#rapport

5 Years Alarmphone

For our anniversary, we are publishing a booklet, reflecting on our activities and experiences supporting thousands of travellers in the Mediterranean. It is available in three languages (English, German, French) and can be downloaded for free:

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▻https://alarmphone.org/en/publications/anniversary-booklets

#alarm_phone #rapport #booklet #migration #méditerranée #sauvetage

’Inhumane’ Frontex forced returns going unreported

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On a late evening August flight last year from Munich to Afghanistan, an Afghan man seated in the back of the plane struggled to breath as a German escort officer repeatedly squeezed his testicles.

The man, along with another Afghan who had tried to kill himself, was being forcibly removed from Germany and sent back to a country engulfed in war.

The EU’s border agency Frontex coordinated and helped pay for the forced return operation, as part of a broader bid to remove from Europe unwanted migrants and others whose applications for international protection had been rejected.

By then, almost 20 years of war and civil conflict had already ravaged Afghanistan - with 2018 registering its worst-ever civilian death rate since counting had started.

Also seated on the plane for the 14 August flight were independent observers of the anti-torture committee (CPT) of the human rights watchdog, the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe.

In a report, they describe in detail how six escort officers had surrounded the terrified man in an effort to calm him.

The ’calming’ techniques involved an officer pulling the man’s neck from behind while yanking his nose upwards.

His hands and legs had been cuffed and a helmet placed on him. Another knelt on the man’s knees and upper legs, using his full weight to keep him seated.

After 15 minutes, the kneeling officer “then gripped the returnee’s genitals with his left hand and repeatedly squeezed them for prolonged periods.”

Another 503 have been sent to Afghanistan in flights coordinated by Frontex since the start of this year.

Vicki Aken, the International Rescue Committee’s Afghanistan country director, says those returned are invariably put in harm’s way.

“You cannot say that Kabul is ’conflict-free’. Kabul is actually one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan,” she said, noting Afghanistan has the highest number of child casualties in the world.

The day after the Munich flight landed on 14 August 2018, a blast ripped through a high school in the capital city, Kabul, killing 48 people, including over 30 students.
Accountability

The flight journey from Munich highlights a stunning omission from Frontex responsibilities - adding to concerns the EU agency is failing to maintain standards when it comes to coordinating forced-returns in a humane manner.

For one, all return operations must be monitored in accordance with EU law, and a forced-return monitor is required to deliver a report to Frontex and to all the member states involved.

Such reports, handed over to Frontex’s executive director, are supposed to act as an internal check and balance to stem alleged abuse by escort guards in a system that has been in place since the start of 2017.

These monitors come from a “pool of forced-return monitors”, as required under the 2016 European Border and Coast Guard Regulation and the 2008 Return Directive, and are broadly sourced from the member states themselves.

The CPT in their report noted that the flight on 14 August 2018 had also been monitored by Frontex staff itself, and concluded that its “current arrangements cannot be considered as an independent external monitoring mechanism”.

When the agency compiled its own internal report spanning the latter half of 2018, which included the 14 August flight, no mention was made of the Afghan man who had been manhandled by six officers.

Asked to explain, the Warsaw-based agency whose annual budget for 2020 is set to increase to €420.6m, has yet to respond to Euobserver.

Instead, the report, which had been written up by Frontex’s fundamental rights officer, highlighted other issues.

It demanded escorts not place restraints on children. It said minors who are alone cannot be sent back on a forced-return flight, which is exactly what had happened on two other operations.

No one on the 14 August flight had issued a “serious incident report” label, used by Frontex whenever a particularly bad incident has been deemed to have transpired.

During 2018 Frontex coordinated and helped fund 345 such return operations, by charter flights during which only one “serious incident report” was filed - posing questions on the reliability and independence of the monitors and return escorts, as well as the sincerity of internal Frontex efforts to stem any abuse.

The accountability gap was highlighted by the outgoing head of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, who in his farewell speech earlier this month, deliberately singled out Frontex.

“Frontex is bound by EU laws that prohibit torture and any form of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” he said, in reference to reports of alleged human rights violations that occurred during Frontex support operations observed since mid-2018.
Monitoring the monitors

For Markus Jaeger, a Council of Europe official who advises the Frontex management board, the agency’s monitoring system for forced return is meaningless.

“The internal system of Frontex produces close to nil reports on serious incidents, in other words, the internal system of Frontex, says there is never a human rights incident,” he told EUobserver, earlier this month.

He said Frontex’s pool of 71 monitors is overstretched and that in some cases, only one is available for a flight that might have 150 people being returned.

“One monitor doesn’t suffice,” he said, noting Frontex has been able to delegate any blame onto member states, by positioning itself merely as a coordinator.

But as Frontex expands - with the ability to lease planes, pilots and staff - its direct involvement with the returns also increases and so does its accountability, says Jaeger.

“The [return] figures are supposedly going up, the capacity is supposedly going up, the procedures are being shortened, and deportations are going to happen by deployed guest officers and or by Frontex officers and so the independence of the monitors is crucial,” he pointed out.

For its part, the European Commission says Frontex’s pool of monitors is set to expand.
Nafplion Group

Jaeger, along with other national authorities from a handful of member states, which already contribute to Frontex’s pool of monitors, are now putting together a new group to keep the forced-returns organised by Frontex better in check.

Known as the Nafplion Group, and set up as a pilot project last October by the Greek ombudsman, it describes itself as a “remedy to the absence of an external, independent governance of the pool of forced-return monitors” in Frontex forced-return flights.

The plan is to get it up and running before the end of the year, despite having no guarantee they will ever be selected by Frontex to help monitor a forced-return flight.

“This is how de facto the Nafplion Group can be avoided,” said Jaeger, noting that they plan to go public should they not be picked.

Asked to comment, the European Commission says it is not in discussions with any institutions on the establishment of a new, parallel monitoring system.

▻https://euobserver.com/migration/146090
#renvois #expulsions #Frontex #Allemagne #réfugiés #réfugiés_afghans #asile #migrations #violence #responsabilité #retours_forcés #renvois #expulsions #déboutés #Kaboul #directive_retour #Nafplion_Group #monitoring #monitorage

Je découvre ces deux articles qui se focalisent sur les #réfugiés et les #animaux... un regard assez nouveau...

The important role of animals in refugee lives

Refugees are people who have been forcibly displaced across a border. What do animals have to do with them? A lot.

Companion animals, for example, are important to many people’s emotional wellbeing. “For people forced to flee,” the Norwegian Refugee Council recently noted, “a pet can be a vital source of comfort.” At the sterile and hyper-modern Azraq refugee camp in Jordan, Syrian refugees would pay a high price for caged birds (30-40 Jordanian dinars each, roughly €35-50). In Syria, many people keep a bird at home. At Azraq keeping a bird is one way of making a plastic and metal shelter into a home.

In many contexts, refugees also depend on animals for their livelihoods. Humanitarian assistance understandably focuses on supporting people, but if refugees’ working animals and livestock perish then their experience of displacement can worsen drastically: they lose the means to support themselves in exile, or to return home and rebuild their lives.

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Ever since the earliest days of modern refugee camps, at the time of the First World War, agencies responsible for refugees have had to think about animals too. When the British army in the Middle East built a camp at Baquba near Baghdad in 1918 to house nearly 50,000 Armenian and Assyrian refugees, there were some animals that they needed to keep out. Fumigation procedures and netting were used against lice and mosquitos, carriers of typhus and malaria respectively. But refugee agencies also needed to let larger animals in. The people in the camp, especially the Assyrians, were accompanied by seven or eight thousand sheep and goats, and about six thousand larger animals like horses and cattle. Many of the people depended on their animals for their livelihood and for any prospect of permanent settlement, so they all needed to be accommodated and cared for.

There are similar examples around the world today, like the longstanding camps for Sahrawi refugees in southwestern Algeria. There, goats and camels are socially and economically significant animals: goat barns, enclosures often made of scrap metal, are a prominent part of the camps’ increasingly urban landscape, while camel butcheries are important shops.

This helps us understand why the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees now has programmes to support refugees’ animals. For example, in 2015, with funding from the IKEA Foundation, the organization assisted 6,000 Malian refugees in Burkina Faso and their 47,000 animals: helping animals helps the people too, in this case to earn a living (and achieve economic integration) through small-scale dairy farming. It also helps us understand how conflicts can arise between refugees and host communities when refugees’ animals compete for grazing or water with local animals, or damage local farmers’ crops.

Starting in 2011, nearly 125,000 people from Blue Nile state in Sudan fled from a government offensive into Maban country, South Sudan, with hundreds of thousands of animals (about half of whom soon died, stressed by the journey). Peacefully managing their interactions with local residents and a community of nomadic herders who also regularly migrated through the county was a complex task for the South Sudanese government and humanitarian agencies. It required careful negotiations to allocate grazing zones as far as 60km from the camps where the refugees lived, schedule access to watering points, and agree a different route for the nomads’ migration.

In Bangladesh, meanwhile, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature has recently been involved in efforts to prevent conflict between refugees and wild animals. Nearly a million Rohingya refugees from state persecution in Myanmar live in semi-formal camps near Cox’s Bazar that have grown up since 2017, but these block the migration routes of critically endangered Asian elephants. The International Union’s conflict mitigation programme includes building lookout towers, training Rohingya observers, and running an arts-based education project.

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And this highlights a final issue. The elephants at Cox’s Bazar are endangered because of ecological pressures caused by humans. But increasingly, humans too are endangered—and displaced—by ecological pressures. In the late 2000s, a years-long drought in Syria, worsened by human-caused climate change, pushed over a million rural Syrians off the land. (The country’s total livestock fell by a third.) The political and economic pressure that this generated was a significant factor in the crisis that ignited into war in 2011, in turn displacing millions more people. Hundreds of thousands of them fled to Jordan, one of the most water-stressed countries in the world, where the increased extraction of groundwater has lowered the water table, drying out oases in the Jordanian desert. Wild birds migrating across the desert have to fly further to find water and rest, meaning fewer survive the journey. In the Syrian war, and in many other conflicts around the world, human and animal displacements are intersecting under environmental stress. If we want to understand human displacement and respond to it adequately, we need to be thinking about animals too.

https://blog.oup.com/2019/10/the-important-role-of-animals-in-refugee-lives
#rapport_aux_animaux #animaux_de_compagnie

Multilateral DamageThe impact of EU migration policies on central Saharan routes

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▻https://www.clingendael.org/sites/default/files/2018-09/multilateral-damage.pdf
#externalisation_des_frontières #asile #migrations #réfugiés #frontières #Corne_de_l'Afrique #EU #UE #Soudan #Niger #Tchad #RSF #milices #Forces_de_soutien_rapide #mines #mines_d'or #rapport

Rapport de septembre 2018

Ajouté à cette métaliste sur l’externalisation des frontières :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/731749

ping @karine4 @pascaline

Dublin : l’urgence de mettre fin à un règlement kafkaïen

Dans un rapport publié le mardi 24 septembre, élaboré en collaboration avec des demandeurs d’asile, le Secours Catholique explique le règlement de Dublin et les conséquences de son application en France. L’association demande au gouvernement de cesser de se dégager de sa #responsabilité et de prendre en compte le choix exprimé par des milliers de personnes exilées de vivre en sécurité sur son territoire.

https://www.secours-catholique.org/sites/scinternet/files/styles/375x267/public/pdfpreview/63186f3ba4300eb1dc0bbaa2067f25bd.jpg?itok=IMoNkYR2#.jpg

▻https://www.secours-catholique.org/actualites/dublin-lurgence-de-mettre-fin-a-un-reglement-kafkaien
#rapport #Dublin #France #règlement_dublin #secours_catholique #asile #migrations #réfugiés #échec #dysfonctionnement #migrerrance #ADA

Et autour de la question du #logement #hébergement :

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Pour télécharger le rapport en pdf :
▻https://www.secours-catholique.org/sites/scinternet/files/publications/rapport_dublin.pdf

ping @karine4

Villes européennes et réfugiés : un laboratoire du logement abordable et de la #résilience_urbaine

Comment les villes européennes, et plus particulièrement allemandes et suédoises, sont-elles parvenues à loger les demandeurs d’asile arrivés à partir de 2015 ? En 2017, La Fabrique de la Cité menait un projet d’étude international et pluridisciplinaire consacré à la résilience des villes européennes au choc démographique qu’a constitué l’arrivée de ces demandeurs d’asile. Le rapport né de ces travaux, en répertoriant les solutions apportées par #Berlin, #Hambourg, #Stockholm, #Stuttgart, #Munich et #Dresde, constitue un #guide pratique à l’usage des villes confrontées à une crise semblable ou à celles qui le seront dans les années à venir.

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ping @karine4 @isskein

Obstacles to Excellence: Academic Freedom & China’s Quest for World Class Universities

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Obstacles to Excellence is a new report from Scholars at Risk mapping threats to academic freedom that jeopardize China’s higher education ambitions.

“For decades now, the Chinese government has invested heavily in academic institutions and programs designed to compete with the world’s finest,” says SAR executive director Robert Quinn. “This positive ambition is undermined, however, by state policies and practices that fail to protect academic freedom. This poses grave personal and professional risks for Chinese scholars and students,” as documented in the report, “and serious academic, reputational, and financial risks for foreign academic institutions with partnerships with Chinese counterparts, in China or abroad.”

Drawing on academic literature, legislative and regulatory texts, media, human rights reports, interviews with Chinese and foreign experts, and data from SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, Obstacles to Excellence identifies pressures and threats to academic freedom in China and where China has extraterritorial academic connections, including:

Systematic and targeted tactics employed by state and university authorities in mainland China to constrict academic activity and to intimidate, silence, and punish outspoken academics and students;
Heightened pressures on scholars and students in the Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regions including language policies that limit equitable access to higher education, heightened surveillance, and the imprisonment of a growing number of minority scholars and students at so-called “re-education camps;”
Erosion of university autonomy in Hong Kong and Macau under Beijing’s growing influence over China’s Special Administrative Regions;
Academic freedom and autonomy challenges facing foreign higher education institutions operating joint ventures with Chinese universities on the mainland;
Extra-territorial pressures by the Chinese Party-state and supporters, through Confucius Institutes and other activities, to restrict academic inquiry and expression at universities outside China; and
Vague, unsubstantiated, and overbroad foreign government rhetoric and policies that impede academic inquiry and risk stigmatizing innocent overseas Chinese academics and students.

As noted in the report, a small but growing number of international universities have responded to academic freedom concerns by scaling back or terminating partnerships with institutions in mainland China and with China-supported institutes on their own campuses. Others have stayed out of the public dialogue. Obstacles to Excellence urges nuanced, public discussion of the issues, with the goal of identifying practices which recognize China’s legitimate higher education ambitions while fully protecting academic freedom.

“Pressures on academic freedom in China mirror those we see around the world, as documented in our annual Free to Think reports,” says SAR’s advocacy director Clare Robinson. “But given the size of its higher education sector, and China’s important and growing position on the global academic stage, it is more important than ever to discuss the issues raised publicly and to work together to institutionalize policies and practices that safeguard academic freedom and recognize its central role in world-class universities and scholarship.”

Obstacles to Excellence, available in English and simplified Chinese versions, invites readers to consider these important issues and to discuss them publicly, including at conferences, annual association meetings, and in international partnerships. It includes recommendations for Chinese state authorities, university leadership, and civil society in China aimed at strengthening understanding of and respect for academic freedom. It also urges state authorities, higher education leaders, and civil society outside of China to demonstrate their commitment to academic freedom by supporting at-risk Chinese scholars and students, wherever they may be, and by ensuring that their international partnerships—with Chinese and non-Chinese partners alike—respect academic freedom and other core university values.

▻https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/obstacles-to-excellence-academic-freedom-chinas-quest-for-world-clas
#liberté_académique #Chine #université #rapport #scholars_at_risk #éducation #Tibet #Mongolie #Xinjiang_Uyghur #Macau #Hong_Kong #Confucius_Institutes

Ce mot d’#excellence qui me dérange beaucoup...

Refugee Education #2030: A Strategy for Refugee Inclusion

The strategy arises from lessons learned about parallel education provision for refugees reflected in the 2011 Review of refugee education, and from the experience of shifting to national education service provision across a wide range of distinct contexts as a result of the guidance provided in the 2012-2016 UNHCR Refugee Education Strategy. It is also informed by partner and UNHCR collaboration and innovations, new or amplified partnerships with ministries of education and planning, refugee youth, civil society, development and humanitarian donors and the private sector, greater UNHCR internal capacity and significant international commitments related to the Global Compact on Refugees.

As the lead for refugee protection, UNHCR maintains its commitment to and support for refugees and host governments until solutions for all refugees are identified. UNHCR has nearly 70 years of experience developing legal frameworks, policy, guidance and programming informed by monitoring and evaluation results, annual participatory assessments and research about and with refugee communities. It works daily and directly with refugees, governments and partners at field, country, regional and global levels. It therefore assumes a global leadership role to ensure that decisions and actions related to education for refugees in emergency and protracted situations are considered through the lenses of legal frameworks, historical experience and emerging displacement trends. UNHCR aims to draw attention to education needs in hosting communities, create conditions for partnership and action that result in strengthened education systems that benefit all learners, leverage the comparable strengths of various partners in mixed situations for improved coherence across population groups and make meaningful and collaborative contributions to the goals of the 2030 #Global_Agenda_for_Education (#2030_Agenda).

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#rapport #éducation #HCR #réfugiés #asile #migrations #inclusion

Balkan Region - Report July 2019

The Border Violence Monitoring Network has just published it’s August report summarizing the current situation regarding pushbacks and police violence in the Western Balkans, primarily in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Se​rbian borders with Croatia and Hungary, but also including Italy, Slovenia, North Macedonia and Greece.

This report analyzes, among other things:

– Torture: Recurrence of extreme violence and abuse
– Pushback from Italy
– Beyond police: Actors within the pushback framework
– Further dispersion of pushback sites in NW Bosnia
– Trends in pushback sites to and from Greece

More broadly, monitoring work continues to note the trans-national and bilateral cooperation between EU member states in the north of the Balkan route. Instances of chain pushbacks from Italy to Bosnia and Herzegovina, though relatively rare, offer insight into the web of actors engaged in the refoulement of groups across multiple borders, and liminality of due process in these cases. The intersection of unlawful acts also raises key concerns about aiding and abetting of pushbacks by Brussels. Specifically, analysis from this month elaborates on the involvement of Frontex in facilitating pushbacks.

▻https://www.borderviolence.eu/wp-content/uploads/August-Report.pdf
#rapport #migrations #réfugiés #Balkans #route_des_balkans #asile #frontières

Paperless people of #post-conflict Iraq

During the conflict with the Islamic State group (IS), six million Iraqi citizens were forced to flee their homes. Since the end of the conflict, more than four million have returned home, while 1.7 million people still live in displacement. These families struggle to access basic services and face often insurmountable roadblocks to either returning home or rebuilding a life elsewhere. Many, whether still in displacement or returned home, are unable to enjoy their rights as Iraqi citizens and fully engage in the recovery and reconstruction of post-conflict Iraq.

A foundational reason for this is they do not have proof of their legal identity. Some people lost their documents as they fled their homes; others had them confiscated by various parties to the conflict; and yet others were issued IS documentation, which is of no value now. These paperless people, as a result of lacking critical state-issued civil documents, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, nationality cards and civil IDs, find themselves denied human rights, barred from a range of public services and excluded from recovery and reconstruction efforts.

Local and international humanitarian agencies like the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) have collectively helped tens of thousands of Iraqis over the last few years obtain, renew, or replace civil documents lost as a result of the most recent crisis. However, an estimated 80,000 families across the country still have family i members missing at least one civil document. The number of children missing documents is likely much higher. At least 45,000 displaced children living in camps alone are estimated to be missing birth certificates. Without these essential civil papers, they are at risk of statelessness and find it incredibly difficult to access services such as education and healthcare.

This report, based on research conducted by NRC in partnership with DRC and IRC, through the Cash Consortium for Iraq (CCI) shows how a significant portion of Iraqi families living in urban areas formerly under IS control are being denied basic services because they are paperless.

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’Updata-ing’ the narrative about African migration

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Migration has become a staple of the news in many countries, filled with images of desperate Africans fleeing an impoverished continent, poised to descend on the West. These reports are not necessarily false, and they can be valuable in highlighting the human stories of migration but they are not a good basis for helpful action.

Politicians push myths and half-truths to score points but policymakers interested in addressing the complex issues around migration need data that can help them understand who, where, and why and therefore what an appropriate and targeted response might look like. Surely migration is not the same in Malawi and Morocco?

In addition to official figures, one source of useful data is ordinary Africans – the source, after all, of all African migration. In its Round 7 public-attitude surveys (2016/2018), the research network Afrobarometer asked more than 45,000 Africans in 34 countries how they see and think about migration.

Engaging with the data and scratching beneath the surface of existing narratives are essential if we are to move beyond ’stronger borders’ and other simplistic, one-size-fits-all ’solutions’. While statistical data help to reposition the discussion on migration and to cool down debates about ’mass migration’, perception data contribute to understanding intentions and motivations. Together they form a strong basis for informing areas for policy action.

This co-authored research paper showcases the main findings of Afrobarometer research and the latest facts and figures of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation report “Africa’s youth: jobs or migration?”

https://i.imgur.com/1aLl7JW.png https://i.imgur.com/athiwfQ.png https://i.imgur.com/hj4RdIN.png https://i.imgur.com/w6wAW4v.png

▻http://afrobarometer.org/fr/publications/updata-ing-narrative-about-african-migration

#Rapport en pdf:
▻http://afrobarometer.org/sites/default/files/publications/Publications%20conjointes/partenaires/afrobarometer-moibrahim-updata-ing-the-narrative-about-african-migrat

#émigration #chiffes #statistiques #migrations #réfugiés #Afrique #émigration #cartographie #visualisation

Evaluation of #Emergency_Transit_Centres in Romania and the Slovak Republic

Executive summary

The Emergency Transit Centres were established to provide emergency protection and the possibility to evacuate refugees who could not be protected in their countries of asylum. Temporary relocation of refugees who required resettlement on an urgent or emergency basis to an Evacuation Transit Facility (ETF) was expected to serve five objectives, namely:

Provide timely and effective protection to an individual or group of individuals of concern to UNHCR;

Demonstrate a tangible form of burden‐ and responsibility‐sharing, enabling States not otherwise involved in emergency resettlement to accept cases from an ETF;

Enable officials from UNHCR and resettlement countries to undertake interviews in a stable, safe and secure environment;

Promote the subsequent realization of the durable solution of permanent resettlement; and - Encourage States hosting ETFs to become involved in resettlement.

To date, three ETFs have become operational, namely the Emergency Transit Centres (ETCs) in Romania in 2008 and the Slovak Republic in 2011(although the Tri-Partite Agreement was signed in 2010), and the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) in the Philippines in 2009. The ETCs are managed on the basis of Tri-Partite Agreements signed by their hosting governments, UNHCR and IOM. The ETC in Timisoara, Romania, can accommodate a maximum of 200 refugees, whereas the one in Humenné, Slovak Republic, a total of 150 refugees (from mid-2012 onwards). As of 30 September 2015, 1,717 refugees had departed from the ETC in Timisoara, and 797 refugees from Humenné to resettlement countries. Since 2012, the main resettlement countries using the two centres are the USA, the UK, the Netherlands, Canada and Finland, with the USA the sole resettlement country using Humenné since 2013.

At the request of UNHCRs Resettlement Service in the Division of International Protection UNHCR’s Policy Development and Evaluation Service commissioned an evaluation of the ETCs in Romania and the Slovak Republic. As the ETCs have been in place for seven (Timisoara) and four years (Humenné) respectively, the evaluation presented UNHCR with an opportunity to assess whether the objectives set out at their establishment have been met. A comparative approach was used to assess the functioning of the two ETCs. The evaluation’s main findings should inform the development of strategies to meet emergency resettlement needs. Additionally, the results of the evaluation contribute to reflections on minimum standards and on whether the ETCs should continue with the same or similar objectives, or if there are other objectives that could lead to enhanced protection dividends for refugees.

The evaluation team was composed of one PDES staff member and one external evaluation consultant.

The ETCs in Timisoara, Romania, and in Humenné, Slovak Republic, have been relevant and appropriate for UNHCR, IOM, the ETC-hosting governments, resettlement countries and refugees. The ETCs offer a mechanism to UNHCR to provide a safe environment for refugees pending resettlement processing, including those classified under emergency or urgent priority, and to realize the durable solution of resettlement. While the number of refugees with emergency prioritization is small relative to the total number of refugees transferred to the centres, interlocutors described the ETCs as “life-saving” and “indispensable” for those few high-profile or high-risk refugees. This function for the most compelling protection cases is seen as core to UNHCR’s protection mandate.

The centres also have an advocacy function. This is of pivotal importance to UNHCR and the hosting countries, as the agency must be seen to be able to respond immediately to lifethreatening situations to provide immediate protection. Although the overall contribution to global resettlement figures is small, the positive change brought about by the immediate safety and security (and access to basic services) and the overall realization of resettlement for hundreds of refugees has considerable value. In the evaluation period from the beginning of 2012 until 30 September, 2015 a total of 1,568 refugees were resettled through the two ETCs. The life-saving dimension in compelling protection cases is seen as vital even if there are very few emergency cases.

Moreover, ETCs provided resettlement countries (and the IOM as part of its Resettlement Service Centre function for the US-government) access to refugees to undertake activities necessary to complete the resettlement process, including the selection of municipalities in resettlement countries. Some countries, in particular the US, are unable to process emergency cases due to long and complicated state procedures. The existence of the ETCs allows the US to process resettlement cases of persons who have been evacuated, and thereby increase accessibility of resettlement to some refugees, even if not on an emergency basis. The centre in Humenné has gradually expanded into one which solely caters to US-government processing, while only Timisoara has received emergency cases due to the shorter Romanian government clearance, and the absence of visa requirements. For the ETC-hosting governments, Romania and the Slovak Republic, the centres provided an opportunity to show their solidarity with countries hosting large refugee case-loads, while neither providing a permanent home to larger groups of refugees nor carrying all the operational costs of these centres.

While the coverage of the ETCs is in principle global, only refugees of some nationalities and countries of first asylum have been accommodated in the centres. Ad hoc planning and the obstacles experienced by some resettlement countries in the process of adjudication or completion of resettlement procedures, including selecting municipalities, has generally driven the use of ETCs. Most of the refugees transferred to the ETCs were resettled to the USA or the UK.

Male and female refugees of all age groups have been transferred to the ETCs, although some restrictions have been imposed with respect to refugees with high medical needs, including serious mental health needs due to limitations of the ETCs with respect to providing services to persons with high medical needs. There have also been challenges in providing accommodation to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) refugees. Since 2014, Iraqi refugees from Syria for resettlement to the USA are no longer transferred due to the refusal of already pre-vetted cases during the period 2012 - 2014. This has resulted in traumatic experiences for the concerned refugees, as three of them have remained in Timisoara since 2012 without a durable solution. Although alternative resettlement countries have been found for most of the rejected cases, this created an extra burden for UNHCR as well as delays for the concerned refugees.

The efficiency of the ETC operations in Timisoara and Humenné was assessed from different angles, namely UNHCR and IP staffing, budgets, and utilization of capacity including the “pipeline”.

The efficiency of the ETC operations in Timisoara and Humenné was assessed from different angles, namely UNHCR and IP staffing, budgets, and utilization of capacity including the “pipeline”.

The centres are respectively under the supervision of the UNHCR Country Representative in Bucharest, and the UNHCR Deputy Regional Representative of the Regional Representative Office for Central Europe (RRCE) in Budapest. The resulting reporting lines and management of the budgets has led to limited coordination to ensure commonalities in approach in terms of staffing and assistance provided. Thus, in Timisoara, three UNHCR staff (with UNHCR or UNOPS contracts) work in the centre. In the Slovak Republic, the only UNHCR staff member manages the centre on a UNOPS contract. The difference in ETC-level staffing cannot be fully justified on the basis of their capacity. The above has also led to different budgets and variations in IP capacity, responsibilities and assistance, with the division of responsibilities between the different actors in Timisoara resulting in an overstretched IP with reduced capacity for counseling and other refugee-oriented activities.

As the host countries’ contributions are different in each of the ETCs, the contribution of UNHCR also differs, the biggest difference being that UNHCR pays the food costs in Timisoara, which amounted to between 40-49% of total expenditures in the period 2012-2014. The overall expenditures for Timisoara, excluding food costs ranged from USD 621,700 in 2012, USD 654,900 in 2013 to USD 657,000 in 2014. If food costs are included, the annual costs are USD 1,031,000 in 2012, USD 1,278,100 in 2013, USD 1,195,800 in 2014 and USD 1,157,000 in 2015. The ETC requires 51% (2015) to 60% (2012, 2013) of the total budget for the Romania operation. The overall expenditure for Humenné was USD 406,700 in 2012, USD 747,800 in 2013, USD 979,900 in 2014, and USD 666,700 in 2015 (first 11 months).

The underutilization of the ETCs was regularly raised as a concern by interlocutors. Their occupancy rate has historically been relatively low. The average daily occupancy rate for Timisoara is between one third to one half, and for Humenné approximately half of its capacity. Considering the nature of emergency case handling, and the flexibility this requires, the ETCs must always have space available to receive cases with serious protection needs. However, the planning documents for the ETCs do not allocate a specific number of spaces for emergency evacuations. In addition, the turnover of refugees has been slower than envisaged, with some refugees submitted to the US overstaying the maximum period of six months. The overwhelming majority of refugees stay an average of four to five months. Capacity has generally been viewed in terms of the available number of beds instead of in relation to site and shelter space available.

Minimum standards for ETCs have not been developed. The application of minimum humanitarian standards in the areas of shelter confirms that the centres would not fully comply with these criteria if used to capacity. As the ETCs have become a semi-permanent response mechanism in the resettlement process, it is necessary to consider developing minimum standards for ETCs to guarantee the well-being of refugees. These standards should be based for example on the Sphere minimum humanitarian standards for shelter and non-food items.1 The standards should also take into account the objectives of preparing refugees for life in a resettlement country.

The Romanian government has received funds from the EU to upgrade an existing facility to house the ETC. Work is expected to begin in 2016 so that refugees could be accommodated in 2017. It is imperative that UNHCR seize the opportunity to be involved at the planning stage of this process in order to ensure that the physical set-up is conducive to providing adequate assistance and protection, and to preparing refugees for resettlement. Some input into planning would also allow cost-savings if, for example, kitchens were included so that refugees could cook for themselves.

The utilization of the ETCs has also been viewed in connection with the selection of refugees, and the process of obtaining clearances and organizing the transfer to one of the centres. The ETCs are directly linked to UNHCR’s global resettlement operation through the ETC focal point in the Resettlement Service, UNHCR headquarters. UNHCR Field Offices and Regional Resettlement Hubs are vital in identifying refugees for whom transfer to the ETC is an appropriate solution. Yet not all resettlement staff are aware of the existence of these facilities or know how to use these centres. This can be partially attributed to outdated guidance notes and a gap between vision and practice, which has led to different views on the usage of these centres.

The underutilization of the ETCs is also a consequence of the use of emergency priority quota and/or a direct transfer to the resettlement country, which is the preferred option for all parties. Other obstacles include lengthy exit procedures of some countries of asylum, and a bureaucratic and lengthy process to organize the transfer of cases. Additionally, the part-time nature of the ETC focal point at headquarters does not encourage a more pro-active advocacy role.

There are some differences in the provision of protection and assistance in the two ETCs. The major protection deficit noted by the evaluation team was the application of “limited freedom of movement” in Romania. Article 2 (2) of the Tri-Partite Agreement states that refugees “shall be required to reside in the ETC facility designated by the Romanian government.” This provision has been implemented in a manner that restricts freedom of movement of refugees as they are not permitted to leave the centre unless escorted by the implementing partner. This limitation is extremely frustrating for refugees and leads to a degree of institutionalization.

While most of the refugees interviewed during the mission were satisfied with the standards of assistance offered, they felt that their lives in the ETC were on hold and many expressed a desire to have a “normal” life and to move on quickly from the ETC. Especially in Timisoara, concerns were expressed regarding the difficulties arising from living with many other refugees in a relatively small area, including sharing rooms with other families and/or individuals, the limited to no freedom of movement, few opportunities for leisure and language training for adults, and a general sense of boredom. This has produced a living environment in which stress and tensions between individuals can more easily build up. Overall, the services provided in Humenné were more comprehensive than in Timisoara. This was reflected in the level of satisfaction expressed by refugees during the focus group discussions.

Resettlement is by definition a partnership activity. Cooperation with external stakeholders was generally viewed as efficient and effective by all respondents. Cooperation between UNHCR and the Government of Romania was regarded in a positive light, especially with respect to the limited time needed to process clearance requests, and the provision of identification documentation and security in the premises. However, the “limited freedom of movement” for refugees in the town, the lack of maintenance of the premises, and the regular provision of basic household items has led to some concern.

Cooperation between UNHCR and the Government of the Slovak Republic was generally considered efficient and effective by all interlocutors, despite some challenges in obtaining visas from embassies in countries of asylum or neighboring countries. The third partner to the agreements, IOM, has taken effective care of travel logistics, medical assessments and cultural orientation training. Possible challenges were ironed out in the beginning of these local partnerships. Some communication challenges were however noted at the field level in countries of asylum between UNHCR and IOM (and some ICRC delegations) due to staff turnover.

A similar positive note can be recorded with regard to the cooperation between UNHCR and the nine resettlement countries that used the ETCs in the 2012-2015 period. However, concern was expressed about referring an adequate number of refugees for the US “pipeline” on the one hand, and the US speed of processing, both during the pre-vetting stage and the stay of refugees in the ETCs, on the other hand. The first issue was resolved in 2015 with stronger coordination taking place between the three partners: UNHCR, the US and IOM.

The two ETCs have been effective to some degree considering the initial objectives established especially considering that a transfer can only be approved if a resettlement country is already identified. Only the centre in Timisoara was used for emergency priority cases in 2013 and 2014. An overall reduction of this function is visible during the period 2012-2015. However, for refugees classified under normal priority, the transfer to an ETC was still viewed as life-saving if evacuated from an unsafe situation.

The majority of refugees were transferred to the ETCs to support either the processing of resettlement cases by means of interviews, biometrics or to find municipalities in the resettlement country. Providing opportunities for recovery and preparing for the integration process has only been achieved to some degree, depending on the situation in countries of asylum and the protection and assistance provided in the two centres. The centres have however supported the objective “potential for resettlement realized”. The overwhelming majority of refugees arriving in the ETCs actually departed for resettlement. The ETCs have therefore contributed to facilitating the resettlement process of some refugees that otherwise could not have been resettled.

The main impact of the ETCs has been the provision of immediate and effective protection to refugees. Moreover, as a tangible form of responsibility-sharing, the centres have given Romania and the Slovak Republic the opportunity to present their contribution to the international protection regime in international fora. Romania established a resettlement programme with a quota of 40 refugees per year, with the first group of 38 refugees arriving in 2010, and the second group in 2014. The Slovak Republic also pledged, on a voluntary basis, 100 resettlement places in the period 2015-2017 towards the Council of the European Conclusions on Resettlement of 20 July 2015. However, arrivals under this programme are still pending.

Given the current situation in Europe it could be argued that more responsibility-sharing could be expected, and the existence of the ETCs should not absolve these governments of the obligation to provide durable solutions to a greater number of refugees. The host governments might also be persuaded to contribute more resources to the running of the ETCs.

The ETCs have contributed modestly to global resettlement figures and to reducing protracted refugee case-loads in countries of first asylum. But they have provided a safe alternative for cases that could not be transferred directly to resettlement countries, thereby offering the only available durable solution to these refugees. For some refugees, without the ETCs, there would simply be no possibility of resettlement.

In conclusion, the evolution in the operation of the ETCs shows a move away from their original vision. In the words of one interlocutor “there is nothing emergency about this process.” This has resulted in a situation whereby the policies and practices of resettlement countries to a large extent actually determine the use of the ETCs. Internal factors further impact upon the efficiency and effectiveness of the centres. Thus, replacing the first word of the acronym “ETC” with resettlement (“Resettlement Transit Centres”) would actually give a clearer indication of the main purpose of these centres, namely to support the realization of this durable solution. This could then also cover possible shifts or changes in their functions as RTCs continue to respond to the needs of different stakeholders. The sustainability of these centres must also be viewed in relation to UNHCR’s responsibility to manage the “pipeline” in cooperation with resettlement states.

The key recommendations of this evaluation are directed to DIP’s Resettlement Service, the RRCE and CO Romania.

▻https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/575935d17_0.pdf
#Roumanie #République_Tchèque #ETC #asile #migrations #réfugiés #rapport #réinstallation #évacuation #protection_d'urgence #Evacuation_Transit_Facility (#ETF) #hub
–-> document de 2016, mis ici pour archivage

via @pascaline

US : How Abusive, Biased Policing Destroys Lives

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Abusive policing in Tulsa, Oklahoma that targets black people and poor people, diminishes the quality of life in all communities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch released the report on the eve of the third anniversary of the killing of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man. That killing led Human Rights Watch to investigate everyday police interactions in Tulsa as a window into the larger human rights problems with policing throughout the United States.

The 216-page report, “‘Get on the Ground!’: Policing, Poverty, and Racial Inequality in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” details how policing affects Tulsa, particularly in the segregated and largely impoverished North Tulsa area. Human Rights Watch found that black people are subjected to physical force, including tasers, police dog bites, pepper spray, punches, and kicks, at a rate 2.7 times that of white people. Some neighborhoods with larger populations of black people and poor people experienced police stops more than 10 times the rate of predominantly white and wealthier neighborhoods. Arrests and citations lead to staggering accumulations of court fees, fines, and costs, often for very minor offenses, that trap poor people in a cycle of debt and further arrests for failing to pay.

▻https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/12/us-how-abusive-biased-policing-destroys-lives
#police #racisme #USA #Etats-Unis #violences_policières #pauvreté #guerre_contre_les_pauvres #Noirs #Tulsa #Oklahoma #rapport #discriminations #HRW

#cartographie #visualisation

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ping @karine4 @cede

Unaccompanied minors, symbols of a policy of mistreatment

Young foreign nationals continue to arrive unaccompanied in France and for some, recognition of their minority status can be an arduous process. Médecins Sans Frontières has released a report, Unaccompanied minors: symbols of a policy of mistreatment, based on our experience with vulnerable adolescents at our day centre in Paris. While the full report is available for download in French, the executive summary has been translated into English and is available below.
Executive summary

More and more young foreign nationals continue to arrive unaccompanied in France. The majority are from Mali, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire or Afghanistan. In 2017, the Ministry of Justice’s Unaccompanied Minors Department put their number at 14,908, up from 8,054 the previous year.

For some adolescents, obtaining recognition of their minority status can be a long and gruelling process. As minors with no family in France, they have to turn to France’s départements to be placed in the care of Child Protection services.

Increasingly often, Départements refuse to take responsibility for these young people whose minority they dispute, forcing them to sleep rough with access to neither child nor adult reception centres. “Neither nors”, i.e. neither minors nor adults, has become a fitting label for these youngsters.

Young people can initiate court proceedings to obtain recognition as minors and the protection this status affords them, but the process is lengthy and complex. For the thousands of adolescents finding themselves in this situation, the legal process for securing access to accommodation and health care is a veritable obstacle course.

In the name of the principle of the best interests of the child, the law requires France to protect such young people and provide them accommodation, health care and education until such time as the process is concluded. However, this is far from the case.

In December 2017, prompted by the distress and vulnerability of these young people, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) opened a programme in north Paris suburb Pantin to offer them a comprehensive range of support services ─ nursing care, mental health support and social and legal assistance. The figures presented in our report are derived from the assistance provided to 787 minors from when the programme first opened on 5 December 2017 to 31 December 2018.

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Unaccompanied and extremely vulnerable minors

They may have encountered violence in their countries of origin (war, armed conflict, domestic violence), during their journeys (kidnapping, arbitrary detention, torture, traumatising sea crossings, death of a friend or relative), or in the environment young people in distress face when they get to France (forced to sleep rough in inhumane and degrading conditions, psychological trauma caused by the unremitting scepticism they are subjected to when recounting their journeys, to name but a few).

Eighty-seven per cent of the young people interviewed by the MSF nursing team said they had experienced violence, torture or abuse during their journeys.

Young people attending minority assessments in France are given no access to medical check-ups, vaccinations or screening services.

Only those recognised as minors after assessments and placed in the care of Child Protection Services are given access to medical care provided by universal health protection. Young unaccompanied foreign nationals not recognised as minors can only claim State Medical Assistance, which is reserved solely for undocumented adults. Obtaining entitlement of their rights is an uphill struggle for young people who often sleep rough and therefore cannot produce proof of a fixed address.

Thirty-four per cent of the patients who attended MSF’s mental health unit were suffering from psychotraumatic stress disorders requiring immediate treatment.

The medical care available to young unaccompanied foreigners is arbitrary and varies from one health facility to the next ─ sometimes they’re treated as minors, and others as adults.

Fifty-one per cent of the adolescents assisted by MSF were sleeping rough at the time of their first visit to the centre.

For the most part, legally-recognised organisations, such as socio-medical centres, health centres for people in difficulty and entities that provide addresses, are unable to cope with demand, and their staff do not have the necessary training to be able to assist such a specific, and particularly vulnerable, population. And, when serious illness is diagnosed, obtaining a referral to specialist services can be problematic. The lack of effective coordination of the care pathway can result in a denial of care.
An inadequate system for protecting unaccompanied minors

Minority assessments conducted by départements are not standardised at national level and numbers vary substantially from one to another. The requirement to provide unconditional, immediate temporary accommodation for a minimum of five days during the assessment process is often unmet, which condemns vulnerable young people to sleeping on the streets.

Interviews are often conducted hastily (in the case of 40 per cent of the young people, they lasted less than 30 minutes) and sometimes without the presence of an interpreter. Assessments can be rejected on the grounds that a young person “clearly looks like an adult” (10 per cent of the young people).

Any at-risk minor can go to court to obtain protection, and in the case of unaccompanied minors, this protection means being placed in the care of Child Protection Services. But for unaccompanied youngsters who understand neither the French language nor the intricacies of the legal system, going to court is a complex process necessitating the assistance of an association.

It can take a long time, and some young people, who in the interim have neither accommodation nor protection, give up along the way. Additionally, a lack of identity documents can be a barrier to the legal process, with some judges ruling they have no jurisdiction to hear the cases of minors not in the possession of identity documents (11 per cent of rulings).

Nevertheless, recourse to the courts is essential to protect young people départements refuse ─ wrongly ─ to place in the care of Child Protection Services. In a clear illustration of the shortcomings of the assessment process, 55 per cent of the young people MSF assisted were placed in the care of Child Protection Services, and half of those who applied to the courts benefited from a temporary placement order that enabled them to be provided accommodation while awaiting the court’s decision.

Identity documents are essential to corroborating the age of unaccompanied minors. However, judges and officers conducting assessments often cast doubt on their authenticity and call on the national fraud agency to analyse them. Its conclusions are not always reliable because of insufficient knowledge of the laws and practices of the countries that issued them.

▻https://www.msf.org/unaccompanied-minors-symbols-policy-mistreatment-france-migration
#rapport #MNA #mineurs_non_accompagnés #Paris #France
ping @karine4 @isskein

Se l’operaio alle dipendenze del cinese è pachistano

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Che ci fa un piccolo imprenditore cinese in ginocchio? Perché solleva davanti alle telecamere e ai giornalisti un artigianalissimo cartello che recita “Cobas Comanda #Prato, Aiuto Istituzioni”? Perché alcuni operai pachistani vengono picchiati e finiscono in ospedale insieme a un sindacalista?

Benvenuti a Prato, città di frontiera, ieri come oggi, città dove il nuovo lavorativo e imprenditoriale si presenta prima che altrove. Nei decenni del “piccolo è bello” era stato il distretto industriale per eccellenza; dagli anni Novanta è stato il distretto che ha prima accolto e poi criminalizzato l’imprenditoria dei migranti cinesi; dal 2014 è stato il luogo dove la Regione ha introdotto controlli serrati sul lavoro in maniera esplicitamente discriminante: solo le ditte cinesi sarebbero state controllate a tappeto; negli ultimi tempi, gli imprenditori cinesi di Prato – adeguandosi a un modello già in uso tra gli italiani – sono stati i primi imprenditori migranti ad impiegare massicciamente manodopera immigrata non cinese.

Oggi Prato è la nuova frontiera di quello che si sarebbe tentati di considerare un conflitto tutto etnico: la contrapposizione tra datori di lavoro cinesi e operai pachistani nell’industria tessile e dell’abbigliamento.

Nel distretto di Prato i cinesi erano arrivati in sordina, alla fine degli anni Ottanta, proponendosi come terzisti nell’abbigliamento per ditte finali dislocate in diverse città del Centro Nord Italia. Come operai impiegavano solo connazionali, introducendo quindi un modello di etnicizzazione del lavoro che, anche grazie al laboratorio usato come luogo di vita e di lavoro insieme, ha permesso di ristrutturare gli spazi e i tempi del lavoro: gli operai cinesi pagati a cottimo, infatti, si spostavano da un laboratorio cinese all’altro seguendo le commesse in arrivo e il bisogno di evaderle urgentemente. A poco a poco una parte dei terzisti cinesi è riuscita a fare il grande balzo imprenditoriale e ad aprire le proprie ditte finali nel “pronto moda”. Nel frattempo e con gradualità, i cinesi sono riusciti anche ad acquisire da imprenditori pratesi le tintorie che tingono per il pronto moda, ricavandosi quindi uno spazio crescente anche nel settore tessile, appannaggio tradizionale dell’imprenditoria autoctona. Oggi ci sono a Prato circa 3.700 imprese cinesi nelle confezioni e 400 nel tessile.

Negli ultimi anni, l’organizzazione del lavoro sta cambiando drasticamente nelle imprese cinesi. Gli operai non sono più solo cinesi, ma anche pachistani, bangladesi e africani, sia nelle tintorie che nei laboratori di confezioni. A spiegare questa evoluzione contribuisce la difficoltà crescente per gli imprenditori cinesi di trovare e trattenere presso di loro operai cinesi. Questo a sua volta scaturisce dalla fine degli arrivi di manodopera a basso costo dalla Cina, e dal fatto che i cinesi che vivono in Italia da decenni, se possono, cercano impiego fuori dal manifatturiero.

Ma il processo di multi-etnicizzazione del lavoro non è solo una reazione a questo. Scaturisce anche dalla concreta possibilità per gli imprenditori di accrescere i propri profitti, impiegando una manodopera ancor più vantaggiosa di quella cinese. Se poi sono rifugiati – come lo sono buona parte dei migranti arrivati negli ultimi anni – gli operai diventano ancora più interessanti perché maggiormente vulnerabili.

Già qualche anno fa, nelle fasi iniziali del processo di multietnicizzazione, la stampa locale aveva mostrato come vi fosse una sorta di gerarchia degli stipendi dei diversi gruppi di immigrati: gli operai cinesi erano al top, con stipendi (perlopiù a cottimo) di circa 1.300 euro, quelli pachistani e bangladesi avevano salari più bassi di circa 300-400 euro, e gli africani guadagnavano ancora meno. Invece, i pochi italiani che lavoravano nelle tintorie cinesi – operai specializzati o consulenti, a volte ex proprietari – ricevevano compensi ben diversi. Differenze nei salari di operai cinesi e altri immigrati non cinesi sono emerse anche da uno studio che ha analizzato l’impiego di manodopera immigrata non cinese nei centri ingrosso gestiti da cinesi nel Veneto (G. D’Odorico e D. Sacchetto, Il commercio all’ingrosso cinese in Italia: prospettive storiche e presenti in un’ottica globale, in Cinesi tra le maglie del lavoro).

La differenza fondamentale tra gli operai cinesi e gli altri operai immigrati non sta però principalmente nei divari salariali, quanto nel fatto che i gli operai cinesi, a differenza degli altri immigrati, godono di benefit tradizionalmente garantiti agli operai cinesi nelle imprese cinesi: vitto e alloggio a costo zero. Nelle interviste che abbiamo raccolto nel corso dell’estate, gli operai pachistani protestavano per questo trattamento differenziato a parità di mansioni e di ore lavorate, e facevano i calcoli su quanto si alzerebbero le loro entrate mensili se come i cinesi non dovessero pagarsi l’appartamento e il cibo.

Inoltre, dal nostro recente lavoro sul campo, così come da una ricerca sullo sfruttamento lavorativo finanziata dal Comune di Prato (A. Cagione e G. Coccoloni, Forme di sfruttamento lavorativo a Prato), emerge il potere assoluto dei datori di lavoro cinesi che lasciano a casa all’istante gli operai pachistani o africani quando, da mesi privi di un solo giorno libero, decidono di rimanere a casa per un giorno e quando chiedono di avere un contratto di lavoro, indispensabile per ottenere il permesso di soggiorno per lavoro. Non era mai stata registrata prima tanta rigidità nei rapporti lavorativi; al contrario, un vantaggio molto apprezzato dagli operai cinesi negli ultimi anni era la maggior flessibilità dell’orario di lavoro garantita dai datori di lavoro cinesi rispetto a quelli italiani – seppur in un contesto di forte sfruttamento e auto-sfruttamento. Inoltre, mentre i contratti di lavoro degli operai cinesi sono perlopiù a tempo indeterminato o si adeguano alle esigenze dei lavoratori cinesi di rinnovare il permesso di soggiorno per lavoro o di accedere al ricongiungimento con i familiari, i contratti dei lavoratori immigrati non cinesi sono di breve durata, quando ci sono.

Il processo di etnicizzazione gerarchizzata in atto permette di fare luce su alcuni importanti mutamenti nel mondo del lavoro. L’idea che gli immigranti facciano i lavori che gli italiani non vogliono fare è in un certo senso superata. Oggi, e sempre di più, sono i datori di lavoro stessi a cercare attivamente gli operai immigrati preferendoli ai cosiddetti autoctoni. Detto altrimenti, il processo di etnicizzazione del lavoro scaturisce (anche) da volontà imprenditoriali di sfruttare al meglio il lavoro dipendente, giocando su tutte le forme di vulnerabilità possibili. E secondo molti il processo di precarizzazione intacca prima le categorie più vulnerabili, come i migranti e i giovani, per poi estendersi a fasce sempre più vaste di lavoratori, inclusi quelli cosiddetti “di concetto”. Allo stesso tempo, questo processo di sfruttamento rapace risponde all’esigenza di contenere sempre più il costo del lavoro in settori dove la concorrenza è serrata e i margini di profitto per i terzisti sono in continuo ribasso.

Oggi, guidati dai sindacalisti autoctoni di Si Cobas – il sindacato di base che ha condotto lotte di successo tra gli immigrati che lavorano nella logistica – i pachistani impiegati in alcune aziende tessili pratesi gestite da cinesi scendono in sciopero e bloccano la produzione. Chiedono di non lavorare 12 ore al giorno 7 giorni su 7; chiedono di non avere contratti da 2, 4 o 6, ore ma contratti adeguati al numero di ore effettivamente svolte. Gli imprenditori cinesi reagiscono male agli scioperi dei lavoratori. I sindacalisti ci raccontano di imprenditori cinesi increduli, che non sanno spiegarsi come mai gli operai possano scendere in sciopero e addirittura possano bloccare la produzione, ostacolando l’entrata e l’uscita delle merci. A fine giugno, alcuni operai pachistani in sciopero sono stati portati in ospedale perché picchiati da cinesi durante un picchetto davanti alla tintoria dove lavoravano.

Se pensiamo alle repressioni degli scioperi in Cina e all’irregimentazione del lavoro in Asia, viene da chiedersi se questo sia un modello tutto cinese di gestione della conflittualità con gli operai.

Ma pensare che si tratti di un modello cinese è una foglia di fico. Oggi a Prato c’è una manciata di imprenditori pachistani nel settore delle confezioni che dà lavoro a connazionali. I loro operai ci raccontano che non c’è differenza tra i datori di lavoro cinesi e quelli pachistani: i livelli di sfruttamento sono gli stessi. Inoltre, i laboratori terzisti pachistani cuciono vestiti per ditte finali cinesi e italiane. Questo permette di capire che quello che è in atto non è uno scontro etnico, ma un’evoluzione nello sfruttamento del lavoro dove ogni imprenditore sfrutta ogni occasione per massimizzare il profitto. Pensare che si tratti di un modello cinese, inoltre, serve solo a non vedere come nel nostro Paese, da anni ormai, la difesa dei diritti dei lavoratori abbia finito per essere inusuale, inaspettata e perfino demonizzata. Diverse ricerche hanno mostrato come un costante processo di normalizzazione del lavoro precario – con la giustificazione che avrebbe favorito la ripresa dell’occupazione – ha portato a una proliferazione del lavoro povero e sfruttato. Contratti finti, che dichiarano orari di lavoro ridicoli rispetto a quelli effettivi non sono tipicamente cinesi. Paghe sempre più basse, lontane da quelle contrattuali sono la regola anche tra i giovani e meno giovani autoctoni, e ferie, malattia, e maternità sono diventati vocaboli sempre più desueti nel nostro Paese in generale, e non solo tra i lavoratori migranti.

I cinesi hanno imparato cosa si può fare in questo Paese, lo hanno imparato così bene da dire oggi a chiare lettere – con quel cartello “Istituzioni aiuto!” – che si aspettano che il governo (locale) faccia rispettare il patto (nazionale) secondo cui i sindacati devono restare immobili e gli operai devono essere grati per avere il lavoro, non importa quanto grave sia lo sfruttamento. La cartina tornasole di questo stato di cose sta in un’azione istituzionale preoccupante: il foglio di via che la questura di Prato ha presentato ai due sindacalisti di Si Cobas che mobilitano i lavoratori pachistani in sciopero per avere un lavoro (più) dignitoso.

▻https://www.rivistailmulino.it/news/newsitem/index/Item/News:NEWS_ITEM:4847
#guerre_entre_pauvres #travail #exploitation #Italie #migrations #pakistanais #chinois #industrie_textile #ethnicisation_du_travail #textile #vulnérabilité #inégalités #salaire #ouvriers #précarisation #permis_de_séjour #etnicizzazione_gerarchizzata (#ethnicisation_hiéarchisée) #ethnicisation_du_travail #capitalisme #modèle_chinois #droits_des_travailleurs #working_poors #déportabilité

ping @albertocampiphoto @wizo

Report of mission to Italy on racial discrimination, with a focus on incitement to racial hatred and discrimination

▻https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IT/ItalyMissionReport.pdf

#Italie #rapport #racisme #xénophobie #hate_speech #discriminations #discrimination_raciale #incitation_à_la_haine

CAMPEMENTS DE MIGRANTS SANS-ABRI : COMPARAISONS EUROPÉENNES ET RECOMMANDATIONS

Depuis quelques années, les campements de migrants sans-abri défraient la chronique. Présents dans certains quartiers ou à la périphérie des #villes, ils suscitent des réactions indignées ou exaspérées. Désignés comme un retour des #bidonvilles, ils sont principalement habités par des immigrés aux situations variées : demandeurs d’asile et réfugiés aux dossiers incorrectement traités, ressortissants européens roms, sans-papiers… Ces sites sont régulièrement évacués puis repeuplés. #Visibilité et volume du problème distinguent la France, particulièrement #Paris. C’est ce que montre une enquête réalisée en 2018 dans six capitales européennes (#Bruxelles, #Berlin, #Bucarest, #Londres, #Madrid et #Rome). En ce qui concerne les migrations, la prise en charge des dossiers y repose sur le droit national et les moyens de sa mise en oeuvre. Mais, dans ces métropoles, les autorités locales ont davantage la main face aux campements que dans les villes françaises. Il serait judicieux de s’inspirer de leurs réalisations, tant en ce qui concerne le recensement que le traitement des phénomènes. Comparaison et coopération s’imposent d’autant plus que la dimension proprement européenne de l’#errance et de la grande indigence s’avère cruciale. En tout état de cause, la situation et la politique française, singulièrement à Paris, méritent d’être appréciées à l’aune de ce qui se déroule dans d’autres pays européens. La France ne saurait se résoudre à une #banalisation que l’on ne rencontre pas ailleurs.

http://www.fondapol.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/162_DAMON_MIGRANTS_COUV_w-150x229.jpg

ping @isskein @karine4

#collapsologie #autoritarisme #club_de_rome #rapport_meadows
Dennis meadows Scientifique, coauteur du rapport Meadows (1972) sur les dangers de la croissance « La montée de l’autoritarisme est inévitable » - Libération
▻https://www.liberation.fr/france/2019/07/29/dennis-meadows-scientifique-coauteur-du-rapport-meadows-1972-sur-les-dang

« Le dérèglement climatique, combiné avec la réduction des énergies fossiles peu chères au cours du siècle, éliminera les fondations du modèle actuel de civilisation industrielle. Nous observons déjà un chaos croissant, comme des mouvements de populations incontrôlés au sein des pays pauvres et vers les plus riches. Le chaos va empirer surtout car il provoque toujours plus de pénuries alimentaires. Nous avons appris de l’histoire une règle absolue : quand les gens pensent devoir choisir entre l’ordre et la liberté, ils choisiront toujours l’ordre. La montée de l’autoritarisme est inévitable. Je suis personnellement très content de vivre dans une démocratie. Mais nous devons admettre que les démocraties ne résolvent pas les problèmes existentiels de notre temps - dérèglement climatique, réduction des réserves énergétiques, érosion des sols, écart croissant entre riches et pauvres, etc. Doit-on réduire les libertés individuelles pour cela ? Cette question implique que la société a la capacité d’anticiper et de réaliser des changements proactifs. Je ne vois pas de preuve de cela. Les libertés individuelles sont déjà restreintes et je pense que cette tendance va se poursuivre inévitablement. Cela ne résoudra malheureusement pas les problèmes provoquant le chaos, mais accroîtra principalement le pouvoir politique sur le court terme et la richesse financière de ceux qui soutiennent des mesures autoritaires. Tous les gouvernements autoritaires actuels - la Chine, la Corée du Nord, la Russie, etc. - ne résolvent pas non plus les problèmes de notre temps. »

The number of EU residence permits issued to Northern and Western African nationals for work purposes fell by 46% and 58% respectively during a period of increasing irregular arrivals on the Central Mediterranean Route

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

–-> Evidemment... le lien entre les deux faits (baisse des permis de séjour et augmentation des #arrivées_irrégulières) que l’OIM souligne est très tenu... c’est en réalité le coeur du problème : les personnes passent par des #routes_illégalisées via la #Méditerranée parce qu’ils n’ont pas de possibilités de prendre l’#avion... car l’accès leur est interdit via le non-octroi de #visas...

#illégalisation #routes_migratoires #routes_illégalisées #permis_de_travail #UE #EU #Afrique_de_l'Ouest #permis_de_séjour #statistiques #chiffres #contextualisation

Le #rapport d’où l’OIM sort ces chiffres :
AFRICAN MIGRATION TO THE EU : IRREGULAR MIGRATION IN CONTEXT

https://i.imgur.com/89xRVcR.png

Contrary to common perceptions, migration from Northern and Western Africa to the EU between 2011 and 2017 has been primarily regular. Numbers of African nationals settling legally in the EU – proxied by first residence permits issued for family reunification, education or work purposes – have exceeded irregular sea arrivals for most of the top ten countries of origin of irregular migrants arriving in Italy over the period considered.

At the same time, both total regular and irregular entries of African nationals to the EU have fallen since 2016, based on available data. First EU residence permits to nationals of countries in Northern and Western Africa have mostly been issued for family reunification over the years. While these have remained stable on average, residence permits granted for work purposes have fallen sharply in the period considered.

▻https://gmdac.iom.int/sites/default/files/03_-_residence_permits-bbb.pdf

#préjugés #regroupement_familial

ping @reka @isskein @karine4 @_kg_

HumanRights360 | The Mistreatment of Asylum Seekers in Greece
▻https://asile.ch/2019/08/26/humanrights360-the-mistreatment-of-asylum-seekers-in-greece

https://asile.ch/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HumanRights360_Grece_2019.jpg

Douze organisations de la société civile dénoncent dans un rapport récent des très graves violations de droits des demandeurs d’asile en Grèce. Les violations de droits de réfugiés peuvent aller jusqu’aux traitements cruels voire à la torture. Les violences sont particulièrement alarmantes vis-à-vis des femmes. La situation désespérante dans laquelle se trouvent les réfugiés en […]

La #CNPT publie son #rapport sur l’accompagnement des #rapatriements sous contrainte par la voie aérienne

Dans son rapport publié aujourd’hui, la Commission nationale de prévention de la torture (CNPT) présente les #recommandations relatives aux 33 transferts par la #police et aux 47 #rapatriements_sous_contrainte par la voie aérienne qu’elle a accompagnés entre avril 2018 et mars 2019. La Commission juge satisafaisant l’évolution en matière d’entravement préventif, mais estime inadéquates certaines pratiques policières qui persistent. Finalement, la Commission dresse un bilan général de la #détention_administrative de mineurs et présente ses principales conclusions.

Pratiques policières jugées inadéquates

Alors même que la Commission accueille favorablement les améliorations s’agissant notamment du recours à l’entravement préventif lors du transport et de l’organisation au sol, elle continue à observer des pratiques policières qu’elle juge problématiques, en particulier le port de la cagoule et l’utilisation de la chaise roulante. Dans son rapport, elle rappelle aux autorités de renoncer par principe à toute forme de contrainte, et de limiter une application aux cas qui présentent un danger imminent pour leur propre sécurité ou celle d’autrui. Par ailleurs, elle juge particulièrement préoccupant les entravements observés en présence d’enfants.

Détention administrative de mineurs

La Commission a procédé à un receuil au niveau de tous les cantons suisses relatif à la situation des mineurs migrants ayant fait l’objet d’une #mesure_de_contrainte en application du droit des étrangers entre 2017 et 2018 et présente une analyse de la pratique cantonale à la lumière des normes internationales et nationales pertinentes. La Commission relève positivement que sept cantons renoncent à toute forme de détention ou de placement de mineurs étrangers et salue par ailleurs que trois cantons (Argovie, Valais et Zurich) aient pris des mesures visant à renoncer à toute forme de détention administrative de mineurs à la suite du rapport publié en juin 2018 par la Commission de gestion du Conseil national (CdG-N). En revanche, elle juge problématique au regard du respect des droits de l’enfant que des mineurs aient été détenus durant la période examinée, dans certains cas pour des durées de séjour particulièrement longues dans des établissements qu’elle juge inadéquats pour accueillir des mineurs. Elle recommande aux autorités de renoncer à la détention administrative de mineurs accompagnés ou non-accompagnés, et de privilégier des mesures alternatives respectueuses de l’intérêt supérieur de l’enfant et de l’unité familiale.

▻https://www.nkvf.admin.ch/nkvf/fr/home/publikationen/newsarchiv/2019/2019-07-04.html
#renvois #vol_spécial #expulsions #Suisse #migrations #réfugiés #déboutés #mineurs #rétention #rétention_de_mineurs

–-----

Quelques extraits sélectionné par un ami/ancien collègue :

https://i.imgur.com/CAdEBVo.png https://i.imgur.com/Va3Son6.png https://i.imgur.com/Ue8N5zu.png https://i.imgur.com/reJ5GaZ.png

ping @i_s_

The Disappeared report

The #Disappeared_report series is collaborative project between two Tucson-based organizations, La Coalicion de Derechos Humanos and No More Deaths. Between Derechos Humanos’ 20 years of community work, including the 24-hour Missing Migrant Crisis Line, and No More Deaths’ 12 years of humanitarian aid in the Arizona backcountry, we have witnessed and listened to thousands of stories of border crossings throughout Southern Arizona. Our research goals are transformative: to expose and combat those US government policing tactics that cause the crisis of death and mass disappearance in the borderlands.

http://www.thedisappearedreport.org/uploads/8/3/5/1/83515082/1481119218.png

#vidéos:

Partie 1: the chase
►https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Ux__uVfNA

partie 2: interference with humanitarian aid
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnmOOnRALfI

ping @isskein

Border Violence Monitoring Network - Report July 2019

https://i.imgur.com/d2deMS1.png https://i.imgur.com/4x9jeke.png

The Border Violence Monitoring Network just published a common report summarizing current developments in pushbacks and police violence in the Western Balkans, mainly in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and along the Serbian borders with Croatia and Hungary.

Due tu a new cooperation with the Thessaloniki-based organisation Mobile Info Team, we were also able to touch on the Status quo of pushbacks from and to Greece.

This report analyzes, among other things:

– BiH politicians’ rhetoric on Croatian push-backs
– Whistleblowers increasing pressure on Croatian authorities
– Frontex presence in Hungarian push-backs to Serbia
– The use of k9 units in the apprehension of transit groups in Slovenia
– The spatial dispersion of push-backs in the Una-Sana Canton

Competing narratives around the legality of pushbacks have emerged, muddying the waters. This has become especially clear as Croatian president Grabar-Kitarovic admitted that pushbacks were carried out legally, which is contradictory to begin with, and that “of course […] a little violence is used.” Croatia’s tactic of de facto condoning illegal pushbacks is similar to Hungary’s strategy to legalize these operations domestically, even though they violate international and EU law. On the other side of the debate, a whistleblower from the Croatian police described a culture of secrecy and institutional hurdles, which prevent legal and organizational challenges to the practice. The role of the EU in this debate remains critical. However, despite paying lip service to the EU’s value, Brussels’ continues to shoulder the bill for a substantial part of the frontier states’ border operations.

►https://www.borderviolence.eu/wp-content/uploads/July-2019-Final-Report.pdf

#frontières #violence #push-back #refoulement #route_des_Balkans #Frontex #Subotica #Bosnie-Herzégovine #Croatie #Italie #Serbie #Hongrie #rapport

#Emergency_Transit_Mechanism et la #réinstallation au #Niger. Reconstruction juridique, criticités présentes et futures

▻https://www.asgi.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ASGI-Resettlement-ETM-FRANCAIS-.pdf
#asile #migrations #réfugiés #rapport #ASGI #Niamey #resettlement #HCR #ETM

Le rapport en anglais :
▻https://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/jul/ASGI%20Resettlement%20ETM%20-%20ENGLISH.pdf
ping @karine4

Partners in crime ? The impacts of Europe’s outsourced migration controls on peace, stability and rights

Migration into Europe has fallen since 2015, when more than one million people fleeing conflict and hardship attempted sea crossings. But deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean have shot up, exposing the ‘fight against migration’ as flawed and dangerous.

While leaders in Europe and elsewhere claim that clamping down on migration saves lives by deterring people from undertaking dangerous journeys, the reality is that European governments’ outsourced migration policies are feeding into conflict and abuse – and reinforcing the drivers of migration.

Drawing on extensive research, this report analyses the European Union’s and European governments’ outsourcing of migration controls in ‘partner’ countries such as Turkey, Libya and Niger. It explores who benefits from this system, exposes its risks and explains who bears the costs. It also provides recommendations for European leaders on how to move toward a humane model for migration that refocuses on EU commitments to human rights, conflict prevention and sustainable development.

https://i.imgur.com/GMHXl5e.png

Ajouté à la métaliste sur l’externalisation :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/731749