#passeurs

#Mare_Jonio ha salvato 49 persone da un naufragio: adesso l’Italia ci indichi un porto sicuro

La Mare Jonio di #Mediterranea_Saving_Humans, nave battente bandiera italiana impegnata nella missione di monitoraggio del Mediterraneo centrale ha soccorso, a 42 miglia dalle coste libiche, 49 persone che si trovavano a bordo di un gommone in avaria che imbarcava acqua.
La segnalazione era arrivata dall’aereo di ricognizione Moonbird della ONG Sea Watch che avvertiva di una imbarcazione alla deriva in acque internazionali.

Mare Jonio si è diretta verso la posizione segnalata e, Informata la centrale operativa della Guardia Costiera Italiana, ha effettuato il soccorso ottemperando alle prescrizioni del diritto internazionale dei diritti umani e del mare, e del codice della navigazione italiano.
Attenendosi alle procedure previste in questi casi e per scongiurare una tragedia, Mare Jonio ha tratto in salvo tutte le persone a bordo comunicando ad una motovedetta libica giunta sul posto a soccorso iniziato di avere terminato le operazioni. Tra le persone soccorse, 12 risultano minori.
Le persone a bordo si trovavano in mare da quasi 2 giorni e, nonostante le condizioni di salute risultino abbastanza stabili, sono tutte molto provate con problemi di disidratazione. Il personale medico di Mediterranea sta prestando assistenza.
La Mare Jonio si sta dirigendo in questo momento verso Lampedusa, ovvero verso il porto sicuro più vicino rispetto alla zona in cui è stato effettuato il soccorso. Nel frattempo, è in arrivo una forte perturbazione nel Mediterraneo centrale.
Abbiamo chiesto formalmente all’Italia, nostro stato di bandiera e stato sotto il quale giuridicamente e geograficamente ricade la responsabilità, l’indicazione di un porto di sbarco per queste persone.
Oggi abbiamo salvato la vita e la dignità di 49 esseri umani. Le abbiamo salvate due volte: dal naufragio e dal rischio di essere catturate e riportate indietro a subire di nuovo le torture e gli orrori da cui stavano fuggendo. Ogni giorno, nel silenzio a moltissime altre tocca questa sorte. Grazie ai nostri straordinari equipaggi di terra e di mare, alle decine di migliaia di persone che in tutta Italia ci hanno sostenuto, oggi quel mare non è stato più solo cimitero e deserto.

▻https://mediterranearescue.org/news/mare-jonio-ha-salvato-49-persone-da-un-naufragio-adesso-litalia-
#Méditerranée #ONG (même si c’est pas une ONG, mais une #initiative_citoyenne) #asile #migrations #frontières #mer_Méditerranée #sauvetage

Migranti, la Mare Jonio entra nel porto di #Lampedusa, la gdf la sequestra e convoca il comandante

I migranti scendono tutti a terra. La svolta dopo che i pm hanno aperto un fascicolo contro ignoti per favoreggiamento dell’immigrazione clandestina. Salvini: «Arrestateli»

▻https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2019/03/19/news/gdf_nega_via_radio_ingresso_in_acque_territoriali_nave_mare_jonio_prosegu
#fermeture_des_ports #ports_fermés #Italie #saisie

La direttiva di Matteo Salvini sulle frontiere non ha valore

“Il tempo e le condizioni del mare non sono buone e i naufraghi sono ancora sotto shock, dopo essere stati soccorsi al largo della Libia e aver passato la notte con il mare in tempesta”, racconta Lucia Gennari, avvocata dell’Asgi imbarcata a bordo della nave Mare Jonio, l’imbarcazione che batte bandiera italiana ed è in rada davanti all’isola di Lampedusa, a cinquecento metri dalla Cala dei francesi, con 49 persone a bordo, tra cui dodici minori. L’imbarcazione, gestita dall’organizzazione italiana Mediterranea Saving Humans, chiede di attraccare nel porto dell’isola, dopo aver soccorso i naufraghi il 18 marzo in un’operazione di salvataggio avvenuta a 42 miglia dalle coste libiche. La nave ha trovato un gommone in avaria, su indicazione dell’aereo Moonbird, e ha informato sia la guardia costiera libica sia la guardia costiera italiana che avrebbe provveduto al soccorso.

“Siamo arrivati a soccorrere i naufraghi che erano in difficoltà, i libici non erano sul posto, sono arrivati successivamente”, afferma Gennari, 32 anni, originaria di Mestre. “Poi ci siamo diretti verso nord perché la situazione atmosferica era pessima. Al momento la situazione a bordo è tranquilla, abbiamo viveri per qualche giorno, ma gli spazi sono ristretti, la nave è lunga 32 metri e le persone nella notte sono state male a causa delle cattive condizioni atmosferiche”, racconta la ragazza, che fa parte del gruppo di legali che seguono Mediterranea Saving Humans a partire dalla sua fondazione nell’autunno del 2018.

La nave batte bandiera italiana e quindi a differenza di altre imbarcazioni non gli può essere impedito di attraccare in porto. Tuttavia il ministro dell’interno Matteo Salvini ha già detto che la nave non potrà arrivare in un porto italiano e nella notte tra il 18 e il 19 marzo ha diffuso una circolare diretta alle autorità portuali, ai carabinieri, alla polizia, alla guardia di finanza e alla marina militare che invita a impedire l’ingresso nelle acque e nei porti italiani alle navi private che abbiano operato attività di ricerca e salvataggio nelle acque internazionali.

Secondo la circolare, i salvataggi che avvengono in acque internazionali che non sono coordinate dall’Italia, non possono concludersi nel paese. La circolare crea un’ambiguità sul significato di zona di ricerca e soccorso libica. Da una parte infatti le autorità internazionali hanno riconosciuto alla Libia la capacità di compiere soccorsi nelle acque internazionali, d’altro canto però la Libia non può essere considerato un posto sicuro in cui riportare le persone soccorse. Dopo la diffusione della circolare, a bordo della Mare Jonio sono saliti degli agenti della guardia di finanza. “Alle 8 di mattina a bordo è salita la guardia di finanza che sta raccogliendo informazioni sul salvataggio”, racconta Lucia Gennari. La procura di Agrigento ha aperto un fascicolo di indagine sul caso.

Linea dura

Il ministro dell’interno ha accusato i soccorritori di favoreggiamento dell’immigrazione clandestina: “Possono essere curati, vestiti, gli si danno tutti i generi di conforto, ma in Italia per quello che mi riguarda e con il mio permesso non mettono piede. È chiaro ed evidente che c’è un’organizzazione che gestisce, aiuta, e supporta il traffico di essere umani. O c’è l’autorità giudiziaria, che ovviamente prescinde da me che riterrà che questo non sia stato un soccorso e decide di intervenire legalmente, oppure il ministero dell’interno, che deve indicare il porto di approdo, non indica nessun porto”.

Secondo Salvini, la nave “ha raccolto questi immigrati in acque libiche, in cui stava intervenendo una motovedetta libica. Non hanno ubbidito a nessuna indicazione, hanno autonomamente deciso di dirigersi verso l’Italia per motivi evidentemente ed esclusivamente politici. Non hanno osservato le indicazioni delle autorità e se ne sono fregati dell’alt della guardia di finanza”. Il ministro su Twitter ha poi attaccato uno dei soccorritori della nave, Luca Casarini, ex leader dei movimenti del nordest attivi durante il G8 di Genova nel 2001. Per Lucia Gennari il governo deve dare l’autorizzazione all’attracco il prima possibile: “La direttiva Salvini è solo un’indicazione politica del ministero dell’interno, per applicarla le autorità portuali dovrebbero pubblicare un decreto di attuazione che sarebbe impugnabile perché viola diverse norme internazionali”.

Alessandro Metz, armatore della Mare Jonio, ha risposto alle accuse dicendo: “La direttiva è subordinata alle leggi e alle convenzioni internazionali, quindi o il governo decide di ritirare la propria firma da quelle convenzioni, trovandosi in una condizione di isolamento e rinnegando quella cultura giuridica che l’Italia rappresenta, essendo un popolo di naviganti”. Per Metz il governo deve indicare subito “un porto sicuro” di sbarco.

https://i.imgur.com/8Lf8R68.png

Molti esperti hanno commentato la circolare diffusa dal ministero dell’interno sulla chiusura dei porti alle navi private che soccorrono persone in mare. Mario Morcone, ex capo di gabinetto del Viminale e direttore del Consiglio italiano per i rifugiati (Cir), si è detto estremamente preoccupato dalla direttiva Salvini: “È una circolare che esercita un astratto e un po’ ipocrita formalismo nell’analisi delle norme. Accetta il presupposto che i porti libici possano essere considerati sicuri e che l’attracco presso i porti tunisini e maltesi sia possibile. È una direttiva che non prende in alcuna considerazione il drammatico contesto reale”.

Anche Luigi Manconi e Valentina Calderone, presidente e direttrice di A buon diritto, hanno commentato: “Non esiste alcun provvedimento del consiglio dei ministri che abbia approvato una simile misura, illegale sotto il profilo normativo e costituzionale. Dunque i porti italiani erano e restano aperti, tanto più se a chiedere l’approdo è una nave italiana, battente bandiera italiana con equipaggio interamente italiano. E con 49 profughi soccorsi in mare in una zona più vicina alle coste italiane che ad altre coste (quelle di Malta, per esempio). Ovviamente, consegnare quelle persone alla guardia costiera libica e, di conseguenza, ai centri di detenzione di quel paese, avrebbe costituito una grave violazione del diritto internazionale”.

Per il giurista Fulvio Vassallo Paleologo della clinica dei diritti di Palermo, esperto di diritto del mare, “la direttiva tradisce puntualmente tutte le convenzioni internazionali, citate solo per le parti che si ritengono utili alla linea di chiusura dei porti adottata dal governo italiano, ma che non menziona neppure il divieto di respingimento affermato dall’articolo 33 della Convenzione di Ginevra, norma destinata a salvaguardare il diritto alla vita e alla integrità fisica delle persone. Questa omissione si traduce in una ennesima violazione del diritto interno e internazionale. Gravi le conseguenze per quelle autorità militari che dovessero dare corso a un provvedimento ministeriale manifestamente in contrasto con le Convenzioni internazionali e con il diritto dei rifugiati. Secondo l’Unhcr il diritto dei rifugiati va richiamato con funzione prevalente rispetto alle norme di diritto internazionale del mare e alle norme contro l’immigrazione irregolare”.

Infine per Vincent Cochetel, inviato speciale dell’Unhcr per il Mediterraneo centrale, “la legge del mare è molto chiara, la Libia non è un place of safety, un posto che può essere considerato sicuro. L’Italia e gli altri paesi del Mediterraneo sono sicuri”.

Intanto al largo di Sabratha, in Libia, c’è stato un nuovo naufragio: a darne notizia è l’Organizzazione internazionale per le migrazioni (Oim). Secondo Flavio Di Giacomo, portavoce dell’Oim in Italia, ci sono stati solo quindici sopravvissuti, ma i morti potrebbero essere decine. Secondo Di Giacomo dall’inizio del 2019 “oltre 1.280 persone sono partite dalle coste del Nordafrica verso l’Europa” e i morti sono stati almeno 154. “Un aumento esponenziale dei morti rispetto ai migranti sbarcati”, afferma Di Giacomo.

▻https://www.internazionale.it/bloc-notes/annalisa-camilli/2019/03/19/matteo-salvini-mare-ionio

Italian police escort migrant boat, open trafficking probe

An Italian charity ship was escorted into the port of Lampedusa by police on Tuesday after rescuing 49 Africans in the Mediterranean, with Interior Minister Matteo Salvini calling for the crew to be arrested.

A judicial source said a magistrate had ordered that the boat, the Mare Jonio, be seized as an investigation is launched into allegations of aiding and abetting human trafficking.

The vessel picked up the migrants, including 12 minors, on Monday after their rubber boat started to sink in the central Mediterranean, some 42 miles (68 km) off the coast of Libya.

The humanitarian ship immediately set sail for the nearby Italian island of Lampedusa, defying Salvini, the leader of the hard-right League party who has ordered the closure of all ports to boats carrying rescued migrants.

After initially being prevented from docking, the Mare Jonio was unexpectedly accompanied into port by police at nightfall as a storm approached.

The judicial source said the migrants would be allowed to disembark, while the boat would be impounded and the crew faced possible questioning.

“Excellent,” Salvini wrote on Twitter. “We now have in Italy a government that defends the borders and enforces the law, especially against human traffickers. Those who make mistakes pay the price,” he said.

The government has repeatedly accused charity rescue boats of being complicit with people smugglers, who charge large sums to help migrants get to Europe. The NGOs deny the accusation.

There was no immediate comment from the collective that organized Monday’s sea operation, “Mediterranea”. It said in an earlier statement that the rescue had been carried out in accordance with international human rights and maritime law.
ARRIVALS FALL

New arrivals to Italy have plummeted since Salvini took office last June, with just 348 migrants coming so far this year, according to official data, down 94 percent on the same period in 2018 and down 98 percent on 2017.

His closed-port policy has helped support for his League party double since March 2018 elections. However, humanitarian groups say his actions have driven up deaths at sea and left migrants languishing in overcrowded Libyan detention centers.

Salvini said on Monday the Mare Jonio should have let the Libyan coastguard pick up the migrants. Failing that, it should have taken them either to Libya or Tunisia rather than disobey initial orders not to enter Italian waters.

“If a citizen forces a police roadblock they are arrested. I trust the same thing will happen here,” Salvini said.

Mediterranea said its rescue operation had saved the migrants either from drowning or from being picked up by the Libyans and “taken back to suffer again the torture and horror from which they were fleeing”.

Last August, Salvini blocked an Italian coastguard ship with 150 migrants aboard for almost a week before finally letting it dock. Magistrates subsequently put him under investigation for abuse of power and kidnapping and have asked parliament to strip him of his immunity from prosecution.

The upper house Senate is due to vote on that on Wednesday, but the request looks certain to be rejected, with Salvini arguing that he acted in the national interest.

▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-italy/italys-salvini-in-new-migrant-boat-stand-off-idUSKCN1R021Q?il=0

Sequestro Mare Jonio. Indagato il comandante, che dice «Avrei dovuto lasciarli morire?»

Al vaglio degli inquirenti i contenuti delle comunicazioni via radio, in particolare gli alt intimati dalla Guardia di finanza e la decisione invece della nave di proseguire.

Favoreggiamento dell’immigrazione clandestina e rifiuto di obbedienza a nave da guerra previsto all’articolo 1099 del codice della navigazione. Sono questi i reati contestati al comandante Pietro Marrone della nave Mare Jonio, della Ong Mediterranea dal procuratore aggiunto di Agrigento Salvatore Vella e dal pubblico ministero Cecilia Baravelli. La Procura ha anche convalidato il sequestro della nave «Mare Jonio» fatto nella tarda serata di ieri dalla Guardia di finanza.

Pronta la replica dell’Ong: «Ovviamente nei prossimi giorni faremo ricorso contro il sequestro. Noi non godiamo di nessuna immunità, ma siamo certi di avere operato nel rispetto del diritto e felici di avere portato in salvo 49 persone», si legge in un tweet Mediterranea saving humans.

In quanto al comandante l’avvocato Fabio Lanfranco che, insieme alla collega Serena Romano, lo difende, fa sapere: «Abbiamo appreso che il comandante è indagato e che questo é prodromico al sequestro della nave, quindi è un atto dovuto. Non conoscendo gli atti stiamo ricostruendo il fatto. Il comandante si è comportato in modo estremamente corretto, ha salvato vite umane, il favoreggiamento a mio giudizio non sta né in cielo né in terra».

Ne è certo anche lo stesso comandante. «Sono tranquillo, ho fatto il mio dovere. Avrei dovuto lasciarli morire? Rifarei tutto per salvare le persone», ha detto Pietro Marrone ai cronisti prima di entrare nel comando Brigata Lampedusa della Guardia di finanza, accompagnato dai suoi legali, per essere interrogato dal pm di Agrigento.
La giornata

Giornata di interrogatori oggi a Lampedusa, sul caso della Mare Jonio, la nave della missione Mediterranea sequestrata e fatta attraccare ieri dopo circa tredici ore d’attesa al largo dell’Isola con 50 migranti a bordo, fatti infine sbarcare.

La procura di Agrigento ha aperto un’inchiesta per favoreggiamento dell’immigrazione clandestina. In serata era volato a Lampedusa il procuratore aggiunto Salvatore Vella. Sentiti dalla Guardia di finanza fino a notte il comandante Pietro Marrone il provvedimento di sequestro, e poi l’armatore Beppe Caccia. Si continuano a sentire persone informate, compreso il capo missione Luca Casarini.

Entro domani sera la procura dovrà decidere se convalidare il sequestro. Al vaglio degli inquirenti, in particolare, i contenuti delle comunicazioni via radio fra la Guardia di finanza che aveva intimato l’alt, chiedendo di non avvicinarsi al porto di Lampedusa, e il comandante dell’imbarcazione che ha disobbedito, decidendo di proseguire, a suo dire per questioni di sicurezza, per mantenere in assetto la nave in un mare fortemente agitato con onde alte.

Verificata anche la «catena di comando istituzionale», dal ministero dell’Interno alle forze dell’ordine intervenute intimando l’arresto dei motori alla nave di soccorso battente bandiera italiana.

INTERVISTA «Direttiva illegittima. Un abuso di potere come negli Stati autoritari» di Nello Scavo
Migranti trasferiti in hotspot, non ancora interrogati

Non sono stati ancora ascoltati dagli investigatori i 40 migranti soccorsi dalla Mare Jonio, che hanno trascorso la notte nell’ hotspot di Lampedusa dopo lo sbarco di ieri sera. Gli operatori del Centro li hanno rifocillati, alcuni di loro hanno pregato. «Sono bravi
ragazzi, educati e pacati» dicono dal centro dove la situazione è tranquilla. Non si sa quando lasceranno la struttura di contrada Imbriacola, anche perché le condizioni meteo-marine a Lampedusa non sono buone e sono previste in peggioramento.
Il comunicato di Mediterranea

«All’indomani dello sbarco dei naufraghi a Lampedusa il sentimento prevalente in Mediterranea è la gioia profonda di aver portato in salvo in un porto sicuro 49 persone sottratte ai pericoli della traversata e alle torture libiche. Sono entrate in Italia cantando ’libertà, liberta» perché per loro il nostro è ancora il paese dei diritti umani e della salvezza possibile" informa in una nota Mediterranea Saving Humans.

«Ieri sera è stato notificato al Comandante della Mare Jonio il sequestro probatorio della nave, su iniziativa della Polizia Giudiziaria, nello specifico la Guardia di Finanza. La contestuale identificazione del comandante è un atto dovuto per procedere al sequestro - si legge - Lo si accusa di non avere spento i motori, come ordinato dalla Guardia Costiera a poche miglia dalle acque territoriali italiane, mentre la Mare Jonio fronteggiava onde alte più di due metri, come si vede nel video che abbiamo diffuso ieri. Era un ordine impossibile da eseguire senza mettere in serio pericolo la sicurezza della nave e di tutte le persone a bordo, la cui tutela è l’obbligo prioritario di ogni comandante. Al momento non sono in corso interrogatori e non sono arrivate ulteriori notifiche. L’armatore di Mare Jonio è stato semplicemente convocato in capitaneria per le procedure di routine», sottolinea la Ong. «La nostra azione di obbedienza civile si è sempre mossa nel quadro giuridico delle norme vigenti, rispettando anche la loro gerarchia, avendo come bussola il diritto e i diritti che tutelano la vita e la dignità delle persone. Ancora una volta si potrà dimostrare che le navi della società civile sono gli unici soggetti del Mediterraneo centrale che agiscono con queste priorità», conclude la nota.

https://www.avvenire.it/c/2019/PublishingImages/f97a155a83634034855b3f5d22938e77/navejonio.jpg?width=1024#.jpg

▻https://www.avvenire.it/attualita/pagine/mare-jonio-interrogatori

L’ammiraglio. «Direttiva illegittima. Un abuso di potere, come negli Stati autoritari»

«Il provvedimento di chiusura del mare territoriale firmato dal ministro Salvini sospinge definitivamente il soccorso in mare nella pura strumentalizzazione politica con il rischio di creare, nella realtà operativa, situazioni ingestibili di confusione e di pericolo». Il contrammiraglio Vittorio Alessandro non nasconde la preoccupazione, specie dopo aver letto la direttiva di Salvini per fermare le Ong. «Un testo anomalo, chiaramente illegittimo e viziato di abuso di potere», dice l’ufficiale, ora in congedo. Temi che Alessandro conosce anche per essere stato a guida del reparto am- bientale marino della Guardia Costiera e per 3 anni a capo dell’ufficio relazioni esterne del comando generale, dal 2010 al 2013, gli anni delle primavere arabe e delle migliaia di sbarchi a Lampedusa.

Cosa non la convince?
La premessa della direttiva sta nella paventata ipotesi di “strumentalizzazione” delle convenzioni per la salvaguardia della vita umana in mare al fine di eludere le norme in materia di immigrazione clandestina. Una premessa del genere non vale a sospendere o a ridurre l’obbligo del soccorso (che si conclude con l’assegnazione di un porto sicuro), in quanto ogni principio a tutela dei diritti fondamentali (quello della libertà, per esempio, o il diritto alla salute) può essere strumentalizzato a fini illeciti, ma non per questo può essere ristretto.

Quindi si tratta di un’escamotage per scopi politici?
Tanto più quando, come nel nostro caso, il paventato rischio di un pregiudizio alla «pace, buon ordine, e sicurezza dello Stato costiero» è solo una lontana ipotesi mai constatata, e comunque perfettamente affrontabile allorché i naufraghi siano giunti a terra.

Perché ritiene che la direttiva non possa superare l’esame di un eventuale ricorso giudiziario?
Perché il provvedimento, per i suoi aspetti formali, è illegittimo. L’articolo 83 del codice della navigazione prevede, infatti, l’ipotesi della chiusura del mare territoriale (assai remota in un ordinamento che considera tali spazi aperti alla sosta e al transito inoffensivi delle navi) assegnandola alla esclusiva attribuzione del ministro delle Infrastrutture.

Invece cosa prevedono le nuove indicazioni degli Interni?
Il Viminale si interpone fra il vertice istituzionale dell’organizzazione marittima e del soccorso e la competenza operativa delle Capitanerie di Porto. Non, come giusto, con una missiva al ministro competente, ma con un proprio provvedimento indirizzato alle Forze di polizia e a una Forza armata, come negli stati autoritari.

Però si tratta di ipotesi che dovranno poi misurarsi con la realtà.
Ma è già successo proprio nel caso della Mare Jonio. La Guardia di Finanza ha ordinato, infatti, alla nave italiana di «fermare le macchine» in mezzo al mare agitato. Un ordine inaudito, sotto il profilo nautico: le macchine non servono soltanto a navigare, ma anche a difendersi dal moto ondoso, a mantenere a galla il natante. Non a caso la Guardia Costiera ha subito provveduto ad assegnare alla nave un punto di ancoraggio a ridosso di Lampedusa.

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1108276484907642880/MFEsL2q4?format=jpg&name=600x314#.jpg

Italy seizes migrant rescue boat Mare Jonio

A rescue boat carrying nearly 50 migrants has docked at the Italian island of Lampedusa. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had denied the ship access to Italian ports, but relented in order to bring aid workers to trial.

Sicilian prosecutors on Tuesday ordered the seizure of the Italian-flagged ship “Mare Jonio.” The rescue boat was allowed to dock on the Italian island of Lampedusa while accompanied by coast guard ships following nearly two days at sea.

The decision ended a standoff between the migrant rescue boat and the Italian government. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had earlier ordered authorities to deny the ship access to Italian ports.

Before issuing the permit to dock, prosecutors launched an investigation into possible aiding and abetting of illegal immigration. A move Salvini praised.

“Now in Italy there is a government that defends the borders and ensures respect for the law, most of all for human traffickers,” he said. “He who makes mistakes, pays.”

The group of 49 migrants, including 12 minors, were rescued by humanitarian group Mediterranea Saving Humans. “Those on board had been at sea for almost two days,” the NGO said in a statement. “(They) are exhausted and dehydrated.”

’Repressive’

Salvini has come under fire for attempting to block migrant rescue boats from docking at Italian ports.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International last year accused the Italian government of “repressive management of the migratory phenomenon.”

Italy has taken the brunt of a wave of migration after EU member states cut-off the so-called Balkan route. Nearly half a million irregular migrants have made the dangerous journey across the central Mediterranean and made landfall in Italy, according to the International Organization for Migration(IOM).

Rome has conceded that saving lives at sea is a priority, but maintains that national authorities must be obeyed and premeditated action to bring immigrants to Italy would amount to facilitating human trafficking.

Italy, with the support of the EU, has trained the Libyan coast guard to intercept boats carrying migrants in a bid to prevent migrants from reaching European shores.

▻https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/15804/italy-seizes-migrant-rescue-boat-mare-jonio?ref=fb

Le navire humanitaire « Mare Jonio » mis sous #séquestre en Italie

Le ministre de l’intérieur italien Matteo Salvini a lancé lundi 18 mars un avertissement aux organisations humanitaires qui recueillent des migrants au large de la Libye.

Le lendemain, le « Mare Jonio », un navire ayant secouru 49 migrants était bloqué au large de Lampedusa, et mis sous séquestre dans la soirée. Les membres de l’équipage ont été arrêtés.

https://img.aws.la-croix.com/2019/03/21/1201010329/Mercredi-20-justice-italienne-confirme-placementsequestre-Mare-Jonio-cadre-enquete-limmigration-clandestine_0_729_516.jpg

« Les ports ont été et restent FERMES ». C’est par un message lapidaire posté sur Twitter que le dirigeant de La Ligue et ministre de l’intérieur italien Matteo Salvini a annoncé lundi 18 mars que l’Italie ne laisserait pas débarquer les migrants secourus par les ONG.

https://i.imgur.com/Ys6AJed.png

Cet avertissement de Rome contre les ONG humanitaires intervient alors que le « Mare Jonio », affrété par le Collectif Mediterranea, aussi connu sous le nom de Mediterranea Saving Humans, venait de recueillir 49 migrants au large des côtes libyennes.
Le Mare Jonio bloqué puis placé sous séquestre.

Mardi 19 mars au matin, le navire humanitaire s’est positionné au large de Lampedusa, petite île italienne située entre l’île de Malte et la Tunisie, mais aussi dans la principale zone de passage des migrants en provenance des côtes libyennes. « En raison de conditions météo défavorables, il nous a été assigné un point d’ancrage à l’abri, à Lampedusa. Nous abriter était la priorité pour garantir la sécurité de toutes les personnes à bord », avait tweeté Mediterranea en fin d’après-midi.

Le ministère italien de l’intérieur a annoncé, mardi 19 mars au soir, que « les douanes sont en train de procéder à la saisie du navire Mare Jonio », précisant que « les interrogatoires des membres d’équipage pourraient avoir lieu dans les prochaines heures ». Mercredi 20 mars, de fait, la justice italienne a confirmé le placement sous séquestre du Mare Jonio dans le cadre d’une enquête pour « aide à l’immigration clandestine ».

Mediterranea, le soir même, a posté un message sur Twitter  : « évidemment nous allons déposer un recours dans les prochains jours. Nous ne jouissons d’aucune immunité, mais nous sommes certains d’avoir agi dans le respect du droit et heureux d’avoir porté ces 49 personnes en lieu sûr ».
Un accord Italie – Libye au détriment des droits de l’homme.

Alors que Matteo Salvini menace de « sanctions » ceux qui « violent explicitement les règlementations (…) concernant les sauvetages », il ajoute au sujet du « Mare Jonio », « il ne s’agit pas d’une opération de sauvetage, c’est de l’aide à l’immigration clandestine ».

Fidèle à sa ligne politique, le leader de La Ligue (extrême droite) a quasiment stoppé les arrivées de migrants, invoquant l’accord passé entre la Libye et l’Italie, signé le 2 février 2017, et soutenu par l’Europe, qui prévoit un soutien logistique et financier de l’Italie et de l’UE aux garde-côtes libyens, chargés d’assurer la surveillance en mer dans leurs eaux territoriales. En échange, ces derniers empêchent les personnes quittant la Libye de se rendre en Europe.

Vincent Cochetel, envoyé spécial du Haut-Commissariat de l’ONU pour la Méditerranée centrale, a commenté sur Twitter que « le droit maritime est clair  : la Libye n’est pas un lieu sûr (…). L’Italie et les autres pays méditerranéens, eux, le sont », légitimant ainsi le sauvetage des migrants par les ONG humanitaires.
Le 16 novembre 2017, les pratiques d’esclavage en Libye sur des migrants originaires d’Afrique subsahariennes avaient été révélées au grand jour à la suite d’une vidéo publiée par la chaîne américaine CNN. « La Libye est un pays déchiré par la guerre et où les personnes réfugiées et migrantes sont régulièrement détenues dans des conditions terribles en violation de leurs droits humains les plus élémentaires », précise une lettre ouverte à l’attention du ministre de l’intérieur Français, Christophe Castaner, et signée par une trentaine d’ONG européennes.
Quels navires humanitaires croisent encore en mer Méditerranée  ?

De janvier à juin 2018 l’espace humanitaire continue de se rétrécir en Méditerranée, explique pour sa part l’ONG SOS Méditerranée. « Les garde-côtes libyens sont de plus en plus présents et effectuent des interceptions dans les eaux internationales au large de la Libye, conséquence d’un transfert de responsabilités de plus en plus systématique du Centre de coordination des sauvetages italien vers les garde-côtes libyens ».

La mise sous séquestre du « Mare Jonio » prive désormais un peu plus la Méditerranée d’aide humanitaire. D’autres embarcations européennes ont été empêchées de prendre la mer et de porter secours ces derniers mois  : le « Juventa », le « Sea Watch », et l’« Aquarius ».

Matteo Salvini dresse un bilan positif de son action. « Moins de départs, moins d’arrivées, moins de morts », martèle-t-il.

L’Organisation Internationale pour les migrations (OIM) fait état de 152 morts et disparus en Méditerranée centrale depuis le début de l’année. Les chiffres sont par contre en augmentation au large de l’Espagne, devenue la principale porte d’entrée sur le continent.

En 2018, toujours selon l’OIM, 144 166 personnes ont migré vers l’Europe  : presque 4 000 de moins qu’en 2017. Le nombre de personnes mortes en tentant la traversée a également baissé, à 2 299. Il est toutefois proportionnellement plus élevé que les années précédentes.

▻https://www.la-croix.com/Monde/Europe/Le-navire-humanitaire-Mare-Jonio-mis-sequestre-Italie-2019-03-21-120101032

–-> commentaire de Emmanuel Blanchard, via la mailing-list Migreurop :

Les rares journalistes français qui évoquent le Mare Jonio continuent de le présenter comme partie prenante d’un projet humanitaire. Le sauvetage en mer n’est pourtant qu’une des ambitions de cette coalition, soutenue par MIgreurop, qui a toujours défendu la dimension politique de son action. C’est également pour cela qu’elle est si durement attaquée par Salvini.

#Lampedusa, si teme che i migranti della Mare Jonio siano detenuti arbitrariamente nell’#hostpot dell’isola

Il «Progetto In Limine», che realizza monitoraggi nei centri di identificazione chiede l’autorizzazione di poter entrare urgentemente nei luoghi dove sono stati portati le persone sbarcate

▻https://www.repubblica.it/solidarieta/immigrazione/2019/03/23/news/lampedusa_si_teme_che_i_migranti_della_mare_jonio_siano_detenuti_arbitrar

Hotspot di Lampedusa: si teme che i migranti della Mare Jonio siano detenuti arbitrariamente

Le 50 persone soccorse dalla Mare Jonio e condotte all’Hotspot di Lampedusa il 19 sera sono da allora trattenute all’interno della struttura. ASGI chiede l’autorizzazione urgente all’ingresso nell’hotspot.

Inviata il 20 mattina alla Prefettura e alla Questura di Agrigento una richiesta di informazioni circa la condizione dei cittadini stranieri presenti nell’hotspot. Ad oggi non è stata ricevuta nessuna risposta.

In particolare nella richiesta inviata dall’ASGI, nell’ambito delle azioni promosse dal Progetto Inlimine, si richiedevano chiarimenti rispetto all’accesso alla protezione internazionale, alla tutela dei minori e all’eventuale privazione della libertà delle persone presenti.

Di fatto i cittadini stranieri, nel corso di questi giorni, non hanno lasciato la struttura e l’ente gestore ha comunicato per via telefonica a In Limine che non sussistono meccanismi di regolamentazione in merito all’uscita e al rientro dalla struttura delle persone presenti. L’ente gestore ha infatti sostenuto che trattandosi di un Centro di primo soccorso e accoglienza i cittadini stranieri debbano essere trattenuti al suo interno.

Questa situazione desta grandi preoccupazioni: l’hotspot è percepito dall’ente responsabile della sua gestione come un centro di detenzione e le autorità pubbliche responsabili sembrano assecondare tale visione. Il problema della detenzione illegittima all’interno dell’hotspot di Lampedusa era già stato sollevato dal Garante dei diritti dei detenuti in data 11 maggio 2017. In tale occasione il prefetto di Agrigento alla richiesta del perché non venisse permesso alle persone di uscire dal Centro aveva risposto “se vogliono possono uscire da un buco nella rete”. In seguito, nel febbraio del 2018 il Prefetto inviava una comunicazione all’allora ente gestore con l’indicazione di dotarsi di sistemi per consentire ai richiedenti asilo di circolare liberamente. A oltre un anno da tale comunicazione, tali sistemi non sono stati adottati.

Di fronte a questa allarmante situazione ricordiamo che la libertà personale è un diritto inviolabile, in quanto tale tutelato dalla Costituzione (art. 13) nonché da norme di diritto internazionale, tra cui l’art. 5 della Convenzione Europea dei Diritti Umani. La privazione della libertà può avvenire solo sulla base di norme che ne disciplinino tassativamente casi e modi, deve essere disposta da provvedimenti scritti e motivati e deve essere convalidata dall’autorità giudiziaria competente. Nel caso dei cittadini stranieri presenti a Lampedusa ci troviamo potenzialmente di fronte a tre diverse situazioni:

Il trattenimento nel corso delle procedure di identificazione. Tale forma di detenzione non è prevista da alcuna norma ed è quindi di per sé illegittima.

Per quanto concerne la privazione della libertà dei richiedenti protezione internazionale all’interno dei centri hotspot questa è prevista dall’art. 6 del D.lgs. n. 142/2015, che stabilisce che il richiedente asilo può essere trattenuto solo in appositi locali, al fine di determinare o verificare l’identità o la cittadinanza e, in ogni caso, esclusivamente ove vi sia un provvedimento scritto emesso e notificato dall’autorità competente e convalidato dall’autorità giudiziaria.

Per quanto riguarda i cittadini stranieri destinatari di provvedimenti di allontanamento l’unica eccezione al trattenimento presso i Centri per il rimpatrio è contenuta nell’art. 13, co. 5-bis, del Testo Unico sull’Immigrazione. Questo prevede che in caso di indisponibilità dei posti all’interno dei CPR tali cittadini possono essere trattenuti in strutture diverse e idonee nella disponibilità dell’Autorità di pubblica sicurezza solo dietro autorizzazione del giudice di pace e comunque non oltre le quarantotto ore successive all’udienza di convalida.

In base a quanto visto sopra si ritiene che la detenzione cui sono sottoposti i 36 adulti, nel centro di Lampedusa potrebbe essere illegittima, sia nella sua fase iniziale – ovvero durante l’identificazione –sia nei momenti successivi, a meno che non siano stati emessi i provvedimenti di trattenimento e non vi sia stata la relativa convalida.

Per quanto riguarda i minori, la situazione è evidentemente ancora più grave. Infatti, in nessun caso i minori non accompagnati possono essere trattenuti e devono essere accolti in “strutture governative di prima accoglienza a loro destinate” e, in caso di indisponibilità di posti in tali strutture, l’assistenza e l’accoglienza devono essere garantite dal Comune. Il trattenimento ovvero la permanenza dei minori nel centro hotspot è estremamente preoccupante in quanto illegittima e contraria al principio del superiore interesse del minore.

Si invitano pertanto le autorità competenti a fornire nel minor tempo possibile informazioni sulla condizione delle persone soccorse dalla Mare Jonio, sulla messa in campo delle garanzie previste per gli eventuali trattenimenti e sulle misure adottate per l’immediato trasferimento dei minori. In data odierna è stata inviata richiesta di ingresso all’hotspot di una delegazione del progetto al fine di verificare l’effettivo rispetto dei diritti delle persone presenti.

In ultimo, riteniamo sia indispensabile, dal punto di vista della società civile, prestare l’opportuna attenzione nei confronti delle procedure applicate alle 50 persone attualmente presenti a Lampedusa. Riteniamo, da questa prospettiva, che il tema del rispetto dei diritti e le potenziali frizioni tra diritto e prassi non si esauriscano con l’approdo e lo sbarco. Viceversa, è indispensabile continuare a mantenere alta la soglia dell’attenzione: va puntualmente garantito il rispetto dei diritti all’interno degli hotspot e nelle delicate fasi successive.

▻https://www.asgi.it/asilo-e-protezione-internazionale/lampedusa-mare-jonio-detenzione-hotspot

Felici di annunciare che #MareJonio è libera. Ci è stato notificato dalla Procura di Agrigento il dissequestro della nave. Andiamo avanti. A testa alta. #FreeMareJonio

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2rUqMKWwAo5s9w.jpg

Refugee Ships Are Trying To Call Them During Emergencies — But They Aren’t Answering

Twenty-nine calls from BuzzFeed News to a variety of numbers meant to summon the Libyan coast guard to help for drowning refugees in the Mediterranean went completely unanswered.

Four years after the refugee crisis first brought the horrors of the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to the world’s attention, hundreds of people continue to die each year hoping to reach Europe’s shores.

Over the course of 2016, the European Union determined that the coast guard in Libya, from whose shores many refugee boats set off, would to be the first call for groups undertaking rescue missions in hopes of saving the lives of those adrift at sea. Since last June, the main international body that issues guidelines on rescues at sea has agreed — Libya has the lead in the Mediterranean.

A BuzzFeed News investigation has found that five different phone numbers provided by Libyan officials as contact numbers for search and rescue missions are barely functioning, and when they do, the staffers manning the phones are unable to speak English, in violation of international law.

A reporter from BuzzFeed News tried to reach these five numbers on three different days and at six different times in a total of 30 contact attempts. Of those, 29 failed because the call was not answered. Among the numbers where no one could be reached were the two numbers listed in the international database for emergencies at sea — the UN International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Search and Rescue database. The IMO entry says that the Libyans should be available 24 hours a day.

The failure to adequately man the phones can have dire consequences. In 2016, at the peak of the crisis, more than 3,800 people are estimated to have died when attempting to make the crossing into Europe. According to the UN, the route between Libya and Italy was the most deadly, with one death for every 47 arrivals. That number has fallen but still remains high: 2,262 people were estimated to have died on the voyage last year.

In response to the surge in migrants and asylum-seekers, the European Union opted in 2016 to divert money and personnel from its own rescue missions to the Libyan coast guard, hoping to discourage migrants and asylum-seekers from making the trek in the first place. The program has been renewed several times since then, most recently in the form of a pledge of $52 million this January to pay for maritime surveillance equipment.

The UN database also lists a Gmail address as an official contact for the Tripoli mission. There are three further email addresses available that BuzzFeed News was able to locate, which are supposed to represent official contacts to the Libyan coast guard. One is a second Gmail account; the other is an address that belongs to the Italian Navy. None of the addresses contacted responded to BuzzFeed News requests for comment.

Other organizations have had little better luck contacting Tripoli. Sea-Watch, an NGO that provides search and rescue efforts in the Mediterranean, has also provided BuzzFeed News radio recordings of several attempts on different days to reach the Libyan coast guard.

Sea-Watch also provided a list of recorded attempts to reach the Libyan coast guard from the bridge of the Sea-Watch 3, one of their rescue ships. The list of 15 calls show 10 failed contact attempts — in five other cases, the Libyan side simply hung up.

Ruben Neugebauer, a crew member who also acts as spokesperson for Sea-Watch, told BuzzFeed News that the situation had become the new normal.

“The accessibility of the JRCC Tripoli is more than poor, it happens again and again that the control center is not accessible at all,” he said, using the Libyan mission’s official name. “If it can be reached, often only the local Arabic dialect is spoken.”

Under the terms of the 1979 International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, which Libya has signed, all rescue coordination centers must be staffed around the clock and include staffers who speak English.

Neugebauer recalled one case where a person on the Libyan end of the call could not communicate in English, French, or Egyptian Arabic: “Even though it was an emergency, the JRCC Tripoli employee simply hung up before we were able to share the most necessary information.”

The operator’s lack of English language skills can also jeopardize the rescuers. Last November, a Libyan patrol boat intervened aggressively in an ongoing rescue mission. Five people died as a result.

The Aquarius, a ship jointly operated by NGOs Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee, has noted in its public logbook almost 30 unsuccessful attempts to reach the Libyans during missions since June 2018 alone. Nine unsuccessful attempts to reach Libyan units on the radio channel reserved for emergency calls are also listed in the logbook.

“For us, the JRCC Tripoli has never been reachable by phone so far,” Axel Steier, founder and chair of the NGO Mission Lifeline, told BuzzFeed News in an email. “Emails are answered after days.” BuzzFeed News asked Steier to estimate how often the Libyan authorities were available in cases of distress at sea in which Mission Lifeline’s rescue vessel was involved. His answer: “Zero percent.”

Ina Fisher, a spokesperson for Alarm Phone, another NGO focused on rescues, told BuzzFeed News that in only two cases did phone calls placed to numbers meant to belong to the Libyan coast guard actually get answered. One number turned out to belong not to the coast guard but a retired general, she said. In the other call, the voice on the other end of the line said they could not help but did ask if they’d managed to save the boat in question.

“We regularly send complaints to MRCC Rome about the JRCC’s inaccessibility, but again and again get the answer that the JRCC is working well,” Fisher said.

“According to our experience, in case of SAR events involving our assets, the communication with the relevant MRCC, including the Libyan one, has been satisfactory,” Antonello de Renzis Sonnino, a captain in the Italian Navy and spokesperson for Operation Sophia, the EU’s international rescue mission, said in response to a BuzzFeed News request for comment.

Last year, Italian and Maltese ports began refusing ships with refugees on board permission to enter their harbors, leaving ships to wait for days with refugees on board on the Mediterranean Sea. As a result, civilian sea rescuers have given up on contacting the rescue coordination center based in Rome and switched over to contacting the German Maritime Search and Rescue Association during emergencies in the Mediterranean, hoping to enlist them to contact the Libyans. The Germans, based out of the city of Bremen, are responsible for maritime search and rescue operations in the North and Baltic seas.

Even they don’t always manage to reach the Libyan coast guard. Christian Stipeldey, the German rescue association’s press officer, confirmed to BuzzFeed News: “In January 2019 we tried to reach Tripoli by telephone in one case. The connection was not established.” The mission in Rome “was already aware of this case,” Stipeldey said.

A spokesperson for the International Maritime Organization told BuzzFeed News that they were not in a position to comment on the reporting gathered for this article, adding that the IMO has no mandate to investigate the accessibility and reliability of regional command centers. A member state of the IMO could make such a request, however.

The German Federal Ministry of Transport is considering putting the work of the Libyan coast guard on the agenda at the next meeting of the IMO’s subcommittee responsible for sea rescues, the ministry confirmed to BuzzFeed News. The ministry also said that in talks with Libyan representatives, it has regularly demanded that the protection of refugees in sea rescue be guaranteed.

“You must appreciate that not every State can execute this function properly, especially if it has been under turmoil, like Libya,” George Theocharidis, a professor of maritime law and policy at World Maritime University in Sweden, told BuzzFeed News. “On the other hand, as every State has sovereignty, it is not possible to enforce those duties and it is left to the goodwill of States to perform what is required from them,” he added, noting that even the IMO can’t force a country to comply with the standards.

BuzzFeed News has also asked the European External Action Service, the responsible EU commissioner, for comment on the Libyans’ inaccessibility. It has not provided a response at this time.

Despite widespread knowledge of the problem, the confusion has not improved in recent months. A screenshot of an internal Sea-Watch chat provided to BuzzFeed News shows one crew member attempting to get in touch with the Libyans as recently as March 15. They were subsequently provided with a new phone number and instructed to speak very slowly.

When someone actually answered the phone, the chat reads, “it was a Russian-sounding man replying, saying in English that he didn’t speak English, only Russian.

“To my question, if anyone there spoke English, he replied, ‘Afternoon, English!’”

▻https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/marcusengert/libya-coast-guard-not-answering-emergency-refugee-rescue-cal

Rescued migrants hijack merchant ship off Libya

Migrants have hijacked a merchant ship which rescued them off the coast of Libya and it is now heading towards Malta, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and Maltese authorities said on Wednesday.

The 108 migrants were picked up by the cargo ship #Elhiblu_1 and hijacked the vessel when it became clear that it planned to take them back to Libya, according to the website of Italian daily Corriere della Sera and Italian news agencies.

“These are not migrants in distress, they are pirates, they will only see Italy through a telescope,” said Salvini, who has cracked down on illegal immigration, including closing Italy’s ports to charity ships, since he took office in June last year.

A spokeswoman for Malta’s armed forces confirmed the ship had been hijacked and said Maltese authorities were monitoring its progress and it would not be allowed to dock in Malta.

“This is clearly a case of organized crime,” Salvini said on Facebook. “Our ports remain closed.”

Salvini, the leader of the right-wing League party, has been at the center of several international stand-offs over his refusal to let humanitarian ships dock in Italy.

This month parliament rejected a request by prosecutors to investigate him for kidnapping over a case in August when he blocked an Italian coastguard ship with 150 migrants aboard for almost a week off Sicily before finally letting it dock.

▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-hijacking/rescued-migrants-hijack-merchant-ship-off-libya-idUSKCN1R81YF?feedType=RSS&

Un pétrolier, détourné par les migrants secourus, arrive à Malte

Le pétrolier ravitailleur #Elhiblu 1, détourné par des migrants qu’il avait secourus mais qui ne voulaient pas être reconduits en Libye, est arrivé jeudi à Malte. Un commando de la marine maltaise en a repris le contrôle dans la nuit.

Ce navire de 52 mètres qui bat pavillon de Palau avait secouru mardi au large de la Libye 108 migrants, dont 31 femmes ou enfants, à bord de deux canots en détresse, signalés par un avion militaire européen. Mais alors qu’il s’approchait de Tripoli pour les débarquer mercredi, il a subitement fait demi-tour et mis le cap au nord.

Le ministre italien de l’Intérieur, Matteo Salvini, a immédiatement prévenu que le navire ne serait pas autorisé à pénétrer dans les eaux italiennes.

Or, l’Elhiblu 1 faisait route vers Malte, où la marine a pu entrer en contact avec le capitaine alors que le navire était à 30 milles des côtes.

Le contrôle « rendu au capitaine »

Le capitaine a répété plusieurs fois qu’il n’avait plus le contrôle du navire et que lui-même et son équipage étaient forcés et menacés par un certain nombre de migrants exigeant qu’il fasse route vers Malte", a ajouté la marine dans un communiqué.

Un patrouilleur a empêché le pétrolier de pénétrer dans les eaux territoriales de Malte et un commando des forces spéciales, soutenu par plusieurs navires de la marine et un hélicoptère, a été dépêché à bord « pour rendre le contrôle du bateau au capitaine ».

Escorté par la marine maltaise, le navire est arrivé tôt ce matin dans le port de La Valette, où l’équipage et les migrants doivent être confiés à la police pour déterminer ce qui s’est passé et les responsabilités.

https://www.rts.ch/2019/03/28/11/21/10324363.image?w=1500&h=843#.jpg

#IOM: Libya isn’t a safe haven for immigrants

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Libya cannot yet be considered a safe port, saying it is present at the disembarkation points to deliver primary assistance to migrants that have been rescued at sea.

In a statement on Tuesday, IOM added that following the migrants’ disembarkation, they are transferred to detention centres under the responsibility of the Libyan Directorate for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM) over which the Organization has no authority or oversight.

“The detention of men, women and children is arbitrary. The unacceptable and inhumane conditions in these detention centres are well documented, and IOM continues to call for alternative solutions to this systematic detention.” The statement remarks.

It indicates that the number of migrants returned to Libyan shores has reached over 16,000 since January 2018, and concern remains for their safety and security in Libya, due to the conditions in the detention centres.

“IOM only has access to centres to provide direct humanitarian assistance in the form of non-food items, health and protection assistance, as well as Voluntary Humanitarian Return support for migrants wishing to return to their countries of origin.” It explained.

The IOM also clarified that its access to detention centres in Libya is part of the efforts to alleviate the suffering of migrants but cannot guarantee their safety and protection from serious reported violations.

It said it advocates for alternatives to detention including open centres and safe spaces for women, children and other vulnerable migrants.

“A change of policy is needed urgently as migrants returned to Libya should not be facing arbitrary detention.” The statement reads.

IOM further explained that security and humanitarian situations in Libya remain dangerous, and reiterated that Libya cannot be considered a safe port or haven for migrants.

▻https://www.libyaobserver.ly/news/iom-libya-isnt-safe-haven-immigrants
#Libye #ports_sûrs #port_sûr #asile #migrations #réfugiés #IOM #OIM

Migrants : #Castaner parle d’ONG complices des #passeurs, MSF dénonce « un glissement vers la droite »

Le ministre de l’Intérieur a accusé certaines ONG qui viennent en aide aux migrants de « se faire complices des passeurs ».

▻https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/entry/migrants-castaner-ong-passeurs-msf_fr_5ca7713ce4b0a00f6d3eeda3

Refugee rescue ship running out of food and water with 64 on board as European countries argue over who should let it dock

A newborn baby, five children and 20 women are among those on board the stranded vessel.
A ship carrying 64 refugees is stranded at sea and running out of food and drinking water while European countries refuse to let it dock.

The Alan Kurdi is a private rescue ship owned by Sea-Eye, a German NGO.

The group on the vessel includes 20 women, five children and one newborn baby, according to a spokesperson for Sea-Eye.

Staff on board rescued the group of refugees from a rubber dinghy near the Libyan coast last week and asked Italy and Malta, the two nearest countries, to open a port so the ship could dock.

But both countries refuse to accept humanitarian ships that patrol the Mediterranean to rescue refugees.

The Alan Kurdi has now spent six days at sea as European countries argue over who should accept the vessel.

Matteo Salvini, Italy’s anti-immigration deputy prime minister, said the rescue ship was not welcome in the country.

“A ship with a German flag, German NGO, German ship owner, captain from Hamburg. It responded in Libyan waters and asks for a safe port,” he said.

“Good, go to Hamburg.”

As supplies on the vessel run low, the European Union (EU) has entered discussions with its member states.

On Tuesday, Sea-Eye said it had informed Malta, which is nearest to the boat, about the scarcity of food on board.

Dominik Reisinger, a spokesperson for the organisation, said the “political question about the distribution of those rescued ... overshadows the human rights” of the refugees.

The vessel’s difficulties come after the aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) ended its refugee rescue missions in the area.

In December 2018, the group’s rescue vessel, Aquarius, was withdrawn from operations after what MSF alleged was a “sustained smear campaign” led by the Italian government.

Operation Sophia, the EU’s maritime rescue mission, has also been downgraded, in a move that was condemned by rights groups and charities when it was announced in March 2019.

The EU mission was credited with saving thousands of lives but no longer carries out maritime patrols in the Mediterranean, after Italy refused to receive the people rescued at sea.

A spokesperson for Amnesty International described the decision as an “outrageous abdication of EU governments’ responsibilities”.

The Alan Kurdi is named after the three-year-old boy whose body was found on a beach in Turkey in September 2015 at the height of the refugee crisis.

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2019/04/09/11/sea-eye-alan-kurdi-.jpg?w968#.jpg

▻https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-rescue-ship-sea-eye-boat-eu-countries-refusing-to-let-it-dock

Avril 2019

#Alarmphone was called this morning at approx. 6am CEST by 20ppl, incl. women & children in distress off the coast of #Libya +++ They report that 8ppl have fallen into the sea and are missing. They lost their engine, water is coming into their boat. Authorities are informed.

Avec un fil twitter sur l’évolution de la situation :
▻https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1115945935601831940

Fin de l’histoire : les Libyens sont intervenus et ont ramené les migrants en Libye...

Li hanno ripresi i Libici. Il caso è chiuso. 15 ore senza interventi di soccorso. Governi europei, civilissime nazioni di grandi tradizioni e valori, sono riusciti a riconsegnare ai lager in una zona di guerra da cui scappavano, donne uomini bambini. Crimine e vergogna infinita.

▻https://twitter.com/RescueMed/status/1116054434742714368

Tweet de #sea_watch :

While today 8 people already drowned, 20 others are alive but abandoned in distress. Meanwhile the Dutch gov. keeps our ship blocked with random policy changes. #SeaWatch 3 could be there to save lives now, but that doesn’t fit the European migration policy of letting drown.

▻https://twitter.com/seawatch_intl/status/1115955541099057152

#Castaner persiste sur des « interactions » entre ONG et passeurs en Méditerranée

Après avoir affirmé que les ONG « ont pu se faire complices des passeurs » en Méditerranée, Christophe Castaner a tenté une mise au point mardi, dégainant deux « rapports de Frontex » censés démontrer des « interactions ». Emmanuel Macron lui-même juge que des humanitaires font « le jeu des passeurs ».

▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/100419/castaner-persiste-sur-des-interactions-entre-ong-et-passeurs-en-mediterran

Des ONG sont-elles « complices des passeurs » de migrants en Méditerranée, comme l’assure Christophe Castaner ?

Le ministre de l’Intérieur évoque « une réalité documentée » par Frontex. Mais l’agence européenne de contrôle des frontières dément.

▻https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/europe/naufrage-a-lampedusa/des-ong-sont-elles-complices-des-passeurs-de-migrants-en-mediterranee-c

211 députés allemands (CDU, SPD, FDP, Verts, LInke) lancent un appel pour demander la création d’une #structure_européenne venant aux secours des migrants en Méditerranée. CSU et AfD ne participent pas

▻https://twitter.com/pthibaut/status/1116727510304215040
#Allemagne

Avec la fermeture des ports aux ONG par l’Italie, les routes migratoires se déplacent vers #Malte :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/774624

La Mare Jonio torna a navigare. Siamo tutti coinvolti

In questo momento il rimorchiatore Mare Jonio e la barca a vela d’appoggio Alex stanno solcando il mare in direzione del Mediterraneo Centrale, la rotta migratoria più mortifera a livello globale. «Torniamo a navigare ancora una volta decisi a rispettare fino in fondo il diritto internazionale del mare, i diritti umani e i principi della nostra Costituzione – hanno scritto ieri gli attivisti sul profilo facebook della missione – Ringraziamo le migliaia e migliaia di persone diventate in questi mesi Mediterranea. È solo grazie al loro supporto che possiamo farlo».

La Mare Jonio era ferma dal 19 marzo scorso, quando tornò in Italia con a bordo 49 naufraghi salvati dalla morte o dal ritorno nell’inferno libico. Dopo l’apertura di indagini per favoreggiamento dell’immigrazione clandestina, il rimorchiatore era stato sottoposto a qualche giorno di sequestro probatorio presto revocato dalla procura di Agrigento. La nuova missione parte con la benedizione dell’arcivescovo di Palermo Corrado Lorefice che lunedì scorso ha incontrato Luca Casarini, capomissione di Mediterranea, affermando pubblicamente di essere dalla parte di chi salva esseri umani.

Ieri sera, invece, è stato pubblicato un comunicato congiunto degli equipaggi di Sea-Watch, Open Arms, Mediterranea Saving Humans, Sea-Eye, Alarm Phone, Seebrücke sulla vicenda che ha riguardato la nave Alan Kurdi. L’imbarcazione della ong Sea-Eye aveva salvato 64 persone il 3 aprile scorso. Solo ieri i naufraghi sono stati prelevati e fatti sbarcare dalle motovedette militari maltesi. L’attracco della nave nel porto di La Valletta, invece, non è stato autorizzato. I profughi saranno ora «redistribuiti» tra Germania, Francia, Portogallo e Lussemburgo.

«I negoziati intergovernativi portati avanti mentre le persone soccorse erano costrette a rimanere in condizioni non sicure in alto mare per oltre dieci giorni – recita il comunicato congiunto – sono pratiche illegittime e insostenibili che violano il diritto internazionale, i principi fondamentali dei diritti umani e non rispettano la dignità delle persone salvate». «Per noi, la società civile impegnata nel Mediterraneo centrale – continua il testo – la dignità e i diritti delle persone sono sempre una priorità assoluta e guidano tutte le nostre pratiche».

La missione di Mediterranea iniziata questa mattina si inserisce in un nuovo contesto politico, segnato dalla rinnovata instabilità libica e dall’escalation militare che interessa Tripoli. Il conflitto tra le milizie di Haftar e quelle di Serraj, sostenuto dal governo italiano e dall’Unione Europea, hanno reso evidente a tutti, amesso che ancora ce ne fosse bisogno, che la Libia non è un «paese sicuro». Chi continua a ripeterlo diffonde fake news e menzogne che producono morte e legittimano l’inferno dei lager, delle violenze, degli stupri.

A tutto questo bisogna reagire adesso. Mediterranea lo sta facendo. Lo stanno facendo gli equipaggi di mare, che hanno deciso di sfidare senza paura le aggressioni politiche e giudiziarie e i possibili comportamenti scomposti della cosiddetta «guardia costiera libica». Lo stanno facendo gli equipaggi di terra, che instancabilmente lavorano a livello economico, organizzativo e legale per rendere possibili le missioni. Dovrebbe farlo chiunque non accetta questa situazione, sostenendo come può la missione Mediterranea, che è completamente autofinanziata e ha urgente bisogno di nuovi fondi, ma anche preparandosi a mobilitarsi affinché nessuno resti solo, né in mare né in terra.

▻https://www.dinamopress.it/news/la-mare-jonio-torna-navigare-tutti-coinvolti

Nella direttiva contro Mare Jonio solo propaganda. Il Viminale rispetti i diritti umani

Apprendiamo che il Viminale ha dedicato, nella sua intensa attività di produzione di “direttive ad navem”, una nuova direttiva interamente dedicata alla nostra nave, Mare Jonio, salpata per la seconda missione del 2019 il 14 aprile scorso.

La direttiva appare scritta come se il Governo vivesse in un mondo parallelo. Nessun accenno alla guerra che infiamma la Libia e ai corrispettivi obblighi internazionali né alle migliaia e migliaia di persone torturate negli ultimi anni in quel Paese né a quelle annegate nel Mediterraneo centrale (in proporzione in numero sempre crescente, 2.100 nel solo 2018). Forse dovrebbero parlarsi tra Ministeri: la Ministra della Difesa italiana ha appena affermato infatti che “con la guerra non avremmo migranti ma rifugiati e i rifugiati si accolgono”.

Nelle considerazioni introduttive della direttiva in questione, si leggono una serie di slogan di propaganda, oltre che un elenco di bugie, peraltro relative a eventi al momento sotto l’attenzione della Procura di Agrigento nel corso dell’indagine che ci riguarda e che abbiamo accolto offrendo tutta la nostra collaborazione. Sappiamo infatti di avere sempre rispettato i diritti e il diritto, cosa che i governi europei, e il nostro in particolare, dovrebbero cominciare a fare in relazione a quanto avviene nel Mediterraneo Centrale.

La direttiva dice che la nostra presenza in mare sarebbe un incentivo per chi lascia la Libia: bisognerebbe appunto ricordare al Viminale che in Libia c’è una guerra, e che in ogni caso, come l’ONU e l’UE non perdono occasione di ricordare, quel paese non è mai stato un porto sicuro, ma piuttosto il teatro di “indicibili orrori”, stupri quotidiani, torture, esecuzioni sommarie per tutti i migranti, inclusi i bambini.

La direttiva dice che rischiamo di favorire l’ingresso di pericolosi terroristi. Auspichiamo che, una volta sbarcate nel porto più sicuro le persone eventualmente soccorse, questo governo sia in grado di effettuare tutte le indagini necessarie a garantire la sicurezza pubblica, ricordando però che i terroristi solitamente non viaggiano su barche che in un caso su tre affondano, ma che hanno ben altri mezzi per spostarsi.

La direttiva dice che avremmo rifiutato il coordinamento SAR di autorità straniere legittimamente responsabili. Ricordiamo che nel nostro soccorso avvenuto il 18 marzo, nessuna autorità ci ha ordinato alcunché, se non di stare lontani 8 miglia da un punto dal quale siamo rimasti ben più distanti per tutto il tempo. In ogni caso, ci auguriamo che la direttiva non faccia riferimento all’autorità libica, poiché in questo caso, si tratterebbe di una istigazione a delinquere: se già in precedenza era un reato riportare in Libia le persone soccorse, oggi, con la guerra in corso, è un’affermazione semplicemente criminale.

La cosiddetta guardia costiera libica, su delega e finanziamenti italiani, ha catturato per anni le persone in mare riportandole in quell’inferno e rimettendole in mano ai trafficanti, contrastati di fatto solo dalla presenza delle navi della società civile, le uniche a strappare le persone soccorse dalle mafie criminali. Sempre in relazione all’evento del 18 marzo, contrariamente alle menzogne riportate dalla direttiva, ricordiamo di avere fatto rotta verso l’Italia, obbedendo linearmente a quanto previsto dal diritto internazionale, in quanto Lampedusa era il porto sicuro più vicino per i naufraghi soccorsi.

La direttiva ci accusa infine di volere condurre nuovamente le stesse attività: lo confermiamo. Siamo di nuovo nel Mediterraneo, grazie alle tantissime realtà e persone che ci sostengono, per continuare nella nostra missione di monitoraggio e denuncia della violazione dei diritti umani, senza sottrarci mai all’obbligo giuridico ed etico di salvare le vite in pericolo e portarle in salvo.

Ci atterremo, nel farlo, esattamente come chiede la direttiva, alle vigenti norme nazionali e internazionali, cosa che implica l’impossibilità di fare alcun riferimento alla Libia, certi che anche l’illegittimità della sua zona SAR sarà presto definitivamente riconosciuta.

Diffidiamo altresì chiunque, e nella fattispecie il Ministro dell’Interno italiano, dal mettere in atto comportamenti che violino le leggi nazionali ed internazionali in materia di rispetto dei diritti umani e di obbligo di salvataggio in mare.

▻https://mediterranearescue.org/news/nella-direttiva-contro-mare-jonio-solo-propaganda-il-viminale-ri

#Livre « Je voulais juste sauver ma famille »

Pour avoir voulu sauver sa belle-famille fuyant une Syrie à feu et à sang d’une mort certaine, Stéphan Pélissier est menacé de 15 ans de prison ferme par la justice grecque qui l’accuse d’être un passeur.
Son crime ? Être parti chercher les parents, le frère et la sœur de sa femme Zéna en Grèce plutôt que de les laisser monter à bord d’un canot de fortune pour tenter une impossible traversée vers l’Italie.
L’euphorie des retrouvailles vire au cauchemar lorsque Stéphan et les siens sont arrêtés et jetés en prison. À la tragédie humaine s’ajoute alors pour l’Albigeois sans histoire un enfer judiciaire aussi absurde qu’implacable. Si ses proches ont enfin pu trouver – légalement – asile en France, lui doit encore se battre de toutes ses forces pour que soit reconnue son innocence et que les valeurs d’humanité et de solidarité auxquelles il croit farouchement puissent triompher.

http://www.michel-lafon.fr/medias/images/livres/JE_VOULAIS_JUSTE_SAUVER_MA_FAMILLE_poster.png

▻http://www.michel-lafon.fr/livre/2213-JE_VOULAIS_JUSTE_SAUVER_MA_FAMILLE.html

Dans la BD on cite le #livre
"Les Paroles la nuit" de Francesco Biamonti

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5167ShfUFcL._SX338_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Dans l’obscurité de la nuit, sur les sentiers des collines ligures battues par le vent, parmi ces terres arides, de roches et d’argile, de ronces, d’oliviers et de mimosas, erre une humanité inquiète en proie à la violence qui règne sur les côtes : ce sont les laissés-pour-compte de la modernité occidentale, attirés par la frontière française, à la recherche d’une terre d’accueil.

Des coups de feu, un bruissement dans les arbres, les restes d’un bivouac, des traces de sang, un cadavre retrouvé au petit matin sont les signes du passage de ces hordes de damnés, incarnés par deux personnages poignants, un homme et une petite fille kurdes qu’un implacable destin poursuit.

Donnant voix aux silences de Leonardo et de ses amis, à leurs remords, à leur perception des événements et des choses, l’auteur nous livre des tranches d’existence qui se détachent sur un paysage à la lumière changeante ; la dérive de notre monde malade revient sans cesse dans une conversation suspendue au-dessus de l’abîme.

▻http://www.seuil.com/ouvrage/les-paroles-la-nuit-francesco-biamonti/9782020350105

Merci, @cdb_77. Continuons - par tous les moyens ! - de montrer et de dénoncer l’inacceptable.

Global migrant numbers up 20 percent

Migrants of working age make up 4.2 percent of the global population, and the number is growing. A UN report notes how poorer countries are increasingly supplying labor to richer ones to their own detriment.

There are 277 million international migrants, 234 million migrants of working age (15 and older) and 164 million migrant workers worldwide, according to a UN report.

Figures for 2017 from the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA) published on Wednesday show that migrants of working age make up 4.2 percent of the global population aged 15 and older, while migrant workers constitute 4.7 percent of all workers.

The numbers rose by almost 20 percent between 2013 and 2017 for international migrants, 13 percent for migrants of working age and 9 percent for migrant workers.

Distribution

Of the 164 million migrant workers worldwide, 111.2 million (67.9 percent) are employed in high-income countries, 30.5 million (18.6 percent) in upper middle-income countries, 16.6 million (10.1 percent) in lower middle- income countries and 5.6 million (3.4 percent) in low-income countries.

From 2013 to 2017, the concentration of migrant workers in high-income countries fell from 74.7 to 67.9 percent, while their share in upper middle-income countries increased, suggesting a shift in the number of migrant workers from high-income to lower-income countries.

The report noted that this growing number could be attributed to the economic development of some lower-income nations, particularly if these countries are in close proximity to migrant origin countries with close social networks.

The share of migrant workers in the labor force of destination countries has increased in all income groups except for lower middle-income countries.

In high-income countries, falling numbers of migrant workers were observed simultaneously with a higher share in the labor force as a result of the sharp fall in the labor force participation of non-migrants, due to a variety of factors such as changes in demographics, technology and immigration policies.

“Stricter migration policies in high-income countries and stronger economic growth among upper middle-income countries may also contribute to the trends observed,” the report noted.

Geography

Some 60.8 percent of all migrant workers are found in three subregions: Northern America (23.0 percent), Northern, Southern and Western Europe (23.9 percent) and Arab States (13.9 percent). The lowest number of migrant workers is hosted by Northern Africa (less than 1 percent).

The subregion with the largest share of migrant workers as a proportion of all workers is Arab States (40.8 percent), followed by Northern America (20.6 percent) and Northern, Southern and Western Europe (17.8 percent).

In nine out of 11 subregions, the labor force participation rate of migrants is higher than that of non-migrants. The largest difference is in the Arab States, where the labor force participation rate of migrants (75.4 percent) is substantially higher than that of non-migrants (42.2 percent).

Gender

Among migrant workers, 96 million are men and 68 million are women. In 2017, the stock of male migrant workers was estimated to be 95.7 million, while the corresponding estimate for female migrant workers was 68.1 million.

“The higher proportion of men among migrant workers may also be explained by...the higher likelihood of women to migrate for reasons other than employment (for instance, for family reunification), as well as by possible discrimination against women that reduces their employment opportunities in destination countries,” the report noted.

It added that societal stigmatization, the discriminatory impacts of policies and legislation and violence and harassment undermine women’s access to decent work and can result in low pay, the absence of equal pay and the undervaluation of female-dominated sectors.

Age

Prime-age adults (ages 25-64) constitute nearly 87 percent of migrant workers. Youth workers (aged 15-24) and older workers (aged 65 plus) constitute 8.3 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively, of migrant workers. This age composition holds for male and female migrant workers alike.

“The fact that the overwhelming majority of migrant workers consist of prime-age adults suggests that some countries of origin are losing the most productive part of their workforce, which could have a negative impact on their economic growth,” the report noted, but it added that emigration of prime-age individuals may also provide a source of remittances for countries of origin.

Destination countries, meanwhile, benefit from receiving prime-age workers as they are increasingly faced with demographic pressures.

Labor shortage in Germany

Germany’s BDI industry association said skilled labor from abroad was key to Germany’s future economic success. “The integration of skilled workers from other countries contributes significantly to growth and jobs,” BDI President Dieter Kempf said.

The country’s VDE association of electrical, electronic and IT engineering was the latest group in Germany to point to the growing need for foreign experts. Emphasizing that Germany itself was training too few engineers, VDE said there would be a shortage of 100,000 electrical engineers over the next 10 years.

“We will strive to increase the number of engineers by means of migration,” VDE President Gunther Kegel noted.

▻https://www.dw.com/en/global-migrant-numbers-up-20-percent/a-46596757

Al menos uno de cada cuatro movimientos migratorios son retornos a los países de origen

Un estudio estima que entre el 26% y el 31% de los flujos de migración mundiales consisten en regresos a los lugares de partida. En los últimos 25 años apenas ha habido cambios en la proporción de población migrante mundial

▻https://ctxt.es/es/20181226/Firmas/23708/ctxt-Observatorio-Social-La-Caixa-migracion.htm
#retour_au_pays
source: ▻https://www.pnas.org/content/116/1/116

GLOBAL MIGRATION INDICATORS

Préparé par le Centre mondial d’analyse des données sur la migration (CMADM) de l’OIM, le rapport 2018 sur les indicateurs de la migration dans le monde résume les principales tendances mondiales en fonction des dernières statistiques, présentant 21 indicateurs dans 17 domaines relatifs à la migration.

Le rapport s’appuie sur des statistiques provenant de sources diverses facilement accessibles sur le Global Migration Data Portal.

Le rapport regroupe les statistiques les plus récentes dans des domaines comme la migration de main-d’œuvre, les réfugiés, les étudiants internationaux, les envois de fonds, le trafic illicite de migrants, la gouvernance des migrations et bien d’autres, permettant aux responsables politiques et au grand public d’avoir un aperçu de l’ampleur et des dynamiques de la migration à travers le monde.

Par ailleurs, le rapport est le premier à faire le lien entre le programme mondial de gouvernance des migrations et les débats sur les données migratoires. Les thèmes choisis sont particulièrement pertinents pour le Pacte mondial pour des migrations sûres, ordonnées et régulières et pour les Objectifs de développement durable (ODD). Le rapport fait un état des lieux des données sur chaque thème et propose des solutions pour les améliorer.

« Bien que le Pacte mondial sur la migration et les ODD soient des cadres importants pour améliorer la façon dont nous gérons les migrations, des données plus précises et fiables sur les sujets relatifs à la migration sont nécessaires pour tirer parti de cette opportunité. Ce rapport donne un aperçu global de ce que nous savons et ne savons pas sur les tendances de la migration dans le monde », a déclaré Frank Laczko, Directeur du CMADM. 

« La communauté internationale prend des mesures pour renforcer la collecte et la gestion des données sur la migration mais il reste beaucoup à faire. Une base de données solide est essentielle pour éclairer les politiques nationales sur la migration et seront plus que jamais nécessaires à la lumière du Pacte mondial pour des migrations sûres, ordonnées et régulières », a déclaré Antonio Vitorino, le nouveau Directeur général de l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations.

https://i.imgur.com/FEKZqIt.png https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/press_release/media/gmdac_1.jpg?itok=fWxQsk1I#.jpg

▻https://www.iom.int/fr/news/loim-publie-un-rapport-sur-les-indicateurs-de-la-migration-dans-le-monde-2018

–---------
Pour télécharger le rapport :

▻https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/global_migration_indicators_2018.pdf

Quelques éléments-clé :

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#répression #asile #migrations #réfugiés #solidarité #délit_de_solidarité #passeurs #criminalisation

#vocabulaire #terminologie #mots
ping @sinehebdo

Plusieurs articles abordent la question du #vocabulaire. Faut-il les appeler #migrants #réfugiés #sans-papiers #demandeurs_d_asile #exilés ? Compilation ici :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/414225

v. aussi:
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/614968

Italy’s Smuggling Prosecutions Ruin Lives While Real Criminals Go Free
►https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2017/07/14/italys-smuggling-prosecutions-ruin-lives-while-real-criminals-go-free

v. aussi :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/620933
–-> lien vers une #vidéo intéressante

Commentaires de Charles Heller sur FB :

Last year these Tunisian fishermen prevented the identitarian C-Star - chartered to prevent solidarity at sea - from docking in Zarzis. Now they have been arrested for exercising that solidarity.

Back to the bad old days of criminalising Tunisian fishermen who rescue migrants at sea. Lets make some noise and express our support and solidarity in all imaginable ways!

Des pêcheurs tunisiens poursuivis pour avoir tracté des migrants jusqu’en Italie

Surpris en train de tirer une embarcation de migrants vers l’Italie, des pêcheurs tunisiens -dont un militant connu localement- ont été écroués en Sicile. Une manifestation de soutien a eu lieu en Tunisie et une ONG essaie actuellement de leur venir en aide.

Des citoyens tunisiens sont descendus dans la rue lundi 3 septembre à Zarzis, dans le sud du pays, pour protester contre l’arrestation, par les autorités italiennes, de six pêcheurs locaux. Ces derniers sont soupçonnés d’être des passeurs car ils ont été "surpris en train de tirer une barque avec 14 migrants à bord en direction de [l’île italienne de] Lampedusa", indique la police financière et douanière italienne.

La contestation s’empare également des réseaux sociaux, notamment avec des messages publiés demandant la libération des six membres d’équipage parmi lesquels figurent Chamseddine Bourassine, président de l’association des pêcheurs de Zarzis. “Toute ma solidarité avec un militant et ami, le doyen des pêcheurs Chamseddine Bourassine. Nous appelons les autorités tunisiennes à intervenir immédiatement avec les autorités italiennes afin de le relâcher ainsi que son équipage”, a écrit lundi le jeune militant originaire de Zarzis Anis Belhiba sur Facebook. Une publication reprise et partagée par Chamesddine Marzoug, un pêcheur retraité et autre militant connu en Tunisie pour enterrer lui-même les corps des migrants rejetés par la mer.

Sans nouvelles depuis quatre jours

Un appel similaire a été lancé par le Forum tunisien pour les droits économiques et sociaux, par la voix de Romdhane Ben Amor, chargé de communication de cette ONG basée à Tunis. Contacté par InfoMigrants, il affirme n’avoir reçu aucune nouvelle des pêcheurs depuis près de quatre jours. “On ne sait pas comment ils vont. Tout ce que l’on sait c’est qu’ils sont encore incarcérés à Agrigente en Sicile. On essaie d’activer tous nos réseaux et de communiquer avec nos partenaires italiens pour leur fournir une assistance juridique”, explique-t-il.

Les six pêcheurs ont été arrêtés le 29 août car leur bateau de pêche, qui tractait une embarcation de fortune avec 14 migrants à son bord, a été repéré -vidéo à l’appui- par un avion de Frontex, l’Agence européenne de garde-côtes et garde-frontières.

Selon une source policière italienne citée par l’AFP, les pêcheurs ont été arrêtés pour “aide à l’immigration clandestine” et écroués. Le bateau a été repéré en train de tirer des migrants, puis de larguer la barque près des eaux italiennes, à moins de 24 milles de Lampedusa, indique la même source.

Mais pour Romdhane Ben Amor, “la vidéo de Frontex ne prouve rien”. Et de poursuivre : “#Chamseddine_Bourassine, on le connaît bien. Il participe aux opérations de sauvetage en Méditerranée depuis 2008, il a aussi coordonné l’action contre le C-Star [navire anti-migrants affrété par des militant d’un groupe d’extrême droite]”. Selon Romdhane Ben Amor, il est fort probable que le pêcheur ait reçu l’appel de détresse des migrants, qu’il ait ensuite tenté de les convaincre de faire demi-tour et de regagner la Tunisie. N’y parvenant pas, le pêcheur aurait alors remorqué l’embarcation vers l’Italie, la météo se faisant de plus en plus menaçante.

La Tunisie, pays d’origine le plus représenté en Italie

Un nombre croissant de Tunisiens en quête d’emploi et de perspectives d’avenir tentent de se rendre illégalement en Italie via la Méditerranée. D’ailleurs, avec 3 300 migrants arrivés entre janvier et juillet 2018, la Tunisie est le pays d’origine le plus représenté en Italie, selon un rapport du Haut commissariat de l’ONU aux réfugiés (HCR) publié lundi.

La Méditerranée a été "plus mortelle que jamais" début 2018, indique également le HCR, estimant qu’une personne sur 18 tentant la traversée meurt ou disparaît en mer.

http://scd.infomigrants.net/media/resize/my_image_big/8df206b97354fc8993d78eeeb3fa27b0fd22d76c.jpeg

Note de Catherine Teule :

Cela rappelle le procès ( à Agrigente déjà) de 7 pêcheurs tunisiens en 2007.... ( voir les archives de Migreurop )

Et aussi les procès contres les pêcheurs à #Mazara_del_vallo, en Italie, v. livre de Gabriele Del Grande :
Il mare di mezzo
▻https://www.infinitoedizioni.it/prodotto/il-mare-di-mezzoal-tempo-dei-respingimenti

Lampedusa, in cella ad Agrigento il pescatore tunisino che salva i migranti

Insieme al suo equipaggio #Chameseddine_Bourassine è accusato di favoreggiamento dell’immigrazione illegale. La Tunisia chiede il rilascio dei sei arrestati. L’appello per la liberazione del figlio di uno dei pescatori e del fratello di Bourassine

Per la Tunisia Chameseddine Bourassine è il pescatore che salva i migranti. Protagonista anche del film documentario «Strange Fish» di Giulia Bertoluzzi. Dal 29 agosto Chameseddine e il suo equipaggio sono nel carcere di Agrigento, perchè filmati mentre trainavano un barchino con 14 migranti fino a 24 miglia da Lampedusa. Il peschereccio è stato sequestrato e rischiano molti anni di carcere per favoreggiamento aggravato dell’immigrazione illegale. Da Palermo alcuni parenti giunti da Parigi lanciano un appello per la loro liberazione.

Ramzi Lihiba, figlio di uno dei pescatori arrestati: «Mio padre è scioccato perchè è la prima volta che ha guai con la giustizia. Mi ha detto che hanno incontrato una barca in pericolo e hanno fatto solo il loro dovere. Non è la prima volta. Chameseddine ha fatto centinaia di salvataggi, portando la gente verso la costa più vicina. Prima ha chiamato la guardia costiera di Lampedusa e di Malta senza avere risposta».

Mohamed Bourassine, fratello di Chameseddine: «Chameseddine l’ha detto anche alla guardia costiera italiana, se trovassi altre persone in pericolo in mare, lo rifarei».
La Tunisia ha chiesto il rilascio dei sei pescatori di Zarzis. Sit in per loro davanti alle ambasciate italiane di Tunisi e Parigi. Da anni i pescatori delle due sponde soccorrono migranti con molti rischi. Ramzi Lihiba: «Anche io ho fatto la traversata nel 2008 e sono stato salvato dai pescatori italiani, altrimenti non sarei qui oggi».

▻https://www.rainews.it/tgr/sicilia/video/2018/09/sic-lampedusa-carcere-pescatore-tunisino-salva-migranti-8f4b62a7-b103-48c0-8

#Tunisie demain, à Palerme, se tient l’audience des 6 marins pêcheurs de Zarzis, Chamseddine Bourassin et son équipage, détenus en Italie depuis le 31 août dernier dans la ville d’Agrigento près de Lampedusa, pour avoir tracté 14 migrants à la dérive.

▻https://twitter.com/lmgaveriaux/status/1042826264447475718

Tweets à défiler.

ping @_kg_

Posté par Charles Heller sur FB :

Yesterday, people demonstrated in the streets of Zarzis in solidarity with the Tunisian fishermen arrested by Italian authorities for exercising their solidarity with migrants crossing the sea. Tomorrow, they will be heard in front of a court in Sicily. While rescue NGOs have done an extraordinary job, its important to underline that European citizens do not have the monopoly over solidarity with migrants, and neither are they the only ones being criminalised. The Tunisian fishermen deserve our full support.

https://i.imgur.com/lsdTnYu.png

I pescatori, eroi di Zarzis, in galera

Il 29 agosto 2018 sei pescatori tunisini sono stati arrestati ad Agrigento, accusati di favoreggiamento dell’immigrazione clandestina, reato punibile fino a quindici anni di carcere. Il loro racconto e quello dei migranti soccorsi parla invece di una barca in panne che prendeva acqua, del tentativo di contattare la Guardia Costiera italiana e infine - dopo una lunga attesa – del trasporto del barchino verso Lampedusa, per aiutare le autorità nelle operazioni di soccorso. Mentre le indagini preliminari sono in corso, vi raccontiamo chi sono questi pescatori. Lo facciamo con Giulia Bertoluzzi, che ha girato il film “Strange Fish” – vincitore al premio BNP e menzione speciale della giuria al festival Visioni dal Mondo - di cui Bourassine è il protagonista, e Valentina Zagaria, che ha vissuto oltre due anni a Zarzis per un dottorato in antropologia.

Capitano, presidente, eroe. Ecco tre appellativi che potrebbero stare a pennello a Chamseddine Bourassine, presidente della Rete Nazionale della Pesca Artigianale nonché dell’associazione di Zarzis “Le Pêcheur” pour le Développement et l’Environnement, nominata al Premio Nobel per la Pace 2018 per il continuo impegno nel salvare vite nel Mediterraneo. I pescatori di Zarzis infatti, lavorando nel mare aperto tra la Libia e la Sicilia, si trovano da più di quindici anni in prima linea nei soccorsi a causa della graduale chiusura ermetica delle vie legali per l’Europa, che ha avuto come conseguenza l’inizio di traversate con mezzi sempre più di fortuna.
I frutti della rivoluzione

Sebbene la legge del mare abbia sempre prevalso per Chamseddine e i pescatori di Zarzis, prima della rivoluzione tunisina del 2011 i pescatori venivano continuamente minacciati dalla polizia del regime di Ben Ali, stretto collaboratore sia dell’Italia che dell’Unione europea in materia di controlli alle frontiere. “Ci dicevano di lasciarli in mare e che ci avrebbero messo tutti in prigione”, spiegava Bourassine, “ma un uomo in mare è un uomo morto, e alla polizia abbiamo sempre risposto che piuttosto saremmo andati in prigione”. In prigione finivano anche i cittadini tunisini che tentavano la traversata e che venivano duramente puniti dal loro stesso governo.

Tutto è cambiato con la rivoluzione. Oltre 25.000 tunisini si erano imbarcati verso l’Italia, di cui tanti proprio dalle coste di Zarzis. “Non c’erano più né stato né polizia, era il caos assoluto” ricorda Anis Souei, segretario generale dell’Associazione. Alcuni pescatori non lasciavano le barche nemmeno di notte perché avevano paura che venissero rubate, i più indebitati invece tentavano di venderle, mentre alcuni abitanti di Zarzis, approfittando del vuoto di potere, si improvvisavano ‘agenti di viaggi’, cercando di fare affari sulle spalle degli harraga – parola nel dialetto arabo nord africano per le persone che ‘bruciano’ passaporti e frontiera attraversando il Mediterraneo. Chamseddine Bourassine e i suoi colleghi, invece, hanno stretto un patto morale, stabilendo di non vendere le proprie barche per la harga. Si sono rimboccati le maniche e hanno fondato un’associazione per migliorare le condizioni di lavoro del settore, per sensibilizzare sulla preservazione dell’ambiente – condizione imprescindibile per la pesca – e dare una possibilità di futuro ai giovani.

E proprio verso i più giovani, quelli che più continuano a soffrire dell’alto tasso di disoccupazione, l’associazione ha dedicato diverse campagne di sensibilizzazione. “Andiamo nelle scuole per raccontare quello che vediamo e mostriamo ai ragazzi le foto dei corpi che troviamo in mare, perché si rendano conto del reale pericolo della traversata”, racconta Anis. Inoltre hanno organizzato formazioni di meccanica, riparazione delle reti e pesca subacquea, collaborando anche con diversi progetti internazionali, come NEMO, organizzato dal CIHEAM-Bari e finanziato dalla Cooperazione Italiana. Proprio all’interno di questo progetto è nato il museo di Zarzis della pesca artigianale, dove tra nodi e anforette per la pesca del polipo, c’è una mostra fotografica dei salvataggi in mare intitolata “Gli eroi anonimi di Zarzis”.

La guerra civile libica

Con l’inasprirsi della guerra civile libica e l’inizio di veri e propri traffici di esseri umani, le frontiere marittime si sono trasformate in zone al di fuori della legge.
“I pescatori tunisini vengono regolarmente rapiti dalle milizie o dalle autorità libiche” diceva Bourassine. Queste, una volta sequestrata la barca e rubato il materiale tecnico, chiedevano alle autorità tunisine un riscatto per il rilascio, cosa peraltro successa anche a pescatori siciliani. Sebbene le acque di fronte alla Libia siano le più ricche, soprattutto per il gambero rosso, e per anni siano state zone di pesca per siciliani, tunisini, libici e anche egiziani, ad oggi i pescatori di Zarzis si sono visti obbligati a lasciare l’eldorado dei tonni rossi e dei gamberi rossi, per andare più a ovest.

“Io pesco nelle zone della rotta delle migrazioni, quindi è possibile che veda migranti ogni volta che esco” diceva Bourassine, indicando sul monitor della sala comandi del suo peschereccio l’est di Lampedusa, durante le riprese del film.

Con scarso sostegno delle guardie costiere tunisine, a cui non era permesso operare oltre le proprie acque territoriali, i pescatori per anni si sono barcamenati tra il lavoro e la responsabilità di soccorrere le persone in difficoltà che, con l’avanzare del conflitto in Libia, partivano su imbarcazioni sempre più pericolose.

“Ma quando in mare vedi 100 o 120 persone cosa fai?” si chiede Slaheddine Mcharek, anche lui membro dell’Associazione, “pensi solo a salvare loro la vita, ma non è facile”. Chi ha visto un’operazione di soccorso in mare infatti può immaginare i pericoli di organizzare un trasbordo su un piccolo peschereccio che non metta a repentaglio la stabilità della barca, soprattutto quando ci sono persone che non sanno nuotare. Allo stesso tempo non pescare significa non lavorare e perdere soldi sia per il capitano che per l’equipaggio.
ONG e salvataggio

Quando nell’estate del 2015 le navi di ricerca e soccorso delle ONG hanno cominciato ad operare nel Mediterraneo, Chamseddine e tutti i pescatori si sono sentiti sollevati, perché le loro barche non erano attrezzate per centinaia di persone e le autorità tunisine post-rivoluzionarie non avevano i mezzi per aiutarli. Quell’estate, l’allora direttore di Medici Senza Frontiere Foued Gammoudi organizzò una formazione di primo soccorso in mare per sostenere i pescatori. Dopo questa formazione MSF fornì all’associazione kit di pronto soccorso, giubbotti e zattere di salvataggio per poter assistere meglio i rifugiati in mare. L’ONG ha anche dato ai pescatori le traduzioni in italiano e inglese dei messaggi di soccorso e di tutti i numeri collegati al Centro di coordinamento per il soccorso marittimo (MRCC) a Roma, che coordina i salvataggi tra le imbarcazioni nei paraggi pronte ad intervenire, fossero mercantili, navi delle ONG, imbarcazioni militari o della guardia costiera, e quelle dei pescatori di entrambe le sponde del mare. Da quel momento i pescatori potevano coordinarsi a livello internazionale e aspettare che le navi più grandi arrivassero, per poi riprendere il loro lavoro. Solo una settimana dopo la formazione, Gammoudi andò a congratularsi con Chamseddine al porto di Zarzis per aver collaborato con la nave Bourbon-Argos di MSF nel salvataggio di 550 persone.

Oltre al primo soccorso, MSF ha offerto ai membri dell’associazione una formazione sulla gestione dei cadaveri, fornendo sacchi mortuari, disinfettanti e guanti. C’è stato un periodo durato vari mesi, prima dell’arrivo delle ONG, in cui i pescatori avevano quasi la certezza di vedere dei morti in mare. Nell’assenza di altre imbarcazioni in prossimità della Libia, pronte ad aiutare barche in difficoltà, i naufragi non facevano che aumentare. Proprio come sta succedendo in queste settimane, durante le quali il tasso di mortalità in proporzione agli arrivi in Italia è cresciuto del 5,6%. Dal 26 agosto, nessuna ONG ha operato in SAR libica, e questo a causa delle politiche anti-migranti di Salvini e dei suoi omologhi europei.

Criminalizzazione della solidarietà

La situazione però è peggiorata di nuovo nell’estate del 2017, quando l’allora ministro dell’Interno Marco Minniti stringeva accordi con le milizie e la guardia costiera libica per bloccare i rifugiati nei centri di detenzione in Libia, mentre approvava leggi che criminalizzano e limitano l’attività delle ONG in Italia.

Le campagne di diffamazione contro atti di solidarietà e contro le ONG non hanno fatto altro che versare ancora più benzina sui sentimenti anti-immigrazione che infiammano l’Europa. Nel bel mezzo di questo clima, il 6 agosto 2017, i pescatori di Zarzis si erano trovati in un faccia a faccia con la nave noleggiata da Generazione Identitaria, la C-Star, che attraversava il Mediterraneo per ostacolare le operazioni di soccorso e riportare i migranti in Africa.

Armati di pennarelli rossi, neri e blu, hanno appeso striscioni sulle barche in una mescolanza di arabo, italiano, francese e inglese: “No Racists!”, “Dégage!”, “C-Star: No gasolio? No acqua? No mangiaro?“.

Chamseddine Bourassine, con pesanti occhiaie da cinque giorni di lavoro in mare, appena appresa la notizia ha organizzato un sit-in con tanto di media internazionali al porto di Zarzis. I loro sforzi erano stati incoraggiati dalle reti antirazziste in Sicilia, che a loro volta avevano impedito alla C-Star di attraccare nel porto di Catania solo un paio di giorni prima.
La reazione tunisina dopo l’arresto di Bourassine

Non c’è quindi da sorprendersi se dopo l’arresto di Chamseddine, Salem, Farhat, Lotfi, Ammar e Bachir l’associazione, le famiglie, gli amici e i colleghi hanno riempito tre pullman da Zarzis per protestare davanti all’ambasciata italiana di Tunisi. La Terre Pour Tous, associazione di famiglie di tunisini dispersi, e il Forum economico e sociale (FTDES) si sono uniti alla protesta per chiedere l’immediato rilascio dei pescatori. Una protesta gemella è stata organizzata anche dalla diaspora di Zarzis davanti all’ambasciata italiana a Parigi, mentre reti di pescatori provenienti dal Marocco e dalla Mauritania hanno rilasciato dichiarazioni di sostegno. Il Segretario di Stato tunisino per l’immigrazione, Adel Jarboui, ha esortato le autorità italiane a liberare i pescatori.

Nel frattempo Bourassine racconta dalla prigione al fratello: “stavo solo aiutando delle persone in difficoltà in mare. Lo rifarei”.

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When rescue at sea becomes a crime: who the Tunisian fishermen arrested in Italy really are

Fishermen networks from Morocco and Mauritania have released statements of support, and the Tunisian State Secretary for Immigration, Adel Jarboui, urged Italian authorities to release the fishermen, considered heroes in Tunisia.

On the night of Wednesday, August 29, 2018, six Tunisian fishermen were arrested in Italy. Earlier that day, they had set off from their hometown of Zarzis, the last important Tunisian port before Libya, to cast their nets in the open sea between North Africa and Sicily. The fishermen then sighted a small vessel whose engine had broken, and that had started taking in water. After giving the fourteen passengers water, milk and bread – which the fishermen carry in abundance, knowing they might encounter refugee boats in distress – they tried making contact with the Italian coastguard.

After hours of waiting for a response, though, the men decided to tow the smaller boat in the direction of Lampedusa – Italy’s southernmost island, to help Italian authorities in their rescue operations. At around 24 miles from Lampedusa, the Guardia di Finanza (customs police) took the fourteen people on board, and then proceeded to violently arrest the six fishermen. According to the precautionary custody order issued by the judge in Agrigento (Sicily), the men stand accused of smuggling, a crime that could get them up to fifteen years in jail if the case goes to trial. The fishermen have since been held in Agrigento prison, and their boat has been seized.

This arrest comes after a summer of Italian politicians closing their ports to NGO rescue boats, and only a week after far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini[1] prevented for ten days the disembarkation of 177 Eritrean and Somali asylum seekers from the Italian coastguard ship Diciotti. It is yet another step towards dissuading anyone – be it Italian or Tunisian citizens, NGO or coastguard ships – from coming to the aid of refugee boats in danger at sea. Criminalising rescue, a process that has been pushed by different Italian governments since 2016, will continue to have tragic consequences for people on the move in the Mediterranean Sea.
The fishermen of Zarzis

Among those arrested is Chamseddine Bourassine, the president of the Association “Le Pêcheur” pour le Développement et l’Environnement, which was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year for the Zarzis fishermen’s continuous engagement in saving lives in the Mediterranean.

Chamseddine, a fishing boat captain in his mid-40s, was one of the first people I met in Zarzis when, in the summer of 2015, I moved to this southern Tunisian town to start fieldwork for my PhD. On a sleepy late-August afternoon, my interview with Foued Gammoudi, the then Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Head of Mission for Tunisia and Libya, was interrupted by an urgent phone call. “The fishermen have just returned, they saved 550 people, let’s go to the port to thank them.” Just a week earlier, Chamseddine Bourassine had been among the 116 fishermen from Zarzis to have received rescue at sea training with MSF. Gammoudi was proud that the fishermen had already started collaborating with the MSF Bourbon Argos ship to save hundreds of people. We hurried to the port to greet Chamseddine and his crew, as they returned from a three-day fishing expedition which involved, as it so often had done lately, a lives-saving operation.

The fishermen of Zarzis have been on the frontline of rescue in the Central Mediterranean for over fifteen years. Their fishing grounds lying between Libya – the place from which most people making their way undocumented to Europe leave – and Sicily, they were often the first to come to the aid of refugee boats in distress. “The fishermen have never really had a choice: they work here, they encounter refugee boats regularly, so over the years they learnt to do rescue at sea”, explained Gammoudi. For years, fishermen from both sides of the Mediterranean were virtually alone in this endeavour.
Rescue before and after the revolution

Before the Tunisian revolution of 2011, Ben Ali threatened the fishermen with imprisonment for helping migrants in danger at sea – the regime having been a close collaborator of both Italy and the European Union in border control matters. During that time, Tunisian nationals attempting to do the harga – the North African Arabic dialect term for the crossing of the Sicilian Channel by boat – were also heavily sanctioned by their own government.

Everything changed though with the revolution. “It was chaos here in 2011. You cannot imagine what the word chaos means if you didn’t live it”, recalled Anis Souei, the secretary general of the “Le Pêcheur” association. In the months following the revolution, hundreds of boats left from Zarzis taking Tunisians from all over the country to Lampedusa. Several members of the fishermen’s association remember having to sleep on their fishing boats at night to prevent them from being stolen for the harga. Other fishermen instead, especially those who were indebted, decided to sell their boats, while some inhabitants of Zarzis took advantage of the power vacuum left by the revolution and made considerable profit by organising harga crossings. “At that time there was no police, no state, and even more misery. If you wanted Lampedusa, you could have it”, rationalised another fisherman. But Chamseddine Bourassine and his colleagues saw no future in moving to Europe, and made a moral pact not to sell their boats for migration.

They instead remained in Zarzis, and in 2013 founded their association to create a network of support to ameliorate the working conditions of small and artisanal fisheries. The priority when they started organising was to try and secure basic social security – something they are still struggling to sustain today. With time, though, the association also got involved in alerting the youth to the dangers of boat migration, as they regularly witnessed the risks involved and felt compelled to do something for younger generations hit hard by staggering unemployment rates. In this optic, they organised training for the local youth in boat mechanics, nets mending, and diving, and collaborated in different international projects, such as NEMO, organised by the CIHEAM-Bari and funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate General for Cooperation Development. This project also helped the fishermen build a museum to explain traditional fishing methods, the first floor of which is dedicated to pictures and citations from the fishermen’s long-term voluntary involvement in coming to the rescue of refugees in danger at sea.

This role was proving increasingly vital as the Libyan civil war dragged on, since refugees were being forced onto boats in Libya that were not fit for travel, making the journey even more hazardous. With little support from Tunisian coastguards, who were not allowed to operate beyond Tunisian waters, the fishermen juggled their responsibility to bring money home to their families and their commitment to rescuing people in distress at sea. Anis remembers that once in 2013, three fishermen boats were out and received an SOS from a vessel carrying roughly one hundred people. It was their first day out, and going back to Zarzis would have meant losing petrol money and precious days of work, which they simply couldn’t afford. After having ensured that nobody was ill, the three boats took twenty people on board each, and continued working for another two days, sharing food and water with their guests.

Sometimes, though, the situation on board got tense with so many people, food wasn’t enough for everybody, and fights broke out. Some fishermen recall incidents during which they truly feared for their safety, when occasionally they came across boats with armed men from Libyan militias. It was hard for them to provide medical assistance as well. Once a woman gave birth on Chamseddine’s boat – that same boat that has now been seized in Italy – thankfully there had been no complications.
NGO ships and the criminalisation of rescue

During the summer of 2015, therefore, Chamseddine felt relieved that NGO search and rescue boats were starting to operate in the Mediterranean. The fishermen’s boats were not equipped to take hundreds of people on board, and the post-revolutionary Tunisian authorities didn’t have the means to support them. MSF had provided the association with first aid kits, life jackets, and rescue rafts to be able to better assist refugees at sea, and had given them a list of channels and numbers linked to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome for when they encountered boats in distress.

They also offered training in dead body management, and provided the association with body bags, disinfectant and gloves. “When we see people at sea we rescue them. It’s not only because we follow the laws of the sea or of religion: we do it because it’s human”, said Chamseddine. But sometimes rescue came too late, and bringing the dead back to shore was all the fishermen could do.[2] During 2015 the fishermen at least felt that with more ships in the Mediterranean doing rescue, the duty dear to all seafarers of helping people in need at sea didn’t only fall on their shoulders, and they could go back to their fishing.

The situation deteriorated again though in the summer of 2017, as Italian Interior Minister Minniti struck deals with Libyan militias and coastguards to bring back and detain refugees in detention centres in Libya, while simultaneously passing laws criminalising and restricting the activity of NGO rescue boats in Italy.

Media smear campaigns directed against acts of solidarity with migrants and refugees and against the work of rescue vessels in the Mediterranean poured even more fuel on already inflamed anti-immigration sentiments in Europe.

In the midst of this, on 6 August 2017, the fishermen of Zarzis came face to face with a far-right vessel rented by Generazione Identitaria, the C-Star, cruising the Mediterranean allegedly on a “Defend Europe” mission to hamper rescue operations and bring migrants back to Africa. The C-Star was hovering in front of Zarzis port, and although it had not officially asked port authorities whether it could dock to refuel – which the port authorities assured locals it would refuse – the fishermen of Zarzis took the opportunity to let these alt-right groups know how they felt about their mission.

Armed with red, black and blue felt tip pens, they wrote in a mixture of Arabic, Italian, French and English slogans such as “No Racists!”, “Dégage!” (Get our of here!), “C-Star: No gasoil? No acqua? No mangiato?” ?” (C-Star: No fuel? No water? Not eaten?), which they proceeded to hang on their boats, ready to take to sea were the C-Star to approach. Chamseddine Bourassine, who had returned just a couple of hours prior to the impending C-Star arrival from five days of work at sea, called other members of the fishermen association to come to the port and join in the peaceful protest.[3] He told the journalists present that the fishermen opposed wholeheartedly the racism propagated by the C-Star members, and that having seen the death of fellow Africans at sea, they couldn’t but condemn these politics. Their efforts were cheered on by anti-racist networks in Sicily, who had in turn prevented the C-Star from docking in Catania port just a couple of days earlier.

It is members from these same networks in Sicily together with friends of the fishermen in Tunisia and internationally that are now engaged in finding lawyers for Chamseddine and his five colleagues.

Their counterparts in Tunisia joined the fishermen’s families and friends on Thursday morning to protest in front of the Italian embassy in Tunis. Three busloads arrived from Zarzis after an 8-hour night-time journey for the occasion, and many others had come from other Tunisian towns to show their solidarity. Gathered there too were members of La Terre Pour Tous, an association of families of missing Tunisian migrants, who joined in to demand the immediate release of the fishermen. A sister protest was organised by the Zarzis diaspora in front of the Italian embassy in Paris on Saturday afternoon. Fishermen networks from Morocco and Mauritania also released statements of support, and the Tunisian State Secretary for Immigration Adel Jarboui urged Italian authorities to release the fishermen, who are considered heroes in Tunisia.

The fishermen’s arrest is the latest in a chain of actions taken by the Italian Lega and Five Star government to further criminalise rescue in the Mediterranean Sea, and to dissuade people from all acts of solidarity and basic compliance with international norms. This has alarmingly resulted in the number of deaths in 2018 increasing exponentially despite a drop in arrivals to Italy’s southern shores. While Chamseddine’s lawyer hasn’t yet been able to visit him in prison, his brother and cousin managed to go see him on Saturday. As for telling them about what happened on August 29, Chamseddine simply says that he was assisting people in distress at sea: he’d do it again.

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▻https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/valentina-zagaria/when-rescue-at-sea-becomes-crime-who-tunisian-fishermen-arrested-in-i

Les pêcheurs de Zarzis, ces héros que l’Italie préfère voir en prison

Leurs noms ont été proposés pour le prix Nobel de la paix mais ils risquent jusqu’à quinze ans de prison : six pêcheurs tunisiens se retrouvent dans le collimateur des autorités italiennes pour avoir aidé des migrants en Méditerranée.

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▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/reportages/les-p-cheurs-de-zarzis-ces-h-ros-que-l-italie-pr-f-re-voir-en-prison-

Les pêcheurs tunisiens incarcérés depuis fin août en Sicile sont libres

Arrêtés après avoir tracté une embarcation de quatorze migrants jusqu’au large de Lampedusa, un capitaine tunisien et son équipage sont soupçonnés d’être des passeurs. Alors qu’en Tunisie, ils sont salués comme des sauveurs.

Les six pêcheurs ont pu reprendre la mer afin de regagner Zarzis, dans le sud tunisien. Les familles n’ont pas caché leur soulagement. Un accueil triomphal, par des dizaines de bateaux au large du port, va être organisé, afin de saluer le courage de ces sauveteurs de migrants à la dérive.

Et peu importe si l’acte est dénoncé par l’Italie. Leurs amis et collègues ne changeront pas leurs habitudes de secourir toute embarcation en danger.

A l’image de Rya, la cinquantaine, marin pêcheur à Zarzis qui a déjà sauvé des migrants en perdition et ne s’arrêtera pas : « Il y a des immigrés, tous les jours il y en a. De Libye, de partout. Nous on est des pêcheurs, on essaie de sauver les gens. C’est tout, c’est très simple. Nous on ne va pas s’arrêter, on va sauver d’autres personnes. Ils vont nous mettre en prison, on est là, pas de problème. »

Au-delà du soulagement de voir rentrer les marins au pays, des voix s’élèvent pour crier leur incompréhension. Pour Halima Aissa, présidente de l’Association de recherche des disparus tunisiens à l’étranger, l’action de ce capitaine de pêche ne souffre d’aucune légitimité : « C’est un pêcheur tunisien, mais en tant qu’humaniste, si on trouve des gens qui vont couler en mer, notre droit c’est de les sauver. C’est inhumain de voir des gens mourir et de ne pas les sauver, ça c’est criminel. »

Ces arrestations, certes suivies de libérations, illustrent pourtant la politique du nouveau gouvernement italien, à en croire Romdhane Ben Amor, du Forum tunisien des droits économiques et sociaux qui s’inquiète de cette nouvelle orientation politique : « Ça a commencé par les ONG qui font des opérations de sauvetage dans la Méditerranée et maintenant ça va vers les pêcheurs. C’est un message pour tous ceux qui vont participer aux opérations de sauvetage. Donc on aura plus de danger dans la mer, plus de tragédie dans la mer. » Pendant ce temps, l’enquête devrait se poursuivre encore plusieurs semaines en Italie.

■ Dénoncés par Frontex

Détenus dans une prison d’Agrigente depuis le 29 août, les six pêcheurs tunisiens qui étaient soupçonnés d’aide à l’immigration illégale ont retrouvé leur liberté grâce à la décision du tribunal de réexamen de Palerme. L’équivalent italien du juge des libertés dans le système français.

Le commandant du bateau de pêche, Chamseddine Bourassine, président de l’association des pêcheurs de Zarzis, ville du sud de la Tunisie, avait été arrêté avec les 5 membres d’équipage pour avoir secouru au large de l’île de Lampedusa une embarcation transportant 14 migrants.

C’est un #avion_de_reconnaissance, opérant pour l’agence européenne #Frontex, qui avait repéré leur bateau tractant une barque et averti les autorités italiennes, précise notre correspondante à Rome, Anne Le Nir.

▻http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20180923-pecheurs-tunisiens-incarceres-depuis-fin-aout-sicile-sont-libres

A Zarzis, les pêcheurs sauveurs de migrants menacés par l’Italie

Après l’arrestation le 29 août de six pêcheurs tunisiens à Lampedusa, accusés d’être des passeurs alors qu’ils avaient secouru des migrants, les marins de la petite ville de Zarzis au sud de la Tunisie ont peur des conséquences du sauvetage en mer.

https://static.mediapart.fr/etmagine/default/files/2018/11/09/photomediapart.jpg?width=5760&height=3840&width_format=pixel&height_format=pixel#.jpg

▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/121118/zarzis-les-pecheurs-sauveurs-de-migrants-menaces-par-l-italie
#pêcheurs_tunisiens

Migrants : quand les pêcheurs tunisiens deviennent sauveteurs

En Méditerranée, le sauvetage des candidats à l’exil et les politiques européennes de protection des frontières ont un impact direct sur le village de pêcheurs de #Zarzis, dans le sud de la Tunisie. Dans le code de la mer, les pêcheurs tout comme les gardes nationaux ont l’obligation de sauver les personnes en détresse en mer. Aujourd’hui, ce devoir moral pousse les pêcheurs à prendre des risques, et à se confronter aux autorités européennes.

Chemssedine Bourassine a été arrêté fin août 2018 avec son équipage par les autorités italiennes. Ce pêcheur était accusé d’avoir fait le passeur de migrants car il avait remorqué un canot de 14 personnes en détresse au large de Lampedusa. Lui arguait qu’il ne faisait que son devoir en les aidant, le canot étant à la dérive, en train de couler, lorsqu’il l’avait trouvé.

Revenu à bon port après trois mois sans son navire, confisqué par les autorités italiennes, cet épisode pèse lourd sur lui et ses compères. Nos reporters Lilia Blaise et Hamdi Tlili sont allés à la rencontre de ces pêcheurs, pour qui la mer est devenue une source d’inquiétudes.

▻https://www.france24.com/fr/20190306-focus-tunisie-migrants-mediterranee-mer-sauvetage-pecheurs

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKpxQxiJCSc

Venezuela. L’Amérique latine cherche une solution à sa plus grande #crise_migratoire

Les réunions de crise sur l’immigration ne sont pas l’apanage de l’Europe : treize pays latino-américains sont réunis depuis lundi à Quito pour tenter de trouver des solutions communes au casse-tête migratoire provoqué par l’#exode_massif des Vénézuéliens.

https://www.courrierinternational.com/sites/ci_master/files/styles/image_original_765/public/assets/images/venezuela_2.png?itok=BH3X41ls#.jpg

Bataille de #chiffres et guerre d’images autour de la « #crise migratoire » vénézuélienne

L’émigration massive qui touche actuellement le Venezuela est une réalité. Mais il ne faut pas confondre cette réalité et les défis humanitaires qu’elle pose avec son instrumentalisation, tant par le pouvoir vénézuélien pour se faire passer pour la victime d’un machination que par ses « ennemis » qui entendent se débarrasser d’un gouvernement qu’ils considèrent comme autoritaire et source d’instabilité dans la région. Etat des lieux d’une crise très polarisée.

C’est un véritable scoop que nous a offert le président vénézuélien le 3 septembre dernier. Alors que son gouvernement est avare en données sur les sujets sensibles, Nicolas Maduro a chiffré pour la première fois le nombre de Vénézuéliens ayant émigré depuis deux ans à 600 000. Un chiffre vérifiable, a-t-il assuré, sans toutefois donner plus de détails.

Ce chiffre, le premier plus ou moins officiel dans un pays où il n’y a plus de statistiques migratoires, contraste avec celui délivré par l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM) et le Haut-Commissariat aux Réfugiés (HCR). Selon ces deux organisations, 2,3 millions de Vénézuéliens vivraient à l’étranger, soit 7,2% des habitants sur un total de 31,8 millions. Pas de quoi tomber de sa chaise ! D’autres diasporas sont relativement bien plus nombreuses. Ce qui impressionne, c’est la croissance exponentielle de cette émigration sur un très court laps de temps : 1,6 million auraient quitté le pays depuis 2015 seulement. Une vague de départs qui s’est accélérée ces derniers mois et affectent inégalement de nombreux pays de la région.
Le pouvoir vénézuélien, par la voix de sa vice-présidente, a accusé des fonctionnaires de l’ONU de gonfler les chiffres d’un « flux migratoire normal » (sic) pour justifier une « intervention humanitaire », synonyme de déstabilisation. D’autres sources estiment quant à elles qu’ils pourraient être près de quatre millions à avoir fui le pays.

▻https://www.cncd.be/Bataille-de-chiffres-et-guerre-d
#statistiques #guerre_des_chiffres

La formulation est tout de même étrange pour une ONG… : pas de quoi tomber de sa chaise, de même l’utilisation du mot ennemis avec guillemets. Au passage, le même pourcentage – pas si énorme …– appliqué à la population française donnerait 4,5 millions de personnes quittant la France, dont les deux tiers, soit 3 millions de personnes, au cours des deux dernières années.

Ceci dit, pour ne pas qu’ils tombent… d’inanition, le Programme alimentaire mondial (agence de l’ONU) a besoin de sous pour nourrir les vénézuéliens qui entrent en Colombie.

ONU necesita fondos para seguir atendiendo a emigrantes venezolanos
▻http://www.el-nacional.com/noticias/mundo/onu-necesita-fondos-para-seguir-atendiendo-emigrantes-venezolanos_25311

El Programa Mundial de Alimentos (PMA), el principal brazo humanitario de Naciones Unidas, informó que necesita 22 millones de dólares suplementarios para atender a los venezolanos que entran a Colombia.

«Cuando las familias inmigrantes llegan a los centros de recepción reciben alimentos calientes y pueden quedarse de tres a cinco días, pero luego tienen que irse para que otros recién llegados puedan ser atendidos», dijo el portavoz del PMA, Herve Verhoosel.
[…]
La falta de alimentos se convierte en el principal problema para quienes atraviesan a diario la frontera entre Venezuela y Colombia, que cuenta con siete puntos de pasaje oficiales y más de un centenar informales, con más de 50% de inmigrantes que entran a Colombia por estos últimos.

El PMA ha proporcionado ayuda alimentaria de emergencia a más de 60.000 venezolanos en los departamentos fronterizos de Arauca, La Guajira y el Norte de Santander, en Colombia, y más recientemente ha empezado también a operar en el departamento de Nariño, que tiene frontera con Ecuador.
[…]
De acuerdo con evaluaciones recientes efectuadas por el PMA entre inmigrantes en Colombia, 80% de ellos sufren de inseguridad alimentaria.

Le grand #exode

Plus d’un million et demi de Vénézuéliens ont fui leur pays depuis trois ans. Un mouvement migratoire au moins aussi intense que celui qu’a connu l’Europe en 2015. Et qui provoque, lui aussi, des turbulences sur son passage. Coup d’œil sur la plus grande #vague de migration humaine que l’Amérique latine ait jamais connue.

▻http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/61c2076f-32d8-40c9-ad8d-e6e186b8bfae__7C___0.html

Migrants du Venezuela vers la Colombie : « ni xénophobie, ni fermeture des frontières », assure le nouveau président colombien

Le nouveau président colombien, entré en fonction depuis hier (lundi 8 octobre 2018), ne veut pas céder à la tentation d’une fermeture de la frontière avec le Venezuela.

https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/martinique/sites/regions_outremer/files/styles/top_big/public/assets/images/2018/10/09/exode-886124.jpeg?itok=kWAxwO2D#.jpg

Fleeing hardship at home, Venezuelan migrants struggle abroad, too

Every few minutes, the reeds along the #Tachira_River rustle.

Smugglers, in ever growing numbers, emerge with a ragtag group of Venezuelan migrants – men struggling under tattered suitcases, women hugging bundles in blankets and schoolchildren carrying backpacks. They step across rocks, wade into the muddy stream and cross illegally into Colombia.

This is the new migration from Venezuela.

For years, as conditions worsened in the Andean nation’s ongoing economic meltdown, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans – those who could afford to – fled by airplane and bus to other countries far and near, remaking their lives as legal immigrants.

Now, hyperinflation, daily power cuts and worsening food shortages are prompting those with far fewer resources to flee, braving harsh geography, criminal handlers and increasingly restrictive immigration laws to try their luck just about anywhere.

In recent weeks, Reuters spoke with dozens of Venezuelan migrants traversing their country’s Western border to seek a better life in Colombia and beyond. Few had more than the equivalent of a handful of dollars with them.

“It was terrible, but I needed to cross,” said Dario Leal, 30, recounting his journey from the coastal state of Sucre, where he worked in a bakery that paid about $2 per month.

At the border, he paid smugglers nearly three times that to get across and then prepared, with about $3 left, to walk the 500 km (311 miles) to Bogota, Colombia’s capital. The smugglers, in turn, paid a fee to Colombian crime gangs who allow them to operate, according to police, locals and smugglers themselves.

As many as 1.9 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015, according to the United Nations. Combined with those who preceded them, a total of 2.6 million are believed to have left the oil-rich country. Ninety percent of recent departures, the U.N. says, remain in South America.

The exodus, one of the biggest mass migrations ever on the continent, is weighing on neighbors. Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, which once welcomed Venezuelan migrants, recently tightened entry requirements. Police now conduct raids to detain the undocumented.

In early October, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, Colombia’s foreign minister, said as many as four million Venezuelans could be in the country by 2021, costing national coffers as much as $9 billion. “The magnitude of this challenge,” he said, “our country has never seen.”

In Brazil, which also borders Venezuela, the government deployed troops and financing to manage the crush and treat sick, hungry and pregnant migrants. In Ecuador and Peru, workers say that Venezuelan labor lowers wages and that criminals are hiding among honest migrants.

“There are too many of them,” said Antonio Mamani, a clothing vendor in Peru, who recently watched police fill a bus with undocumented Venezuelans near Lima.
“WE NEED TO GO”

By migrating illegally, migrants expose themselves to criminal networks who control prostitution, drug trafficking and other rackets. In August, Colombian investigators discovered 23 undocumented Venezuelans forced into prostitution and living in basements in the colonial city of Cartagena.

While most migrants are avoiding such straits, no shortage of other hardship awaits – from homelessness, to unemployment, to the cold reception many get as they sleep in public squares, peddle sweets and throng already overburdened hospitals.

Still, most press on, many on foot.

Some join compatriots in Brazil and Colombia. Others, having spent what money they had, are walking vast regions, like Colombia’s cold Andean passes and sweltering tropical lowlands, in treks toward distant capitals, like Quito or Lima.

Johana Narvaez, a 36-year-old mother of four, told Reuters her family left after business stalled at their small car repair shop in the rural state of Trujillo. Extra income she made selling food on the street withered because cash is scarce in a country where annual inflation, according to the opposition-led Congress, recently reached nearly 500,000 percent.

“We can’t stay here,” she told her husband, Jairo Sulbaran, in August, after they ran out of food and survived on corn patties provided by friends. “Even on foot, we must go.” Sulbaran begged and sold old tires until they could afford bus tickets to the border.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has chided migrants, warning of the hazards of migration and that emigres will end up “cleaning toilets.” He has even offered free flights back to some in a program called “Return to the Homeland,” which state television covers daily.

Most migration, however, remains in the other direction.

Until recently, Venezuelans could enter many South American countries with just their national identity cards. But some are toughening rules, requiring a passport or additional documentation.

Even a passport is elusive in Venezuela.

Paper shortages and a dysfunctional bureaucracy make the document nearly impossible to obtain, many migrants argue. Several told Reuters they waited two years in vain after applying, while a half-dozen others said they were asked for as much as $2000 in bribes by corrupt clerks to secure one.

Maduro’s government in July said it would restructure Venezuela’s passport agency to root out “bureaucracy and corruption.” The Information Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“VENEZUELA WILL END UP EMPTY”

Many of those crossing into Colombia pay “arrastradores,” or “draggers,” to smuggle them along hundreds of trails. Five of the smugglers, all young men, told Reuters business is booming.

“Venezuela will end up empty,” said Maikel, a 17-year-old Venezuelan smuggler, scratches across his face from traversing the bushy trails. Maikel, who declined to give his surname, said he lost count of how many migrants he has helped cross.

Colombia, too, struggles to count illegal entries. Before the government tightened restrictions earlier this year, Colombia issued “border cards” that let holders crisscross at will. Now, Colombia says it detects about 3,000 false border cards at entry points daily.

Despite tougher patrols along the porous, 2,200-km border, officials say it is impossible to secure outright. “It’s like trying to empty the ocean with a bucket,” said Mauricio Franco, a municipal official in charge of security in Cucuta, a nearby city.

And it’s not just a matter of rounding up undocumented travelers.

Powerful criminal groups, long in control of contraband commerce across the border, are now getting their cut of human traffic. Javier Barrera, a colonel in charge of police in Cucuta, said the Gulf Clan and Los Rastrojos, notorious syndicates that operate nationwide, are both involved.

During a recent Reuters visit to several illegal crossings, Venezuelans carried cardboard, limes and car batteries as barter instead of using the bolivar, their near-worthless currency.

Migrants pay as much as about $16 for the passage. Maikel, the arrastrador, said smugglers then pay gang operatives about $3 per migrant.

For his crossing, Leal, the baker, carried a torn backpack and small duffel bag. His 2015 Venezuelan ID shows a healthier and happier man – before Leal began skimping on breakfast and dinner because he couldn’t afford them.

He rested under a tree, but fretted about Colombian police. “I’m scared because the “migra” comes around,” he said, using the same term Mexican and Central American migrants use for border police in the United States.

It doesn’t get easier as migrants move on.

Even if relatives wired money, transfer agencies require a legally stamped passport to collect it. Bus companies are rejecting undocumented passengers to avoid fines for carrying them. A few companies risk it, but charge a premium of as much as 20 percent, according to several bus clerks near the border.

The Sulbaran family walked and hitched some 1200 km to the Andean town of Santiago, where they have relatives. The father toured garages, but found no work.

“People said no, others were scared,” said Narvaez, the mother. “Some Venezuelans come to Colombia to do bad things. They think we’re all like that.”

▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-migration-insight/fleeing-hardship-at-home-venezuelan-migrants-struggle-abroad-too-idUSKCN1MP

Avec ce commentaire de #Reece_Jones:

People continue to flee Venezuela, now often resorting to #smugglers as immigration restrictions have increased

#passeurs #fermeture_des_frontières

’No more camps,’ Colombia tells Venezuelans not to settle in tent city

Francis Montano sits on a cold pavement with her three children, all their worldly possessions stuffed into plastic bags, as she pleads to be let into a new camp for Venezuelan migrants in the Colombian capital, Bogota.

Behind Montano, smoke snakes from woodfires set amid the bright yellow tents which are now home to hundreds of Venezuelans, erected on a former soccer pitch in a middle-class residential area in the west of the city.

The penniless migrants, some of the millions who have fled Venezuela’s economic and social crisis, have been here more than a week, forced by city authorities to vacate a makeshift slum of plastic tarps a few miles away.

The tent city is the first of its kind in Bogota. While authorities have established camps at the Venezuelan border, they have resisted doing so in Colombia’s interior, wary of encouraging migrants to settle instead of moving to neighboring countries or returning home.

Its gates are guarded by police and officials from the mayor’s office and only those registered from the old slum are allowed access.

“We’ll have to sleep on the street again, under a bridge,” said Montano, 22, whose children are all under seven years old. “I just want a roof for my kids at night.”

According to the United Nations, an estimated 3 million Venezuelans have fled as their oil-rich country has sunk into crisis under President Nicolas Maduro. Critics accuse the Socialist leader of ravaging the economy through state interventions while clamping down on political opponents.

The exodus - driven by violence, hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicines - amounts to one in 12 of the population, placing strain on neighboring countries, already struggling with poverty.

Colombia, which has borne the brunt of the migration crisis, estimates it is sheltering 1 million Venezuelans, with some 3,000 arriving daily. The government says their total numbers could swell to 4 million by 2021, costing it nearly $9 billion a year.

Municipal authorities in Bogota say the camp will provide shelter for 422 migrants through Christmas. Then in mid January, it will be dismantled in the hope jobs and new lodgings have been found.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DstiowtXcAQXQ8S.jpg

#camps #camps_de_réfugiés #tentes #Bogotá #Bogotà

Creativity amid Crisis: Legal Pathways for Venezuelan Migrants in Latin America

As more than 3 million Venezuelans have fled a rapidly collapsing economy, severe food and medical shortages, and political strife, neighboring countries—the primary recipients of these migrants—have responded with creativity and pragmatism. This policy brief explores how governments in South America, Central America, and Mexico have navigated decisions about whether and how to facilitate their entry and residence. It also examines challenges on the horizon as few Venezuelans will be able to return home any time soon.

Across Latin America, national legal frameworks are generally open to migration, but few immigration systems have been built to manage movement on this scale and at this pace. For example, while many countries in the region have a broad definition of who is a refugee—criteria many Venezuelans fit—only Mexico has applied it in considering Venezuelans’ asylum cases. Most other Latin American countries have instead opted to use existing visa categories or migration agreements to ensure that many Venezuelans are able to enter legally, and some have run temporary programs to regularize the status of those already in the country.

Looking to the long term, there is a need to decide what will happen when temporary statuses begin to expire. And with the crisis in Venezuela and the emigration it has spurred ongoing, there are projections that as many as 5.4 million Venezuelans may be abroad by the end of 2019. Some governments have taken steps to limit future Venezuelan arrivals, and some receiving communities have expressed frustration at the strain put on local service providers and resources. To avoid widespread backlash and to facilitate the smooth integration of Venezuelans into local communities, policymakers must tackle questions ranging from the provision of permanent status to access to public services and labor markets. Done well, this could be an opportunity to update government processes and strengthen public services in ways that benefit both newcomers and long-term residents.

▻https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/legal-pathways-venezuelan-migrants-latin-america

Venezuela: Millions at risk, at home and abroad

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world and is not engulfed in war. Yet its people have been fleeing on a scale and at a rate comparable in recent memory only to Syrians at the height of the civil war and the Rohingya from Myanmar.

As chronicled by much of our reporting collected below, some three to four million people have escaped the economic meltdown since 2015 and tried to start afresh in countries like Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. This exodus has placed enormous pressure on the region; several governments have started making it tougher for migrants to enter and find jobs.

The many millions more who have stayed in Venezuela face an acute humanitarian crisis denied by their own government: pervasive hunger, the resurgence of disease, an absence of basic medicines, and renewed political uncertainty.

President Nicolás Maduro has cast aside outside offers of aid, framing them as preludes to a foreign invasion and presenting accusations that the United States is once again interfering in Latin America.

Meanwhile, the opposition, led by Juan Guaidó, the president of the National Assembly, has invited in assistance from the US and elsewhere.

As aid becomes increasingly politicised, some international aid agencies have chosen to sit on the sidelines rather than risk their neutrality. Others run secretive and limited operations inside Venezuela that fly under the media radar.

Local aid agencies, and others, have had to learn to adapt fast and fill the gaps as the Venezuelan people grow hungrier and sicker.

https://assets.irinnews.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large/public/venezuela_feb2019_1352.jpg?PoYmMQplrq8BMWzMVybDXJ4tG8uiNPkO&itok=WHDWj980#.jpg

▻https://www.irinnews.org/special-report/2019/02/21/venezuela-millions-risk-home-and-abroad
#cartographie #visualisation

Qu’ont décidé les dirigeants européens sur la migration ?

Ce 28 juin, les États européens ont pris des décisions lourdes de conséquences pour répondre à ce qui est présenté, à tort, comme une crise migratoire.

Sotieta Ngo, directrice générale du CIRÉ, revient sur les trois principales décisions du Conseil européen.

▻https://www.facebook.com/lecireasbl/videos/1765816700176392

Ici, un des derniers articles en date... par la suite de ce fil des articles plus anciens...

Le supplice sans fin des migrants en Libye

Ils sont arrivés en fin d’après-midi, blessés, épuisés, à bout. Ce 23 mai, près de 117 Soudanais, Ethiopiens et Erythréens se sont présentés devant la mosquée de Beni Oualid, une localité située à 120 km au sud-ouest de Misrata, la métropole portuaire de la Tripolitaine (Libye occidentale). Ils y passeront la nuit, protégés par des clercs religieux et des résidents. Ces nouveaux venus sont en fait des fugitifs. Ils se sont échappés d’une « prison sauvage », l’un de ces centres carcéraux illégaux qui ont proliféré autour de Beni Oualid depuis que s’est intensifié, ces dernières années, le flux de migrants et de réfugiés débarquant du Sahara vers le littoral libyen dans l’espoir de traverser la Méditerranée.

Ces migrants d’Afrique subsaharienne – mineurs pour beaucoup – portent dans leur chair les traces de violences extrêmes subies aux mains de leurs geôliers : corps blessés par balles, brûlés ou lacérés de coups. Selon leurs témoignages, quinze de leurs camarades d’évasion ont péri durant leur fuite.

Cris de douleur
A Beni Oualid, un refuge héberge nombre de ces migrants en détresse. Des blocs de ciment nu cernés d’une terre ocre : l’abri, géré par une ONG locale – Assalam – avec l’assistance médicale de Médecins sans frontières (MSF), est un havre rustique mais dont la réputation grandit. Des migrants y échouent régulièrement dans un piètre état. « Beaucoup souffrent de fractures aux membres inférieurs, de fractures ouvertes infectées, de coups sur le dos laissant la chair à vif, d’électrocution sur les parties génitales », rapporte Christophe Biteau, le chef de la mission MSF pour la -Libye, rencontré à Tunis.

Leurs tortionnaires les ont kidnappés sur les routes migratoires. Les migrants et réfugiés seront détenus et suppliciés aussi longtemps qu’ils n’auront pas payé une rançon, à travers les familles restées au pays ou des amis ayant déjà atteint Tripoli. Technique usuelle pour forcer les résistances, les détenus torturés sont sommés d’appeler leurs familles afin que celles-ci puissent entendre en « direct » les cris de douleur au téléphone.

Les Erythréens, Somaliens et Soudanais sont particulièrement exposés à ce racket violent car, liés à une diaspora importante en Europe, ils sont censés être plus aisément solvables que les autres. Dans la région de Beni Oualid, toute cette violence subie, ajoutée à une errance dans des zones désertiques, emporte bien des vies. D’août 2017 à mars 2018, 732 migrants ont trouvé la mort autour de Beni Oualid, selon Assalam.

En Libye, ces prisons « sauvages » qui parsèment les routes migratoires vers le littoral, illustration de l’osmose croissante entre réseaux historiques de passeurs et gangs criminels, cohabitent avec un système de détention « officiel ». Les deux systèmes peuvent parfois se croiser, en raison de l’omnipotence des milices sur le terrain, mais ils sont en général distincts. Affiliés à une administration – le département de lutte contre la migration illégale (DCIM, selon l’acronyme anglais) –, les centres de détention « officiels » sont au nombre d’une vingtaine en Tripolitaine, d’où embarque l’essentiel des migrants vers l’Italie. Si bien des abus s’exercent dans ces structures du DCIM, dénoncés par les organisations des droits de l’homme, il semble que la violence la plus systématique et la plus extrême soit surtout le fait des « prisons sauvages » tenues par des organisations criminelles.

Depuis que la polémique s’est envenimée en 2017 sur les conditions de détention des migrants, notamment avec le reportage de CNN sur les « marchés aux esclaves », le gouvernement de Tripoli a apparemment cherché à rationaliser ses dispositifs carcéraux. « Les directions des centres font des efforts, admet Christophe Biteau, de MSF-Libye. Le dialogue entre elles et nous s’est amélioré. Nous avons désormais un meilleur accès aux cellules. Mais le problème est que ces structures sont au départ inadaptées. Il s’agit le plus souvent de simples hangars ou de bâtiments vétustes sans isolation. »

Les responsables de ces centres se plaignent rituellement du manque de moyens qui, selon eux, explique la précarité des conditions de vie des détenus, notamment sanitaires. En privé, certains fustigent la corruption des administrations centrales de Tripoli, qui perçoivent l’argent des Européens sans le redistribuer réellement aux structures de terrain.

Cruel paradoxe
En l’absence d’une refonte radicale de ces circuits de financement, la relative amélioration des conditions de détention observée récemment par des ONG comme MSF pourrait être menacée. « Le principal risque, c’est la congestion qui résulte de la plus grande efficacité des gardes-côtes libyens », met en garde M. Biteau. En effet, les unités de la marine libyenne, de plus en plus aidées et équipées par Bruxelles ou Rome, ont multiplié les interceptions de bateaux de migrants au large du littoral de la Tripolitaine.

Du 1er janvier au 20 juin, elles avaient ainsi reconduit sur la terre ferme près de 9 100 migrants. Du coup, les centres de détention se remplissent à nouveau. Le nombre de prisonniers dans ces centres officiels – rattachés au DCIM – a grimpé en quelques semaines de 5 000 à 7 000, voire à 8 000. Et cela a un impact sanitaire. « Le retour de ces migrants arrêtés en mer se traduit par un regain des affections cutanées en prison », souligne Christophe Biteau.

Simultanément, l’Organisation mondiale des migrations (OIM) intensifie son programme dit de « retours volontaires » dans leurs pays d’origine pour la catégorie des migrants économiques, qu’ils soient détenus ou non. Du 1er janvier au 20 juin, 8 571 d’entre eux – surtout des Nigérians, Maliens, Gambiens et Guinéens – sont ainsi rentrés chez eux. L’objectif que s’est fixé l’OIM est le chiffre de 30 000 sur l’ensemble de 2018. Résultat : les personnes éligibles au statut de réfugié et ne souhaitant donc pas rentrer dans leurs pays d’origine – beaucoup sont des ressortissants de la Corne de l’Afrique – se trouvent piégées en Libye avec le verrouillage croissant de la frontière maritime.

Le Haut-Commissariat pour les réfugiés (HCR) des Nations unies en a bien envoyé certains au Niger – autour de 900 – pour que leur demande d’asile en Europe y soit traitée. Cette voie de sortie demeure toutefois limitée, car les pays européens tardent à les accepter. « Les réfugiés de la Corne de l’Afrique sont ceux dont la durée de détention en Libye s’allonge », pointe M. Biteau. Cruel paradoxe pour une catégorie dont la demande d’asile est en général fondée. Une absence d’amélioration significative de leurs conditions de détention représenterait pour eux une sorte de double peine.

▻http://lirelactu.fr/source/le-monde/28fdd3e6-f6b2-4567-96cb-94cac16d078a
#UE #EU

Remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini at the joint press conference with Sven Mikser, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Estonia
Mogherini:

if you are asking me about the waves of migrants who are coming to Europe which means through Libya to Italy in this moment, I can tell you that the way in which we are handling this, thanks also to a very good work we have done with the Foreign Ministers of the all 28 Member States, is through a presence at sea – the European Union has a military mission at sea in the Mediterranean, at the same time dismantling the traffickers networks, having arrested more than 100 smugglers, seizing the boats that are used, saving lives – tens of thousands of people were saved but also training the Libyan coasts guards so that they can take care of the dismantling of the smuggling networks in the Libyan territorial waters.

And we are doing two other things to prevent the losses of lives but also the flourishing of the trafficking of people: inside Libya, we are financing the presence of the International Organisation for Migration and the UNHCR so that they can have access to the detention centres where people are living in awful conditions, save these people, protect these people but also organising voluntary returns to the countries of origin; and we are also working with the countries of origin and transit, in particular Niger, where more than 80% of the flows transit. I can tell you one number that will strike you probably - in the last 9 months through our action with Niger, we moved from 76 000 migrants passing through Niger into Libya to 6 000.

►https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/26042/remarks-high-representativevice-president-federica-mogherini-joint-press
#Libye #Niger #HCR #IOM #OIM #EU #UE #Mogherini #passeurs #smugglers

Germany, Italy float EU mission to stop migrants in southern Libya

Germany and Italy have reportedly demanded an EU mission along Libya’s southern desert border to stop migrants trying to reach Europe. Both countries said current efforts to stop human smuggling are not working.

▻http://www.dw.com/en/germany-italy-float-eu-mission-to-stop-migrants-in-southern-libya/a-38834301
#Allemagne

Il risultato degli accordi anti-migranti: aumentati i prezzi dei viaggi della speranza

L’accordo tra Europa e Italia da una parte e Niger dall’altra per bloccare il flusso dei migranti verso la Libia e quindi verso le nostre coste ha ottenuto risultati miseri. O meglio un paio di risultati li ha avuti: aumentare il prezzo dei trasporti – e quindi i guadagni dei trafficanti di uomini – e aumentare a dismisura i disagi e i rischi dei disperati che cercano in tutti i modi di attraversare il Mediterraneo. Insomma le misure adottate non scoraggiano chi vuole partire. molti di loro muoiono ma non muore la loro speranza di una vita migliore.

►http://www.africa-express.info/2017/02/03/il-risultato-dellaccordo-con-il-niger-sui-migranti-aumentati-prezzi

Italy, Germany call for EU mission on Libya-Niger border

The German and Italian interior ministers have called for an EU mission to be installed on the border between Libya and Niger to stem migrant crossings to Europe.

▻http://www.euractiv.com/section/africa/news/italy-germany-call-for-eu-mission-on-libya-niger-border

#frontières #Libye #Allemagne #EU #UE #Union_européenne

EU to conduct border patrols in Libya to stop migrants reaching Europe

Strengthening the north African country’s border management is “only a good idea, says Federica Mogherini, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs

▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eu-libya-border-controls-stop-migrants-reaching-europe-a7736696.html

C’était 2016... et OpenMigration publiait cet article:
Il processo di esternalizzazione delle frontiere europee: tappe e conseguenze di un processo pericoloso

L’esternalizzazione delle politiche europee e italiane sulle migrazioni: Sara Prestianni ci spiega le tappe fondamentali del processo, e le sue conseguenze più gravi in termini di violazioni dei diritti fondamentali.

▻http://openmigration.org/analisi/il-processo-di-esternalizzazione-delle-frontiere-europee-tappe-e-conseguenze-di-un-processo-pericoloso/?platform=hootsuite

Human Act or Devil’s Pact? Human rights aspects of migration agreements between EU and third countries
▻http://www.commissie-meijers.nl/sites/all/files/media/paper_human_act_or_devils_pact_eng_def_18.05.2017.pdf
#rapport

Per bloccare i migranti 610 milioni di euro dall’Europa e 50 dall’Italia

Con la Libia ancora fortemente compromessa, la sfida per la gestione dei flussi di migranti dall’Africa sub-sahariana si è di fatto spostata più a Sud, lungo i confini settentrionali del Niger. Uno dei Paesi più poveri al mondo, ma che in virtù della sua stabilità - ha mantenuto pace e democrazia in un’area lacerata dai conflitti - è oggi il principale alleato delle potenze europee nella regione. Gli accordi prevedono che il Niger in cambio di 610 milioni d’ euro dall’Unione Europea, oltre a 50 promessi dall’Italia, sigilli le proprie frontiere settentrionali e imponga un giro di vite ai traffici illegali. È dal Niger infatti che transita gran parte dei migranti sub-sahariani: 450.000, nel 2016, hanno attraversato il deserto fino alle coste libiche, e in misura inferiore quelle algerine. In Italia, attraverso questa rotta, ne sono arrivati 180.000 l’anno scorso e oltre 40.000 nei primi quattro mesi del 2017.

http://www.lastampa.it/rf/image_lowres/Pub/p4/2017/05/27/Esteri/Foto/RitagliWeb/5bd65877655d34617897f13df4627f46-kQHD-U11002974128966d3-1024x576%40LaStampa.it.jpg

L’#Allemagne s’y met aussi:
Germany pledges €3.5 million aids for Libya-based migration centers

The German Foreign Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, arrived on Thursday in Tripoli and met with the Head of the UN-proposed government’s Presidential Council, Fayez Al-Sirraj.

▻https://www.libyaobserver.ly/news/germany-pledges-%E2%82%AC35-million-aids-libya-based-migration-centers

Germany’s Sigmar Gabriel promises millions on surprise visit to Libya

The German foreign minister has announced extra aid to improve conditions at refugee camps. He warned of growing instability and urged warring parties to overcome their differences and support the UN-backed government.

▻http://www.dw.com/en/germanys-sigmar-gabriel-promises-millions-on-surprise-visit-to-libya/a-39158636?maca=en-Twitter-sharing

The Human Rights Risks of External Migration Policies

This briefing paper sets out the main human rights risks linked to external migration policies, which are a broad spectrum of actions implemented outside of the territory of the state that people are trying to enter, usually through enhanced cooperation with other countries. From the perspective of international law, external migration policies are not necessarily unlawful. However, Amnesty International considers that several types of external migration policies, and particularly the externalization of border control and asylum-processing, pose significant human rights risks. This document is intended as a guide for activists and policy-makers working on the issue, and includes some examples drawn from Amnesty International’s research in different countries.

▻https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol30/6200/2017/en

EU effort to halt migrants founders in Libya’s chaos

As Italy’s interior minister later flew in to present the boats officially at a naval base in the Libyan capital, coast guards grumbled that the vessels were old and had little deck space for rescued migrants.

▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-libya-idUSKBN19H0MB

Libya’s coast guard abuses migrants despite E.U. funding and training

The European Union has poured tens of millions of dollars into supporting Libya’s coast guard in search-and-rescue operations off the coast. But the violent tactics of some units and allegations of human trafficking have generated concerns about the alliance.

►https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/libyas-coast-guard-abuses-desperate-migrants-despite-eu-funding-and-training/2017/07/10/f9bfe952-7362-4e57-8b42-40ae5ede1e26_story.html?tid=ss_tw

Libia, la svolta anti scafisti di Sarraj: “Pronti a bombardare le loro navi”

La mossa del premier è un messaggio all’Ue: disposti a misure estreme. Il governo minacciato dall’avanzata di Ghwell. Oggi Minniti a Tripoli

▻http://www.lastampa.it/2017/07/13/esteri/libia-la-svolta-anti-scafisti-di-sarraj-pronti-a-bombardare-le-loro-navi-3YQPy6251nBIZePe25WeMM/pagina.html

How Libya’s #Fezzan Became Europe’s New Border

The principal gateway into Europe for refugees and migrants runs through the power vacuum in southern Libya’s Fezzan region. Any effort by European policymakers to stabilise Fezzan must be part of a national-level strategy aimed at developing Libya’s licit economy and reaching political normalisation.

►https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/north-africa/libya/179-how-libyas-fezzan-became-europes-new-border
cc @i_s_

v. aussi ma tentative cartographique:

https://seenthis.net/local/cache-vignettes/L300xH175/SZJB4PApng-33fa4-1880a.png

Avramopoulos says Sophia could be deployed in Libya

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, AUGUST 3 - European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told ANSA in an interview Thursday that it is possible that the #Operation_Sophia could be deployed in Libyan waters in the future. “At the moment, priority should be given to what can be done under the current mandate of Operation Sophia which was just renewed with added tasks,” he said. “But the possibility of the Operation moving to a third stage working in Libyan waters was foreseen from the beginning. If the Libyan authorities ask for this, we should be ready to act”. (ANSAmed).

▻http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2017/08/03/avramopoulos-says-sophia-could-be-deployed-in-libya_602d3d0e-f817-42b0-ac3

Les ambivalences de Tripoli face à la traite migratoire. Les trafiquants ont réussi à pénétrer des pans entiers des institutions officielles

Par Frédéric Bobin (Zaouïa, Libye, envoyé spécial)

LE MONDE Le 25.08.2017 à 06h39 • Mis à jour le 25.08.2017 à 10h54

Les petits trous dessinent comme des auréoles sur le ciment fauve. Le haut mur hérissé de fils de fer barbelés a été grêlé d’impacts de balles de kalachnikov à deux reprises, la plus récente en juin. « Ils sont bien mieux armés que nous », soupire Khaled Al-Toumi, le directeur du centre de détention de Zaouïa, une municipalité située à une cinquantaine de kilomètres à l’ouest de Tripoli. Ici, au cœur de cette bande côtière de la Libye où se concentre l’essentiel des départs de migrants vers l’Italie, une trentaine d’Africains subsahariens sont détenus – un chiffre plutôt faible au regard des centres surpeuplés ailleurs dans le pays.

C’est que, depuis les assauts de l’établissement par des hommes armés, Khaled Al-Toumi, préfère transférer à Tripoli le maximum de prisonniers. « Nous ne sommes pas en mesure de les protéger », dit-il. Avec ses huit gardes modestement équipés, il avoue son impuissance face aux gangs de trafiquants qui n’hésitent pas à venir récupérer par la force des migrants, dont l’arrestation par les autorités perturbe leurs juteuses affaires. En 2014, ils avaient repris environ 80 Erythréens. Plus récemment, sept Pakistanais. « On reçoit en permanence des menaces, ils disent qu’ils vont enlever nos enfants », ajoute le directeur.

Le danger est quotidien. Le 18 juillet, veille de la rencontre avec Khaled Al-Toumi, soixante-dix femmes migrantes ont été enlevées à quelques kilomètres de là alors qu’elles étaient transférées à bord d’un bus du centre de détention de Gharian à celui de Sorman, des localités voisines de Zaouïa.

On compte en Libye une trentaine de centres de ce type, placés sous la tutelle de la Direction de combat contre la migration illégale (DCMI) rattachée au ministère de l’intérieur. A ces prisons « officielles » s’ajoutent des structures officieuses, administrées ouvertement par des milices. L’ensemble de ce réseau carcéral détient entre 4 000 et 7 000 détenus, selon les Nations unies (ONU).

« Corruption galopante »

A l’heure où l’Union européenne (UE) nourrit le projet de sous-traiter à la Libye la gestion du flux migratoire le long de la « route de la Méditerranée centrale », le débat sur les conditions de détention en vigueur dans ces centres a gagné en acuité.

Une partie de la somme de 90 millions d’euros que l’UE s’est engagée à allouer au gouvernement dit d’« union nationale » de Tripoli sur la question migratoire, en sus des 200 millions d’euros annoncés par l’Italie, vise précisément à l’amélioration de l’environnement de ces centres.

Si des « hot spots » voient le jour en Libye, idée que caressent certains dirigeants européens – dont le président français Emmanuel Macron – pour externaliser sur le continent africain l’examen des demandes d’asile, ils seront abrités dans de tels établissements à la réputation sulfureuse.

La situation y est à l’évidence critique. Le centre de Zaouïa ne souffre certes pas de surpopulation. Mais l’état des locaux est piteux, avec ses matelas légers jetés au sol et l’alimentation d’une préoccupante indigence, limitée à un seul plat de macaronis. Aucune infirmerie ne dispense de soins.

« Je ne touche pas un seul dinar de Tripoli ! », se plaint le directeur, Khaled Al-Toumi. Dans son entourage, on dénonce vertement la « corruption galopante de l’état-major de la DCMI à Tripoli qui vole l’argent ». Quand on lui parle de financement européen, Khaled Al-Toumi affirme ne pas en avoir vu la couleur.

La complainte est encore plus grinçante au centre de détention pour femmes de Sorman, à une quinzaine de kilomètres à l’ouest : un gros bloc de ciment d’un étage posé sur le sable et piqué de pins en bord de plage. Dans la courette intérieure, des enfants jouent près d’une balançoire.

Là, la densité humaine est beaucoup plus élevée. La scène est un brin irréelle : dans la pièce centrale, environ quatre-vingts femmes sont entassées, fichu sur la tête, regard levé vers un poste de télévision rivé au mur délavé. D’autres se serrent dans les pièces adjacentes. Certaines ont un bébé sur les jambes, telle Christiane, une Nigériane à tresses assise sur son matelas. « Ici, il n’y a rien, déplore-t-elle. Nous n’avons ni couches ni lait pour les bébés. L’eau de la nappe phréatique est salée. Et le médecin ne vient pas souvent : une fois par semaine, souvent une fois toutes les deux semaines. »

« Battu avec des tuyaux métalliques »

Non loin d’elle, Viviane, jeune fille élancée de 20 ans, Nigériane elle aussi, se plaint particulièrement de la nourriture, la fameuse assiette de macaronis de rigueur dans tous les centres de détention.

Viviane est arrivée en Libye en 2015. Elle a bien tenté d’embarquer à bord d’un Zodiac à partir de Sabratha, la fameuse plate-forme de départs à l’ouest de Sorman, mais une tempête a fait échouer l’opération. Les passagers ont été récupérés par les garde-côtes qui les ont répartis dans les différentes prisons de la Tripolitaine. « Je n’ai pas pu joindre ma famille au téléphone, dit Viviane dans un souffle. Elle me croit morte. »

Si la visite des centres de détention de Zaouïa ou de Sorman permet de prendre la mesure de l’extrême précarité des conditions de vie, admise sans fard par les officiels des établissements eux-mêmes, la question des violences dans ces lieux coupés du monde est plus délicate.

Les migrants sont embarrassés de l’évoquer en présence des gardes. Mais mises bout à bout, les confidences qu’ils consentent plus aisément sur leur expérience dans d’autres centres permettent de suggérer un contexte d’une grande brutalité. Celle-ci se déploie sans doute le plus sauvagement dans les prisons privées, officieuses, où le racket des migrants est systématique.

Et les centres officiellement rattachés à la DCMI n’en sont pas pour autant épargnés. Ainsi Al Hassan Dialo, un Guinéen rencontré à Zaouïa, raconte qu’il était « battu avec des tuyaux métalliques » dans le centre de Gharian, où il avait été précédemment détenu.

« Extorsion, travail forcé »

On touche là à l’ambiguïté foncière de ce système de détention, formellement rattaché à l’Etat mais de facto placé sous l’influence des milices contrôlant le terrain. Le fait que des réseaux de trafiquants, liés à ces milices, peuvent impunément enlever des détenus au cœur même des centres, comme ce fut le cas à Zaouïa, donne la mesure de leur capacité de nuisance.

« Le système est pourri de l’intérieur », se désole un humanitaire. « Des fonctionnaires de l’Etat et des officiels locaux participent au processus de contrebande et de trafic d’êtres humains », abonde un rapport de la Mission d’appui de l’ONU en Libye publié en décembre 2016.

Dans ces conditions, les migrants font l’objet « d’extorsion, de travail forcé, de mauvais traitements et de tortures », dénonce le rapport. Les femmes, elles, sont victimes de violences sexuelles à grande échelle. Le plus inquiétant est qu’avec l’argent européen promis les centres de détention sous tutelle de la DCMI tendent à se multiplier. Trois nouveaux établissements ont fait ainsi leur apparition ces derniers mois dans le Grand Tripoli.

La duplicité de l’appareil d’Etat, ou de ce qui en tient lieu, est aussi illustrée par l’attitude des gardes-côtes, autres récipiendaires des financements européens et même de stages de formation. Officiellement, ils affirment lutter contre les réseaux de passeurs au maximum de leurs capacités tout en déplorant l’insuffisance de leurs moyens.

« Nous ne sommes pas équipés pour faire face aux trafiquants », regrette à Tripoli Ayoub Kassim, le porte-parole de la marine libyenne. Au détour d’un plaidoyer pro domo, le hiérarque militaire glisse que le problème de la gestion des flux migratoires se pose moins sur le littoral qu’au niveau de la frontière méridionale de la Libye. « La seule solution, c’est de maîtriser les migrations au sud, explique-t-il. Malheureusement, les migrants arrivent par le Niger sous les yeux de l’armée française » basée à Madama…

Opérations de patrouille musclées

Les vieilles habitudes perdurent. Avant 2011, sous Kadhafi, ces flux migratoires – verrouillés ou tolérés selon l’intérêt diplomatique du moment – étaient instrumentalisés pour exercer une pression sur les Européens.

Une telle politique semble moins systématique, fragmentation de l’Etat oblige, mais elle continue d’inspirer le comportement de bien des acteurs libyens usant habilement de la carte migratoire pour réclamer des soutiens financiers.

La déficience des équipements des gardes-côtes ne fait guère de doute. Avec son patrouilleur de 14 mètres de Zaouïa et ses quatre autres bâtiments de 26,4 mètres de Tripoli – souffrant de défaillances techniques bien qu’ayant été réparés en Italie –, l’arsenal en Tripolitaine est de fait limité. Par ailleurs, l’embargo sur les ventes d’armes vers la Libye, toujours en vigueur, en bride le potentiel militaire.

Pourtant, la hiérarchie des gardes-côtes serait plus convaincante si elle était en mesure d’exercer un contrôle effectif sur ses branches locales. Or, à l’évidence, une sérieuse difficulté se pose à Zaouïa. Le chef local de gardes-côtes, Abdelrahman Milad, plus connu sous le pseudonyme d’Al-Bija, joue un jeu trouble. Selon le rapport du panel des experts sur la Libye de l’ONU, publié en juin, Al-Bija doit son poste à Mohamed Koshlaf, le chef de la principale milice de Zaouïa, qui trempe dans le trafic de migrants.

Le patrouilleur d’Al-Bija est connu pour ses opérations musclées. Le 21 octobre 2016, il s’est opposé en mer à un sauvetage conduit par l’ONG Sea Watch, provoquant la noyade de vingt-cinq migrants. Le 23 mai 2017, le même patrouilleur intervient dans la zone dite « contiguë » – où la Libye est juridiquement en droit d’agir – pour perturber un autre sauvetage mené par le navire Aquarius, affrété conjointement par Médecins sans frontières et SOS Méditerranée, et le Juvena, affrété par l’ONG allemande Jugend Rettet.

Duplicité des acteurs libyens

Les gardes-côtes sont montés à bord d’un Zodiac de migrants, subtilisant téléphones portables et argent des occupants. Ils ont également tiré des coups de feu en l’air, et même dans l’eau où avaient sauté des migrants, ne blessant heureusement personne.

« Il est difficile de comprendre la logique de ce type de comportement, commente un humanitaire. Peut-être le message envoyé aux migrants est-il : “La prochaine fois, passez par nous.” » Ce « passez par nous » peut signifier, selon de bons observateurs de la scène libyenne, « passez par le réseau de Mohamed Koshlaf », le milicien que l’ONU met en cause dans le trafic de migrants.

Al-Bija pratiquerait ainsi le deux poids-deux mesures, intraitable ou compréhensif selon que les migrants relèvent de réseaux rivaux ou amis, illustration typique de la duplicité des acteurs libyens. « Al-Bija sait qu’il a commis des erreurs, il cherche maintenant à restaurer son image », dit un résident de Zaouïa. Seule l’expérience le prouvera. En attendant, les Européens doivent coopérer avec lui pour fermer la route de la Méditerranée.

▻http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2017/08/16/en-libye-nous-ne-sommes-que-des-esclaves_5172760_3212.html

A PATTI CON LA LIBIA

La Libia è il principale punto di partenza di barconi carichi di migranti diretti in Europa. Con la Libia l’Europa deve trattare per trovare una soluzione. La Libia però è anche un paese allo sbando, diviso. C’è il governo di Tripoli retto da Fayez al-Sarraj. Poi c’è il generale Haftar che controlla i due terzi del territorio del paese. Senza contare gruppi, milizie, clan tribali. Il compito insomma è complicato. Ma qualcosa, forse, si sta muovendo.

Dopo decine di vertici inutili, migliaia di morti nel Mediterraneo, promesse non mantenute si torna a parlare con una certa insistenza della necessità di stabilizzare la Libia e aiutare il paese che si affaccia sul Mediterraneo. Particolarmente attiva in questa fase la Francia di Macron, oltre naturalmente all’Italia.

Tra i punti in discussione c’è il coinvolgimento di altri paesi africani di transito come Niger e Ciad che potrebbero fungere da filtro. Oltre naturalmente ad aiuti diretti alla Libia. Assegni milionari destinati a una migliore gestione delle frontiere ad esempio.

Ma è davvero così semplice? E come la mettiamo con le violenze e le torture subite dai migranti nei centri di detenzione? Perché proprio ora l’Europa sembra svegliarsi? Cosa si cela dietro questa competizione soprattutto tra Roma e Parigi nel trovare intese con Tripoli?

▻http://www.rsi.ch/rete-uno/programmi/informazione/modem/A-PATTI-CON-LA-LIBIA-9426001.html

Libyan militia chief admits deal with Tripoli to stem migrant flow

A powerful Libyan militia commander and suspected trafficking kingpin has struck a deal with Tripoli to stem the flow of migrants to Europe in exchange for cars, boats and the recognition of his force as a legitimate security body.

▻https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/libyan-militia-chief-admits-deal-with-tripoli-to-stem-migrant-flow-ahmed
#paywall

Libya’s migration crisis is about more than just security

There’s no shortage of news on Libya’s migration crisis, but there is a serious dearth of policy solutions.

▻https://www.irinnews.org/analysis/2017/09/11/libya-s-migration-crisis-about-more-just-security

An Europas neuer Grenze

Um Flüchtlinge abzuhalten, verschiebt Europa seine Grenzen und scheut dabei auch keine dunklen Geschäfte. Die Abwehrzonen reichen bis nach Westafrika.

▻http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2017-12/fluechtlinge-eu-westafrika-menschenrechte-schlepper-fluechtlingspolitik?wt_zmc=
#Niger

Le fonds fiduciaire de l’UE pour l’Afrique adopte un programme de soutien à la gestion intégrée des migrations et des frontières en Libye d’un montant de 46 millions d’euros

À la suite du plan d’action de la Commission pour soutenir l’Italie, présenté le 4 juillet, le fonds fiduciaire de l’UE pour l’Afrique a adopté ce jour un programme doté d’une enveloppe de 46 millions d’euros pour renforcer les capacités des autorités libyennes en matière de gestion intégrée des migrations et des frontières.

▻http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-2187_fr.htm

L’Europe va verser 200 millions d’euros à la Libye pour stopper les migrants

Les dirigeants européens se retrouvent ce vendredi à Malte pour convaincre la Libye de freiner les traversées de migrants en Méditerranée. Ils devraient proposer d’équiper et former ses gardes-côtes. Le projet d’ouvrir des camps en Afrique refait surface.

▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/020217/leurope-va-verser-200-millions-deuros-la-libye-pour-stopper-les-migrants

–-> pour archivage...

Persécutés en Libye : l’Europe est complice

L’Union européenne dans son ensemble, et l’Italie en particulier, sont complices des violations des droits humains commises contre les réfugiés et les migrants en Libye. Enquête.

►https://www.amnesty.fr/refugies-et-migrants/actualites/refugies-et-migrants-persecutes-en-libye-leurope-est-complice

#complicité

Et l’utilisation du mot « persécutés » n’est évidemment pas été choisi au hasard...
–-> ça renvoie à la polémique de qui est #réfugié... et du fait que l’UE essaie de dire que les migrants en Libye sont des #migrants_économiques et non pas des réfugiés (comme ceux qui sont en Turquie et/ou en Grèce, qui sont des syriens, donc des réfugiés)...
Du coup, utiliser le concept de #persécution signifie faire une lien direct avec la Convention sur les réfugiés et admettre que les migrants en Libye sont potentiellement des réfugiés...

La position de l’UE :

#Mogherini was questioned about the EU’s strategy of outsourcing the migration crisis to foreign countries such as Libya and Turkey, which received billions to prevent Syrian refugees from crossing to Greece.

She said the situation was different on two counts: first, the migrants stranded in Libya were not legitimate asylum seekers like those fleeing the war in Syria. And second, different international bodies were in charge.

“When it comes to Turkey, it is mainly refugees from Syria; when it comes to Libya, it is mainly migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa and the relevant international laws apply in different manners and the relevant UN agencies are different – the UNHC

►https://www.euractiv.com/section/development-policy/news/libya-human-bondage-risks-overshadowing-africa-eu-summit
voir ici : ►http://seen.li/dqtt

Du coup, @sinehebdo, « #persécutés » serait aussi un mot à ajouter à ta longue liste...

v. aussi :
Libya : Libya’s dark web of collusion : Abuses against Europe-bound refugees and migrants

In recent years, hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants have braved the journey across Africa to Libya and often on to Europe. In response, the Libyan authorities have used mass indefinite detention as their primary migration management tool. Regrettably, the European Union and Italy in particular, have decided to reinforce the capacity of Libyan authorities to intercept refugees and migrants at sea and transfer them to detention centres. It is essential that the aims and nature of this co-operation be rethought; that the focus shift from preventing arrivals in Europe to protecting the rights of refugees and migrants.

▻https://www.amnesty.org/fr/documents/document/?indexNumber=mde19%2f7561%2f2017&language=en
#rapport

Amnesty France : « L’Union Européenne est complice des violations de droits de l’homme en Libye »

Jean-François Dubost est responsable du Programme Protection des Populations (réfugiés, civils dans les conflits, discriminations) chez Amnesty France. L’ONG publie un rapport sur la responsabilité des gouvernements européens dans les violations des droits humains des réfugiés et des migrants en Libye.

▻https://www.franceinter.fr/emissions/l-invite-de-6h20/l-invite-de-6h20-12-decembre-2017
#responsabilité

Accordi e crimini contro l’umanità in un rapporto di Amnesty International

La Rotta del Mediterraneo centrale, dal Corno d’Africa, dall’Africa subsahariana, al Niger al Ciad ed alla Libia costituisce ormai l’unica via di fuga da paesi in guerra o precipitati in crisi economiche che mettono a repentaglio la vita dei loro abitanti, senza alcuna possibile distinzione tra migranti economici e richiedenti asilo. Anche perché in Africa, ed in Libia in particolare, la possibilità concreta di chiedere asilo ed ottenere un permesso di soggiorno o un visto, oltre al riconoscimento dello status di rifugiato da parte dell’UNHCR, è praticamente nulla. Le poche persone trasferite in altri paesi europei dai campi libici (resettlement), come i rimpatri volontari ampiamente pubblicizzati, sono soltanto l’ennesima foglia di fico che si sta utilizzando per nascondere le condizioni disumane in cui centinaia di migliaia di persone vengono trattenute sotto sequestro nei centri di detenzione libici , ufficiali o informali. In tutti gravissime violazioni dei diritti umani, anche subito dopo la visita dei rappresentanti dell’UNHCR e dell’OIM, come dichiarano alcuni testimoni.

▻https://www.a-dif.org/2017/12/12/accordi-e-crimini-contro-lumanita-in-un-rapporto-di-amnesty-international

Bundestag study: Cooperation with Libyan coastguard infringes international conventions

“Libya is unable to nominate a Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), and so rescue missions outside its territorial waters are coordinated by the Italian MRCC in Rome. More and more often the Libyan coastguard is being tasked to lead these missions as on-scene-commander. Since refugees are subsequently brought to Libya, the MRCC in Rome may be infringing the prohibition of refoulement contained in the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. This, indeed, was also the conclusion reached in a study produced by the Bundestag Research Service. The European Union and its member states must therefore press for an immediate end to this cooperation with the Libyan coastguard”, says Andrej Hunko, European policy spokesman for the Left Party.

The Italian Navy is intercepting refugees in the Mediterranean and arranging for them to be picked up by Libyan coastguard vessels. The Bundestag study therefore suspects an infringement of the European Human Rights Convention of the Council of Europe. The rights enshrined in the Convention also apply on the high seas.

Andrej Hunko goes on to say, “For two years the Libyan coastguard has regularly been using force against sea rescuers, and many refugees have drowned during these power games. As part of the EUNAVFOR MED military mission, the Bundeswehr has also been cooperating with the Libyan coastguard and allegedly trained them in sea rescue. I regard that as a pretext to arm Libya for the prevention of migration. This cooperation must be the subject of proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights, because the people who are being forcibly returned with the assistance of the EU are being inhumanely treated, tortured or killed.

The study also emphasises that the acts of aggression against private rescue ships violate the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Nothing in that Convention prescribes that sea rescues must be undertaken by a single vessel. On the contrary, masters of other ships even have a duty to render assistance if they cannot be sure that all of the persons in distress will be quickly rescued. This is undoubtedly the case with the brutal operations of the Libyan coastguard.

The Libyan Navy might soon have its own MRCC, which would then be attached to the EU surveillance system. The European Commission examined this option in a feasibility study, and Italy is now establishing a coordination centre for this purpose in Tripoli. A Libyan MRCC would encourage the Libyan coastguard to throw its weight about even more. The result would be further violations of international conventions and even more deaths.”

▻https://andrej-hunko.de/presse/3946-bundestag-study-cooperation-with-libyan-coastguard-infringes-inter

v. aussi l’étude:
▻https://andrej-hunko.de/start/download/dokumente/1109-bundestag-research-services-maritime-rescue-in-the-mediterranean/file

Nearly There, but Never Further Away

Europe has outsourced the dirty work of border control to Libyan militias. In doing so, it has turned African migrants into commodities to be captured, sold, and traded like slaves.

https://foreignpolicymag.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/003_unloaded_tripoli.jpg?w=1500#.jpg

Migrants : « La nasse libyenne a été en partie tissée par la France et l’Union européenne »

Dans une tribune publiée dans « Le Monde », Thierry Allafort-Duverger, le directeur général de Médecins Sans Frontières, juge hypocrite la posture de la France, qui favorise l’interception de migrants par les garde-côtes libyens et dénonce leurs conditions de détention sur place.

▻https://www.msf.fr/actualite/articles/migrants-nasse-libyenne-ete-en-partie-tissee-france-et-union-europeenne
#hypocrisie

Libye : derrière l’arbre de « l’esclavage »
Par Ali Bensaâd, Professeur à l’Institut français de géopolitique, Paris-VIII — 30 novembre 2017 à 17:56

L’émotion suscitée par les crimes abjectes révélés par CNN ne doit pas occulter un phénomène bien plus vaste et ancien : celui de centaines de milliers de migrants africains qui vivent et travaillent depuis des décennies, en Libye et au Maghreb, dans des conditions extrêmes d’exploitation et d’atteinte à leur dignité.

L’onde de choc créée par la diffusion de la vidéo de CNN sur la « vente » de migrants en Libye, ne doit pas se perdre en indignations. Et il ne faut pas que les crimes révélés occultent un malheur encore plus vaste, celui de centaines de milliers de migrants africains qui vivent et travaillent depuis des décennies, en Libye et au Maghreb, dans des conditions extrêmes d’exploitation et d’atteinte à leur dignité. Par ailleurs, ces véritables crimes contre l’humanité ne sont, hélas, pas spécifiques de la Libye. A titre d’exemple, les bédouins égyptiens ou israéliens - supplétifs sécuritaires de leurs armées - ont précédé les milices libyennes dans ces pratiques qu’ils poursuivent toujours et qui ont été largement documentées.

Ces crimes contre l’humanité, en raison de leur caractère particulièrement abject, méritent d’être justement qualifiés. Il faut s’interroger si le qualificatif « esclavage », au-delà du juste opprobre dont il faut entourer ces pratiques, est le plus scientifiquement approprié pour comprendre et combattre ces pratiques d’autant que l’esclavage a été une réalité qui a structuré pendant un millénaire le rapport entre le Maghreb et l’Afrique subsaharienne. Il demeure le non-dit des inconscients culturels des sociétés de part et d’autre du Sahara, une sorte de « bombe à retardement ». « Mal nommer un objet, c’est ajouter au malheur de ce monde » (1) disait Camus. Et la Libye est un condensé des malheurs du monde des migrations. Il faut donc les saisir par-delà le raccourci de l’émotion.

D’abord, ils ne sont nullement le produit du contexte actuel de chaos du pays, même si celui-ci les aggrave. Depuis des décennies, chercheurs et journalistes ont documenté la difficile condition des migrants en Libye qui, depuis les années 60, font tourner pour l’essentiel l’économie de ce pays rentier. Leur nombre a pu atteindre certaines années jusqu’à un million pour une population qui pouvait alors compter à peine cinq millions d’habitants. C’est dire leur importance dans le paysage économique et social de ce pays. Mais loin de favoriser leur intégration, l’importance de leur nombre a été conjurée par une précarisation systématique et violente comme l’illustrent les expulsions massives et violentes de migrants qui ont jalonné l’histoire du pays notamment en 1979, 1981, 1985, 1995, 2000 et 2007. Expulsions qui servaient tout à la fois à installer cette immigration dans une réversibilité mais aussi à pénaliser ou gratifier les pays dont ils sont originaires pour les vassaliser. Peut-être contraints, les dirigeants africains alors restaient sourds aux interpellations de leurs migrants pour ne pas contrarier la générosité du « guide » dont ils étaient les fidèles clients. Ils se tairont également quand, en 2000, Moussa Koussa, l’ancien responsable des services libyens, aujourd’hui luxueusement réfugié à Londres, a organisé un véritable pogrom où périrent 500 migrants africains assassinés dans des « émeutes populaires » instrumentalisées. Leur but était cyniquement de faire avaliser, par ricochet, la nouvelle orientation du régime favorable à la normalisation et l’ouverture à l’Europe et cela en attisant un sentiment anti-africain pour déstabiliser la partie de la vieille garde qui y était rétive. Cette normalisation, faite en partie sur le cadavre de migrants africains, se soldera par l’intronisation de Kadhafi comme gardien des frontières européennes. Les migrants interceptés et ceux que l’Italie refoule, en violation des lois européennes, sont emprisonnés, parfois dans les mêmes lieux aujourd’hui, et soumis aux mêmes traitements dégradants.

En 2006, ce n’était pas 260 migrants marocains qui croupissaient comme aujourd’hui dans les prisons libyennes, ceux dont la vidéo a ému l’opinion, mais 3 000 et dans des conditions tout aussi inhumaines. Kadhafi a signé toutes les conventions que les Européens ont voulues, sachant qu’il n’allait pas les appliquer. Mais lorsque le HCR a essayé de prendre langue avec le pouvoir libyen au sujet de la convention de Genève sur les réfugiés, Kadhafi ferma les bureaux du HCR et expulsa, en les humiliant, ses dirigeants le 9 juin 2010. Le même jour, débutait un nouveau round de négociations en vue d’un accord de partenariat entre la Libye et l’Union européenne et le lendemain, 10 juin, Kadhafi était accueilli en Italie. Une année plus tard, alors même que le CNT n’avait pas encore établi son autorité sur le pays et que Kadhafi et ses troupes continuaient à résister, le CNT a été contraint de signer avec l’Italie un accord sur les migrations dont un volet sur la réadmission des migrants transitant par son territoire. Hier, comme aujourd’hui, c’est à la demande expresse et explicite de l’UE que les autorités libyennes mènent une politique de répression et de rétention de migrants. Et peut-on ignorer qu’aujourd’hui traiter avec les pouvoirs libyens, notamment sur les questions sécuritaires, c’est traiter de fait avec des milices dont dépendent ces pouvoirs eux-mêmes pour leur propre sécurité ? Faut-il s’étonner après cela de voir des milices gérer des centres de rétention demandés par l’UE ?

Alors que peine à émerger une autorité centrale en Libye, les pays occidentaux n’ont pas cessé de multiplier les exigences à l’égard des fragiles centres d’un pouvoir balbutiant pour leur faire prendre en charge leur protection contre les migrations et le terrorisme au risque de les fragiliser comme l’a montré l’exemple des milices de Misrata. Acteur important de la réconciliation et de la lutte contre les extrémistes, elles ont été poussées, à Syrte, à combattre Daech quasiment seules. Elles en sont sorties exsangues, rongées par le doute et fragilisées face à leurs propres extrémistes. Les rackets, les kidnappings et le travail forcé pour ceux qui ne peuvent pas payer, sont aussi le lot des Libyens, notamment ceux appartenant au camp des vaincus, détenus dans ce que les Libyens nomment « prisons clandestines ». Libyens, mais plus souvent migrants qui ne peuvent payer, sont mis au travail forcé pour les propres besoins des miliciens en étant « loués » ponctuellement le temps d’une captivité qui dure de quelques semaines à quelques mois pour des sommes dérisoires.

Dans la vidéo de CNN, les sommes évoquées, autour de 400 dinars libyens, sont faussement traduites par les journalistes, selon le taux officiel fictif, en 400 dollars. En réalité, sur le marché réel, la valeur est dix fois inférieure, un dollar valant dix dinars libyens et un euro, douze. Faire transiter un homme, même sur la seule portion saharienne du territoire, rapporte 15 fois plus (500 euros) aux trafiquants et miliciens. C’est par défaut que les milices se rabattent sur l’exploitation, un temps, de migrants désargentés mais par ailleurs encombrants.

La scène filmée par CNN est abjecte et relève du crime contre l’humanité. Mais il s’agit de transactions sur du travail forcé et de corvées. Il ne s’agit pas de vente d’hommes. Ce n’est pas relativiser ou diminuer ce qui est un véritable crime contre l’humanité, mais il faut justement qualifier les objets. Il s’agit de pratiques criminelles de guerre et de banditisme qui exploitent les failles de politiques migratoires globales. On n’assiste pas à une résurgence de l’esclavage. Il ne faut pas démonétiser l’indignation et la vigilance en recourant rapidement aux catégories historiques qui mobilisent l’émotion. Celle-ci retombe toujours. Et pendant que le débat s’enflamme sur « l’esclavage », la même semaine, des centaines d’hommes « libres » sont morts, noyés en Méditerranée, s’ajoutant à des dizaines de milliers qui les avaient précédés.

(1) C’est la véritable expression utilisée par Camus dans un essai de 1944, paru dans Poésie 44, (Sur une philosophie de l’expression), substantiellement très différente, en termes philosophiques, de ce qui sera reporté par la suite : « Mal nommer les choses, c’est ajouter aux malheurs du monde. »

▻http://www.liberation.fr/debats/2017/11/30/libye-derriere-l-arbre-de-l-esclavage_1613662

Europe’s Hypocritical Response to Reports of Slavery in Libya

Despite outrage over recent slavery reports, there is nothing new about migrants suffering in Libya. The E.U. has pushed to bring down their numbers regardless of the human cost, says policy expert Giulia Lagana, calling for the response to go beyond migrant returns.

▻https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/community/2017/12/12/europes-hypocritical-response-to-reports-of-slavery-in-libya

Quel culot cet #Avramopoulos !

The situation in #Libya is not bad because of the EU. This discourse has to stop. On the contrary, the situation is better thanks to EU and our efforts with international partners to improve the situation on the ground.

https://i.imgur.com/WwA3KXe.png

vu sur twitter le 14.12.2017

The implementation of EU Crisis Response in Libya : Bridging theory and practice

▻http://www.eunpack.eu/sites/default/files/publications/2018-01-31%20D6.2%20Working%20paper%20on%20implementation%20of%20EU%20crisis
#gardes-côtes #Operation_Sophia #EUNAVFOR_MED #passeurs #EUBAM #EU_Integrated_Border_Management_Assistance_Mission #Integrated_Border_Management #EU_Trust_Fund_for_Africa #EUTF #ECHO #IMRCC #sauvetages #mourir_en_mer #SAR #Triton

UE/#OTAN : Le plan européen met en danger les migrants étrangers détenus en Libye

Les migrants et demandeurs d’asile retenus dans ce pays y sont soumis aux risques de #meurtre, de #torture et de #viol

▻https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2016/07/06/ue/otan-le-plan-europeen-met-en-danger-les-migrants-etrangers-detenus-en-libye

Quand l’Union européenne veut bloquer les exilé-e-s en Libye

L’Union européenne renforce les capacités des garde-côtes Libyens pour qu’ils interceptent les bateaux d’exilé-e-s dans les eaux territoriales et les ramènent en Libye. Des navires de l’#OTAN patrouillent au large prétendument pour s’attaquer aux « bateaux de passeurs », ce qui veut dire que des moyens militaires sont mobilisés pour empêcher les exilé-e-s d’atteindre les côtes européennes. L’idée a été émise de faire le tri, entre les personnes qui relèveraient de l’asile et celles qui seraient des « migrants économiques » ayant « vocation » à être renvoyés, sur des bateaux ua large de la Libye plutôt que sur le sol italien, créant ainsi des « #hotspots_flottants« .

▻https://lampedusauneile.wordpress.com/2016/07/15/quand-lunion-europeenne-veut-bloquer-les-exile-e-s-en-lib

Multimedia Story : Trapped in Transit

Doctors Without Borders, which has been operating a search and rescue mission in the central Mediterranean since April 2015, exposes the shocking levels of violence and exploitation reported by asylum seekers who have passed through Libya.

▻https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2016/07/26/multimedia-story-trapped-in-transit