de réfugiés grecs devaient arriver au Portugal dans les prochaines semaines, sans donner de date précise.
Au moins 5 200 mineurs isolés vivent en Grèce, dont une majorité dans les camps des îles de la mer Égée, dans des conditions déplorables dénoncées à plusieurs reprises par les ONG.
D’autres pays, dont l’Allemagne, l’Irlande, la France et le Luxembourg, sont également impliqués dans cette initiative. Le premier transfert a eu lieu en avril quand 12 mineurs ont été accueillis au Luxembourg. L’Allemagne avait ensuite pris en charge 50 enfants.
Lundi 11 mai, c’est le Royaume-Uni qui a accueilli 50 migrants, dont 16 mineurs, qui vivaient en Grèce. Ils ont été transférés en Angleterre dans le cadre de regroupements familiaux.
Cependant, le chiffre avancé par le Portugal reste supérieur à celui des autres États membres de l’Union européenne. Le pays s’est illustré à plusieurs reprises en se montrant accueillant envers les migrants. Fin mars, en pleine pandémie de coronavirus, le Portugal avait annoncé la régularisation temporaire des immigrés en attente de titre de séjour. C’est le seul pays de l’UE à avoir pris une telle mesure.
▻https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/24747/le-portugal-va-accueillir-500-mineurs-isoles-des-iles-grecques?ref=tw
#Portugal
Grèce : 50 premiers réfugiés mineurs relocalisés en #France en juillet
La relocalisation en France des migrants mineurs non accompagnés de Grèce a pris du retard à cause de la pandémie de coronavirus, et les 50 premiers jeunes réfugiés partiront début juillet, a annoncé lundi le gouvernement grec.
« Les procédures de relocalisation qui s’étaient arrêtées temporairement en raison de la crise sanitaire vont démarrer de nouveau au plus vite », a souligné le ministre délégué grec à la Politique migratoire et à l’asile, Georges Koumoutsakos, dans un communiqué.
En janvier dernier, la Grèce et la France s’étaient mis d’accord sur la relocalisation de 400 demandeurs d’asile se trouvant dans les camps surpeuplés des îles grecques face à la Turquie.
Outre ces 400 demandeurs d’asile, le communiqué du ministère aux migrations grec évoque également la relocalisation de 350 mineurs non accompagnés.
« La crise du coronavirus a perturbé les relocalisations programmées mais la France reste cependant attachée à ses promesses envers la Grèce », a déclaré l’ambassadeur de France à Athènes, Patrick Maisonnave, après une rencontre lundi avec le ministre grec.
Le nombre total des enfants non accompagnés en Grèce s’élève à environ 5.200, selon les autorités grecques. Une grande majorité vit dans des conditions insalubres dans des logements non adaptés aux enfants.
Face à cette situation, plusieurs pays européens, l’Allemagne, la Belgique, la Bulgarie, la Croatie, la Finlande, la France, l’Irlande, la Lituanie, la Serbie, la Suisse, ont décidé de participer à un programme européen volontaire de relocalisation de 1.600 enfants non accompagnés depuis la Grèce.
►https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/fil-dactualites/250520/grece-50-premiers-refugies-mineurs-relocalises-en-france-en-juillet
#volontariat #programme_volontaire
La Belgique va accueillir 14 mineurs non accompagnés des camps de migrants en Grèce
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/857519
Germany takes in another 249 minors from Greece
Germany has taken in an additional 249 refugee children from Greece, the country’s interior minister Horst Seehofer said Wednesday, noting that most of the minors are sick or the siblings of migrants that are already in Germany.
“As the rates of coronavirus are currently at this low level, we decided as the Interior Ministry… to take in more children from Greece,” Seehofer said, noting that Germany had already received 47 refugee children in April.
Seehofer said that some of his associates visited Greece last week to arrange the transfer of the children.
Six of the youngsters who were too sick to travel last week will be transferred on a subsequent trip, he said.
“I always said that my migration policy includes order but also humanity,” the German minister said.
Luxembourg, Switzerland, Portugal and France are among the countries that have also taken in child refugees from Greece.
Many of the children being relocated belong to the ranks of unaccompanied refugee minors in Greece, who number over 5,000.
▻https://www.ekathimerini.com/253542/article/ekathimerini/news/germany-takes-in-another-249-minors-from-greece
Dutch government under growing pressure to take in child refugees
Protests call for coalition to admit 500 unaccompanied minors from Greek islands.
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6d0d8c19c2b1db47ae947d35dbdff2f8cd33cb40/0_205_5555_3334/master/5555.jpg?width=605&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=e4e80bb650fc57a6
They have gathered in city squares, parks and on piers with the water lapping at their feet. In silent, physically distanced protests, demonstrators stand 1.5 metres apart, some holding signs saying “WeesWelkom” (be welcome – the word “Wees” also meaning orphan) and “500 Kinderen” (500 children).
Since April, protests have taken place across the Netherlands to lobby the Dutch government to take in 500 unaccompanied children living in squalid camps on the Greek islands.
Last October, the Greek government asked EU member states to shelter 2,500 lone children – about half the total on the Greek mainland and islands. After months of inaction, 11 EU member states, plus Norway and Switzerland, have promised a home for at least 1,600 young asylum seekers, who are mostly from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. The Dutch government is not among them.
Now the fragile, four-party, liberal-centre-right coalition led by Mark Rutte is coming under growing public pressure.
One third of Dutch municipalities – a total of 119 local authorities representing 9 million people, as of June 5 – have said they are in favour of bringing 500 children to the Netherlands, according to the University of Utrecht. Big cities, such as Amsterdam, Arnhem and Utrecht, have offered to take in some children.
About 100 prominent figures signed an open letter calling on the Dutch government to answer Greece’s “cry for help”. The campaign has drawn figures from all walks of life, ranging from the two-time Dutch EU commissioner Neelie Kroes to the indie music star Joshua Nolet.
For several Mondays running, Nolet, who visited Greek island camps in 2016 and 2017, has filmed himself staging a one-man protest and encouraged his 32,000 followers to do the same.
“There are 20,000 people living in a camp that has space for 3,000 asylum seekers,” he said, referring to the infamous Moria camp on Lesbos, where people queue for hours for food, water and to wash. “This is insane that we are letting this happen and it does not reflect the country that I grew up in.”
For Rutte, the situation would be easier to dismiss if it didn’t chime with views of coalition partners. Two of four governing parties, the liberal D66 and the Christian Union, support the campaign, while a third, the Christian Democrat Alliance, is under pressure from its grassroots.
Klaas Valkering, a CDA councillor in Bergen, North Holland, said 80 local CDA chapters supported his campaign to bring children to the Netherlands. “There are 500 children in a Greek refugee camp, all of them without any parents and that is why we need to help them.”
Some local chapters are motivated by pure compassion, he said, while others also want to take a stand against the perceived rightward drift of the CDA. The debate has also played into what it means to be an EU member during a time of crisis.
“European solidarity is not only Dutch intensive care patients using German intensive care-units,” Valkering told Trouw last month.
The government argues there is a better way and last month pledged €3.5m-€4m to help children in Greece.
Some of the money will help set up a guardianship scheme to represent the legal interests of unaccompanied children in Greece. The government has also promised to fund places in reception centres on the Greek mainland – although Greek officials have raised questions over when shelters would be up and running.
A Dutch justice ministry spokesperson said a memorandum of understanding signed with the Greek government on 18 June included agreement on sheltering 48 children on the Greek mainland “as soon as possible, with a total capacity of 500 over three years”.
“It is a more humane solution,” said Bente Becker, an MP and spokesperson on migration for Rutte’s VVD party. She said this “structural solution” would dissuade families from putting their lives in the hands of people smugglers, citing the model of the EU’s 2016 deal with Turkey.
“It should not be a ticket to the Netherlands when you go to a Greek island,” she said. “What I don’t want to happen is that parents decide their children should be sent in a rubber boat in the Mediterranean sea, perhaps endangering their own lives.”
Critics say the government is mistaken if it thinks it can fix Greece’s asylum system, riddled by accusations of misspent funds and inadequate processes.
“The Greeks are ‘not able to solve’ the issue, said Sander Schaap at the Dutch Refugee Council. He described the plan to shelter children in Greece as “naive”. The government plan, Schaap contended, is “mostly an attempt to find a political solution to a political problem in the governing coalition”.
Dutch politicians have been taking more restrictive positions on migration since the 1990s, said Saskia Bonjour, a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam. That tendency was reinforced by the country’s “strong radical right presence”, from Pim Fortuyn to Geert Wilders and Thierry Baudet. “There is a strong tendency in Dutch politics in general and on the mainstream right in particular to interpret the potential electoral success of the radical right as [meaning] general concerns aren’t being heard.”
• This article was amended on 21 June 2020. An earlier version correctly translated “WeesWelkom” as “be welcome” but this was expanded to acknowledge the word play with “Wees” also meaning “orphan”.
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/21/dutch-government-under-growing-pressure-to-take-in-child-refugees
#Pays-Bas
L’UE transfère des demandeurs d’asile vulnérables vers l’#Allemagne et la #Finlande
Un premier transfert de 83 membres de familles avec des enfants gravement malades avait été effectué le 24 juillet entre la Grèce et l’Allemagne.
Près de 100 demandeurs d’asile vulnérables, dont des mineurs, ont été transférés depuis la Grèce et Chypre vers l’Allemagne et la Finlande, a annoncé mercredi l’agence de coordination de l’asile pour l’Union européenne.
L’opération fait partie d’un projet de l’UE de relocaliser 1 600 mineurs dans divers pays européens. Le projet est soutenu par la Commission européenne, le Haut-Commissariat de l’ONU pour les réfugiés (HCR) et l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations.
L’UE finance aussi les retours
Une seconde opération, ne s’inscrivant pas dans le cadre du projet de relocalisation de l’UE, a eu lieu le 27 juillet avec le transfert entre Chypre et la Finlande, de 16 Somaliens et Congolais venant de familles monoparentales.
Tous ont fait l’objet de tests de dépistage du Covid-19 avant de quitter Chypre et la Grèce, a affirmé le Bureau européen d’appui en matière d’asile (EASO).
Le ministre grec des Migrations a annoncé de son côté mercredi avoir activé un dispositif financé par l’Union européenne de rapatriement volontaire pour 5 000 demandeurs d’asile, offrant 2 000 euros pour rentrer dans son pays.
Désengorger les camps des îles grecques
Le dispositif, destiné à désengorger les camps de migrants sur les îles de la mer Égée, surpeuplés, avait été annoncé en mars mais était resté inactif jusqu’ici en raison de la pandémie de Covid-19, a déclaré Notis Mitarachi. Les premiers vols devraient partir dans quelques semaines, a-t-il ajouté.
La Grèce compte près de 5 000 migrants mineurs, la plupart vivant dans des conditions insalubres au sein de camps de réfugiés, ou dans des habitations inadaptées pour eux.
En tout, le pays recense près de 120 000 réfugiés selon le HCR, dont plus de 26 000 dans des camps sur des îles de la mer Égée.
D’autres pays prennent le relais
Des dizaines de milliers de demandeurs d’asile ont été bloqués en Grèce depuis 2016 lorsqu’un certain nombre d’États européens ont fermé leurs frontières en réponse à l’afflux de migrants et de réfugiés, principalement depuis la Syrie en guerre.
Plus d’une dizaine de pays européens ont accepté de faire une exception pour les mineurs. Un petit nombre d’entre eux a déjà été transféré au Portugal, au Luxembourg et en Allemagne.
La Belgique, la Bulgarie, la Croatie, la France, l’Irlande, la Lituanie, la Serbie et la Suisse ont également accepté d’en accueillir un certain nombre.
▻https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/845360/article/2020-07-29/l-ue-transfere-des-demandeurs-d-asile-vulnerables-vers-l-allemagne-et-l
Germany sees political controversy over rescuing refugees from Greece
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has blocked individual German states from rescuing migrants from Greek refugee camps. The state governments are up in arms and are considering legal action.
Several of Germany’s 16 states are considering banding together to defy the federal government’s plan to block them from bringing in refugees from the chronically overcrowded camps in Greece.
Angela Merkel’s administration has blocked two German states — Berlin and Thuringia — from unilaterally flying a few hundred refugees out of the hopelessly overcrowded camps on the Greek islands.
The two states are considering challenging the block in court, but given the humanitarian conditions at the Moria camp on Lesbos, they are also seeking political options to accelerate the process.
Other states, including the most populous, North Rhine-Westphalia, have also said they would be prepared to take in refugees from the camps.
Berlin’s Interior Minister Andreas Geisel this week called for a conference where state interior ministers can speak to Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to resolve the issue. “We cannot simply shrug our shoulders and accept a ’No’ from #Horst_Seehofer to our readiness to help people in desperate circumstances,” he said.
Crisis unfolding
The humanitarian disaster unfolding at the Moria camp is all too clear — even to leading members of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). One of them, North Rhine-Westphalia’s State Premier Armin Laschet even visited Moria last week. He had to abruptly cut short his visit for security reasons after crowds of refugees had gathered, reportedly under the impression he was Germany’s chancellor.
Read more: Coronavirus crisis hampering Mediterranean migrant rescues
But before his visit ended, Laschet — who does indeed have ambitions to take over from Merkel as chancellor — acknowledged that he was witnessing a “cry of the desperate.”
The Moria camp is designed for just under 3,000 refugees, but according to the latest information, between 14,000 and 17,000 people live there and in unofficial camps around it. Violence between members of different nationalities and disputes with the local population have become recurrent.
An EU solution, or a local one?
Laschet’s state, North Rhine-Westphalia, has offered to accept several hundred particularly vulnerable people from the Greek camps, but only as part of a program coordinated by the federal government together with other EU countries.
Meanwhile, Berlin’s and Thuringia’s offers to take in refugees unilaterally has only got them into a row with Seehofer, who once called immigration the “mother of all problems.”
The fierceness of the dispute could have something to do with party politics: Both Berlin and Thuringia are governed by left-wing coalitions, Berlin’s one is led by the Social Democrats, while Thuringia’s is led by the socialist Left Party.
Seehofer says the federal government has final say, and anyway, any solution to the refugee crisis has to be worked out by the European Union. “No country in the world can manage migration alone,” said Seehofer. “This makes it all the more important that we finally make visible progress in European asylum policy. We are on the right track, and I am not prepared to jeopardize that now.”
States’ rights
Ulrich Karpenstein, a lawyer at the Redeker, Sellner and Dahs law firm who drew up an assessment of whether the Federal Interior Ministry can refuse consent to the humanitarian programs of the states, does not agree with Seehofer.
“You could just as easily say we need a UN solution, and as long as there’s no UN solution you can’t get people out of a humanitarian emergency,” he told DW. “It’s a purely political argument, but not a legal one.”
On the basis of those humanitarian programs, a private organization Karpenstein co-founded, named “Flüchtlingspaten Syrien,” has been involved in bringing people out of desperate humanitarian circumstances in Syria.
“According to German law, the state government can give certain groups of foreign nationals a residency permit if they are in an emergency humanitarian situation,” he told DW.
The approval of the Federal Interior Ministry is necessary, but, he argues, the federal government cannot overrule the states if it believes that these people need help. “And that is not in dispute in the case of Moria — even the federal government has said it wants to help these people,” said Karpenstein.
The state governments want to select refugees based on lists drawn up by organizations on the ground like the UNHCR or Doctors Without Borders.
Unequal treatment
In fact, Seehofer has approved earlier requests for people in need. There were, for example, programs to bring Yazidi people from Iraq as well additional contingents of Syrians. The difference is that those people did not come via another EU country, but directly from their home countries, usually in cooperation with the UNHCR.
The EU has been at an impasse on this issue for years. The Mediterranean countries where the refugees arrive, such as Italy, Greece and Malta, want a fixed migrant distribution system among all EU countries.
But other member states, especially in the eastern part of the EU, are flatly opposed to this “in any form,” as seven countries emphasized in a letter to the EU Commission in July. Seehofer believes that any compromise with them, no matter how small, is only possible if there is calm, in other words: if there are no new admission initiatives from German states.
Seehofer is also facing strong opposition from left-wing parties and from the churches. But from a purely legal point of view, Seehofer has the power to enforce a uniformity of German refugee policy.
►https://www.dw.com/en/germany-greece-refugees-asylum-controversy/a-54538520
Who will be on the list of 1,600 refugees relocated from Greece?
▻https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/23468/who-will-be-on-the-list-of-1-600-refugees-relocated-from-greece
On Friday a group of seven EU states announced they would take in some of the most vulnerable migrants, mostly children, from Greece. The lists are still being finalized, as are the number of countries willing to participate. InfoMigrants asked some international organizations: How it is decided who goes on the list?
The list of 1,600 vulnerable migrants to be transported from Greece to various EU states has not yet been finalized. So it is difficult to obtain details of who might be on the list, or even how these lists are drawn up. The number of EU states willing to participate is also not set in stone. So far seven countries have signed up, including Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal.
InfoMigrants asked a number of international organizations, which have participated in these kinds of humanitarian projects before, to explain how the list might be drawn up and who might be on it.
Individual states decide who goes on the list
The EU Commission confirmed that individual member states are responsible for designating who will be accepted in their countries. France for instance already announced its intention to take in about 400 of the most vulnerable asylum seekers in January. Germany too has pledged to take at least 300. The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported on March 13 that roughly 700 of the 1,600 were expected to be shared between Germany and France.
Der Spiegel also reported that Bulgaria and Lithuania were considering adding their names to the list of seven, as was non-EU member state Switzerland.
Criteria ’varies from state to state’
The EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson in a press conference on Friday, March 13 said that the criteria for deciding who goes on the list varied from state to state. Some stated language criteria, others are looking to expand their quota through family reunification.
People under subsidiary protection have had to wait for family reunifications to be allowed | Photo: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pförtner
People under subsidiary protection have had to wait for family reunifications to be allowed | Photo: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pförtner
The German government has been reported saying that on its list it would be looking to welcome mostly the most vulnerable, including children who might be suffering from health problems and their families, as well as unaccompanied children, mostly girls.
About 93% of unaccompanied children are male
The UN Children’s rights organization UNICEF states that there are currently about 5,500 unaccompanied children in Greece at the moment. UNHCR says that 92.5% of those unaccompanied minors are boys, mainly from Afghanistan and just 7.5% are girls. That means that about 5,087 of them are male.
Commissioner Johansson said that Greece had initially asked for relocation of vulnerable and unaccompanied minors “back in September or October last year,” and that the Commission had been approaching individual member states in vain ever since. Johansson felt that the “momentum” to make this happen now was a result of Turkey’s actions at the end of February and a desire on the part of other EU countries “to show solidarity with Greece.”
’No point in waiting’
Johansson said there was “no point in waiting” for the re-locations to begin. Although the time frame was still up for discussion some countries, “like Luxembourg,” would be up for starting relocation this week, “other states might need a little longer,” cautioned Johansson, refusing to name names. Luxembourg’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) tweeted a video of its Foreign and European Affairs Minister, as well as Minister for Asylum, Jean Asselborn in which he said, on arrival at the conference in Brussels on Friday, that the only criteria that Luxembourg had was to “help Greece with some of the most vulnerable young people on Lesbos and elsewhere in Greece who didn’t have their parents with them.”
Der Spiegel reported that the German government also wanted to start as soon as possible.
Johansson said the only caveat that could lead to delays might be to assess any special action needed to stop the spread of the Covid-19 Coronavirus around Europe, which has been designated a World Health Organization (WHO) hot spot for the virus.
In terms of numbers, Johansson promised that there would be “at least 1,600” relocated from Greece but failed to explain what would happen to the other 3,900 unaccompanied minors still in Greece.
She did say that there would be no decisions made on the basis of how long a child might have already been waiting in Greece. Those that had been on the islands for “several years were likely already over 18 by now,” she added with a resigned smile. She also admitted that thorough age assessment had not been carried out on all the minors present in Greece and so the figures were necessarily a bit of an estimate.
A number of organizations participate
The Norwegian Refugee Scheme said that the last relocation scheme in the EU was “run by the Greek asylum service and the International Organization for Migration.” In a statement on its website, the Greek asylum service has temporarily suspended its services to the public until mid-April.
The UNHCR stated that it would be standing by to “offer technical support and advice to EU member states in this regard, making use of the experience gained through its operational involvement in the relocation scheme implemented in Greece in the years 2015-16.”
More than 2,000 unaccompanied children on the islands
The UNHCR said that more than 2,000 of unaccompanied refugee and migrant children were currently living on the Greek islands and that the majority of them “are living in precarious conditions and facing protection risks, such as exploitation, violence and human trafficking.”
UNICEF’s regional adviser on Migration Laurent Chapuis added that all decisions regarding who goes on the list “should be made based on the child’s best interests, as well as on EU and international legislation, rather than solely on age and gender.”
Chapuis added that UNICEF was “currently working on recommendations to Member States on the identification and prioritization of children to be relocated, and on the child protection considerations before, during and following the relocation.”
Further solidarity expected in May
Johansson said that there would be a further EU conference planned in May at which she expected member States to announce further kinds of support for Greece and the more than 40,000 migrants, refugees and asylum seekers currently resident there.
According to the Greek National Center for Solidarity EKKA which supplied data sent by the Norwegian Refugee Council, in the middle of February 2020 about 4,332 of the unaccompanied children were currently in some form of shelter or reception center in Greece. The others, “have been reported as living in informal/insecure housing,” it stated.
Around 44% of unaccompanied migrant children come from Afghanistan and about 21% from Pakistan. 11% are from Syria and about 24% from various other nations.
Der Spiegel reported that even without these relocations about 400 migrants and asylum seekers were reaching Germany every day at the moment. According to the latest statistics published by the German Federal Office for Migration (BAMF) more than 14,000 people applied for asylum in Germany in January 2020 this year alone. Most applications were filed by Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis.
#Covid-19 #Migration #Migrant #Balkans #Grèce #Camp #Transfert #Croatia #France #Germany #Ireland #Italy #Luxembourg #Portugal #Suisse #Lituanie #Bulgarie #enfant #vulnérable #famille #santé #mineurnonaccompagné #
Germany to take in 50 refugee children from Greek islands
►https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/23949/germany-to-take-in-50-refugee-children-from-greek-islands
Germany will take in fifty unaccompanied minors from the Greek islands next week. Critics say this is too little, too late, given that tens of thousands of migrants and refugees remain in the overcrowded camps.
The German interior ministry announced on Tuesday that the federal cabinet was set to approve the transfer of 50 unaccompanied minors to Germany on Wednesday.
The children and teenagers will be brought to Germany “in the following week if possible,” the ministry said. After their arrival, they will be quarantined for two weeks and then send to different states across the country.
In an interview with German TV stations RTL and n-tv on Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that Germany would take in a total of 350 to 500 minors over the next few weeks. He also said that Germany and Luxembourg were currently the only countries within the European Union (EU) willing to take in refugees and migrants from Greece.
Earlier on Tuesday, Luxembourg had announced that it would take in 12 unaccompanied minors from the islands of Lesbos and Chios.
According to Maas, Germany and Luxembourg will try to carry out a charter flight together next week.
Plans to relocate refugees stalled by coronavirus
In early March, the three governing parties in Germany had agreed on taking in between 1,000 and 1,500 foreign minors that were particularly vulnerable (i.e. either seriously ill or under the age of 14 and without their families) from Greece.
Also in early March, several EU states had announced that they would take in a total of 1,600 vulnerable refugees from the Greek island camps. Eight other EU countries had agreed to take in underage refugees and migrants from the Greek islands, according to a recent statement by the German interior ministry. These countries were France, Portugal, Ireland, Finland, Croatia, Lithuania, Belgium and Bulgaria. But due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, these countries’ relocation plans seem to have been largely suspended.
Critics: government not doing enough
Several opposition politicians and activists in Germany criticized the German government’s handling of the situation in Greece, saying that taking in just 50 minors was far too little.
Claudia Roth, a prominent member of the Green Party, said the interior ministry’s plans were “long overdue” and only amounted to a drop in the ocean.
Günter Burkhardt, the head of the Pro Asyl NGO, said that the camps in Greece should be completely evacuated to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 - the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Erik Marquardt, a migrants’ rights activist, Green Party politician and member of the European Parliament, tweeted: “Germany wants to evacuate 50 children. On Lesbos alone this will mean that the government coalition will sacrifice 19,950 people … They are bringing 80,000 workers to Germany to harvest asparagus but fail to (help) a few thousand people in mortal danger. What a sad embarrassment.”
arquardt in his statement referred to the fact that an estimated 20,000 people live in the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. Germany recently announced it would bring in 80,000 foreign farmworkers for the harvest, in spite of various border closures across the EU.
Camps extremely overcrowded
Experts and migrant rights activists have long been worried about the situation on several Greek islands, where tens of thousands of migrants are sill living in overcrowded camps. The situation is particularly dire on Lesbos. The Moria camp there was built for no more than 3,000 people – yet around 20,000 migrants and refugees currently live in and around the camp.
The Greek government has put the migrants camps on partial lockdown to prevent a potential coronavirus outbreak, but many believe that these measures are insufficient to protect the residents.
In Greece, there have been 1,832 confirmed coronavirus cases and 269 deaths, according to John Hopkins University (as of midday on Wednesday, CEST). There have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in camps on the Greek islands thus far. But there has been at least one case on Lesbos among the island’s native population, and there have also been outbreaks at two camps on the Greek mainland.
With AFP, dpa, epd, KNA, Reuters
#Covid-19 #Migration #Migrant #Balkans #Grèce #Lesbos #moria #camp #ilesgrecques #Allemagne #Transfert #mineurs
WELCOME INITIATIVE
*This report is referring to the period from 30 March to 3 April 2020, and some information could be outdated.
The Coronavirus pandemic is still in full swing and is affecting the everyday life of all of us, most of all those who are not in a position to stay “home” because they don’t have one. On Monday, the Ministry of Interior announced a decision to suspend measures against foreigners on short-term stays as per the Foreigners Act. However, the question is, what about the existence of the most vulnerable groups caught up in the current situation - people whose claims for international protection have been denied and who have been ordered to leave Croatia, people who have resided in Croatia based on work quotas or residence and work permits and have found themselves now in an irregular status and out of work. These people do not have the opportunity to leave Croatia, but they also do not have a guaranteed roof over their heads, health care or secured existence. The Portuguese government’s decision to guarantee civil rights during the pandemic to asylum seekers and migrants is certainly a model that the other Member States, including Croatia, should aspire to.
The current pandemic is not the time to leave human destinies to individuals who can and want to help, instead, the government needs to provide protection and support to those in need.
The measures in place in most EU Member States, as a consequence of the coronavirus crisis, affect common (not always ideal and desirable) practices. Thus, in some EU Member States, the measure of migrant detention has been abolished - because its purpose, the removal of irregularly resident third-country nationals, is impossible. Spain will, therefore, by Monday 6th April, empty all detention centres in the country and relocate all irregular migrants to facilities intended as alternatives to detention. In Croatia, it’s still unknown what the situation is in detention facilities (Ježevo, Trilj, Tovarnik) - as the appropriate authorities don’t provide information nor answer queries. We advocate and urge Croatia to act in the same way as the other Member States and to find an alternative to detention. This is an opportunity to reflect on the implementation of measures as alternatives to detention in the Republic of Croatia, which the Centre for Peace Studies wrote in 2017.
In the past month, the Croatian media have been reporting on plans to move unaccompanied children from Greece to Croatia. The appropriate authorities didn’t provide much information on further plans, but this was the topic of the week for the LIBE Committee at the European Parliament. At the meeting, Ylva Johansson (minutes: 12:04), discussed the plans pointing out that about 1,600 children will be moved to Luxembourg, Germany, France, Finland, Croatia, Portugal and Lithuania. The move will begin this or next week with Luxembourg. Some plans will be delayed due to the lack of flights and the introduction of measures to address the COVID-19 crisis. As for Croatia, the delay would be due to the reception centre intended for unaccompanied children being damaged by the earthquake. As we didn’t notice news reports of such damage in the media, we will certainly investigate the object in question. Regardless, we believe that with other adequate facilities, as well as the possibility of foster care, the relocation of children should not wait.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Migration and Refugees of the Council of Europe and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) published an announcement regarding main guarantees of fundamental rights applicable at the external borders of the EU Member States and the Council of Europe. The purpose of the announcement is to support the EU Member States and the Council of Europe in their duties of safeguarding measures, including combating the spread of COVID-19 and addressing issues of public order, public health or national security. While protecting external borders and preserving public order and public health, States also have an obligation to protect fundamental human rights. Some of the issues the announcement focuses on are: what duties do the Member States have when protecting their external borders, what legal repercussions should be applied in the event of excessive use of force at the borders, what rules apply when people cross borders illegally, can access to asylum be suspended, how to respect the principle of no pushbacks, what can be done to help the most vulnerable, especially unaccompanied children? You may read the full announcement here.
Refusing protection, non-solidarity and failing to participate responsibly in providing a secure refuge is not only cruel but also contrary to the EU law - the European Court of Justice confirmed yesterday in a ruling that Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic violated EU law by refusing to receive refugees from Italy and Greece during the 2015 refugee crisis. Despite the decision of the Ministers of the Internal Affairs, these countries refused to accept responsibility for human lives and have violated the principles of solidarity and the rule of the law.
#Covid-19 #Migration #Migrant #Balkans #Croatie #Détention #Camp #Ježevo #Trilj #Tovarnik #Mineurs #Transfert #Grèce
Associations et avocats demandent des mesures contraignantes pour assurer la protection de tous les mineurs non accompagnés dans le contexte de l’épidémie du Covid-19 | Médecins sans frontières
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#mineurnonacompagné#France#solidarite
▻https://www.msf.fr/communiques-presse/associations-et-avocats-demandent-des-mesures-contraignantes-pour-assurer-la-pro
▻https://www.msf.fr/sites/default/files/2020-04/CP+MNA%20calais.png
les mineurs isolés sont en danger, nous demandons protection et mise à l’abri immédiate. - Mille Babords
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#mineurnonacompagné#France#solidarite
▻https://www.millebabords.org:80/spip.php?article34382
Mineurs non accompagnés : les grands oubliés de la gestion de la crise sanitaire
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#mineurnonacompagné#France
►https://www.lagazettedescommunes.com/673307/mineurs-non-accompagnes-les-grands-oublies-de-la-gestion-de-la
Coronavirus strands refugee children
A number of EU member states want to take in refugee children stuck in Greece. However, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn now says the coronavirus pandemic has made that impossible.
▻https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-strands-refugee-children/a-52864442
Although the river has run dry, its bed is overflowing: Plastic bags, cardboard and plastic bottles extend as far as the eye can see. A young child, maybe six years old, wades through the garbage. Here, in the so-called “jungle,” where makeshift huts crush up against one another and children play in the filth, the squalor of the Moria refugee camp is on full display.
This hot spot, located on the Greek island of Lesbos, has been the scene of Europe’s largest humanitarian crisis for years now. A camp originally designed to temporarily shelter 3,000 people, it is now the cramped home of more than 20,000.
The situation is not much better on other islands in the Aegean. In all, some 42,000 refugees and migrants are currently stuck on Lesbos, Chios and Samos, and many have been there for more than a year. Now, the coronavirus pandemic threatens to make the situation even worse.
Just recently, Germany and a number of EU member states, including France and Luxembourg, declared their willingness to take in those in most desperate need of help: Vulnerable, unaccompanied minors and children.
The European Commission estimates that 1,500 unaccompanied children and minors are currently on the Greek isles. Last Friday, EU interior ministers pledged they would be distributed among a “coalition of willing” EU member states within a week.
Water cannon, tear gas and smoke bombs
But that willingness is not only humanitarian in nature, it is also pragmatic. The EU was forced into action when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided to open his country’s borders with Greece two weeks ago, sending thousands of refugees rushing toward Europe.
Greek security forces overwhelmed by the sheer number of refugees demanding entry into Europe answered with water cannon, tear gas and smoke bombs. It was reported that at least two people were killed by Greek bullets, something the government in Athens denies. Images of standoffs were quickly broadcast around the world, putting the EU under pressure to do something about the situation.
But the new COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has changed everything, with EU member states enhancing border controls or closing borders altogether in an attempt to stem the spread of the virus. That was also the reason the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) gave for the temporary suspension of activities at their Refugee Resettlement Program. Thus, for the moment no safe haven can be found for those refugees in especially dire straits — that includes safe haven in Germany.
Read more: Opinion: In Greece, refugees are painted as the enemy
Asselborn: ’It’s not up to us’
The program for taking in unaccompanied children was not supposed to be affected by the situation, at least according to European Commission spokesperson Adalbert Jahnz. He claimed, albeit in vague terms, that the process would go on as planned, but suggested that respecting and navigating the many different steps EU member states had taken to stop the spread of the virus was taking up a lot of time and making it impossible to set out a clear timeline for the transfer of children from Greece.
Jahnz went on to say, “However, I assure you that intense discussions are going on as we speak and preparations are currently underway.” Another spokesperson for the Commission, which has agreed to play a coordinating role in the project, told DW the COVID-19 pandemic will likely have an effect on the process.
Germany’s Interior Ministry was vague as well, saying only that the European Commission is currently assessing what level of coordination is possible right now in light of the situation. On Wednesday, a statement was released saying the COVID-19 pandemic would “not have any effect on our efforts.” Still, speaking with DW on Thursday, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn conceded that his country would not be taking in refugee children for now.
Refugees pushed from both sides of the Turkey-EU border
“It’s not up to us, to Greece, or the UNHCR. In terms of security and health, it is simply impossible to guarantee humane conditions for taking in people during these difficult times,” said Asselborn. He said Luxembourg and other EU member states would do all they could in the meantime to prepare for the children to be transferred as soon as possible.
Boris Cheshirkov, a spokesperson for UNHCR Greece, understands that coronavirus will slow the process, but urged the EU to push on with preparations regardless so that they can start transferring children as soon as the time comes.
Refugee camps under quarantine
Many aid organizations have warned that catastrophic sanitary conditions at refugee camps make it imperative to get people there to safer lodgings where they can better protect themselves from illness.
In Germany, celebrities and politicians started online petitions to do just that under the names #WirHabenPlatz (We Have Space) and #LeaveNoOneBehind — so far 80,000 people have signed the appeals.
Those behind the campaigns point to the miserable living conditions at the camps — something DW journalists have frequently documented — pointing to the fact that hundreds of refugees at Moria, for instance, are forced to share just one toilet. It is also almost impossible to bathe at the camps and even the most basic hygienic precautions, such as washing one’s hands, cannot be taken.
Human hand cleaning a door handle
HANDS OFF! WHAT CAN WE TOUCH DURING THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK?
Contaminated door handles
Current research says the coronavirus family of viruses can survive on some surfaces, like door handles, for an average of four to five days. Like all droplet infections, SARS-CoV-2 can spread via hands and frequently touched surfaces. Although it hasn’t previously been seen in humans and therefore hasn’t been studied in detail, experts believe it spreads similarly to other known coronaviruses.
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They also note that there is a severe shortage of doctors at the camps to help with those who may become infected. There is simply no way for the more than 20,000 people crammed into the bursting facility to isolate themselves to avoid contracting the virus.
Hoping to stop an explosion of infections, the Greek government has put its camps under quarantine. Residents are only allowed to leave the camps during the day, and then only in small numbers.
It remains to be seen if that will be enough, though EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johannsson is convinced it is. On Thursday, she tweeted that she is working “to make absolutely sure that the health of asylum seekers and migrants in camps on EU territory is being protected.”
#Covid-19 #Migration #Migrant #Balkans #Grèce #Moria #Camp #Enfants #Mineurs #Relocalisation #Lesbos
Et l’#Allemagne:
Germany to take in 50 refugee children from Greek islands
►https://seenthis.net/messages/840802
(COVID-19) Chine : 4 cas importés à Guangdong, ont été lié au quartier africain en habitant permanent dans la même rue.
[广东4例境外输入关联病例常住同一个街区，为非洲籍聚居地]
#Covid-19 #migration #migrant#Chine#Guangzhou#Yuexiu#quarantaine#commerce#santé#étranger#mineur#nigérian#diasporaafricaine#casimporté
4月5日，揭阳市卫生健康局官网通报，2例境外输入均为儿童，其中一位8岁确诊患者常住广州市矿泉街瑶台向阳大街，3月20日至25日住在其母亲经营的美食店(美妙美食店Emma Food)。其母亲庄某已于4月2日确诊，曾为一例尼日利亚输入确诊病例的密切接触者，庄某经营的美妙美食店顾客多为外籍入境人员。记者查询百度地图显示，该美食店位于矿泉街道瑶台西街向阳大街。而朝阳大街与美妙美食店步行距离仅200米，4分钟。
Coronavirus : l’Etat enjoint d’assurer l’hébergement d’urgence de jeunes migrants — RT en français
#Covid-19 #Migration #Migrant #France #mineurnonaccompagne#squat
▻https://francais.rt.com/france/73606-coronavirus-etat-enjoint-dassurer-hebergement-urgence-jeunes-migr
Des migrants mineurs de Grèce « probablement » évacués la semaine prochaine
#Covid-19 #Migration #Migrant #mineurnonaccompagne#Europe#camp
▻https://www.lapresse.ca/international/europe/202004/03/01-5267879-des-migrants-mineurs-de-grece-probablement-evacues-la-semaine-pr
La Cour européenne enjoint la France de protéger un enfant migrant non accompagné | Human Rights Watch
#Covid19#France#migrant#migration#mineurnonaccompagne
▻https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2020/04/02/la-cour-europeenne-enjoint-la-france-de-proteger-un-enfant-migrant-non-accompag
▻https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/open_graph/public/multimedia_images_2020/202004europe_france_migrants_minors.jpg?itok=7bmk8vfu
Covid-19 : la caravane de la solidarité fait escale chez les enfants de la rue et orphelins d’Abidjan - Abidjan.net
▻https://news.abidjan.net/h/670993.html
▻https://news.abidjan.net/photos/photos/RED12.jpeg
#Covid-19#Migration#Migrant#Côted'Ivoire#Mineurs
Quatre jeunes isolés à la rue avant d’être hébergés - ladepeche.fr
#covid-19 #migrant #migration #France #mineurnonaccompagne
►https://www.ladepeche.fr/2020/03/21/quatre-jeunes-isoles-a-la-rue-avant-detre-heberges,8811984.php
Quand les mineurs isolés sont abandonnés à eux-mêmes | L’Humanité
#covid-19 #migrant #migration #France #mineurnonaccompagne
▻https://www.humanite.fr/quand-les-mineurs-isoles-sont-abandonnes-eux-memes-686842
Le confinement vécu par les mineurs non accompagnés d’un squat de Clermont-Ferrand : « Cela les renvoie à leur enfermement passé » - Clermont-Ferrand (63000)
#covid-19 #migrant #migration #France #mineurnonaccompagne
►https://www.lamontagne.fr/clermont-ferrand-63000/actualites/le-confinement-vecu-par-les-mineurs-non-accompagnes-d-un-squat-de-clermon
CP Ministère des solidarités et de la santé - COVID-19 Protection de l’enfance : Adrien Taquet fait le point sur la situation du secteur de la protection de l’enfance et les dispositifs mis en place pour répondre à la crise actuelle. - InfoMIE.net
#covid-19 #migrant #migration #France #mineurnonaccompagne
