• « Moria, Not Good »

    Πορεία διαμαρτυρίας από περίπου 500 γυναικόπαιδα στο κέντρο της Προκυμαίας για τις άθλιες συνθήκες διαβίωσης στο ΚΥΤ Μόριας και τη « ζούγκλα » του ελαιώνα.

    Πορεία στο κέντρο της Μυτιλήνης πραγματοποιήσαν σήμερα, νωρίς το μεσημέρι, περίπου 500 γυναίκες, μαζί με παιδιά, αιτούντες άσυλο που διαμένουν στο ΚΥΤ της Μόριας και στη « ζούγκλα » του ελαιώνα.

    Μία ώρα μετά, στο πρώτο γκρουπ διαδηλωτριών προστέθηκε και ένα δεύτερο. Όλοι μαζί ξεκίνησαν πορεία με κατεύθυνση την οδό Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, όπου στο τρίγωνο έκαναν καθιστική διαμαρτυρία για λίγα λεπτά.

    Ακολούθως πέρασαν μπροστά από τα Κεντρικά Λύκεια και βγήκαν ξανά στην Προκυμαία, όπου έκλεισαν και τα δύο ρεύματα κυκλοφορίας, προκαλώντας κυκλοφοριακό κομφούζιο.

    Από την πλευρά τους οι αστυνομικοί προσπαθούσαν να εκτρέψουν την κυκλοφορία μέσα από την Αγορά, ωστόσο υπήρξαν φορτηγά, λεωφορεία και βαρέα οχήματα που ακινητοποιήθηκαν στην Προκυμαία, ενώ άλλοι οδηγοί με αναστροφή προσπαθούσαν να ξεμπλέξουν από το μποτιλιάρισμα.

    Οι διαδηλώτριες έκαναν καθιστική διαμαρτυρία και μπροστά στη Μεγάλη Βρετάνια, διαμαρτυρόμενες για τις άθλιες συνθήκες διαβίωσης στη Μόρια, καθώς και τις καθυστερήσεις που παρατηρούνται ως προς την εξέταση των αιτήσεων ασύλου τους. Λίγη ώρα αργότερα, συγεντρώθηκαν μπροστά από την Πλατεία Σαπφούς, φωνάζοντας επί ώρα το σύνθημα « Moria, Not Good », πριν ολοκληρώσουν τη διαδήλωσή τους και επιστρέψουν στο ΚΥΤ Μόριας.

    https://www.stonisi.gr/post/6616/moria-not-good-pics-video
    #résistance #hotspot #Grèce #île #Lesbos #asile #migrations #réfugiés

    • « Ελευθερία » ζητούν οι πρόσφυγες στη Μόρια
      Πρωτοφανή επεισόδια σημειώθηκαν σήμερα στη Μυτιλήνη,

      μετά τη μαζική πορεία προσφύγων που ξεκίνησαν το πρωί από τον καταυλισμό ζητώντας να σταματήσει ο εγκλεισμός τους και να επιταχυνθούν οι διαδικασίες χορήγησης ασύλου. Η λέξη « ελευθερία » κυριαρχεί στα αυτοσχέδια πλακάτ.

      Ακολουθεί φωτορεπορτάζ από τη δυναμική κινητοποίηση τουλάχιστον 2.000 προσφύγων, μεταξύ των οποίων πολλές γυναίκες και παιδιά, και τα επεισόδια με τις αστυνομικές δυνάμεις που προχώρησαν επανειλημμένα στη χρήση χημικών.


      https://www.efsyn.gr/ellada/dikaiomata/229678_eleytheria-zitoyn-oi-prosfyges-sti-moria

    • « Λάδι στη φωτιά » οι σημερινές διαδηλώσεις

      Η διαμαρτυρία Αφγανών και τα επεισόδια της Δευτέρας με την αστυνομία.

      Στις 4 το απόγευμα έληξε η διαμαρτυρία των Αφγανών προσφύγων έξω από το Δημοτικό Θέατρο Μυτιλήνης ενάντια στο νέο νόμο για το Άσυλο, που σύμφωνα με τα λεγόμενά τους, τους υποχρεώνει σε νέο εγκλωβισμό- καθώς πλέον έχουν προτεραιότητα οι νεοεισερχόμενοι αιτούντες άσυλο.

      Ειδικότερα, συγκρούσεις μεταξύ Αφγανών που διαμένουν στο ΚΥΤ ης Μόριας, ανδρών και γυναικών κάθε ηλικίας και της Αστυνομίας σημάδεψαν τις σημερινές κινητοποιήσεις, οι οποίες είναι από τις λίγες φορές που έλαβαν χώρα εκτός του ΚΥΤ.

      Η διαδήλωση έφτασε περίπου στις 10.30 το πρωί, σχεδόν στην είσοδο της πόλης της Μυτιλήνης, λίγο μετά το δημοτικό καταυλισμό του Καρά Τεπέ. Εκεί τους περίμενε ισχυρή Αστυνομική δύναμη που δεν τους επέτρεψε να συνεχίζουν. Μια ομάδα περίπου 1000 από τους διαδηλωτές τότε έφυγε μέσω γειτονικών χωραφιών με σκοπό να φτάσουν πίσω από το εργοστάσιο της ΔΕΗ στο δρόμο της βόρειας παράκαμψης και από εκεί να μπουν για να διαμαρτυρηθούν στην πόλη. Στην πορεία τους άναψαν φωτιές για αντιπερισπασμό. Ας σημειωθεί εδώ ότι προς στιγμή η φωτιά έκαιγε και σε κτήματα που γειτνιάζουν με τις εγκαταστάσεις του εργοστασίου της ΔΕΗ. Οι φωτιές επεκτάθηκαν και τότε άρχισαν οδομαχίες προκειμένου να μην ενισχυθεί ο αριθμός όσων προσπαθούσαν να φτάσουν στην πόλη.

      Με ρίψη δακρυγόνων απωθήθηκε ο μεγάλος αριθμός των νεαρών κυρίων Αφγανών που είχαν μείνει στο δρόμο και πίεζαν τις Αστυνομικές δυνάμεις να περάσουν. Ενώ το κλείσιμο του δρόμου δεν επέτρεπε και την έξοδο των οχημάτων της Πυροσβεστικής από τις εγκαταστάσεις της υπηρεσίας που βρίσκονται στην περιοχή.

      Την ίδια ώρα περίπου 500 άτομα που κατάφεραν και μπήκαν στην πόλη από τη βόρεια συνοικία της ενισχυμένη με νεαρούς Αφγανούς πάντα που βρισκόταν στην πόλη κατάλαβαν το δρόμο της Προκυμαίας μπροστά στο Δημοτικό Θέατρο της πόλης ενώ κάποιοι έστησαν και σκηνές.

      Σύμφωνα με επιβεβαιωμένες πληροφορίες του ΑΠΕ η κινητοποίηση ήταν γνωστή στις Αστυνομικές αρχές από την Παρασκευή για αυτό και το Σαββατοκύριακο υπήρξε ενίσχυση της αστυνομικής δύναμης με προσωπικό από την Αθήνα.

      Εδώ η συνεχής ενημέρωση του « Ν », με έξτρα φωτογραφίες και βίντεο.

      https://www.stonisi.gr/post/6677/ladi-sth-fwtia-oi-shmerines-diadhlwseis-pics

    • Manifestation à Lesbos : incidents entre forces de l’ordre et migrants

      Les forces anti-émeutes ont fait usage de gaz lacrymogènes lundi sur l’île grecque de Lesbos contre des migrants qui manifestaient contre une nouvelle loi durcissant les procédures d’asile en Grèce, a-t-on appris de source policière.

      Brandissant des banderoles sur lesquelles on pouvait lire en anglais « Freedom » (liberté), quelque 2.000 migrants réclamaient l’examen de leur demande d’asile, que certains attendent depuis des mois voire des années, et protestaient contre les conditions de vie à proximité et à l’intérieur du camp de Moria, le plus grand des camps de Grèce.

      Ils avaient parcouru une distance d’environ 7 km entre le camp de Moria et le port de Mytilène, quand des policiers anti-émeutes leur ont barré la route en lançant des gaz lacrymogènes, selon la même source.

      Toutefois, des centaines de demandeurs d’asile ont réussi à atteindre le port pour y manifester, a constaté une correspondante de l’AFP.

      Le Haut commissariat des réfugiés de l’ONU (HCR) en Grèce souligne les « retards significatifs » pris par les services grecs de l’asile, avec près de 90.000 demandes en souffrance dans un pays qui compte actuellement 112.300 migrants sur les îles et sur le continent, selon les chiffres du HCR.

      « L’accumulation significative des candidatures à l’asile et les graves retards pris dans les procédures d’asile contribuent de manière importante aux conditions dangereuses de surpopulation observée sur les îles », a déclaré à l’AFP Boris Cheshirkov, porte-parole de la section grecque du HCR.

      Face au nombre constant d’arrivées de demandeurs d’asile sur les îles grecques en provenance de la Turquie voisine, le gouvernement de droite a fait voter une loi, entrée en vigueur en janvier, prévoyant des délais brefs pour examiner les demandes d’asile, en vue de renvoyer les demandeurs non éligibles ou déboutés dans leurs pays d’origine ou vers la Turquie voisine.

      Dans les camps, des dizaines de milliers de migrants, arrivés avant janvier, protestent contre les retards importants dans le traitement de leurs demandes d’asile, les empêchant de quitter les îles.

      « Les autorités donnent la priorité à ceux qui sont arrivés récemment » et non pas aux demandeurs d’asile qui attendent depuis longtemps, a souligné Boris Cheshirkov.

      La majorité des 19.000 migrants attendant au camp de Moria, dont la capacité est de 2.700 personnes, « vivent dans des conditions terribles, sans accès à l’eau ou l’électricité », a-t-il rappelé.

      Le HCR-Grèce a appelé « les autorités à mettre en place des procédures justes et efficaces pour identifier ceux qui ont besoin d’une protection internationale en respectant les normes et les garanties adéquates ».

      La situation est devenue explosive à Lesbos, Samos, Kos, Chios et Leros, sur la mer Egée, où vivent 42.000 demandeurs d’asile pour 6.200 places.

      Les bagarres entre demandeurs d’asile y sont en outre fréquentes, et au moins quatre personnes ont perdu la vie ces derniers mois.

      https://information.tv5monde.com/info/manifestation-lesbos-incidents-entre-forces-de-l-ordre-et-migr

    • Réfugiés : à Lesbos, une situation explosive et une #chasse_à_l'homme

      Après une montée de tensions aux relents xénophobes et une manifestation violemment réprimée, l’île grecque a été le théâtre de #heurts les habitants et les migrants, qui s’entassent en nombre dans des camps insalubres.

      « Allez, allez ! Courez ! » hurlent des voix en anglais. Puis aussitôt, en grec : « Cassez-vous d’ici ! » Les images qui circulent sur les réseaux sociaux, où l’on voit des hommes en colère à la poursuite de migrants, sont aussi glaçantes que le ciel gris qui enveloppe Lesbos. Après deux jours de fortes tensions, cette île située à l’extrémité orientale de la Grèce a été le théâtre d’une véritable chasse à l’homme en ce début de semaine.

      Tout a commencé lundi, avec une manifestation de migrants très durement réprimée par les forces de l’ordre. Puis mardi soir, des habitants excédés sont à leur tour sortis dans la rue, revendiquant leur droit de « prendre la situation en main ». Ce n’est pas la première fois que des tensions explosent sur l’île, devenue depuis quatre ans une prison à ciel ouvert pour les réfugiés, coincés sur ce bout de terre européen en attendant le résultat de leur demande d’asile. Mais les événements de ce début de semaine constituent une dérive inédite et inquiétante.
      « Plus de toilettes ni d’électricité »

      Comme toutes les îles grecques qui font face à la Turquie, Lesbos se retrouve en première ligne de l’afflux migratoire vers l’Europe. Et malgré un deal controversé conclu entre Bruxelles et Ankara en 2016, les arrivées n’ont jamais cessé. Elles sont même reparties à la hausse : en 2019, la Grèce est redevenue la première porte d’entrée en Europe, avec 74 000 arrivées en un an.

      Sur les îles, la surpopulation tourne au cauchemar : les nouveaux venus se retrouvent « entassés dans des camps insalubres où il faut faire à chaque fois la queue pendant plusieurs heures pour manger, puis pour prendre une douche ou même aller aux toilettes », rappelle Tommaso Santo, chef de mission à Médecins sans frontières (MSF), joint par téléphone à Athènes.

      A Lesbos, le camp de Moria, prévu pour 3 000 places, accueille désormais plus de 20 000 personnes, abritées tant bien que mal sous des tentes qui grignotent les champs d’olives environnants. « Dans l’extension la plus récente, il n’y a même plus de toilettes ni d’électricité », souligne le responsable de MSF. L’ONG gère une clinique de santé mentale sur l’île. Parmi les patients, on y croise notamment des enfants qui ne parlent plus, refusent de se nourrir. Parfois ils s’automutilent ou ont tenté de se suicider. C’est d’ailleurs pour protester contre cette précarité inhumaine que les réfugiés ont, une fois de plus, manifesté lundi à Lesbos.
      « Climat de peur »

      La colère des habitants n’est pas non plus surprenante. Eux aussi subissent la présence de ces camps insalubres, qui croulent sous les ordures, et autour desquels errent des désespérés condamnés à une attente qui semble sans fin. Mais pour certains observateurs, la montée de tension récente est aussi le résultat de la nouvelle donne politique : « Le retour au pouvoir des conservateurs de Nouvelle Démocratie, en juillet, a implicitement encouragé les pulsions les plus xénophobes. Ils ont fait campagne sur le durcissement des lois migratoires, ils ont promis de se montrer plus durs, et nous y voilà. Aujourd’hui, ce ne sont pas seulement les migrants qui sont ciblés, mais aussi les ONG qui les soutiennent et les habitants qui refusent de les chasser. Certains ont vu leurs maisons caillassées mardi soir », soupire Petros (1), volontaire pour une ONG locale qui dénonce « l’instauration d’un climat de peur ».

      A partir de 2015, les Grecs avaient pourtant fait preuve d’une générosité exemplaire, en accueillant à bras ouverts les premières vagues de réfugiés malgré leurs propres difficultés économiques. Certes, le temps a joué dans la montée du ras-le-bol alors même que les partenaires européens de la Grèce n’ont pas tenu leurs promesses d’offres de relocalisations. Mais la nouvelle politique imposée par la droite grecque s’est effectivement traduite par une stigmatisation des candidats à l’asile dont les conditions d’admission ont été récemment durcies. En outre, ils se trouvent désormais privés de la carte sociale qui leur donnait accès aux soins gratuits. Malgré les demandes pressantes de MSF, le gouvernement de Kyriákos Mitsotákis refuse toujours d’évacuer de Moria 140 enfants qui ont besoin de soins médicaux urgents, indisponibles à Lesbos. Et la promesse de désengorger les îles en transférant des réfugiés en Grèce continentale s’effectue à un rythme ralenti.

      Pendant ce temps, certains relèvent peu à peu la tête : les néonazis d’Aube dorée, qui avaient quasiment disparu de la scène publique ces dernières années, sont de retour depuis quelques mois. A Lesbos, leurs partisans recruteraient notamment parmi de jeunes hommes de « 18 ou 20 ans » : « Ils sont souvent vêtus de passe-montagnes et porteurs de bâton », décrit Petros, le volontaire grec. Des « pitsirikia », de très jeunes garçons, comme les a désignés un journal local. Ils étaient eux aussi dans les rues de Lesbos mardi soir.

      https://www.liberation.fr/planete/2020/02/05/refugies-a-lesbos-une-situation-explosive-et-une-chasse-a-l-homme_1777401

      –-----

      Commentaire reçu via la mailing-list Migreurop :

      Climat explosif à Lesbos, retour en force de l’#Aube_Dorée
      A Mytilène et à #Moria des milices d’extrêmes droite, font la chasse aux ONG et aux migrants -une camionnette appartenant à une ONG a été attaquée dans le village de Moria, tandis qu’un groupe de jeunes cagoulés et armés de bâtons faisait irruption dans les maisons pour vérifier la présence éventuelle de réfugiés, solidaires et des membres des ONG. Le soir du 4 février une maison abandonnée, toujours dans le village de Moria fut incendiée, heureusement les trois réfugiés qui s’y abritaient étaient partis à temps
      A #Mytilène, chef-lieu de Lesbos, après la dispersion d’une manifestation anti-fasciste organisée principalement par des étudiants, un café fréquenté par ceux-ci, fut encerclé par un groupe portant des casques armé de bâtes qui ne se sont éloignés qu’après l’arrivée d’autres étudiants solidaires.

      #extrême_droite #xénophobie #racisme

    • Refugee children amid crowds of protesters tear gassed on Lesbos

      Tensions mount as asylum seekers living in Moria, a notoriously overcrowded Greek camp, rally against poor conditions.

      Greek police have fired tear gas at thousands of refugees and migrants trapped on the overcrowded island of Lesbos, from where they are not allowed to travel to the mainland under a 2016 EU-Turkey deal aimed at curbing migratory flows.

      In tense scenes on Monday, children and babies were caught up in plumes of tear gas during protests by about 2,000 people.

      The clashes broke out around Moria, a notoriously cramped camp which was never designed to hold more than 3,000. Currently, there are nearly 20,000 people in and around the camp.

      Protesters rallied against the continued containment of people on Lesbos island and the unbearable living conditions inside the camp.

      In footage seen by Al Jazeera, children can be seen recovering from being hit with tear gas fired by riot police. Some wore face masks to protect themselves from inhalation.

      Riot police fired the tear gas to try and quell protesters and prevent them from marching on foot to Mytilene, Lesbos’s capital more than four miles away.

      But many Moria residents did reach the port city and continued protesting there on Tuesday.

      Abdul (not his real name), an Afghan refugee, told Al Jazeera: “I participated because people are dying in Moria and nobody cares. We feel like we don’t have a future here, if we wanted to die then we could have stayed in Afghanistan. We came here to look for a good future and to be safe, this is not a place for living.”

      At least two people have died in Moria so far this year in stabbing attacks, according to local media.

      In previous years, refugees at the camp have died in fires, because of extreme weather and as some - including babies - lack access to proper medical facilities.
      Tense mood

      The mood in the centre of Mytilene on Tuesday was tense as nearly 200 people, mainly men and women from Afghanistan, congregated in the central square.

      “Freedom, Freedom,” they chanted, as well as “Lesbos people, we are sorry,” - an apparent apology to Greek residents for the highly charged atmosphere.

      Franziska Grillmeier, a German journalist, told Al Jazeera that she witnessed families being tear gassed on Monday.

      "Yesterday, as the people were trying to move the protest from Moria to Mytilene, the police tried to deter them by using roadblocks. Some families, however, broke through using the olive grove fields next to the camp and tried to find an alternative way to get to Mytilene. The police then started using heavy tear gas, throwing it into the fields by the olive grove, which also set some of the olive trees on fire.

      “There were men holding their kids up, kids who were foaming at the mouth, kids having panic attacks and babies unable to breathe and dehydrating through the gas.”

      She claimed the police reaction appeared to be excessive.

      “There weren’t really any threats to the police at that point, it was just really a tactic of the police to immediately throw tear gas at people who were peacefully trying to make their way to Mytilene.”

      Police reportedly detained dozens of protesters. Al Jazeera contacted the Ministry of Citizen Protection but had not received a response by the time of publication.

      “I saw serious attacks on people, beatings with sticks. I also saw people screaming, holding their kids in the air and saying: ’Look what you’ve done’,” Grillmeier said.

      Paolo Amadei, a freelance photographer from Italy, said: "There were police throwing gas, women and kids and infants got gassed and there were many kids crying.

      “They (refugees) came in peace, that’s what I saw: they weren’t looking for a clash.”

      Boris Cheshirkov, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told Al Jazeera he was concerned by the escalation, which has been “exacerbated by the dire conditions and long wait”.

      He said UNHCR has urged the Greek government to transfer people to the mainland and explained that European solidarity and responsibility-sharing was now crucial.


      https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/refugee-children-crowds-protesters-tear-gassed-lesbos-200204133656056.htm

    • À Lesbos, des migrants manifestent et se heurtent aux forces anti-émeutes

      Les forces anti-émeutes ont fait usage de gaz lacrymogènes lundi sur l’île grecque de Lesbos contre des migrants, qui manifestaient contre une nouvelle loi durcissant les procédures d’asile en Grèce.

      Brandissant des banderoles sur lesquelles on pouvait lire en anglais « Freedom », quelque 2 000 migrants ont manifesté ce lundi 3 février à Lesbos. Ils réclamaient l’examen de leur demande d’asile, que certaines attendent depuis des mois, voire des années, et protestaient contre les conditions de vie à proximité et à l’intérieur du camp de Moria, le plus grand de Grèce.

      Les manifestants avaient parcouru environ 7 km entre le camp de Moria et le port de Mytilène, quand des policiers anti-émeutes leur ont barré la route en lançant des gaz lacrymogènes, rapporte une source policière citée par l’AFP. Des centaines de demandeurs d’asile ont toutefois réussi à atteindre le port pour y manifester.

      Le Haut Commissariat des réfugiés de l’ONU (HCR) en Grèce souligne les « retards significatifs » pris par les services grecs de l’asile, avec près de 90 000 demandes en souffrance dans un pays qui compte actuellement 112 300 migrants sur les îles et sur le continent, selon les chiffres de l’organisation. Des retards qui participent aux conditions de vie désastreuses des exilés sur les îles grecques.

      Situation explosive

      La situation est devenue explosive à Lesbos, Samos, Kos, Chios et Leros, sur la mer Égée, où vivent 42 000 demandeurs d’asile pour 6 200 places. « À Lesbos on a des milliers de gens qui vivent hors des structures du camp de Moria, sous les arbres, sous de petites tentes », rapporte Boris Cheshirkov, porte-parole de la section grecque du HCR, joint par RFI. Sur ces îles, les bagarres entre demandeurs d’asile sont en outre fréquentes, et au moins quatre personnes ont perdu la vie ces derniers mois.

      « La première chose à faire est de transférer plusieurs milliers de personnes sur le continent dans de meilleures conditions de vie, parce que si on ne réduit pas sérieusement le nombre de personnes sur les îles, il n’y aura pas de solution. En parallèle, il faut plus de personnel, plus de services, plus d’hygiène et des procédures administratives plus rapides. Dans le même temps, les pays européens peuvent faire beaucoup plus en ouvrant des places de relocalisation. Le HCR a notamment demandé à des États de prendre en charge une partie des enfants seuls. Il y a eu un programme de relocalisation, mais il a pris fin en 2017 », déplore Boris Cheshirkov.

      Face au nombre constant d’arrivées depuis la Turquie voisine, le gouvernement grec de droite a fait voter une loi, entrée en vigueur en janvier, prévoyant des délais brefs pour examiner les demandes d’asile, en vue de renvoyer les demandeurs non éligibles ou déboutés dans leurs pays d’origine ou vers la Turquie.

      Le HCR-Grèce a appelé « les autorités à mettre en place des procédures justes et efficaces pour identifier ceux qui ont besoin d’une protection internationale en respectant les normes et les garanties adéquates ».

      http://www.rfi.fr/fr/europe/20200203-gr%C3%A8ce-lesbos-migrants-manifestent-heurtent-forces-anti-%C3%A9meute

    • Police arrests Greek extremists acting like “raid battalion” in Moria village (UPD)

      Police on the island of Lesvos has arrested seven Greek extremists who were conducting street and house to Greeks and foreign nationals in the village of Moria. All members of the so-called “control squad” or “raid battalion” were wearing helmets and holding bats when they arrested on Thursday night.

      All arrestees are men, police is looking for two more.

      Authorities investigate illegal acts conducted by the extremists both in Moria and the wide area of Mytilini in recent days.

      According to local media stonisi and lesvosnews.net, they are to appear before the prosecutor and face charges for violating gun laws and for setting up a criminal group acting like a “raid battalion.” Later it was reported that they will be charged also for violating “anti-racism laws. Authorities reportedly investigate also whether they were involved in criminal acts in the past, ANT1 reported.

      UPDATE: According to latest information for the island, five of the arrestees are Greeks, one is Bulgarian national and one Albanian, all aged 17-24. The two still sought by the police are a Greek and a foreigner, both minors.

      Seized have been 5 wooden bats and one metal stick as well as full face mask, reports, levsosnews.net.

      Although authorities have been denying the existence of such groups, a exclusive video captured them as they terrorized customers of a bar in downtown Mytilini two days ago. They men wear masks, black jackets and threaten the bar’s customers they “do not like.”

      According to eyewitnesses, these young men were also checking Greeks and foreign nationals passing by the main commercial Ermou street.

      The “squad” has also “raided” a cafeteria on the same street, where students, workers and volunteers of non-governmental organizations involved in the refugee crisis hang out.

      These reports were also confirmed by police, local media stonisi stresses.

      The same group of people, always with masks and bats, had reportedly conducted controls in the village of Moria on Tuesday night.

      They checked in homes and shops for foreign nationals, asylum seekers, volunteers and NGO-workers. According to confirmed reports, they broke the car of an Italian NGO worker with two asylum-seekers on board. Police intervened following locals’ phone calls.

      The atmosphere on the island is tense not only due to the asylum-seekers’ protest beginning of the week but also due to the objection of local authorities and residents to the government plans for closed accommodation centers.

      Far-right extremists try to take advantage of the situation, fake news against refugees, migrants and asylum seekers are spread on daily basis.

      A local group has reportedly also posted on internet calling on “armed violence” against the refugees.

      Police on Lesvos has not been famous for its intervention against far-right extremists.

      The last think the government wants, though, is a spark to provoke unprecedented situations on the island.

      https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2020/02/07/lesvos-moria-extremists-greeks-arrests

    • Greece tightens rules for refugee NGOs

      The parliament in Athens has pushed through a law aimed at restoring order on the Aegean islands. The laws puts restrictions on non-government organizations, which have been accused of inciting migrants to stage violent protests.
      Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that NGOs will no longer be allowed to “operate unchecked” and in future they would be “strictly vetted,” the Greek newspaper, Proto Thema, reports.

      Speaking at a celebration for the centenary of the Hellenic Coast Guard, Mitsotakis said “Most NGOs do a great job. They are helpful in tackling the problem. But we know, we know it, beyond any doubt, that there are some who do not fulfill the role they are claiming. We will not tolerate this anymore.”

      NGOs providing medical, legal and other assistance to migrants on the Greek Aegean islands include Oxfam, the Danish Refugee Council, Doctors of the World, European Lawyers in Lesbos, Terre des Hommes, Refugee Support Aegean, Medecins Sans Frontieres and others.

      The prime minister’s remarks came after the deputy migration minister, Giorgos Koumoutsakos, told Proto Thema Radio that the NGOs had sprung up “like mushrooms after the rain.” "Some behave like bloodsuckers," he said.

      Inciting migrant protests

      Koumoutsakos accused some of the organizations operating on the islands, where tens of thousands of migrants are stranded after arriving from Turkey, of abusing the volatile situation to get money directly from the European Union.

      The deputy migration minister also suggested that some NGOs had incited thousands of migrants on Lesbos to hold a protest, which ended with police firing tear gas to disperse the people occupying the island capital Mytilini.

      The government began transferring refugees from the overcrowded islands to the Greek mainland last year, but an estimated 42,000 people continue to suffer in squalid and unsafe conditions in and around the island camps.

      Last week, the Greek government opened a tender for the construction of a floating barrier off Lesbos aimed at deterring migrants from crossing from the Turkish coast, which is about 10-12 kilometers away.

      https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/22606/greece-tightens-rules-for-refugee-ngos
      #ONG #associations #NGOs

    • New request for state of emergency on #Lesvos, #Chios, #Samos

      The regional governor of the Northern Aegean, Kostas Moutzouris submitted a new call on Wednesday to declare a state of emergency on three islands, following two days of protest marches by asylum seekers demanding better living conditions and a quicker asylum procedure, and attacks by extremists in Lesvos.

      “The government was wrong to reject our request to declare a state of emergency on Lesvos, Chios and Samos. If the current situation is not an emergency, then what is?” he asked.

      “The government is imposing the creation of new migrant camps that will cost hundreds of millions and which, based on simple arithmetics, will not solve any problem – on the contrary, they will deteriorate it,” he added.

      On Tuesday, a group of about 250 asylum seekers, mostly Afghan residents of Moria, rallied outside the Municipal Theater in the island’s capital Mytilene demanding “freedom” and shouting, “Lesvos people, we are sorry.” The police intervened to prevent protesters from blocking traffic. One woman was injured in a stampede as demonstrators fled the scene to avoid possible arrest.

      On Monday riot police clashed with about 2,000 Afghan asylum seekers who tried to march to Mytilene. Reacting to the incident, residents of the village of Moria Tuesday barged into the Mytilene offices of the General Secretariat for Aegean and Island Policy demanding the closure of Moria, intensified sea patrols, and stricter monitoring of NGOs.

      Despite the tension, the government on Tuesday rejected Moutzouris’ request.

      Meanwhile, a group of about 20 youths wearing helmets and holding clubs attacked regulars at a bar in Mytilene where students and NGO employees were gathered.

      The same group roamed the town of Mytilene after midnight asking locals and foreigners to identify themselves, according to eye witnesses who talked to the police.

      Authorities believe the same individuals were in the village of Moria earlier in the afternoon checking if foreigners, asylum seekers or employees in NGOs lived or worked there.

      The masked group smashed the car of an Italian national who works for an NGO. Two asylum seekers were passengers when the incident happened.

      Police was alerted after the attacks.

      http://www.ekathimerini.com/249223/article/ekathimerini/news/new-request-for-state-of-emergency-on-lesvos-chios-samos
      #état_d'urgence

    • Crisis in Lesbos as more refugees arrive

      Greek island a ‘powder keg ready to explode’ as boat landings lead to tensions with local people.

      Greek authorities are struggling to cope with rising tension on islands where pressure from a new influx of refugees and migrants has reached a critical point.

      Friction is growing between local people and asylum seekers landing in boats from Turkey. Last week the region’s most senior official likened the situation on Lesbos to a “powder keg ready to explode”. Kostas Moutzouris, governor of the north Aegean, said: “It’s crucial that a state of emergency is called.”

      More than 42,000 men, women and children are estimated to be on Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Leros and Kos. Unable to leave because of a containment policy determined by the EU, they are forced to remain on the islands until their asylum requests are processed by a system both understaffed and overstretched.

      Aid groups have repeatedly called for the islands to be evacuated. On Friday an estimated 20,000 refugees were on Lesbos, forced to endure the grim reality of Moria, a camp designed to host 3,000 at most.

      “They are living in squalid, medieval-like conditions … with barely any access to basic services, including clean and hot water, electricity, sanitation and healthcare,” said Sophie McCann, Médecins Sans Frontières’ advocacy officer. “On a daily basis our medical teams are treating the consequential deterioration of health and wellbeing.”

      But she added that the local people had also been given short shrift. “The Lesbos community has been abandoned by its own government for almost five years to deal with the consequences of a failed reception system. Like the refugee community, it is tired.”

      As anti-immigrant sentiment has surged, vigilante groups believed to be infiltrated by supporters of the far-right Golden Dawn party have surfaced. On Friday seven men armed with wooden clubs were arrested in the hilltop village of Moria on suspicion of being members of a gang apparently linked to Golden Dawn.

      “People have seen their properties destroyed, their sheep and goats have been slaughtered, their homes broken into,” said Nikos Trakellis, a community leader. “A few years back, when there were 5,000 on the island, things seemed bad enough. Now there’s a sense that the situation has really got out of hand.”

      NGOs have also been targeted. In recent weeks cars have been vandalised. Foreigners perceived to be helping refugees have spoken of intimidation. Ciaran Carney, a volunteer filmmaker teaching refugees on the island, said: “There was a week when no one [in the NGOs] wanted to leave their flats. It definitely feels like it could explode and that no one knows what will come next.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/09/tensions-refugees-and-islanders-crisis-on-lesbos?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_G

    • Non solo Lesbos. L’estrema destra sbarca a #Chios

      «Questo è solo l’inizio». A Chios non fanno che ripeterlo dopo l’incendio della scorsa notte. Doveva essere pirotecnico lo sbarco dei neonazisti sull’isola di Chios e così è stato, la notte del 3 marzo, intorno alle due, qualcuno ha appiccato il fuoco al deposito di Stay Human Odv, la Onlus che da aprile 2018 dà servizi e beni di prima necessità ai profughi del campo di Vial. A fronte di una capienza di 1.500 persone, il campo ne ospita oltre 6mila. Quattordici bagni in tutto, 7 per sesso. Come quasi tutti gli hotspot greci, sta in mezzo a un uliveto in rovina, per 30 km tutt’intorno il nulla. Gli episodi di autolesionismo e di tentato suicidio non mancano, specie tra i minori non accompagnati.

      «Ieri stavamo smistando le scarpe» dice Musli Alievski, il fondatore della Onlus nata nel 2016. È un giovane macedone di origini rom, suo padre, in odore di pulizia etnica, prese la famiglia e scappò in Italia prima della guerra. Dopo la minaccia di Erdogan di «aprire i rubinetti», da circa una settimana sull’isola sono arrivati «quelli di Alba Dorata e i celerini». «Questo era il posto di partenza di tutto, dove portavamo le donazioni, dove prendevamo quello che serviva da portare al centro, sopra c’erano gli appartamenti dei volontari, tutto distrutto». L’incendio è doloso a detta della stessa polizia, che però ora ha altri problemi: gli isolani sono esasperati, la settimana scorsa hanno aggredito i militari che trasportavano i materiali per allestire un altro hotspot, più grande, in vista di un esodo dato ormai per imminente.

      Sporgerete denuncia per l’incendio?

      Per ora no, il clima è teso e vogliamo evitare ritorsioni e vendette sugli isolani che ci aiutano. In più sull’isola sono arrivati squadroni di celerini e di cosiddetti «volontari a difesa delle isole». Hanno già aggredito la polizia.

      Come mai la destra aggredisce la polizia?

      Perché a differenza di Lesbo, qui non ci sono grandi Ong. Non c’è Msf, l’Unhcr non opera direttamente, tutto è amministrato dai militari. E il malcontento degli isolani, eccitati dall’arrivo degli squadroni da fuori, si riversa anche su di loro. Ma non mi sento di incolpare la gente di qui, non è che si sono svegliati all’improvviso neonazisti, sono solo esasperati. Il problema è della politica europea, non della popolazione greca.

      Perché c’è bisogno di voi volontari?

      Tanto per cominciare i migranti non hanno più accesso gratuito alle visite mediche specialistiche. Un bambino iracheno ha scoperto di essere praticamente cieco solo dopo che lo abbiamo fatto visitare da un oculista. I bambini qui hanno tutti i denti neri per carenza di vitamine. Nei centri viene dato cibo precotto scaduto, senza tracciabilità, né lista di ingredienti. La stessa aggressività degli adulti spesso è causata banalmente dall’assenza di vitamine nel loro organismo.

      Avete paura?

      Più che impauriti dall’aggressione della destra, siamo delusi dalla reazione dell’Europa ai ricatti di Erdogan. L’Europa deve agire non perché impaurita o minacciata, ma perché consapevole che chi sbarca a Lampedusa non sbarca in Italia, chi sbarca a Chios non sbarca in Grecia: sbarca in Europa.

      Si parla molto degli scafisti libici, poco di quelli turchi.

      Sono criminali quanto i libici. C’è un disegno chiaro: quelli che scappano dal Medio Oriente prima finiscono nelle mani degli imprenditori turchi del tessile, lavorano nelle fabbriche, anche delle catene di abbigliamento low cost, poi raggiungono il distretto di Çeşme. Lì, chi non ha soldi per la traversata, lascia i familiari in pegno ai trafficanti. Una traversata di 15 minuti in motoscafo costa circa 2mila euro, i ricatti durano anni.

      E dall’Africa i migranti come finiscono nella rete dei trafficanti turchi?

      Gli africani che arrivano in Grecia sono per lo più nigeriani e somali. Quelli che non passano dalla Libia di solito sono quelli con più disponibilità economica. Una volta arrivati in Tunisia, Algeria e Marocco, prendono un visto di 70 euro, poi un volo per Istanbul, si trasferiscono a Çeşme o a Smirne, e da lì partono insieme agli altri che scappano dal Medio Oriente, chi da guerre, chi da persecuzioni. Selezionare i rifugiati, distinguere tra chi ha diritto a migrare e chi no, non può ridursi a una mera questione di leggi.

      Come racimolano il denaro necessario?

      Spesso dietro la traversata di un giovane c’è l’investimento dell’intero villaggio, una sorta di crowdfunding, si investe sul ragazzo più giovane e robusto, sperando che arrivi, trovi lavoro, e mandi soldi con MoneyGram o Western Union. Come nelle corse dei cavalli, si punta su quello che può farcela.

      https://ilmanifesto.it/non-solo-lesbo-lestrema-destra-sbarca-a-chios-e-brucia-le-scorte-per-i-r
      #extrême_droite

  • Communiqué du 22 janvier 2020 des prisonniers de #Oissel en lutte

    La prison pour étrangèr.e.s de Oissel (près de #Rouen) est connue pour ses keufs violents et raciste, sa direction qui réprime tous les mouvements de lutte. Dans cette taule le mitard est régulièrement utilisé pour tabasser des prisonniers.

    Cette prison a été en partie brulé à la fin du mois d’avril par des prisonniers après une grève de la faim violemment reprimée.

    Samedi dernier des keufs tapent un prisonnier et l’amène au mitard ( il en est ressortit le mercredi 22 janvier) parce qu’il avait voulu se montrer solidaire d’un autre prisonnier. Le soir des policiers cagoulés avec des chiens rentrent dans le centre pour foutre la pression aux prisonniers. Depuis les violences, coups de pressions, insultes racistes ne se sont pas arrêtés.

    Ce mercredi 22 janvier au soir, les 42 prisonniers de la section homme du cra de Oissel se sont mis en grève de la faim. On relaye leurs communiqués :

    Au centre de rétention de Oissel (près de Rouen) la police est violente et nous humilie tous les jours. Toujours ils provoquent, ils disent “Baisse les yeux !”. La nourriture est froide et n’est pas halal, alorsqu’il y a une majorité de prisonniers qui sont musulmans.
    Même la prison c’est mieux qu’ici. Y en a ils ont 10 ou 20 ans ici et onles mets en centre de rétention.
    Depuis samedi c’est encore pire. La police à encore voulu mettre unprisonnier à l’isolement. Son ami s’y est opposéet ils l’ont amené violemment aussi à l’isolement. Le soir y avait la police avec des chiens et des cagoules dans le centre pour nous faire peur.
    Le prisonnier qui était à l’isolement il vient d’en sortir. Ils l’ont
    tabassé, il peut pls parler, il a des bleus partout. Les yeux et les
    oreilles sont gonflées.
    Hier ils ont cassés le pied d’un autre prisonnier.
    Tout ça va pas du tout. Tout le monde se plaint. Nous sommes plus de 42 prisonniers enfermés ici. Donc là on fait la grève commune. Ce soir personne ne mange.
    On va essayer d’occuper le couloir parce que ce qui c’est passé depuis samedi dernier c’est encore pire que d’habitude.
    Ici y a pas d’hygiène. Les chambres sont pas nettoyés tous les jours.

    On revendique
    -La fin des #violences_policières, de la #xénophobie des policiers et de leurs #racisme
    -Un minimum d’#hygiène et de #dignité
    -De la #nourriture correcte
    -Des #soins corrects

    Les prisonniers en grève de la faim de Oissel, le 22 janvier

    https://abaslescra.noblogs.org/communique-des-prisonniers-de-oissel-en-lutte
    #rétention #détention_administrative #asile #migrations #réfugiés #CRA #grève_de_la_faim #résistance

  • Trop de mauvaises notes et Uber vous bloque - Libération
    https://www.liberation.fr/france/2020/01/23/trop-de-mauvaises-notes-et-uber-vous-bloque_1774904

    Depuis décembre en France, les utilisateurs de la plateforme peuvent voir leur compte suspendu si leur moyenne est trop basse. Jusque-là, seuls les chauffeurs risquaient la désactivation. Si vous utilisez régulièrement l’application Uber à Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, ou dans l’une des 20 villes françaises où le service est disponible, il est peut-être temps de consulter votre note. Après chaque course, les clients peuvent en effet attribuer une note sur 5 aux chauffeurs, qui les évaluent aussi en retour. (...)

    #Uber #conducteur·trice·s #surveillance #notation #GigEconomy

  • #Words_are_stones

    Partirà l’8 Gennaio la campagna di comunicazione online Words are stones, promossa da Lunaria in collaborazione con Antigone (Grecia), SOS Racisme (Spagna), Grenzelos (Autria), Adice (Francia) e Kisa (Cipro).

    5 brevi video di un minuto accompagnati da meme e infografiche proporranno 5 situazioni di razzismo quotidiano con l’invito a fare attenzione ai pensieri e alle parole.

    I protagonisti sono due giovani alle prese con scene di vita quotidiana nelle quali la narrazione intrisa di xenofobia e di razzismo si scontra con la realtà delle cose: la partita di calcio, il cibo, il bar, il pronto soccorso, una festa.

    I video sono realizzati da Stefano Argentero (regia e animazione) Juri Fantigrossi (fotografia e montaggio), Fabio Fortunato (tecnico di registrazione) e Riccardo Pieretti (doppiaggio) con la tecnica dell’animazione di plastilina in stop-motion.

    Words are stones si rivolgerà in primo luogo ai giovani politicamente non schierati, quelli che non hanno un’idea definita ed ostile riguardo alle migrazioni e non fanno parte del mondo antirazzista.

    I destinatari secondari sono i decisori politici e gli attivisti della società civile per sensibilizzarli a dedicare un impegno maggiore nelle attività di informazione, denuncia e sensibilizzazione contro la xenofobia e il razzismo.

    http://www.cronachediordinariorazzismo.org/8-gennaio-2020-parte-la-campagna-words-are-stones
    #hate_speech #mots #terminologie #migrations #racisme #xénophobie #campagne #vidéo #vocabulaire #racisme_ordinaire

    Une première vidéo, autour du monde du #football :
    La partita di calcio
    https://video.repubblica.it/mondo-solidale/words-are-stones-5-video-per-una-campagna-contro-l-hate-speech-la-partita-di-calcio/351289/351864

  • African migrants allege mistreatment in North Africa

    Egypt hosts more than 6 million migrants, more than half of them from Sudan and South Sudan.

    North African countries have long been a refuge for sub-Saharan migrants trying to escape war or poverty. However, the streets of Cairo, #Tunis or #Tripoli can turn dangerous, with racist harassment and violence.

    While Europe has been wrestling with racist violence, North African countries, with complex situations including their own illegal emigration problems, have made only small steps in addressing the issue.

    For some migrants, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia are the closest and easiest countries for them to enter. For others, the countries are a point of transit before attempting the Mediterranean crossing to Europe.

    The International Organisation for Migration said Egypt hosts more than 6 million migrants, more than half of them from Sudan and South Sudan, where simmering conflicts displace tens of thousands of people annually.

    At least two dozen sub-Saharan Africans, including four children, in Cairo told the Associated Press they have endured racist insults, sexual harassment or other abuses in the past three months.

    The children said they have had rocks and trash thrown at them as they go to or from school. One Ethiopian woman said neighbours pound on the windows of her family’s home, yelling “slaves” before disappearing.

    A study last year by the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights indicated that 50% of immigrant respondents from sub-Saharan African countries said their migration experience, after several years spent in Tunisia, was “a failure,” while 41% described the experience as “successful.”

    Among those questioned about their medium-term goals, 54% expressed a desire to leave for Europe and 42% expressed a preference to return to their country of origin. Only 2% said they preferred to settle in Tunisia.

    The study stated that 48.3% of respondents said it is necessary to review the legal status of migrants.

    Respondents called on Tunisia to allow African migrants to benefit from work opportunities in the country, defend their rights, facilitate the acquirement of residence permit and revise social security laws, in a way that would simplify procedures to obtain Tunisian nationality for migrants’ children born in the country and allow foreigners to open bank accounts.

    In Libya, a country plagued by corruption and caught in civil war, the picture looks gloomier for African migrants. A report by the Associated Press said millions of dollars from the European Union had been diverted to networks of militiamen, traffickers and Coast Guard members who allegedly exploit migrants. The report said UN officials knew militia networks were getting the money.

    The report revealed torture, extortion and other abuse for ransom in migrant detention centres and under the nose of the United Nations, often in compounds that receive millions of dollars in aid. This was in addition to reports of disappearances from detention centres, with migrants allegedly sold to traffickers or sent to other centres.

    In Libya, abuses generally go unpunished amid the chaos in the country. In Tunisia and Egypt, however, there were signs the two countries were starting to recognise and censure racist crimes.

    In November, a video showing three Egyptian teenagers bullying South Sudanese schoolboy John Manuth triggered a public outcry. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi later hosted Manuth at a youth forum and made a rare high-level acknowledgement of the problem.

    “They are our guests and negative treatment is not acceptable and not allowed,” Sisi said.

    In 2018, a court sentenced to seven years in prison a man who was known to harass refugees and who beat to death a South Sudanese teacher who had worked in a community-run school for refugees in Cairo.

    In Tunisia, the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Act was adopted in October 2018, with penalties ranging from 1-3 months in prison for racist language and 1-3 years for inciting hatred, disseminating ideas about racial superiority or supporting a racist organisation or activity.

    The law, which created a National Instance against Racial Discrimination to present an annual report to the parliament, commits the state to undertake awareness and training campaigns.

    https://thearabweekly.com/african-migrants-allege-mistreatment-north-africa

    #Afrique_du_Nord #réfugiés #asile #migrations #migrants_sub-sahariens #villes #Maghreb #Moyen-Orient #Le_Caire #violence #racisme #xénophobie #Egypte #Libye #Tunisie

    ping @_kg_

  • Don’t assume technology is racially neutral

    Without adequate and effective safeguards, the increasing reliance on technology in law enforcement risks reinforcing existing prejudices against racialised communities, writes Karen Taylor.

    Within the European Union, police and law enforcement are increasingly using new technologies to support their work. Yet little consideration is given to the potential misuse of these technologies and their impact on racialised communities.

    When the everyday experience of racialised policing and ethnic profiling is already causing significant physical, emotional and social harm, how much will these new developments further harm people of colour in Europe?

    With racialised communities already over-policed and under-protected, resorting to data-driven policing may further entrench existing discriminatory practices, such as racial profiling and the construction of ‘suspicious’ communities.

    This was highlighted in a new report published by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) and the Open Society Justice Initiative.

    Using systems to profile, survey and provide a logic for discrimination is not new; what is new is the sense of neutrality afforded to data-driven policing.

    The ENAR report shows that law enforcement agencies present technology as ‘race’ neutral and independent of bias. However, such claims overlook the evidence of discriminatory policing against racialised minority and migrant communities throughout Europe.

    European criminal justice systems police minority groups according to the myths and stereotypes about the level of ‘risk’ they pose rather than the reality.

    This means racialised communities will feel a disproportionate impact from new technologies used for identification, surveillance and analysis – such as crime analytics, the use of mobile fingerprinting scanners, social media monitoring and mobile phone extraction - as they are already overpoliced.

    For example, in the UK, social media is used to track ‘gang-associated individuals’ within the ‘Gangs Matrix’. If a person shares content on social media that references a gang name or certain colours, flags or attire linked to a gang, they may be added to this database, according to research by Amnesty International.

    Given the racialisation of gangs, it is likely that such technology will be deployed for use against racialised people and groups.

    Another technology, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, leads to concerns that cars can be ‘marked’, leading to increased stop and search.

    The Brandenburg police in Germany used the example of looking for “motorhomes or caravans with Polish license plates” in a recent leaked internal evaluation of the system.

    Searching for license plates of a particular nationality and looking for ‘motorhomes or caravans’ suggests a discriminatory focus on Travellers or Roma.

    Similarly, mobile fingerprint technology enables police to check against existing databases (including immigration records); and disproportionately affects racialised communities, given the racial disparity of those stopped and searched.

    Another way in which new technology negatively impacts racialised communities is that many algorithmically-driven identification technologies, such as automated facial recognition, disproportionately mis-identify people from black and other minority ethnic groups – and, in particular, black and brown women.

    This means that police are more likely to wrongfully stop, question and potentially arrest them.

    Finally, predictive policing systems are likely to present geographic areas and communities with a high proportion of minority ethnic people as ‘risky’ and subsequently make them a focus for police attention.

    Research shows that data-driven technologies that inform predictive policing increased levels of arrest for racialised communities by 30 percent. Indeed, place-based predictive tools take data from police records generated by over-policing certain communities.

    Forecasting is based on the higher rates of police intervention in those areas, suggesting police should further prioritise those areas.

    We often – rightly – discuss the ethical implications of new technologies and the current lack of public scrutiny and accountability. Yet we also urgently need to consider how they affect and target racialised communities.

    The European Commission will present a proposal on Artificial Intelligence within 100 days of taking office. This is an opportunity for the European Parliament to put safeguards in place that ensure that the use of AI does not have any harmful and/or discriminatory impact.

    In particular, it is important to consider how the use of such technologies will impact racialised communities, so often overlooked in these discussions. MEPs should also ensure that any data-driven technologies are not designed or used in a way that targets racialised communities.

    The use of such data has wide-ranging implications for racialised communities, not just in policing but also in counterterrorism and immigration control.

    Governments and policymakers need to develop processes for holding law enforcement agencies and technology companies to account for the consequences and effects of technology-driven policing.

    This should include implementing safeguards to ensure such technologies do not target racialised as well as other already over-policed communities.

    Technology is not neutral or objective; unless safeguards are put in place, it will exacerbate racial, ethnic and religious disparities in European justice systems.

    https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/opinion/don%E2%80%99t-assume-technology-racially-neutral

    #neutralité #technologie #discriminations #racisme #xénophobie #police #profilage_ethnique #profilage #données #risques #surveillance #identification #big-data #smartphone #réseaux_sociaux #Gangs_Matrix #automatic_number_plate_recognition (#ANPR) #Système_de_reconnaissance_automatique_des_plaques_minéralogiques #plaque_d'immatriculation #Roms #algorythmes #contrôles_policiers

    –--------

    Pour télécharger le rapport :


    https://www.enar-eu.org/IMG/pdf/data-driven-profiling-web-final.pdf

    ping @cede @karine4 @isskein @etraces @davduf

  • Inde : l’État du #Kerala refuse à son tour d’appliquer la loi sur la citoyenneté

    Ce sont désormais les États qui refusent la loi sur la citoyenneté, jugée discriminatoire contre les musulmans. Après le #Bengale-Occidental et le #Punjab, le Kerala a annoncé qu’il n’appliquera pas cette mesure. Le #Maharashtra menace lui aussi de rejoindre ces États rebelles.

    Après les citoyens, les dirigeants ? Plusieurs États Indiens ont annoncé qu’ils refusaient la loi sur la citoyenneté facilitant l’accueil de réfugiés non-musulmans. C’est le cas du Bengale-Occidental, directement concerné puisque voisin du Bangladesh, du Punjab, frontalier du Pakistan, mais aussi à la pointe sud de l’Inde, du Kerala.

    Avec ses 35 millions d’habitants, cet État est connu pour être dirigé par des partis de gauche à forte tradition laïque. Jeudi dernier, son ministre en chef a été clair : « Cette loi fait partie d’un plan pour communautariser l’Inde. Elle n’a pas sa place au Kerala et n’y sera pas implémentée. »

    Le Kerala abrite une proportion de musulmans importante et les manifestations y sont particulièrement violentes. Ce mardi, 230 personnes ont été arrêtées par la police. Dans la foulée, 20 stars du cinéma Kéralais ont exprimé leur soutien à ces opposants

    Après le Kerala, le Maharashtra ?

    Les regards sont maintenant tournés vers l’État du Maharashtra, avec 115 millions d’habitants et la capitale économique Bombay. Son ministre en Chef a déclaré ce mardi qu’il pourrait bien lui aussi ne pas appliquer la loi.

    La confusion règne cependant sur ces déclarations de rébellion politique : il est en principe impossible pour un État de ne pas appliquer une loi votée par le Parlement national.

    http://www.rfi.fr/asie-pacifique/20191218-inde-etat-kerala-refuse-son-tour-appliquer-loi-citoyennete?ref=tw_i

    #résistance #Inde #xénophobie #islamophobie #citoyenneté #nationalité #apatridie

    –-------

    Les manifestations et résistance des citoyens :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/815991

    La source des protestations : le « Citizenship (Amendment) Act » :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/799546

  • How India is resisting #Citizenship_Amendment_Bill (#CAB) : A story in powerful pictures

    One of the pictures that have come to define the protests is of three girls standing on a wall and addressing a sea of protesters at Jamia Millia Islamia.

    India is currently witnessing two kinds of protests against CAA or the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. In the northeast states of India, the protest is against the Act’s implementation in their areas, as many fear it will cause a rush of immigrants that may alter their demographic and linguistic uniqueness. In the rest of India, like in Kerala, West Bengal and New Delhi, people are protesting against the exclusion of Muslims, alleging it to be against the values of the Constitution.

    The protests erupted across the country after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed by both houses of Parliament and received Presidential assent soon after. The Act, which gives citizenship to non-Muslim refugees who escaped religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and entered the country before December 31, 2014, has been widely criticised. The amended Act has put the entire Northeast region and West Bengal on the boil as people fear that it might exacerbate the problem of illegal immigration.

    Violent protests were seen in New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia; parts of Assam are on lockdown; several peaceful demonstrations against the Act were held in various parts of the country; and more have been planned in the coming days across the country.

    While registering their protests, the protesters have been shouting slogans, singing songs and reading the Constitution as well.

    One of the pictures that have come to define the protests is of three girls standing on a wall and addressing a sea of protesters at Jamia Millia Islamia. But there are several other powerful pictures of the protests across the country that underscore why people from all sections of society consider the Act unconstitutional.

    https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/how-india-resisting-cab-story-powerful-pictures-114137
    #protestation #manifestations #résistance #Inde #xénophobie #islamophobie #citoyenneté #nationalité #apatridie

    –-------

    La source des protestations : le « Citizenship (Amendment) Act » :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/799546

    ping @odilon

    • Inde : cinq morts dans des manifestations contre la loi sur les réfugiés

      Cinq personnes ont péri depuis le début des manifestations dans le nord-est de l’Inde contre une loi facilitant l’obtention de la nationalité indienne par des réfugiés à condition qu’ils ne soient pas musulmans, ont annoncé dimanche les autorités.

      Dans certaines zones, internet a été coupé et un couvre-feu a été imposé pour tenter d’endiguer la contestation.

      La tension demeurait forte dans la plus grande ville de l’Etat d’Assam, où une nouvelle manifestation était attendue dimanche.

      La nouvelle loi facilite l’attribution de la citoyenneté indienne aux réfugiés d’Afghanistan, du Bangladesh et du Pakistan, à condition qu’ils ne soient pas musulmans. Elle concerne des minorités religieuses dont les hindous et les sikhs.

      En Assam, trois personnes sont décédées à l’hôpital après avoir été touchées par des balles tirées par la police. Une quatrième a péri dans l’échoppe où il dormait qui a été incendiée. Une cinquième personne a été battue à mort, selon les autorités.

      La circulation des trains a été suspendue dans certaines parties de l’est du pays à la suite de violences dans l’Etat du Bengale occidental où des manifestants ont incendié des trains et des cars.

      Le ministre de l’Intérieur Amit Shah a de nouveau lancé dimanche un appel au calme en affirmant que les cultures locales des Etats du Nord-Est n’étaient pas menacés, alors que certains redoutent un afflux d’immigrants du Bangladesh.

      « La culture, la langue, l’identité sociale et les droits politiques de nos frères et soeurs du Nord-Est demeureront », a déclaré M. Shah lors d’un rassemblement dans l’Etat de Jharkhand, selon la chaîne de télévision News18.

      L’opposition et des organisations de défense des droits de l’homme estiment que cette loi fait partie du programme nationaliste de M. Modi visant selon elles à marginaliser les 200 millions d’Indiens musulmans.

      Le vote de la loi a donné lieu cette semaine à des flambées de colère dans les deux chambres du parlement, un député allant jusqu’à la comparer aux lois anti-juives promulguées par le régime nazi en Allemagne dans les années 1930.

      https://www.courrierinternational.com/depeche/inde-cinq-morts-dans-des-manifestations-contre-la-loi-sur-les

  • Namibia turns away fleeing SA refugees

    The Namibian government has turned desperate immigrants, who fled South Africa last month following a recent wave of xenophobic attacks, away because they are not recognised as asylum seekers. Home Affairs Commissioner for Refugees Likius Valombola told New Era yesterday that the 42 foreign nationals were being deported back to South Africa.

    A screening process is underway at Noordoewer to deport them. He added that 11 had already returned to South Africa and have since been integrated into the community.

    “They are being returned to South Africa. If there are those genuine ones, then the Namibian government is ready to take them in,” he assured.

    The African News Agency (ANA) reported this week that 53 foreign nationals fled South Africa following attacks on foreigners in that country.

    According to Valombola, the foreign nationals were illegally in the country because they did not go through legal procedures to seek asylum status.

    “I am aware there are a number of refugees who desired to come to Namibia from South Africa. We received close to 200 refugees from South Africa during the violence in that country around June, July and August. Of recently, it is not clear why these asylum seekers are coming to Namibia,” he said. Equally, he noted, there are about 400 refugees who wanted to come to Namibia but were blocked by South Africa.

    He explained that such a blockage was due to the commitment by the South Africa government, who assured they have the desire and capacity to protect the immigrants. However, Valombola made it clear that it is up to an individual who wishes to come to Namibia to follow proper procedures by approaching the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in South Africa, who will then engage the Namibian authorities.

    ANA quoted //Kharas police chief David Indongo as saying the 53 foreign nationals who had camped at the Osire refugee camp were transported on Saturday morning by immigration officials to the southern border settlement of Noordoewer in preparation for their deportation this week. In this regard, Valombola denied that these refugees camped at Osire.

    “I called that commissioner and told him that these people were never at Osire refugee settlement. For them to go to Osire, one has to be authorised. Any person-seeking asylum should report himself or herself to a police officer or immigration officer, then they will inform us to make arrangements to transport them to the settlement.

    If they did go to Osire, then they did it illegally,” he clarified. Valombola revealed that these refugees entered the country via trucks coming to Namibia from South Africa. The refugees, who include 14 men, 13 women and 26 children, were being accommodated at the EHW Baard Primary School hostel in Noordoewer.

    According to the Namibian police, the majority of the refugees are Congolese and Angolan nationals who have South African-issued asylum permits.

    The 53 formed part of more than 600 refugees and asylum seekers who had camped at the UN’s High Commission for Refugees offices in Cape Town and Pretoria while demanding to be taken to safer countries.

    https://reliefweb.int/report/namibia/namibia-turns-away-fleeing-sa-refugees
    #Afrique_du_Sud #Namibie #réfugiés #asile #migrations #xénophobie #racisme #refoulement #renvois #expulsions #push-back #Noordoewer

  • L’UE veut sophistiquer la surveillance de ses frontières boisées…

    La Commission Européenne veut améliorer la détection des passages à ses frontières densément boisées, difficiles à surveiller par des patrouilles.
    Le projet de recherche sur la sécurité FOLDOUT (through FOliage Detection in the inner and OUTermost regions of the EU) doit tester une combinaison de différentes technologies avec des caméras, des radars, des détecteurs de mouvement, des capteurs électromagnétiques et des microphones.

    Y participent : Autriche, France (Thales), Bulgarie, Finlande, Lituanie, Pologne. Il coute 8 millions d’euros. Les tests commencent en 2021 (frontières bulgaro-turc, puis greco-turc, finlandaise et guyanaise).

    […]
    Die Grenzabschnitte werden zunächst mit konventionellen Systemen überwacht, darunter Kameras, akustische oder Bewegungsdetektoren. Dabei soll etwa „verdächtiger Autoverkehr“ festgestellt werden. Die verschiedenen Sensoren sind in einem gemeinsamen Gehäuse verbaut. Die Behörden wollen sich außerdem die mitgeführten Handys von Geflüchteten zunutze machen. Wird ein Telefon in einer bestimmten Funkzelle festgestellt, erfolgt eine Ortung des Geräts.
    Geostationäre Beobachtung aus 20 Kilometer Höhe
    Anschließend kann eine Kaskade weiterer Maßnahmen in Gang gesetzt werden, darunter die Beobachtung aus dem All und aus der Luft. Dabei sollen auch Radarsatelliten eingesetzt werden, deren Bilder Laub durchdringen können. Werden Personen geortet, können diese mit Drohnen aufgespürt werden. Auch die unbemannten Luftfahrzeuge befördern kleine Radarsensoren oder Wärmebildkameras. Am Ende erfolgt der Zugriff durch die zuständige Grenzpolizei.
    FOLDOUT könnte auch zur dauerhaften Überwachung einer bestimmten Region genutzt werden. Dabei würde die Überwachungstechnik an „stratosphärische Plattformen“ montiert, wie sie von einigen Rüstungsfirmen derzeit entwickelt werden. Die geostationären Anlagen fliegen in rund 20 Kilometer Höhe und bieten daher eine deutlich höhere Auflösung als die Erdbeobachtung per Satellit. Der an FOLDOUT beteiligte Konzern Thales vermarktet ein solches System unter dem Namen „Stratobus“.
    […]

    https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Grenze-zur-Tuerkei-EU-Kommission-will-Gefluechtete-mit-Laubdurchdringung-aufsp
    https://foldout.eu

    #Union_Européenne #frontière #forteresse #surveillance #FOLDOUT #circulation

  • Europe spends billions stopping migration. Good luck figuring out where the money actually goes

    How much money exactly does Europe spend trying to curb migration from Nigeria? And what’s it used for? We tried to find out, but Europe certainly doesn’t make it easy. These flashy graphics show you just how complicated the funding is.
    In a shiny new factory in the Benin forest, a woman named Blessing slices pineapples into rings. Hundreds of miles away, at a remote border post in the Sahara, Abubakar scans travellers’ fingerprints. And in village squares across Nigeria, Usman performs his theatre show about the dangers of travelling to Europe.

    What do all these people have in common?

    All their lives are touched by the billions of euros European governments spend in an effort to curb migration from Africa.

    Since the summer of 2015,
    Read more about the influx of refugees to Europe in 2015 on the UNHCR website.
    when countless boats full of migrants began arriving on the shores of Greece and Italy, Europe has increased migration spending by billions.
    Read my guide to EU migration policy here.
    And much of this money is being spent in Africa.

    Within Europe, the political left and right have very different ways of framing the potential benefits of that funding. Those on the left say migration spending not only provides Africans with better opportunities in their home countries but also reduces migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. Those on the right say migration spending discourages Africans from making the perilous journey to Europe.

    However they spin it, the end result is the same: both left and right have embraced funding designed to reduce migration from Africa. In fact, the European Union (EU) plans to double migration spending under the new 2021-2027 budget, while quadrupling spending on border control.

    The three of us – journalists from Nigeria, Italy and the Netherlands – began asking ourselves: just how much money are we talking here?

    At first glance, it seems like a perfectly straightforward question. Just add up the migration budgets of the EU and the individual member states and you’ve got your answer, right? But after months of research, it turns out that things are nowhere near that simple.

    In fact, we discovered that European migration spending resembles nothing so much as a gigantic plate of spaghetti.

    If you try to tease out a single strand, at least three more will cling to it. Try to find where one strand begins, and you’ll find yourself tangled up in dozens of others.

    This is deeply concerning. Though Europe maintains a pretence of transparency, in practice it’s virtually impossible to hold the EU and its member states accountable for their migration expenditures, let alone assess how effective they are. If a team of journalists who have devoted months to the issue can’t manage it, then how could EU parliament members juggling multiple portfolios ever hope to?

    This lack of oversight is particularly problematic in the case of migration, an issue that ranks high on European political agendas. The subject of migration fuels a great deal of political grandstanding, populist opportunism, and social unrest. And the debate surrounding the issue is rife with misinformation.

    For an issue of this magnitude, it’s crucial to have a clear view of existing policies and to examine whether these policies make sense. But to be able to do that, we need to understand the funding streams: how much money is being spent and what is it being spent on?

    While working on this article, we spoke to researchers and officials who characterised EU migration spending as “opaque”, “unclear” and “chaotic”. We combed through countless websites, official documents, annual reports and budgets, and we submitted freedom of information requests
    in a number of European countries, in Nigeria, and to the European commission. And we discovered that the subject of migration, while not exactly cloak-and-dagger stuff, is apparently sensitive enough that most people preferred to speak off the record.

    Above all, we were troubled by the fact that no one seems to have a clear overview of European migration budgets – and by how painfully characteristic this is of European migration policy as a whole.
    Nigeria – ‘a tough cookie’

    It wasn’t long before we realised that mapping out all European cash flows to all African countries would take us years. Instead, we decided to focus on Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and the continent’s strongest economy, as well as the country of origin of the largest group of African asylum seekers in the EU. “A tough cookie” in the words of one senior EU official, but also “our most important migration partner in the coming years”.

    But Nigeria wasn’t exactly eager to embrace the role of “most important migration partner”. After all, migration has been a lifeline for Nigeria’s economy: last year, Nigerian migrants living abroad sent home $25bn – roughly 6% of the country’s GNP.

    It took a major European charm offensive to get Nigeria on board – a “long saga” with “more than one tense meeting”, according to a high-ranking EU diplomat we spoke to.

    The European parliament invited Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian president, to Strasbourg in 2016. Over the next several years, one European dignitary after another visited Nigeria: from Angela Merkel,
    the German chancellor, to Matteo Renzi,
    the Italian prime minister, to Emmanuel Macron,
    the French president, to Mark Rutte,

    the Dutch prime minister.

    Three guesses as to what they all wanted to talk about.
    ‘No data available’

    But let’s get back to those funding streams.

    The EU would have you believe that everything fits neatly into a flowchart. When asked to respond to this article, the European commission told us: “We take transparency very seriously.” One spokesperson after another, all from various EU agencies, informed us that the information was “freely available online”.

    But as Wilma Haan, director of the Open State Foundation, notes: “Just throwing a bunch of stuff online doesn’t make you transparent. People have to be able to find the information and verify it.”

    Yet that’s exactly what the EU did. The EU foundations and agencies we contacted referred us to dozens of different websites. In some cases, the information was relatively easy to find,
    but in others the data was fragmented or missing entirely. All too often, our searches turned up results such as “data soon available”
    or “no data available”.

    The website of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) – worth around €3.1bn – is typical of the problems we faced. While we were able to find a list of projects funded by AMIF online,

    the list only contains the names of the projects – not the countries in which they’re carried out. As a result, there’s only one way to find out what’s going on where: by Googling each of the project names individually.

    This lack of a clear overview has major consequences for the democratic process, says Tineke Strik, member of the European parliament (Green party). Under the guise of “flexibility”, the European parliament has “no oversight over the funds whatsoever”. Strik says: “In the best-case scenario, we’ll discover them listed on the European commission’s website.”

    At the EU’s Nigerian headquarters, one official explained that she does try to keep track of European countries’ migration-related projects to identify “gaps and overlaps”. When asked why this information wasn’t published online, she responded: “It’s something I do alongside my daily work.”
    Getting a feel for Europe’s migration spaghetti

    “There’s no way you’re going to get anywhere with this.”

    This was the response from a Correspondent member who researches government funding when we announced this project several months ago. Not exactly the most encouraging words to start our journey. Still, over the past few months, we’ve done our best to make as much progress as we could.

    Let’s start in the Netherlands, Maite’s home country. When we tried to find out how much Dutch tax money is spent in Nigeria on migration-related issues, we soon found ourselves down yet another rabbit hole.

    The Dutch ministry of foreign affairs, which controls all funding for Dutch foreign policy, seemed like a good starting point. The ministry divides its budget into centralised and decentralised funds. The centralised funds are managed in the Netherlands administrative capital, The Hague, while the decentralised funds are distributed by Dutch embassies abroad.

    Exactly how much money goes to the Dutch embassy in the Nigerian capital Abuja is unclear – no information is available online. When we contacted the embassy, they weren’t able to provide us with any figures, either. According to their press officer, these budgets are “fragmented”, and the total can only be determined at the end of the year.

    The ministry of foreign affairs distributes centralised funds through its departments. But migration is a topic that spans a number of different departments: the department for stabilisation and humanitarian aid (DSH), the security policy department (DVB), the sub-Saharan Africa department (DAF), and the migration policy bureau (BMB), to name just a few. There’s no way of knowing whether each department spends money on migration, let alone how much of it goes to Nigeria.

    Not to mention the fact that other ministries, such as the ministry of economic affairs and the ministry of justice and security, also deal with migration-related issues.

    Next, we decided to check out the Dutch development aid budget
    in the hope it would clear things up a bit. Unfortunately, the budget isn’t organised by country, but by theme. And since migration isn’t one of the main themes, it’s scattered over several different sections. Luckily, the document does contain an annex (https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/begrotingen/2019/09/17/hgis---nota-homogene-groep-internationale-samenwerking-rijksbegroting-) that goes into more detail about migration.

    In this annex, we found that the Netherlands spends a substantial chunk of money on “migration cooperation”, “reception in the region” and humanitarian aid for refugees.

    And then there’s the ministry of foreign affairs’ Stability Fund,
    the ministry of justice and security’s budget for the processing and repatriation of asylum seekers, and the ministry of education, culture and science’s budget for providing asylum seekers with an education.

    But again, it’s impossible to determine just how much of this funding finds its way to Nigeria. This is partly due to the fact that many migration projects operate in multiple countries simultaneously (in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon, for example). Regional projects such as this generally don’t share details of how funding is divided up among the participating countries.

    Using data from the Dutch embassy and an NGO that monitors Dutch projects in Nigeria, we found that €6m in aid goes specifically to Nigeria, with another €19m for the region as a whole. Dutch law enforcement also provides in-kind support to help strengthen Nigeria’s border control.

    But hold on, there’s more. We need to factor in the money that the Netherlands spends on migration through its contributions to the EU.

    The Netherlands pays hundreds of millions into the European Development Fund (EDF), which is partly used to finance migration projects. Part of that money also gets transferred to another EU migration fund: the EUTF for Africa.
    The Netherlands also contributes directly to this fund.

    But that’s not all. The Netherlands also gives (either directly or through the EU) to a variety of other EU funds and agencies that finance migration projects in Nigeria. And just as in the Netherlands, these EU funds and agencies are scattered over many different offices. There’s no single “EU ministry of migration”.

    To give you a taste of just how convoluted things can get: the AMIF falls under the EU’s home affairs “ministry”

    (DG HOME), the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI) falls under the “ministry” for international cooperation and development (DG DEVCO), and the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) falls under the European External Action Service (EEAS). The EU border agency, Frontex, is its own separate entity, and there’s also a “ministry” for humanitarian aid (DG ECHO).

    Still with me?

    Because this was just the Netherlands.

    Now let’s take a look at Giacomo’s country of origin, Italy, which is also home to one of Europe’s largest Nigerian communities (surpassed only by the UK).

    Italy’s ministry of foreign affairs funds the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), which provides humanitarian aid in north-eastern Nigeria, where tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency. AICS also finances a wide range of projects aimed at raising awareness of the risks of illegal migration. It’s impossible to say how much of this money ends up in Nigeria, though, since the awareness campaigns target multiple countries at once.

    This data is all available online – though you’ll have to do some digging to find it. But when it comes to the funds managed by Italy’s ministry of the interior, things start to get a bit murkier. Despite the ministry having signed numerous agreements on migration with African countries in recent years, there’s little trace of the money online. Reference to a €92,000 donation for new computers for Nigeria’s law enforcement and immigration services was all we could find.

    Things get even more complicated when we look at Italy’s “Africa Fund”, which was launched in 2017 to foster cooperation with “priority countries along major migration routes”. The fund is jointly managed by the ministry of foreign affairs and the ministry of the interior.

    Part of the money goes to the EUTF for Africa, but the fund also contributes to United Nations (UN) organisations, such as the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as well as to the Italian ministry of defence and the ministry of economy and finance.

    Like most European governments, Italy also contributes to EU funds and agencies concerned with migration, such as Frontex, Europol, and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO).

    And then there are the contributions to UN agencies that deal with migration: UNHCR, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), IOM, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), to name just a few.

    Now multiply all of this by the number of European countries currently active in Nigeria. Oh, and let’s not forget the World Bank,

    which has only recently waded into the waters of the migration industry.

    And then there are the European development banks. And the EU’s External Investment Plan, which was launched in 2016 with the ambitious goal of generating €44bn in private investments in developing countries, with a particular focus on migrants’ countries of origin. Not to mention the regional “migration dialogues”
    organised in west Africa under the Rabat Process and the Cotonou Agreement.

    This is the European migration spaghetti.
    How we managed to compile a list nonetheless

    By now, one thing should be clear: there are a staggering number of ministries, funds and departments involved in European migration spending. It’s no wonder that no one in Europe seems to have a clear overview of the situation. But we thought that maybe, just maybe, there was one party that might have the overview we seek: Nigeria. After all, the Nigerian government has to be involved in all the projects that take place there, right?

    We decided to ask around in Nigeria’s corridors of power. Was anyone keeping track of European migration funding? The Ministry of Finance? Or maybe the Ministry of the Interior, or the Ministry of Labour and Employment?

    Nope.

    We then tried asking Nigeria’s anti-trafficking agency (NAPTIP), the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI).

    No luck there, either. When it comes to migration, things are just as fragmented under the Nigerian government as they are in Europe.

    In the meantime, we contacted each of the European embassies in Nigeria.
    This proved to be the most fruitful approach and yielded the most complete lists of projects. The database of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI)
    was particularly useful in fleshing out our overview.

    So does that mean our list is now complete? Probably not.

    More to the point: the whole undertaking is highly subjective, since there’s no official definition of what qualifies as a migration project and what doesn’t.

    For example, consider initiatives to create jobs for young people in Nigeria. Would those be development projects or trade projects? Or are they actually migration projects (the idea being that young people wouldn’t migrate if they could find work)?

    What about efforts to improve border control in northern Nigeria? Would they fall under counterterrorism? Security? Institutional development? Or is this actually a migration-related issue?

    Each country has its own way of categorising projects.

    There’s no single, unified standard within the EU.

    When choosing what to include in our own overview, we limited ourselves to projects that European countries themselves designated as being migration related.

    While it’s certainly not perfect, this overview allows us to draw at least some meaningful conclusions about three key issues: where the money is going, where it isn’t going, and what this means for Nigeria.
    1) Where is the money going?

    In Nigeria, we found

    If you’d like to work with the data yourself, feel free to download the full overview here.
    50 migration projects being funded by 11 different European countries, as well as 32 migration projects that rely on EU funding. Together, they amount to more than €770m in funding.

    Most of the money from Brussels is spent on improving Nigerian border control:
    more than €378m. For example, the European Investment Bank has launched a €250m initiative

    to provide all Nigerians with biometric identity cards.

    The funding provided by individual countries largely goes to projects aimed at creating employment opportunities

    in Nigeria: at least €92m.

    Significantly, only €300,000 is spent on creating more legal opportunities to migrate – less than 0.09% of all funding.

    We also found 47 “regional” projects that are not limited to Nigeria, but also include other countries.
    Together, they amount to more than €775m in funding.
    Regional migration spending is mainly focused on migrants who have become stranded in transit and is used to return them home and help them to reintegrate when they get there. Campaigns designed to raise awareness of the dangers of travelling to Europe also receive a relatively large proportion of funding in the region.

    2) Where isn’t the money going?

    When we look at the list of institutions – or “implementing agencies”, as they’re known in policy speak – that receive money from Europe, one thing immediately stands out: virtually none of them are Nigerian organisations.

    “The EU funds projects in Nigeria, but that money doesn’t go directly to Nigerian organisations,” says Charles Nwanelo, head of migration at the NCFRMI.

    See their website here.
    “Instead, it goes to international organisations, such as the IOM, which use the money to carry out projects here. This means we actually have no idea how much money the EU is spending in Nigeria.”

    We hear the same story again and again from Nigerian government officials: they never see a cent of European funding, as it’s controlled by EU and UN organisations. This is partially a response to corruption within Nigerian institutions – Europe feels it can keep closer tabs on its money by channelling it through international organisations. As a result, these organisations are growing rapidly in Nigeria. To get an idea of just how rapidly: the number of people working for the IOM in Nigeria has more than quadrupled over the past two years.

    Of course, this doesn’t mean that Nigerian organisations are going unfunded. Implementing agencies are free to pass funding along to Nigerian groups. For example, the IOM hires Nigerian NGOs to provide training for returning migrants and sponsors a project that provides training and new software to the Nigerian immigration service.

    Nevertheless, the system has inevitably led to the emergence of a parallel aid universe in which the Nigerian government plays only a supporting role. “The Nigerian parliament should demand to see an overview of all current and upcoming projects being carried out in their country every three months,” says Bob van Dillen, migration expert at development organisation Cordaid.

    But that would be “difficult”, according to one German official we spoke to, because “this isn’t a priority for the Nigerian government. This is at the top of Europe’s agenda, not Nigeria’s.”

    Most Nigerian migrants to Europe come from Edo state, where the governor has been doing his absolute best to compile an overview of all migration projects. He set up a task force that aims to coordinate migration activities in his state. The task force has been largely unsuccessful because the EU doesn’t provide it with any direct funding and doesn’t require member states to cooperate with it.

    3) What are the real-world consequences for Nigeria?

    We’ve established that the Nigerian government isn’t involved in allocating migration spending and that local officials are struggling to keep tabs on things. So who is coordinating all those billions in funding?

    Each month, the European donors and implementing agencies mentioned above meet at the EU delegation to discuss their migration projects. However, diplomats from multiple European countries have told us that no real coordination takes place at these meetings. No one checks to see whether projects conflict or overlap. Instead, the meetings are “more on the basis of letting each other know”, as one diplomat put it.

    One German official noted: “What we should do is look together at what works, what doesn’t, and which lessons we can learn from each other. Not to mention how to prevent people from shopping around from project to project.”

    Other diplomats consider this too utopian and feel that there are far too many players to make that level of coordination feasible. In practice, then, it seems that chaotic funding streams inevitably lead to one thing: more chaos.
    And we’ve only looked at one country ...

    That giant plate of spaghetti we just sifted through only represents a single serving – other countries have their own versions of Nigeria’s migration spaghetti. Alongside Nigeria, the EU has also designated Mali, Senegal, Ethiopia and Niger as “priority countries”. The EU’s largest migration fund, the EUTF, finances projects in 26 different African countries. And the sums of money involved are only going to increase.

    When we first started this project, our aim was to chart a path through the new European zeal for funding. We wanted to track the flow of migration money to find answers to some crucial questions: will this funding help Nigerians make better lives for themselves in their own country? Will it help reduce the trafficking of women? Will it provide more safe, legal ways for Nigerians to travel to Europe?

    Or will it primarily go towards maintaining the international aid industry? Does it encourage corruption? Does it make migrants even more vulnerable to exploitation along the way?

    But we’re still far from answering these questions. Recently, a new study by the UNDP

    called into question “the notion that migration can be prevented or significantly reduced through programmatic and policy responses”.

    Nevertheless, European programming and policy responses will only increase in scope in the coming years.

    But the more Europe spends on migration, the more tangled the spaghetti becomes and the harder it gets to check whether funds are being spent wisely. With the erosion of transparency comes the erosion of democratic oversight.

    So to anyone who can figure out how to untangle the spaghetti, we say: be our guest.

    https://thecorrespondent.com/154/europe-spends-billions-stopping-migration-good-luck-figuring-out-where-the-money-actually-goes/171168048128-fac42704
    #externalisation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Nigeria #EU #EU #Union_européenne #externalisation #frontières #contrôles_frontaliers #Frontex #Trust_fund #Pays-Bas #argent #transparence (manque de - ) #budget #remittances #AMIF #développement #aide_au_développement #European_Development_Fund (#EDF) #EUTF_for_Africa #European_Neighbourhood_Instrument (#ENI) #Development_Cooperation_Instrument (#DCI) #Italie #Banque_mondiale #External_Investment_Plan #processus_de_rabat #accords_de_Cotonou #biométrie #carte_d'identité_biométrique #travail #développement #aide_au_développement #coopération_au_développement #emploi #réintégration #campagnes #IOM #OIM

    Ajouté à la métaliste sur l’externalisation des frontières :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/731749
    Et ajouté à la métaliste développement/migrations :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/733358

    ping @isskein @isskein @pascaline @_kg_

    • Résumé en français par Jasmine Caye (@forumasile) :

      Pour freiner la migration en provenance d’Afrique les dépenses européennes explosent

      Maite Vermeulen est une journaliste hollandaise, cofondatrice du site d’information The Correspondent et spécialisée dans les questions migratoires. Avec deux autres journalistes, l’italien Giacomo Zandonini (Italie) et le nigérian Ajibola Amzat, elle a tenté de comprendre les raisons derrières la flambée des dépenses européennes sensées freiner la migration en provenance du continent africain.

      Depuis le Nigéria, Maite Vermeulen s’est intéressée aux causes de la migration nigériane vers l’Europe et sur les milliards d’euros déversés dans les programmes humanitaires et sécuritaires dans ce pays. Selon elle, la politique sécuritaire européenne n’empêchera pas les personnes motivées de tenter leur chance pour rejoindre l’Europe. Elle constate que les fonds destinés à freiner la migration sont toujours attribués aux mêmes grandes organisations gouvernementales ou non-gouvernementales. Les financements européens échappent aussi aux évaluations d’impact permettant de mesurer les effets des aides sur le terrain.

      Le travail de recherche des journalistes a duré six mois et se poursuit. Il est financé par Money Trail un projet qui soutient des journalistes africains, asiatiques et européens pour enquêter en réseau sur les flux financiers illicites et la corruption en Afrique, en Asie et en Europe.

      Les Nigérians ne viennent pas en Europe pour obtenir l’asile

      L’équipe a d’abord tenté d’élucider cette énigme : pourquoi tant de nigérians choisissent de migrer vers l’Europe alors qu’ils n’obtiennent quasiment jamais l’asile. Le Nigéria est un pays de plus de 190 millions d’habitants et l’économie la plus riche d’Afrique. Sa population représente le plus grand groupe de migrants africains qui arrivent en Europe de manière irrégulière. Sur les 180 000 migrants qui ont atteint les côtes italiennes en 2016, 21% étaient nigérians. Le Nigéria figure aussi régulièrement parmi les cinq premiers pays d’origine des demandeurs d’asile de l’Union européenne. Près de 60% des requérants nigérians proviennent de l’Etat d’Edo dont la capitale est Bénin City. Pourtant leurs chance d’obtenir un statut de protection sont minimes. En effet, seuls 9% des demandeurs d’asile nigérians reçoivent l’asile dans l’UE. Les 91% restants sont renvoyés chez eux ou disparaissent dans la nature.

      Dans l’article Want to make sense of migration ? Ask the people who stayed behind, Maite Vermeulen explique que Bénin City a été construite grâce aux nigérians travaillant illégalement en Italie. Et les femmes sont peut-être bien à l’origine d’un immense trafic de prostituées. Elle nous explique ceci :

      “Pour comprendre le présent, il faut revenir aux années 80. À cette époque, des entreprises italiennes étaient établies dans l’État d’Edo. Certains hommes d’affaires italiens ont épousé des femmes de Benin City, qui sont retournées en Italie avec leur conjoint. Ils ont commencé à exercer des activités commerciales, à commercialiser des textiles, de la dentelle et du cuir, de l’or et des bijoux. Ces femmes ont été les premières à faire venir d’autres femmes de leur famille en Italie – souvent légalement, car l’agriculture italienne avait cruellement besoin de travailleurs pour cueillir des tomates et des raisins. Mais lorsque, à la fin des années 80, la chute des prix du pétrole a plongé l’économie nigériane à l’arrêt, beaucoup de ces femmes d’affaires ont fait faillite. Les femmes travaillant dans l’agriculture ont également connu une période difficile : leur emploi est allé à des ouvriers d’Europe de l’Est. Ainsi, de nombreuses femmes Edo en Italie n’avaient qu’une seule alternative : la prostitution. Ce dernier recours s’est avéré être lucratif. En peu de temps, les femmes ont gagné plus que jamais auparavant. Elles sont donc retournées à Benin City dans les années 1990 avec beaucoup de devises européennes – avec plus d’argent, en fait, que beaucoup de gens de leur ville n’en avaient jamais vu. Elles ont construit des appartements pour gagner des revenus locatifs. Ces femmes étaient appelées « talos », ou mammas italiennes. Tout le monde les admirait. Les jeunes femmes les considéraient comme des modèles et voulaient également aller en Europe. Certains chercheurs appellent ce phénomène la « théorie de la causalité cumulative » : chaque migrant qui réussit entraîne plus de personnes de sa communauté à vouloir migrer. A cette époque, presque personne à Benin City ne savait d’où venait exactement l’argent. Les talos ont commencé à prêter de l’argent aux filles de leur famille afin qu’elles puissent également se rendre en Italie. Ce n’est que lorsque ces femmes sont arrivées qu’on leur a dit comment elles devaient rembourser le prêt. Certaines ont accepté, d’autres ont été forcées. Toutes gagnaient de l’argent. Dans les premières années, le secret des mammas italiennes était gardé au sein de la famille. Mais de plus en plus de femmes ont payé leurs dettes – à cette époque, cela prenait environ un an ou deux – et elles ont ensuite décidé d’aller chercher de l’argent elles-mêmes. En tant que « Mamas », elles ont commencé à recruter d’autres femmes dans leur ville natale. Puis, lentement, l’argent a commencé à manquer à Benin City : un grand nombre de leurs femmes travaillaient dans l’industrie du sexe en Italie.”

      Aujourd’hui, l’Union européenne considère le Nigéria comme son plus important “partenaire migratoire”et depuis quelques années les euros s’y déversent à flots afin de financer des programmes des sécurisation des frontières, de création d’emploi, de lutte contre la traite d’être humains et des programmes de sensibilisation sur les dangers de la migration vers l’Europe.
      Le “cartel migratoire” ou comment peu d’organisation monopolisent les projets sur le terrain

      Dans un autre article intitulé A breakdown of Europe’s € 1.5 billion migration spending in Nigeria, les journalistes se demandent comment les fonds européens sont alloués au Nigéria. Encore une fois on parle ici des projets destinés à freiner la migration. En tout ce sont 770 millions d’euros investis dans ces “projets migration”. En plus, le Nigéria bénéficie d’autres fonds supplémentaires à travers les “projets régionaux” qui s’élèvent à 775 millions d’euros destinés principalement à coordonner et organiser les retours vers les pays d’origines. Mais contrairement aux engagements de l’Union européenne les fonds alloués aux projets en faveur de la migration légale sont très inférieurs aux promesses et représentent 0.09% des aides allouées au Nigéria.

      A qui profitent ces fonds ? Au “cartel migratoire” constitué du Haut Commissariat des Nations Unies pour les réfugiés (HCR), de l’Organisation internationale des migrations (OIM), de l’UNICEF, de l’Organisation internationale du travail (OIL), de l’Organisation internationale des Nations Unies contre la drogue et le crime (UNODC). Ces organisations récoltent près de 60% des fonds alloués par l’Union européenne aux “projets migration” au Nigéria et dans la région. Les ONG et les consultants privés récupèrent 13% du total des fonds alloués, soit 89 millions d’euros, le double de ce qu’elles reçoivent en Europe.
      Les montants explosent, la transparence diminue

      Où va vraiment l’argent et comment mesurer les effets réels sur les populations ciblées. Quels sont les impacts de ces projets ? Depuis 2015, l’Europe a augmenté ses dépenses allouées à la migration qui s’élèvent désormais à plusieurs milliards.

      La plus grande partie de ces fonds est attribuée à l’Afrique. Dans l’article Europe spends billions stopping migration. Good luck figuring out where the money actually goes, Maite Vermeulen, Ajibola Amzat et Giacomo Zandonini expliquent que l’UE prévoit de doubler ces dépenses dans le budget 2021-2027 et quadrupler les dépenses sur le contrôle des frontières.

      Des mois de recherche n’ont pas permis de comprendre comment étaient alloués les fonds pour la migration. Les sites internet sont flous et de nombreux bureaucrates européens se disent incapables concilier les dépenses car la transparence fait défaut. Difficile de comprendre l’allocation précise des fonds de l’Union européenne et celle des fonds des Etats européens. Le tout ressemble, selon les chercheurs, à un immense plat de spaghettis. Ils se posent une question importante : si eux n’y arrivent pas après des mois de recherche comment les députés européens pourraient s’y retrouver ? D’autres chercheurs et fonctionnaires européens qualifient les dépenses de migration de l’UE d’opaques. La consultation de nombreux sites internet, documents officiels, rapports annuels et budgets, et les nombreuses demandes d’accès à l’information auprès de plusieurs pays européens actifs au Nigéria ainsi que les demandes d’explications adressées à la Commission européenne n’ont pas permis d’arriver à une vision globale et précise des budgets attribués à la politique migratoire européenne. Selon Tineke Strik, député vert au parlement européen, ce manque de clarté a des conséquences importantes sur le processus démocratique, car sans vision globale précise, il n’y a pas vraiment de surveillance possible sur les dépenses réelles ni sur l’impact réel des programmes sur le terrain.

      https://thecorrespondent.com/154/europe-spends-billions-stopping-migration-good-luck-figuring-out-where-the-money-actually-goes/102663569008-2e2c2159

  • Everyday racism : exhibition heading to Glasgow

    A NEW photography exhibition aims to shine a light on the every day experiences of racism faced by people of colour in Glasgow and foster conversations on how best to tackle discrimination.

    The exhibition, which opens at the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art (GOMA) this week, features 10 photographs by Karen Gordon, taken in collaboration with her subjects. It examines the common place racism experienced by the project’s participants that often went unnoticed by the white population around them.

    Participants, who all live in Glasgow, told Gordon about experiences of being stopped and searched at airports and taken aside for questioning by plain clothes police officers.
    Others had gone through their twenties being turned away from pubs and nightclubs by bouncers, although this did not happen to their white friends. One actor with Scottish Asian heritage said that being told he “did not have the right look” at castings was such a common experience that it was a “running joke” amongst BAME actors.

    One black man spoke about the “dirty looks” and “handbags clutched” if he was wearing a hoodie, while several others spoke of sensing racist judgments being made based on the colour of their skin. One black women recalled when a music tutor she had just met reached out unprompted to touch her hair.

    Gordon, who has worked as a photographer with Maryhill Integration Network – which supports refugee and migrant communities – for many years said she was inspired to start the project after realising that even though she had been involved in anti-racism work she was still not aware of the daily nature of racism directed at people of colour.

    She said: “As someone who has been trying to tackle racism all my life I realised there was still so much that I was unaware of. What are the insidious things that people don’t talk about? Glasgow can seem quite diverse and welcoming due to that, but when you start to go under the surface its more complicated.

    “The most important thing for me was that the participant was happy with the portrayal, so that was a huge part of the project and I worked very closely with people.

    “A lot of white people say they don’t see colour and that is only because they have never had to see it. It’s such a huge issue. I see the photographs as a way of starting a bigger conversation about this.”

    Nida Akif, a 21-year-old student, who both took part in and worked on the project, said that it had helped her to deepen her own understanding of the structural racism that she had sometimes struggled to name when she was younger.

    “For me what is often frustrating is that you experience something that is not outward racism but it’s more that it is an underlying thing,” she said.

    The photograph featuring Akif depicts an experience she had in an art gallery.

    She and a friend – both of Pakistani heritage and wearing headscarves – were told to stop taking photographs. The white people doing the same around them continued to do so unchecked.

    “It’s something that you can’t report because it’s treated as just being a suspicion,” she said. “When I started to speak to others about this I realised that as someone who is brown, who is Asian and wears a hijab I think about [how I am viewed] every day ... when I’m on the train and someone doesn’t sit next to me, when I go for job interviews.”

    THE increasing racist attitudes in Britain have also affected Akif and her friends, she claimed, with many of them deciding to remove their hijabs and headscarves because they felt it made them too visible.

    She said of the exhibition: “I hope that it will showcase the experiences people are having and will help tackle ignorance.”

    Concerns have been growing about the way that racist attitudes are being normalised by the racist and Islamophobic comments made by our most high-profile politicians.

    Last August Boris Johnston was widely condemned for saying Muslim women wearing burkas “look like letter boxes”, yet went on to become Prime Minister regardless. Meanwhile the “hostile environment” policies that led to the Windrush scandal have remained a cornerstone of Conservative government strategy.

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/18071789.everyday-racism-exhibition-heading-goma
    #racisme_ordinaire #racisme #xénophobie #Glasgow #photographie #peau #couleur_de_peau #Karen_Gordon

    Le site de la photographe :
    https://karengordonphotography.blog

    Et la présentation de son travail #Everyday_racism :
    https://karengordonphotography.blog/everyday-racism

    ... notamment avec cette photo qui clairement mentionne la question des #cheveux


    #cheveux_crépus

    ... ou celle-ci qui aborde la question de la #classe_sociale et du #travail :

    ping @albertocampiphoto @philippe_de_jonckheere

  • « Les femmes ont été traitées comme des machines » : cinq questions sur le #xénoféminisme
    https://usbeketrica.com/article/cinq-questions-sur-le-xenofeminisme

    Pourquoi une telle confiance en la technologie ?

    A cette question que nous leur posons par mail, en ajoutant que celle-ci a longtemps exclu les femmes, et continue parfois de reproduire les stéréotypes sexistes, les membres de Laboria Cuboniks ont une réponse ferme : « Les femmes et la technologie sont des alliées de longue date. L’une des leçons que nous tirons du cyberféminisme est qu’historiquement, les femmes ont été traitées en tant qu’”infrastructure” facilitant une économie qui les a largement exclues. Pour le dire succinctement, elles ont été traitées comme des machines - des machines reproductives, des machines à écrire, des machines à effectuer du travail domestique, des machines à produire du capital social masculin. Au début du XXe siècle, on parlait d’“ordinateurs” pour parler des dactylographes, souvent des femmes. Le travail féminin et le travail des machines ont été invisibles et imperceptibles. Et nous ne commençons qu’aujourd’hui à rectifier les récits autour du rôle des femmes dans les développements scientifiques et technologiques : la contribution des femmes à l’informatique par exemple est absolument fondamentale. Il est important de ne pas être pessimiste sur la place que vont occuper les femmes dans un futur technologique. Nous tentons de le promouvoir dans le manifeste à travers l’idée d’une raison non-genrée (“Prétendre que la raison ou la rationalité est “par nature” l’affaire du patriarcat revient à s’avouer vaincu.e.s”, y lit-on, ndlr). La technologie n’est pas fondamentalement hostile aux femmes. Mais elle n’est pas fondamentalement émancipatrice non plus. Le risque existe. Il faut le considérer pour les évolutions à venir, comme celles de l’intelligence artificielle. »

  • Le grand remplacement, un virus français (1/5) : à l’origine du mythe
    https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/mecaniques-du-complotisme-saison-2-les-instructions-secretes-et-le-faux-complot-des-jesuites/le-grand-remplacement-un-virus-francais-episode-1-a-lorigine-du-mythe

    Le mythe d’une invasion migratoire n’est pas un thème nouveau. A intervalles réguliers, il traverse la France depuis près d’un siècle. Belle époque, années folles, grande dépression, décolonisation : chaque décennie a connu ses prophètes de la submersion étrangère qui lancent leurs carrières littéraires et politiques sur le dos de
    l’immigration. Dès les années 1910, le mythe prend forme.

    –----

    Le grand remplacement, un virus français (2/5) : le Front National
    https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/mecaniques-du-complotisme-saison-2-les-instructions-secretes-et-le-faux-complot-des-jesuites/le-grand-remplacement-un-virus-francais-25-le-front-national

    Après 1945, il faut reconstruire le pays. Un million de travailleurs venus des colonies arrivent en métropole. Mais la guerre d’Algérie et la fin des Trente glorieuses font surgir des tensions économiques et communautaires. Bientôt, des forces politiques extrêmes prospèreront sur ces fractures. Reprenant le flambeau de la peur migratoire, le Front National s’installe dans le paysage politique français.

    –---

    Le grand remplacement, un virus français (3/5) : Renaud Camus
    https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/mecaniques-du-complotisme-saison-2-les-instructions-secretes-et-le-faux-complot-des-jesuites/le-grand-remplacement-un-virus-francais-35-renaud-camus

    Au début des années 2000, un écrivain français jusque-là principalement connu pour sa contribution à la littérature gay des années 70 s’invite dans les débats sur l’immigration, dont il est convaincu qu’elle amènera la disparition des Français. Il résume sa pensée en deux mots : le “grand remplacement”. D’une formule, Renaud Camus parvient à cristalliser les angoisses de l’époque.

    –---

    Le grand remplacement, un virus français (4/5) : la décennie Zemmour
    https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/mecaniques-du-complotisme-saison-2-les-instructions-secretes-et-le-faux-complot-des-jesuites/le-grand-remplacement-un-virus-francais-45-la-decennie-zemmour

    Pour populariser son concept du grand remplacement, Renaud Camus peut s’appuyer sur un homme, Éric Zemmour, et sur un contexte. En 10 ans, le polémiste médiatique devient une référence intellectuelle dans une France qui se crispe sous le coup de la crise économique, des attentats islamistes et de la vague des réfugiés syriens. En moins de 10 ans, le grand replacement est sur toutes les lèvres.

    –---

    Le grand remplacement, un virus français (5/5) : Trump, Camus, les mots tuent
    https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/mecaniques-du-complotisme-saison-2-les-instructions-secretes-et-le-faux-complot-des-jesuites/le-grand-remplacement-un-virus-francais-55-trump-camus-les-mots-tuent

    La France n’est pas le seul pays travaillé par l’angoisse migratoire. Par internet et Amazon, les mots de Renaud Camus traversent les frontières. Dans une extrême droite américaine traumatisée par la présidence Obama et désinhibée par les discours de Trump, le grand remplacement résonne. Inspirés par les appels à résister au “génocide par substitution”, certains vont prendre les armes. Les mots tuent.

    #extrême_droite #fascisme #xénophobie #racisme #exclusion #discrimination #proto-fascisme #néonazis #grand_remplacement

  • zemmour révolutionne l’histoire ( en dix leçons à suivre sur . . . . . cnews ) #Gérard_Noiriel - 20 Octobre 2019
    https://noiriel.wordpress.com/author/grrdnrl

    « Foucault révolutionne l’histoire ». Ce livre de Paul Veyne a été l’un des textes phare de l’épistémologie historique des années 1970. A cette époque Michel Foucault, philosophe et historien, était unanimement considéré comme l’un des plus grands intellectuels français. Certes, le Figaro lui préférait Raymond Aron, un autre professeur du Collège de France. Mais qu’on soit de droite ou de gauche, tout le monde partageait alors l’idée qu’un intellectuel digne de ce nom devait sa réputation à l’oeuvre qu’il avait produite dans le domaine spécialisé qui était le sien (l’histoire, la philosophie, la littérature, etc.). Aujourd’hui, le grand intellectuel du Figaro s’appelle … Éric Zemmour. Le journaliste #Alexandre_Devecchio présente son dernier livre comme une « méditation puissante et profonde sur l’Histoire » et il ajoute : « avec Destin français, Zemmour montre à tous ceux qui voulaient le réduire au rôle de polémiste champion du buzz qu’il est bien plus que cela : un intellectuel et un écrivain » (Alexandre Devecchio, « L’Algérie, Drancy… Éric Zemmour se livre sur son passé », FigaroVox, 07/09/2018).

    Le grand penseur du Figaro veut lui aussi « révolutionner l’histoire » puisque son but est explicitement de mettre un terme à la domination qu’exerce « la mafia » des historiens « déconstructeurs » qui « tiennent les manettes de l’Etat », cumulant « titres et postes », et qui ont « un droit de vie et de mort sur la nation elle-même » parce qu’ils ont repris à leur compte la stratégie décrite par Georges Orwell dans 1984 : « qui contrôle le passé contrôle l’avenir. Qui contrôle le présent contrôle le passé (Destin français, p. 37).

    Pour mieux comprendre en quoi consiste cette nouvelle « révolution », je vais vous la présenter en dix leçons à partir des trois livres qu’Eric Zemmour a publiés sur l’histoire de France : Mélancolie française (Mel, 2010), Le Suicide français (Sui, 2016) et Destin français (Destin, 2018).

    Leçon 1 : #Maurras et #Bainville, deux grands historiens injustement dénigrés.
    Vous aviez cru Marc Bloch quand il s’attaquait aux idéologues d’extrême droite comme Charles Maurras et Jacques Bainville, en dénonçant les « faux brillants d’une histoire prétendue, dont l’absence de sérieux, le pittoresque de pacotille, les partis pris politiques pensent se racheter par une immodeste assurance ». (Apologie pour l’histoire , 1949, p. 124). Et bien, vous aviez tort ! Grâce à la « méditation puissante et profonde » d’Eric Zemmour, nous savons maintenant que ces idéologues étaient en réalité de grands historiens. Charles Maurras fut l’un de nos « analystes les plus brillants (Mel, p. 105) et seul Jacques Bainville « comprit que le traité de Versailles n’effacerait pas celui de Vienne en 1815 » (Mel, p. 150).

    Leçon 2 : le traître François 1er complice de l’Islam ( A ficher « S » de toute urgence)
    Comme on célèbre cette année le 500e anniversaire de la mort de Léonard de Vinci – qui passa les trois dernières années de sa vie à Amboise où François 1er l’avait accueilli – vous aviez sans doute lu ici ou là que le vainqueur de Marignan était un prince éclairé, l’ami des artistes. Eh bien sachez qu’on vous a menti. En réalité, François 1er fut « l’homme des occasions perdues, des coups manqués ». Vaincu à la bataille de Pavie, il prononça ces paroles funestes « tout est perdu fors l’honneur ». C’est lui qui « a inoculé à la France le venin de la geste vaine mais honorable, des humiliations qu’on enrobe d’atouts chevaleresques » (Destin, p. 146). Faiblesse coupable qui le poussa à s’allier avec Soliman, l’horrible sultan turc. Merci Monsieur Zemmour. La nation toute entière vous sera reconnaissante pour votre histoire VIGILANTE car nous savons enfin que François 1er ne fut qu’un « traître » qui permit « l’entrée du loup islamique dans la bergerie chrétienne » (Destin, p. 146-147).

    Leçon 3 : Le massacre de la Saint Barthélemy ? Une chance pour la France.
    Vos professeurs d’histoire vous ont sûrement raconté le drame des protestants sous l’Ancien Régime. Le massacre de la #Saint_Barthélemy en 1572, puis le siège de La Rochelle, ordonné par #Richelieu, qui causa la mort de 23 000 habitants sur 28 000 en 1627-28. Victime inconsciente de la mafia orwellienne, vous avez plaint ces pauvres #protestants, alors qu’ils étaient « intolérants, persécuteurs de #catholiques ; fortifiant les places fortes qui leur avaient été réservées, ils rêvaient de s’ériger en République autonome à la hollandaise, levaient leurs impôts et leurs milices » (Mel, p. 25-26 ). Le cardinal de Richelieu a donc eu raison d’exterminer ces #communautaristes qui voulaient détruire notre nation. Et comme l’histoire repasse toujours les mêmes plats, aujourd’hui encore « il faudrait un implacable Richelieu combattant sans relâche “l’État dans l’État” et “les partis de l’étranger” pour abattre les La Rochelle islamiques qui s’édifient sur tout le territoire » (Sui, p. 526).

    Leçon 4 : Le racisme, c’est la faute à Voltaire.
    Vous aviez cru que la France était le pays des Lumières et que Voltaire avait mené un combat acharné contre la monarchie absolue, pour défendre la justice et la liberté d’expression. Une fois de plus, vous aviez tout faux. Grâce à la puissante méditation d’Eric Zemmour, nous savons à présent que #Voltaire, ce fut le « Louis de Funès » du XVIIIe siècle, le comique qui ouvrit la voie à des générations successives de « déconstructeurs nihilistes, amoureux insatiables de la table rase » ; mais aussi le premier raciste de France, car c’est lui qui a inventé la division de l’humanité en races « en détruisant l’unité chrétienne de l’espèce humaine ». (Destin, p. 234sq).

    Leçon 5 : Hugo m’a tué.
    Peut-être que, dans votre enfance, vous avez lu avec passion les Misérables de Victor Hugo, en versant une larme sur le sort de Cosette et de Jean Valjean. Vous avez été séduit par le côté humaniste du grand romancier qui a combattu toute sa vie contre la peine de mort. Il est temps de vous ressaisir ! Puisque nous vivons désormais dans une société de VIGILANCE, les livres de Hugo devraient être fichés « S ». Sa « fascination pour les assassins est un des fils rouges de son oeuvre » nous explique le grand historien de Valeurs Actuelles … Hugo, en effet, a instillé dans nos cerveaux corrompus la « culture de l’excuse » qui encourage la délinquance et la criminalité. C’est Hugo, le grand responsable du « climat compassionnel et victimaire » dans lequel baigne aujourd’hui la France (Destin, p. 373). Voilà pourquoi, lorsque les terroristes islamistes nous mitraillent en vociférant « Allaou Akbar », nous leur répondons « Vous n’aurez pas ma haine » (Destin, p. 567).

    Leçon 6 : juifs et antisémites, même combat.
    Vous n’avez certainement pas lu les œuvres complètes d’ #Edouard_Drumont. Pourtant, vous savez que l’un des arguments ressassés par les antisémites de tous poils consiste à nier l’ampleur des persécutions qu’a subi le peuple juif tout au long de son histoire. Zemmour, là encore, révolutionne l’histoire. Grâce à lui, vous apprendrez que Drumont avait raison. « Juifs et antisémites communient paradoxalement dans une histoire forgée de toutes pièces qui les arrange tous, d’une longue et ininterrompue suite de persécutions ». Ce « récit victimaire », ajoute Zemmour, vise à « dissimuler que le repli communautaire a été inspiré par les juifs eux-mêmes et ce dès le XVe siècle » (Destin, p. 388).

    Leçon 7 : Les Français ? De gentils colons mélangeurs.
    Le virus hugolien a infecté votre cerveau à un tel point que vous avez pris en compassion les peuples colonisés car on vous a parlé des crimes commis en #Algérie, en #Indochine, en #Nouvelle_Calédonie, dans l’ #Afrique sub-saharienne. Un stage de rééducation s’impose de toute urgence car nous savons maintenant, grâce à Eric Zemmour, que « contrairement aux Anglais, les Français n’exterminent pas les « sauvages » ; ils se mélangent » (Mél, p. 44).

    Leçon 8 : Si les poilus avaient perdu, Hitler n’aurait pas gagné.
    En 2014, vous aviez peut-être participé à l’une des multiples commémorations du centenaire de la bataille de la Marne. Vous avez alors appris que, grâce à l’héroïsme de nos poilus, l’offensive allemande fut arrêtée net. Lisez Zemmour et vous comprendrez que cette victoire fut, en réalité, « notre plus grave « erreur » ». Si l’armée française avait perdu, « pas de révolution russe, pas de nazisme, pas d’holocauste des juifs » (Mel, p. 108). Autrement dit, les premiers responsables des « totalitarismes »du XXe siècle, ce sont les poilus de 14.

    Leçon 9 : Merci Pétain.
    Sans vous en rendre compte, vous avez été victime de la #propagande du « parti de l’étranger ». Son chef de file, c’est un historien américain, donc malfaisant : Robert Paxton. Ce prêcheur multiculturaliste a osé prétendre que le maréchal #Pétain et le gouvernement de Vichy avaient collaboré à la déportation des Juifs ! Alors qu’en réalité grâce au Maréchal , les trois quarts d’entre eux ont été sauvés (Destin, p. 501sq).

    Leçon 10 : Simone Veil, « l’idiote utile » du Grand Remplacement.
    Vous avez applaudi quand le président Macron a décidé que les cendres de #Simone_Veil seraient transférées au Panthéon. Il vous paraissait normal que la nation française marque sa reconnaissance pour une femme qui, après avoir été internée à Auschwitz, a mené un combat politique courageux contre les discriminations à l’égard des femmes ; en faisant adopter notamment la loi du 17 janvier 1975 légalisant l’avortement. « Histoire revisitée, réécrite, contrefaite » nous explique l’historien du Figaro (Sui, p. 136). Ce qu’on vous a soigneusement caché, c’est que cette loi – complétée par les mesures favorisant le « regroupement familial » – a été l’une des causes principales du « grand remplacement ». A partir de la #loi_Veil, en effet, la famille française va péricliter au profit de la « famille maghrébine la plus traditionnelle – la plus archaïque, la plus patriarcale » (Sui, p. 143). Voilà pourquoi aujourd’hui nos banlieues sont totalement islamisées.

    Ceux qui voudront en savoir plus sur la manière dont Zemmour « révolutionne » l’histoire pour servir de caution aux #idéologies les plus rétrogrades, liront avec profit mon dernier livre (Le venin dans la plume, La Découverte, 2019). Vous comprendrez mieux pourquoi ce polémiste inculte bénéficie, malgré ses condamnations par la justice, de puissants soutiens dans les médias dominants.

    #zemmour #eric_zemmour #racisme #france #histoire #islamophobie #médias #extrême-droite #extrême_droite #le_figaro #cnews #merdias #xénophobie #livre

    • Le venin dans la plume
      Édouard Drumont, Éric Zemmour et la part sombre de la République
      Gérard NOIRIEL

      https://editionsladecouverte.fr/catalogue/index-Le_venin_dans_la_plume-9782348045721.html
      La place qu’occupe Éric Zemmour dans le champ médiatique et dans l’espace public français suscite l’inquiétude et la consternation de bon nombre de citoyens. Comment un pamphlétaire qui alimente constamment des polémiques par ses propos racistes, sexistes, homophobes, condamné à plusieurs reprises par la justice, a-t-il pu acquérir une telle audience ?

      Pour comprendre ce phénomène, ce livre replace le cas Zemmour dans une perspective historique qui prend comme point de départ les années 1880, période où se mettent en place les institutions démocratiques qui nous gouvernent encore aujourd’hui. Ce faisant, il met en regard le parcours d’Éric Zemmour et celui d’Édouard Drumont, le chef de file du camp antisémite à la fin du xixe siècle. Car les deux hommes ont chacun à leur époque su exploiter un contexte favorable à leur combat idéologique. Issus des milieux populaires et avides de revanche sociale, tous deux ont acquis leur notoriété pendant des périodes de crise économique et sociale, marquées par un fort désenchantement à l’égard du système parlementaire.

      Dans ce saisissant portrait croisé, Gérard Noiriel analyse les trajectoires et les écrits de ces deux polémistes, en s’intéressant aux cibles qu’ils privilégient (étrangers, femmes, intellectuels de gauche, etc.) et en insistant sur les formes différentes que ces discours ont prises au cours du temps (car la législation interdit aujourd’hui de proférer des insultes aussi violentes que celles de Drumont). L’historien met ainsi en lumière une matrice du discours réactionnaire, et propose quelques pistes pour alimenter la réflexion de ceux qui cherchent aujourd’hui à combattre efficacement cette démagogie populiste.

  • Après les #milices qui surveillent les #frontières en #Hongrie, #Bulgarie, #République_Tchèque :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/719995

    ... voici le même type de groupes en #Slovénie...
    Vigilantes in Slovenia patrol borders to keep out migrants

    Blaz Zidar has a mission: patrol along a razor-wire fence on Slovenia’s border with Croatia, catch migrants trying to climb over, hand them to police and make sure they are swiftly sent out of the country.

    The 47-year-old former Slovenian army soldier, dressed in camouflage trousers with a long knife hanging from his belt, is one of the vigilantes who call themselves “home guards” — a mushrooming anti-migrant movement that was until recently unthinkable in the traditionally liberal Alpine state. The name of the self-styled group evokes memories of the militia that sided with fascists during World War II.

    “I would prefer to enjoy my retirement peacefully, but security reasons are preventing this,” Zidar said as he embarked on yet another of his daily foot patrols together with his wife near their home village of Radovica nestled idyllically among vineyards and lush green forested hills.

    Zidar complained that he had to act because Slovenian police aren’t doing their job of guarding the borders from the migrant flow which peaked in 2015 when hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, fleeing wars and poverty, crossed from Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia via Hungary or Croatia and Slovenia toward more prosperous Western European states.

    Zidar said that his six children often join them in the border monitoring mission “because they have to learn how to protect their nation from intruders.”

    Slovenia’s volunteer guards illustrate strong anti-migrant sentiments not only in the small European Union nation of 2 million people, but also across central and eastern Europe which is a doorway into Western Europe for migrants and where countries such as Hungary have faced criticism for open anti-migrant policies. Similar right-wing guards that frequently attacked migrants crossing the borders previously openly operated in Hungary and Bulgaria.

    Police in Croatia — an EU member state that is still not part of the borderless EU travel zone — routinely face accusations of pushbacks and violence against migrants trying to come in from Bosnia. In Slovenia, the authorities are putting up additional fences on the border with Croatia after Italy’s former hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, threatened “physical barriers” would be built between Slovenia and Italy if the migrant flow wasn’t completely stopped.

    The fiery anti-migrant rhetoric by Salvini and Hungarian President Victor Orban, who was the first to order fences on Hungary’s border with Serbia at the start of the migrant crisis, have resonated among some in Slovenia, an exceptionally calm, nature-loving country.

    Miha Kovac, a Slovenian political analyst who is a professor at the University of Ljubljana, described the anti-migrant guards as “guys with big beer bellies who don’t have much of an education, who didn’t have much of a career, who don’t know what to do with themselves in the contemporary world.

    “They find their meaning in this kind of movement and this kind of hatred toward migrants.”

    Kovac said that in the short run, the right-wing groups represent no real danger to the tiny EU nation. But if the European migrant crisis continues “this kind of movement might become more aggressive.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zte9nDFcACY

    “Slovenia is a country of 2 million and if you would become a kind of immigrant pocket with the population of ... 20, 30, 40, 50,000 immigrants, this could cause quite significant problems,” Kovac said.

    Slovenian authorities don’t seem to mind the self-styled guards patrolling the country’s borders, as long as they don’t do anything against the law.

    “The self-organization of individuals does not in any way imply mistrust of police work,” said France Bozicnik, the head of criminal police at a police station near the border. “It’s just the opposite.”

    “People call us on the phone every day and give us information about suspicious vehicles and suspicious persons, and we sincerely thank them for this information,” he said. “They are welcome to continue with this reporting.”

    Nevertheless, the images of masked men in military uniforms that appeared about a year ago have shocked many in Slovenia, the birthplace of U.S. first lady Melania Trump. The largest volunteer group called the Stajerska Garda was filmed taking an oath to secure public order in the country.

    The group commander, Andrej Sisko, said his goal is “to train people to defend their country and help the military and police at a time of massive migrations from the African and Asian states, mostly Muslims.”


    Sisko, who spent six months in prison for his paramilitary activities, insisted that his guards don’t carry real weapons or do anything illegal.

    “People are mostly supporting us, they are stopping and congratulating us on the streets,” Sisko said in an interview with The Associated Press as four of his men in camouflage uniforms, wearing genuine-looking mock guns, stood watch at his house in the suburb of the northern Slovenian town of #Maribor.

    With the continuing migrant flow in the region, human rights groups have accused authorities in Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Hungary and particularly Croatia of illegal and forced pushbacks from their borders.

    Witnesses cited by the Border Violence Monitoring Network described Croatian police officers at the border with Bosnia burning clothes, sleeping bags, backpacks and tents in addition to targeting other possessions such as cellphones, cash and personal documents. Croatian officials have repeatedly denied the claims.

    “The police first attacked by shooting up in the air, and then they ordered us to lay down,” said Shabbir Ahmed Mian from Pakistan, adding that after police body searches they “pushed” the group of 15 that included women, children and the elderly into a small van that dumped them back to Bosnia.

    “We couldn’t breathe, there was no oxygen,” he said.

    https://www.apnews.com/57424e6bf60046e594b4c052bac86b6c

    #Stajerska_Garda #Andrey_Sisko
    #asile #migrations #réfugiés #xénophobie #racisme #patrouilles #chasse_aux_migrants #anti-réfugiés #milices #milices_privées #extrême_droite #néo-nazis

    ping @reka @isskein @marty

    • Nouvelle reçu via le rapport « Border violence monitoring network - Balkan Region » de septembre 2019 (p. 13 et segg.) :
      https://www.borderviolence.eu/balkan-region-report-september-2019

      Extrait :

      SloveniaVigilante groups patrol the Slovenian border with CroatiaOn September 17th the Associated Press reported (https://www.apnews.com/57424e6bf60046e594b4c052bac86b6c) on the alarming activities of a Slovenian para-military group called “#Stajerska_Varda”, operating along the border with Croatia. Members of the group are reportedly taking part in vigilante activities, apprehending people-in-transit who try to cross the border, and calling the police to push them back. Until now the groups’ members have not been observed carrying out any violent actions, but their rise in numbers and presence on the border is deeply concerning. A video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2KOSTXp4fA

      ) from October 2018 shows a large number of armed people taking an oath nearMaribor, stating their intent to take border security into their own hands.

      Andrey Sisko, the leader of the far-right group, confirmed that at that time the militia had existed for longer than a year. Sisko himself was arrested and detained (https://www.total-slovenia-news.com/politics/3328-militia-leader-jailed-for-trying-to-subvert-the-constituti) for six months with the charge of “trying to subvert the constitutional order”. He was released in March. The open activities of far-right groups at the border are a telling development, not only for pressure on transit conditions, but also the growth in nationalist logic pervading Slovenia today. Stajerska Varda have stepped into the political void opened up by centre and right-wing politicians who have stoked domestic opinion against people-in-transit. While extreme right activists frame their role as a necessary defense, their actual ideology is explicitly aggressive. As shown in a report (https://eeradicalization.com/the-militarization-of-slovenian-far-right-extremism) by European Eye on radicalization, Stajerska Varda has the nationalist ideas of “Greater Slovenjia” (https://eeradicalization.com/the-militarization-of-slovenian-far-right-extremism) as a reference point, and has inserted itself in a context of growing militarization as part of Slovenia’s right.

      Yet media response to this rise in armed groups presented some worrying attitudes towards the issue. Namely the views of Miha Kovac, a political analyst interviewed by AP for their report, is dangerous in two senses. Kovac dismisses radical groups as “guys with big beer bellies [...] who don’t know what to do with themselves”, and even goes on to allege that the root cause of facism is the presence of migrants in Slovenia. Marking out people-in-transit as instigators falls into a traditional cycle of victim blaming, a route which absolves the role of fear mongering party politics in abetting radicalization.
      As shown by right wing leaders around Europe, such as Matteo Salvini and Victor Orban, open praise for and facilitation of radical groups is an explicit tactic used to build a right wing consensus on the ground. The example of vigilantes operating in Hungaryas early as 2015, suggests that the development of state borders and growth of the extra-parliamentary right go hand in hand. These two strands are evidently complicit in Slovenia, seen especially in the silence at the party and state levels in regards to a self publicized military juntaoperating on state soil. September’s revelations again highlight the liminal space between conservative migration politics and paramilitary fascism. The existence of these activities call into direct question the responsibilities of the Slovenian state, and are a concerning augmentation of the current institutional pushback framework.

      https://www.borderviolence.eu/wp-content/uploads/September-2019-Report-1.pdf

    • Patriot games: Slovenian paramilitaries face down migrant ’threat’ on border

      Dressed in camouflage and armed with air rifles, Slovenian paramilitaries moves in formation through woods a stone’s throw from Croatia, patrolling a border zone where the group’s leader says illegal migration is rife.

      The more than 50-strong group, some of whom mask their faces with balaclavas and which includes a handful of women, is led by Andrej Sisko, who also heads Gibanje Zedinjena Slovenija, a fringe nationalist party that has so far failed to win seats in parliament.

      He believes authorities are failing in their duty to protect Slovenia against what he views as the migrant threat, and founded Stajerska and Krajnska Varda (Stajerska and Krajnska Guard) to fill that gap.

      Members of both organistions were participating in the patrol when Reuters TV met them.

      “It is a duty of all of us to ensure security in our own country,” he said. “If state bodies who are paid for that cannot or do not want to ensure security we can help ensure it, that is what we do.”

      Anti-migrant sentiment in Slovenia and other ex-Communist states has risen sharply since 2015, when eastern Europe bore the initial brunt of a refugee crisis.

      Much of the region has since then resisted attempts by EU authorities in Brussels to enforce a continent-wide quota system for new arrivals, which Slovenia has however signed up for.

      According to Slovenian police, numbers of migrants crossing illegally from Croatia to Slovenia - where a razor-wire fence has been erected along stretches of the border since 2015 - rose to 11,786 in the first nine months of this year from 6,911 a year earlier.

      Sisko this year served time in jail for forming Stajerska Varda and urging the overthrow of state institutions.

      He says the group, which generally meets in the border zone at weekends, does not intercept migrants - which he emphasises would be against the law - but advertises their presence to security forces.

      Police told Reuters they were monitoring the group’s behaviour and had not detected any recent illegal activities.

      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-slovenia-paramilitary/patriot-games-slovenian-paramilitaries-face-down-migrant-threat-on-border-i

    • On en parle ici aussi :
      Patrouille de miliciens d’extrême-droite

      « C’est une honte, il y a la police, l’armée, maintenant cette clôture et il y a même une milice ! », fulmine à son tour Katarina Bernad Sterva, directrice de l’association slovène d’aide aux réfugiés, qui se désespère de la situation à la frontière.

      Depuis quelques jours en effet, des #milices en treillis militaires, visages cachés derrière des cagoules noires, patrouillent aussi le long de la rivière #Kolpa. Dirigée par le leader d’extrême-droite, #Andrej_Sisko,cette #milice se veut un « renfort » à l’armée régulière pour « défendre la frontière » et intercepter les migrants. « Nous sommes le point d’entrée de l’espace Schengen », se justifie Andrej Sisko. « Nous voulons faire passer un message. Nous voulons dire aux étrangers de rester chez eux. La clôture est fragile, elle ne permet pas de stopper les migrants alors nous venons contrôler les abords de la rivière nous-mêmes ».

      La milice d’Andrej Sisko n’a aucun mandat légal. Et visiblement, les villageois s’expliquent mal leur présence.

      Si certains rient à leur passage - « C’est le carnaval quand ils sont là », entend-t-on ici et là dans les villages frontaliers – d’autres comme Katarina Bernad Sterva regarde cette armée parallèle avec une inquiétude grandissante. « Ce qui m’effraie, c’est qu’ils existent. Publiquement, le gouvernement a condamné leurs actions, mais, dans les faits, les autorités ne font rien. Ces hommes sont fous, nous nous attendions à une réaction forte du gouvernement, comme par exemple l’annonce de la dissolution de ces patrouilles ».

      Interrogée par InfoMigrants, la police reste muette sur le sujet. « Je n’ai rien à dire sur ces hommes. Ils n’ont pas le soutien de la police », déclare simplement Vicjem Toskan, l’un des commandants en chef de la police de Koper, à l’ouest du pays.

      Ce soir-là, à Kostel, les amis du café s’interrogent surtout sur le sort réservé aux migrants interceptés par cette milice d’extrême-droite. « On a déjà la police et l’armée pour intercepter les migrants. On a une clôture pour les empêcher de continuer leur route. Eux, qu’est-ce qui vont leur faire, la nuit, dans la montagne ? », s’inquiète Rudy. « Ils portent des masques, ils marchent dans la forêt. J’ai plus peur d’eux que des immigrés qui traversent la rivière », chuchote à son tour, une jeune fille en bout de table. « Si j’étais migrante, je n’aimerais vraiment pas tomber sur eux ».

      https://seenthis.net/messages/791703#message811227

  • Using Fear of the “Other,” Orbán Reshapes Migration Policy in a Hungary Built on Cultural Diversity

    In summer 2015, more than 390,000 asylum seekers, mostly Muslim, crossed the Serbian-Hungarian border and descended on the Keleti railway station in Budapest. For Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party, the arrival of these asylum seekers was not a humanitarian issue but a Muslim invasion threatening the national security, social cohesion, and Christian identity of the Hungarian nation. In the four years since this episode, the fear of the “other” has resulted in a string of anti-immigrant actions and policies.

    For example, barbed wire fences were constructed to deter asylum seekers from entering Hungarian territory. Transit zones on the same Serbian-Hungarian border followed, and since the end of March 2017, anyone applying for asylum in Hungary can only do so from a transit zone and is detained there for the duration of the asylum procedure. Conditions there have been grim. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) contends rejected asylum seekers inside the transit zones are denied food, to the point of starvation.

    Furthermore, the Orbán government is fighting anti-immigrant battles not just at the border, but also in Brussels. Under the EU burden-sharing scheme, Hungary was supposed to accept 1,294 refugees. However, the prime minister said that while Hungarians have “no problems” with the local Muslim community, any EU plan to relocate asylum seekers, including many Muslims, would destroy Hungary’s Christian identity and culture. In his attempt to quash admissions, Orbán signaled that his party may split with Europe’s main conservative group and join an anti-immigrant, nationalist bloc in the EU Parliament led by Italy’s Matteo Salvini. Finally, Hungary’s latest anti-immigrant law criminalizes assistance to unauthorized migrants by civil-society organizations and good Samaritans.

    These anti-immigrant sentiments are relatively new. Given Hungary’s geopolitical location, immigration and emigration have been a reality since the birth of the country. At times, Hungary has been quite a multicultural society: for example, during the Habsburg Empire, Hungarians coexisted with Germans, Slavs, Italians, Romanians, and Jews originating in Germany, Poland, and Russia. Later, in the aftermath of World War II, significant population movements greatly modified the ethnic map of Eastern and Central Europe, and many ethnic Hungarians ended up in neighboring countries, some of whom would return later.

    Yet, it is strange to write about multicultural Hungary in 2019. Despite population movements in the postwar and communist eras and significant refugee arrivals during the Yugoslav wars in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, the country has only recently been grappling with the arrival of migrants and asylum seekers from beyond Europe. Now several years out from the 2015-16 European migrant and refugee crisis, the Orbán administration continues to pursue policies to limit humanitarian and other arrivals from beyond Europe, while welcoming those of Hungarian ancestry. Hungarian civil society has attempted to provide reception services for newcomers, even as the number of asylum seekers and refugees has dwindled: just 671 asylum seekers and 68 refugees were present in Hungary in 2018, down from 177,135 and 146, respectively, in 2015.

    This article examines historical and contemporary migration in Hungary, from its multicultural past to recent attempts to criminalize migration and activities of those who aim to help migrants and asylum seekers.

    Immigrants and Their Reception in Historic Hungary

    In the 11th century, the Carpathian Basin saw both organized settlement of certain peoples and a roaming population, which was in reaction to certain institutional changes in the medieval Hungarian kingdom. Historians note that newcomers came to historic Hungary searching for a better life: first across the entire Carpathian Basin and later in the Danube Valley. In the 12th century, Hungarian King Géza II invited Saxons to settle in Transylvania and later, when the Teutonic Knights were expelled from Burzenland (in modern-day Romania), they were welcomed in Brasov. The aftermath of the Tartar invasion in 1241 was followed by settlement of immigrants from Slovakia, Poland, and Russia. Ethnic minority groups fleeing Bulgaria settled between the Duna and Tisza rivers, while Romanians found new homes in Transylvania. King Bela IV erected new cities populated predominantly by German, Italian, and Jewish immigrants hailing from Central Europe and Germany.

    The 15th century saw a large settlement of Southern Slavs. The desertification of Transdanubia (the part of Hungary west of the Danube River) was remedied with a settlement of Croats and large groups of Serbians. When the medieval Kingdom of Hungary fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1526, some of the Southern Slavs moved to the parts under the Ottoman occupation voluntarily, while those who participated in the conquest were dispatched by the Ottoman rulers. At the same time, large number of ethnic Hungarians fled north and settled in the area of contemporary Slovakia.

    The next large group, of Germans, arrived in the 18th century during the Habsburg dynasty. The German settlement was part of the Habsburg population policy aimed at filling the void left by the Hungarians who perished during Ottoman rule, especially in the southern territories, around Baranya County and the Banat region. Germans also settled in Pest, Vecees, Buda, Esztergom, and the Pilis Mountains. By 1790, an estimated 70,000 ethnic Germans lived in Southern Hungary.

    While German immigrants were largely welcomed in 18th century Hungary, the same cannot be said about Romanians. During the reign of Empress Maria Theresa, Hungarian nobility voiced serious concerns about the rapid increase of the Romanian population. The nobles thought Romanians would ruin Transylvania.

    The Habsburg administration did not want to repeat the mistakes of the Ottomans and decided to control population movement along the Serbian border. A census conducted in the 13 villages of the Tisza region and 24 villages along the Maros river identified 8,000 border guards on duty. Despite these precautions, large-scale emigration from Serbia continued during the Habsburg era, with approximately 4,000 people crossing over to Hungary.

    Jews were the largest immigrant group in Hungary in the 19th century. Some came from the western territories of the Habsburg Empire—Germany, Bohemia, and Moravia—while others fled persecution in Russia. The arrival of Jews to the Hungarian territory was viewed favorably by Emperor Franz Josef I and Hungarian liberal politicians. Well-heeled Jewish families acquired noble status and rose in the aristocratic ranks, and many became patrons of the arts. At the beginning of World War I, an estimated 1 million Jews lived within the boundaries of what is present-day Hungary. However, the early appreciation of the contributions of the Jewish people did not last. Anti-Semitic sentiments flared up, culminating in the notorious Tiszaeszlár affair, in which Jews were accused of kidnapping and murdering Christian children in order to use their blood as part of religious rituals. Later, the violent repression known as the White Terror (1919-21) victimized many Jews, who were blamed by the right-wing camp for the severe sanctions placed on Hungary under the Treaty of Trianon in the aftermath of World War I.

    Refugees During and After World War II

    During World War II, Hungary was well disposed towards refugees, especially from Poland. Prime Minister Pál Teleki gave refugee status to some 70,000 Polish soldiers and nearly 40,000 civilians when Hitler invaded Poland. Ninety-one refugee camps for military personnel and 88 camps for civilians were established. A joint effort by Hungarian and international aid organizations and the Red Cross resulted in the establishment of the Committee for Hungarian-Polish Refugee Affairs. As the war escalated, most Polish officers and soldiers departed Hungary to join the Polish Home Army fighting Germany alongside Britain and France. In late 1940, a group of French refugees arrived in Hungary. By 1942, there were 600 French refugees in the country.

    The immediate post-WWII period—with its ensuing peace treaties, evictions, and forced settlements—resulted in considerable population movements, significantly modifying the ethnic map in Eastern and Central Europe. Some 200,000 ethnic Germans were evicted from Hungary, and 73,000 Slovaks left as part of what was described as a “population exchange.” Judit Juhász estimated that in the three years following the end of the war more than 100,000 people left Hungary. At the same time, 113,000 ethnic Hungarians were resettled in Hungary from Czechoslovakia, 125,000 from Transylvania, 45,500 from Yugoslavia, and 25,000 from the Soviet Union. Technically, ethnic Hungarians coming to Hungary were not considered migrants, but rather returning citizens.

    When the communist regime took over in 1947, the borders were closed and the government prohibited migration. Illegal departure from the country and failure to return from abroad became a crime. The borders opened briefly in 1956 when nearly 200,000 people fled Hungary during the uprising against the communist government. Most went to nearby Austria, but 38,000—mainly students and scientists—were airlifted to the United States, in a mobilization sponsored by the U.S. government and National Academy of Sciences. Their integration into American society was relatively easy due to their young age and high educational attainment. The Hungarian government tried to encourage the refugees to return by offering them amnesty, but only about 147 decided to return to Hungary from the United States.

    Migration in the Post-Socialist Period

    Although Hungary allowed some refugees to settle in its territory—Greeks after World War II, Chileans after the fall of the Allende government, and Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war—the country did not witness a large number of asylum seekers until the late 1980s, just months before the fall of communism in Hungary in 1989. Starting in mid-1987, ethnic Hungarians, discriminated by the Ceausescu regime, fled Romania to seek refuge in Hungary. By the beginning of 1988, some 40,000 Romanian citizens, primarily of Hungarian ancestry, arrived. By the fall of the same year, the number doubled, an exodus the author witnessed firsthand.

    For the most part, the central government left the responsibility for assisting refugees to private and municipal authorities. The Hungarian Red Cross opened a special information bureau in Budapest and mounted a national relief appeal called Help to Help. Twelve million forints (the equivalent of approximately US $250,000 at the time) were raised, including 1 million from foreign donations. Assistance programs were established in Budapest and in Debrecen, a town on the border with Romania, where most of the refugees came first. Local Red Cross chapters, municipal and county agencies, and local churches—especially the Hungarian Reformed Church—were also involved in the relief program. The assistance included cash grants, job placements, and Hungarian language training for ethnic Romanians. Clothing, blankets, dishes, and utensils were also provided. When the author visited Debrecen in 1988, most refugees were kept in school dormitories as housing in socialist Hungary was scarce.

    At the time, there was no formal procedure to separate refugees from other migrants. Many of the service providers interviewed by the author indicated that ethnic Hungarians and Baptist Romanians were persecuted and therefore were bona fide refugees, while all others were fleeing because of deteriorating economic conditions. The majority fleeing Romania were skilled workers and professionals. Very few ethnic Hungarian peasants from Transylvania migrated to Hungary, and neither did the cultural leaders of the Hungarian community in Romania. Additionally, the sudden arrival of asylum seekers and migrants from Romania was followed by a considerable return of ethnic Hungarians and ethnic Romanians to Romania.

    Refugees from the Yugoslav Wars

    In the summer of 1991, war broke out on Hungary’s southern border between Croatia and Serbia. Hungarian border guards faced large groups of civilians fleeing the fighting. Most were from the Baranyi triangle, an area of Croatia near Vukovar. More than 400,000 refugees fled to countries outside the former Yugoslavia’s borders. Germany admitted the largest number, 200,000, followed by Hungary, with 60,000. However, by late 1994 the refugee population registered in Hungary had dwindled to fewer than 8,000 people. The situation changed in 1995. New ethnic cleansing and renewed combat in Bosnia sent more refugees to Hungary in the spring and summer of 1995, and the Hungarian government reopened a refugee camp that had been long closed.

    The total number of refugees registered in Hungary between 1988 and 1995 reached more than 130,000 people and transformed the country from a refugee-producing country to a refugee-receiving country. However, up until the 2015-16 European refugee and migrant crisis, 75 percent of immigrants and refugees who entered the country post-1988 were ethnic Hungarians. This phenomenon has significantly influenced the development of Hungarian refugee law and policy.

    Refugee and Asylum Law since 1989

    The 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees constitutes the foundation of Hungarian refugee law. Hungary became a party to the Refugee Convention in early 1989—the first East bloc country to do so—and it also ratified the 1967 Protocol. Although its accession to the Refugee Convention signaled that Hungary was willing to accept the international definition of refugee, Hungary conditioned its ratification on a narrow definition of those who qualify as refugees, recognizing only those who fear persecution in Europe. According to Maryellen Fullerton, “known as the geographic reservation, this provision allows Hungary to limit its obligations under the Convention to a small (and totally European) subset of all the refugees in the world.”

    Refugees who came to Hungary in the late 1980s and in the 1990s entered a country “with an undeveloped refugee policy and a patchwork of legislation and government decrees concerning refugees and migrants,” according to Fullerton. Legal scholars indicate that the government’s attempt to establish a modern refugee system was affected by a powerful preference for protecting refugees of Hungarian ancestry. This preference has permeated both existing law and the administration of the refugee system, resulting in a de facto law of return. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to protect fellow co-ethnics—many countries, including Israel, Germany, France, and Poland, among others, have similar laws—what seems objectionable is the desire to accomplish this goal by misusing the refugee process. Ethnic Hungarians who entered Hungary seeking refuge were not only channeled into the refugee system but were also eligible for Hungarian citizenship within one year, and all the rights that citizenship accords, while others who needed refuge were mainly provided temporary protection status. They received food, shelter, and other necessities, although in recent years these too are becoming scarce, but they lacked any substantial legal protection.

    Since joining the European Union in 2004, Hungary has broadly transposed the relevant EU asylum-related directives into national legislation. In June 2007, the Law on Asylum was adopted and the Office of Immigration and Nationality became responsible for asylum and statelessness determination procedures, the provision of reception services, and (very) limited integration services to asylum seekers and refugees, respectively. Three years later, in December 2010, amendments to the legislation relevant to asylum seekers and refugees were enacted. The maximum length of administrative detention from six to 12 months and the detention of up to 30 days of families with children were introduced. While the minimum standards of refugee protection were implemented—at least on paper in the early 2000s—xenophobic attitudes towards refugees, especially Muslims, are on the rise and the protection for asylum seekers and refugees is virtually nonexistent. At the same time, support for ethnic Hungarian refugees such as those from Venezuela, is flourishing.

    Weaponizing Xenophobia: No to Muslim Refugees

    During the 2015-16 European migrant and refugee crisis, the European Union asked Hungary to find homes for 1,294 refugees. Rather than accepting the EU decision, the Hungarian government spent approximately 28 million euros on a xenophobic anti-immigrant campaign. The government called on voters to defend Christian values and Hungarian national identity in order to stop Hungary from becoming a breeding ground for terrorism. The fear that Muslim women will bear many children and the local population will be outnumbered, somehow diluted or “discolored” by Muslims and multiculturalism was palpable in pro-government media. By the end of 2015, a total of 391,384 refugees and asylum seekers entered Hungary through its southern border, most intent on transiting the country to get elsewhere in Europe. This means that the government spent around 70 euros per refugee on a campaign of intolerance, in a country where the monthly welfare check is around the same amount. Undoubtedly this amount could have been used more effectively either to provide transitional assistance to refugees or to facilitate integration of asylum seekers who wanted to settle in Hungary. Attracting migrants to stay would been in line with Fidesz’s strategic goal to stop the long-declining Hungarian birth rate and the aging of the Hungarian society.

    Instead, Hungary decided to go a step further and in September 2015 amended its Criminal Code to make unauthorized crossing of the border closure (fence), damaging the border closure, and obstruction of the construction works related to the border closure punishable by three to ten years imprisonment. The Act on Criminal Proceedings was also amended with a new fast-track provision to bring the defendant to trial within 15 days after interrogation, or within eight days if caught in flagrante. With these new provisions, the Hungarian government declared a “state of crisis due to mass migration,” during which these criminal proceedings are conducted prior to all other cases. Between September 2015 and March 2016, 2,353 people were convicted of unauthorized border crossing. These people generally remained in immigration detention pending removal to Serbia, which Hungary deemed a safe country to which asylum seekers could return. HHC argued that Serbia could not be regarded as safe third country as it recognized virtually no asylum seekers. Applications for a stay of proceedings referring to the nonpenalization principle of the 1951 Convention were systematically dismissed on the grounds that “eligibility for international protection was not a relevant issue to criminal liability.” In order to gain the public’s support for criminalizing migration and rejecting the European Union’s request to admit a few hundred refugees, the Hungarian government organized a national referendum.

    The Referendum

    On October 2, 2016, the citizens of Hungary were asked a simple question: “Do you want the European Union to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of the National Assembly?”

    Voter turnout was only 39 percent, far short of the 50 percent participation required to make the referendum valid under Hungarian law. Never one to let facts get in the way of politics, Orbán, whose eurosceptic Fidesz party has more support than all opposition parties combined, said in a televised speech:

    “The European Union’s proposal is to let the migrants in and distribute them in mandatory fashion among the Member States and for Brussels to decide about this distribution. Hungarians today considered this proposal and they rejected it. Hungarians decided that only we Hungarians can decide with whom we want to live. The question was ‘Brussels or Budapest’ and we decided this issue is exclusively the competence of Budapest.”

    Orbán decided that the 3.3 million Hungarians who voted “no” in the referendum spoke for all 10 million Hungarians. After his speech, there were fireworks over the Danube river in the colors of the Hungarian flag.

    In order to prevent the European Union from sending refugees to Hungary, Orbán proposed a constitutional amendment to reflect “the will of the people.” It was presented to the Parliament on October 10, 2016, but the bill was rejected by a narrow margin. The far-right Jobbik party, which contends that some of the new arrivals pose a national security threat, sealed the bill’s rejection by boycotting the vote. However, it held out a lifeline to Orbán by indicating that it would support the ban if Orbán scrapped a separate investor visa scheme under which foreigners could effectively buy the right to live in Hungary (and move freely within the Schengen area) in exchange for buying at least 300,000 euros in government bonds with a five-year maturity. Some 10,000 Chinese utilized this scheme, at this writing, to move to Hungary, as did smaller numbers of affluent investors from Russia and the Middle East.

    The Orbán government feared that the referendum alone would not deter potential asylum seekers from trying to enter Hungary. In order to ensure that the situation from the summer of 2015 would not be repeated, the government begun to further strengthen the borders and to close existing refugee camps.

    Border Hunters

    In 2016, the Hungarian police started recruiting 3,000 “border hunters” to join some 10,000 police and soldiers patrolling a 100-mile-long, four-meter-high, razor-wire-topped fence erected on Hungary’s southern borders with Serbia and Croatia to keep refugees out. The recruitment posts were scattered all over Budapest, including the Keleti railway station that became a de facto refugee camp for tens of thousands of people fleeing violence in the Middle East in 2015. Today, the thousands of police and border hunters deal with fewer than 200 refugees who reach Hungary’s southern border with Serbia every day.

    The border hunters must have a high school diploma and receive six months of training. They earn approximately HUF 200,000 (US $709) a month, and receive other perks: housing and clothing allowances, and discount on travel and cell phones. During a recruiting fair in early October 2016, a pack of teenagers ogled a display of machine guns, batons, and riot gear. A glossy flier included a picture of patrols in 4x4s, advanced equipment to detect body heat, night-vision goggles, and migrant-sniffing dogs.

    At a swearing-in ceremony in Budapest for border hunters in spring 2017, Orbán said Hungary had to act to defend itself. The storm has not died, it has only subsided temporarily, he said. There are still millions waiting to set out on their journey in the hope of a better life (in Europe).

    Refugee Camp Closures

    Erecting fences and recruiting border hunters to keep refugees out is one strategy; closing existing refugee camps is another. Beginning in December 2016, Orbán moved to close most refugee camps. The camp in Bicske operated as a refugee facility for more than two decades. In the little museum established by refugees on the premises of the reception center one could see artifacts, coins, and paintings from many parts of the world: several countries in Africa, the Middle East, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan, to name a few. However, in December 2016, the camp was shut down as part of the wave of closures. When the author visited the camp a few days before it closed, 75 individuals, hailing from Cuba, Nigeria, Cameroon, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, lived there.

    At the time of the author’s visit, Bicske, which can house as many as 460 refugees, was operating well below capacity. The number of asylum applicants also decreased dramatically. According to HHC data, in October 2016, 1,198 refugees registered for asylum in Hungary compared with 5,812 in April 2016. As of October 2016, there were 529 asylum seekers staying in Hungarian refugee reception facilities: 318 at open reception centers such as Bicske and 211 in detention centers.

    The refugees who the author spoke with, including a couple from Nigeria and a young family from Cuba among others, were no terrorists. Jose and his family fled persecution in Cuba in hopes of reuniting with his elderly mother, who had received permission to stay in Budapest a couple of years earlier. Jose is a computer programmer and said he was confident that he would have no problem finding a job. In addition to his native Spanish, he speaks English, and was also learning Hungarian. The Nigerian couple fled northern Nigeria when Boko Haram killed several members of their family. They told the author mean no harm to anybody; all they want is to live in peace.

    When the camp in Bicske closed, the refugees were relocated to Kiskunhalas, a remote camp in southern Hungary, some 2 ½ hours by train from Budapest. The Bicske camp’s location offered its residents opportunities to access a variety of educational and recreational activities that helped them adjust to life in Hungary. Some refugees commuted to Budapest to attend classes at the Central European University (CEU) as well as language courses provided by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Bicske residents often attended events and met with Hungarian mentors from groups such as Artemisszió, a multicultural foundation, and MigSzol, a migrant advocacy group. Christian refugees were bused to an American church each Sunday morning. Moving the residents to Kiskunhalas has deprived them of these opportunities. The Hungarian government offers very few resources to refugees, both to those in reception facilities awaiting decisions on their cases and those who have received asylum, so it is clear that access to the civil-society organizations helping refugees prepare for their new lives is important.

    Magyar abszurd: Assistance to Venezuelan Refugees of Hungarian Ancestry

    While third-country nationals—asylum seekers or labor migrants—receive virtually no assistance from the government, ethnic Hungarians from faraway places such as Venezuela continue to enjoy a warm welcome as well as financial assistance and access to programs aimed at integrating them speedily.

    Recently, Hungary accepted 300 refugees from Venezuela. The Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta led the resettlement effort. The refugees must prove some level of Hungarian ancestry in order to qualify for the resettlement scheme. About 5,000 Hungarians emigrated to Venezuela in the 20th century, mostly after World War II and in 1956.

    By Hungarian law, everyone who can prove Hungarian ancestry is entitled to citizenship. As Edit Frenyó, a Hungarian legal scholar, said, “Of course process is key, meaning political and administrative will are needed for successful naturalization.” According to media reports, the Venezuelan refugees are receiving free airfare, residency and work permits, temporary housing, job placement, and English and Hungarian language courses.

    Apparently, the refugees have been directed not to talk about their reception, perhaps in an effort to bolster the official narrative: an ethnonational story of homecoming, in which they are presented as Hungarians, not refugees or migrants. As Gergely Gulyás, Chancellor of the Republic of Hungary, declared, “We are talking about Hungarians; Hungarians are not considered migrants.” Frenyó posits that the Hungarian government must present the refugees as Hungarians seeking to come home to avert political backlash and to make sure the controversial immigration tax law is not levied on the Malta Order.

    Anti-Refugee Policy and the Role of Civil Society: Views on the Ground

    In contradiction to the government’s anti-refugee policies of recent years, civil-society organizations and civilians offered assistance to refugees who descended on the Keleti railway station in summer 2015. As Migration Aid volunteers recount, volunteers brought toys and sweets for the refugee children and turned the station into a playground during the afternoons. However, when Migration Aid volunteers started to use chalk to draw colorful pictures on the asphalt as a creative means to help children deal with their trauma, the Hungarian police reminded the volunteers that the children could be made liable for the “violation of public order.”

    In contrast to civil society’s engagement with children, the Hungarian government tried to undermine and limit public sympathy towards refugees. Hungarian state television employees were told not to broadcast images of refugee children. Ultimately, the task of visually capturing the everyday life of refugee families and their children, as the only means to bridge the distance between the refugees and the receiving societies, was left to volunteers and Facebook activists, such as the photo blog Budapest Seen. Budapest Seen captured activities at the train station, at the Slovenian and Serbian border, and elsewhere in the country, where both NGO workers and regular citizens were providing much needed water, food, sanitary napkins for women, diapers for babies, and medical assistance.

    Volunteers came in droves also in Debrecen, among them Aida el-Seaghi, half Yemeni and half Hungarian medical doctor, and Christina, a trained psychotherapist, and several dozen others who communicated and organized assistance to needy refugees through a private Facebook page, MigAid 2015.

    There were many other volunteer and civil-society groups, both in Budapest and Debrecen, who came to aid refugees in 2015. Among them, MigSzol, a group of students at the Central European University (CEU), Menedék (Hungarian Association for Migrants), established in January 1995 at the height of the Balkan wars, HHC, Adventist Development and Relief Agency, and several others.

    At the time of writing, many of these organizations are no longer operational as a result of the “Stop Soros” bill, passed in June 2018, which criminalizes assistance to irregular migrants, among other things. However, organizations such as the HHC continue to provide legal aid to migrants and refugees. Many volunteers who worked with refugees in 2015 continue their volunteer activities, but in the absence of refugees in Hungary focused their efforts on the Roma or the homeless. In interviews the author conducted in spring 2019, they expressed that they stand ready should another group of asylum seekers arrive in Hungary.

    Acknowledgments

    This article was prepared using funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under grant agreement No. 770330.

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    https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/orban-reshapes-migration-policy-hungary

    #réfugiés #asile #migrations #Hongrie #xénophobie #anti-réfugiés #islamophobie #société_civile #solidarité #zones_de_transit #nourriture #camps_de_réfugiés #peur #histoire #milices #frontières #fermeture_des_frontières

    ping @isskein

  • ‘Everybody hates us’: on Sofia’s streets, Roma face racism every day

    After racism marred the football, Romany people tell of the abuse they suffer and of anti-Gypsy campaigns at the highest levels

    A wry smile crept across Steffan Stefanov’s face as he scanned the internet, digesting news of England’s now notorious football match against Bulgaria. It wasn’t that he was belittling the racist abuse that was directed against the black English players, but rather the use of two words littering media reports about it.

    “Bulgaria and racism,” he proclaimed. “The two go hand-in-hand. It’s our reality, we live it every day. I’m sorry for the England players who were targeted but, in truth, this was pretty minor for us.”

    Twenty four hours after the England team and their fans departed Sofia, it felt disturbing to stroll around the Bulgarian capital in bright autumnal sunshine speaking with Stefanov and other members of the Roma community. There was unanimous agreement among them that the racial abuse on display in the stadium last Monday night was just a snapshot of the vilification they face every day, which blights their lives. Such is their fear that none of them wanted to be photographed.

    A taxi driver by profession, Stefanov, 43, pinches his cheek to indicate his dark complexion as he explains what it is like navigating the streets of the city in which he was born in his bright yellow cab looking for customers.

    “They don’t like this,” he said, pinching my cheek, this time to indicate our shared skin colour. “People stop me, look inside and then shout tsiganin [a pejorative term for Gypsy which is also a synonym for lazy or criminal] or blackie. Go away, we don’t want to get inside your stinking cab. I’ve been attacked, spat at and abused,” he said. “This behaviour against the Roma has become part of our society.”

    Stefanov’s friend, Miroslav Angelo, lived in Plumstead, south-east London, for five years, where he worked in construction. “Being in London was like heaven for me,” he said. “So many people of different races and nobody was bothered about me being Roma.

    “I felt as if a weight had been lifted off me but Bulgaria feels like prison. We’re blamed for everything because everybody hates us.”

    Angelo, 37, revealed that he returned to Bulgaria to look after his elderly parents but dreams of returning to London where he wants to raise his seven-year-old son. Uncertainty over whether he will be able to do this post-Brexit means that his plans are in the balance.

    “There is no future for the Roma in Bulgaria and things are only going to get worse,” he said. “The England players are lucky because they were able to leave. I want to join them because I don’t want my son to be treated like a third-class citizen.”

    The perpetrators of the abuse directed against England players have been identified as members of a group calling itself the Lauta Army, a neo-Nazi hooligan gang that follows Lokomotiv Plovdiv, a team from the country’s second-biggest city. It plays in Bulgaria’s top division in a stadium called Lauta Park. Dressed in black hoodies, the gang gave Nazi salutes and made monkey noises, which prompted Monday’s game to be halted twice, with England players threatening to walk off the pitch at the Vasil Levski Stadium.

    The hooligan gang is well organised and has its own website and runs boxing classes and a gymnasium. It also enjoys connections with other neo-Nazis within European football. Two years ago, it celebrated its 25th anniversary by taking over a Black Sea resort for three days with far-right groups from Italian club Napoli, Spartak Moscow and Bulgarian club Levski Sofia.

    The Lauta Army is just one of many neo-Nazi groups within Bulgarian football who have emerged as the ugly, public face of what the Roma community maintains is visceral intolerance and racism in a country underpinned by elected extreme rightwing politicians.

    While racist abuse of players inside stadiums attracts attention outside Bulgaria, within the country it is the Roma who are the principal targets of thugs in black and men in suits. The Roma community makes up just under 5% of the country’s population of almost 7 million and is its biggest minority group.

    The government of prime minister Boyko Borissov is propped up by a grouping of three small rightwing populist parties known collectively as the “United Patriots”. They are made up of the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria (NFSB), the Bulgarian National Movement and the Attack party.

    Krasimir Karakachanov, head of the Bulgarian National Movement, holds three portfolios – deputy prime minister, minister for defence and minister for public order and security. His “Roma integration strategy,” or “concept for the integration of the unsocialised Gypsy (Roma) ethnicity” to give it its formal name, is due to be presented to the Bulgarian parliament and could soon become law.

    It defines Roma as “asocial Gypsies,” a term used by the Nazis, and calls for limits on the number of children some Roma women can have; the introduction of compulsory “labour education schools” for Roma children and forced work programmes for sections of the community. It also depicts the Roma as “non-native Europeans” left over from the Ottoman empire.

    His party’s manifesto also calls for the creation of “reservations” for Roma based on the model used for Native Americans or Indigenous Australians, claiming that they could become “tourist attractions”.

    Earlier this year, following violence between Bulgarian Roma and non-Roma, Karakachanov declared: “The truth is that we need to undertake a complete programme for a solution to the Gypsy problem.”

    His predecessor as deputy prime minister Valeri Simeonov described the Roma as “arrogant, presumptuous and ferocious humanoids”. He was also chair of Bulgaria’s National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues at the time.

    Following elections in 2017, which saw the trio of far-right parties emerge as key players in Bulgaria’s government, campaigners claim that hate crimes and rhetoric against the Roma have intensified.

    Incidents include anti-Roma riots; demolition of Roma homes deemed “illegal”; police raids and deaths in custody; and members of the community in rural areas killed while out collecting firewood.

    Zvezdomir Andronov, leader of the Bulgarian National Union, an ultra-right party which is not represented in parliament, was recently a guest on one of the country’s most popular political talk shows, where he said: “Gypsies, Turks, Armenians and Jews are guests in Bulgaria and if they are good guests, they can live peacefully here.”

    Jonathan Lee, spokesman for the European Roma Rights Centre, said: “Unfortunately, racist chanting and offensive gestures from the terraces is not even close to as bad as it gets in Bulgaria. Last Monday night, Europe was confronted with what for most Roma in the country is the everyday. Rising anti-Gypsyism, decline of the rule of law, and increasingly fascist political rhetoric is nothing new – it just rarely gets such a public stage.”

    Lee added: “This is an EU member state where violent race mobs are the norm, police violence is sudden and unpredictable, punitive demolitions of people’s homes are the appropriate government response, random murders of Romany citizens only a fleeting headline, and the rights and dignity of Romany citizens are routinely denied on a daily basis.”

    The events of Monday night have also exposed the deep fault lines within Bulgarian society, with some of its white citizens viewing things very differently from their Roma counterparts. One local journalist shouted “exaggerated, exaggerated,” as the chairman of England’s Football Association revealed details of the racist abuse during a post-match press conference.

    Another blamed England manager Gareth Southgate for initially raising fears about racism, which he insisted, incited some Bulgarians to respond.

    Sitting in a cafe in Sofia, football fan Robert Cvetanov added: “You cannot say the whole of Bulgaria is racist just because of what a small group of people did in the stadium. There is good and bad in every country.” When asked about the situation of the Roma he replied: “That’s not a race problem, it’s a law and order one.”

    The repercussions of Bulgaria’s encounter with England continue to be felt. Police have so far identified 16 suspects and made 12 arrests for their part in the racial abuse that took place. Uefa, European football’s governing body, has initiated an inquiry and charged Bulgaria with racist behaviour by its fans.

    But for the Roma community there is a far bigger game at play that requires more than just the attention of footballing and legal authorities if they are to take their rightful place within Bulgarian society. “The eyes of the world have been opened,” said Stefanov. “It’s just that most of Bulgaria does not see it and until that happens, nothing will change for the Roma.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/20/bulgaria-sofia-racism-roma-everybody-hates-us-anti-gypsy-abuse
    #Bulgarie #football #racisme #xénophobie #Roms #Sofia #néo-nazis #extrême_droite

  • Chef cuisinier soixante-six heures par semaine, payées 1 700 euros. / Cuisiniers, intérimaires, femmes de ménage... Une centaine de travailleurs sans papiers en grève en Ile-de-France, Julia Pascual
    https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2019/10/01/une-centaine-de-travailleurs-sans-papiers-en-greve_6013793_3224.html


    Au KFC de la place d’Italie, à Paris, le 1er octobre. KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU POUR « LE MONDE »

    Ils travaillent pour KFC, Léon de Bruxelles ou dans le bâtiment. Plus d’une centaine de #travailleurs_sans_papiers de Paris et sa banlieue ont entamé une #grève mardi pour réclamer leur régularisation.

    Ils sont stewards chez KFC, plongeurs ou cuisiniers chez Léon de Bruxelles ou dans une brasserie chic du 16e arrondissement de Paris, femmes et hommes de ménage dans un hôtel Campanile, un cinéma UGC ou un foyer pour migrants, intérimaires dans le bâtiment…
    Ils sont plus d’une centaine et, mardi 1er octobre, ils ont entamé une grève dans douze entreprises. Leur point commun : tous sont des travailleurs sans papiers à Paris et dans sa banlieue et réclament leur #régularisation.

    Au moment où la préparation du débat parlementaire sur l’immigration – qui se tiendra lundi 7 octobre à l’Assemblée nationale – cible les risques d’abus du système de protection sociale ou de détournement de la demande d’asile, ces hommes et ces femmes, Maliens, Sénégalais et Mauritaniens, mais aussi Togolais ou Ghanéens, rappellent qu’ils « cotis[ent] et contribu[ent] au système de solidarité nationale et de Sécurité sociale ».

    « Contrairement à ce que dit la stigmatisation qui a cours, ils sont créateurs de richesse et de développement, martèle Marilyne Poulain, membre de la direction confédérale CGT et pilote du collectif immigration CGT, qui soutient le mouvement. Il faut redonner une visibilité à cette réalité-là. ». Contrats à durée déterminée (CDD) à répétition, heures supplémentaires non payées, temps de travail inférieur au minimum légal… Beaucoup de ces travailleurs en grève ont aussi des « conditions [de travail] dégradées, voire indignes du fait de leur situation administrative et de leur vulnérabilité », fait remarquer Mme Poulain.

    Payés de la main à la main
    « Ce sont les intérimaires qui déchargent les camions, constate Jean-Albert Guidou, de la CGT départementale, à propos des salariés de Haudecœur, une entreprise d’importation de produits alimentaires de La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis), où une dizaine de personnes se sont mises en grève. A la fin de la journée, ils doivent avoir porté autour d’une tonne. C’est l’exemple classique d’une entreprise où on met les intérimaires, a fortiori sans-papiers, sur les postes difficiles avec des risques pour la #santé. »

    Au restaurant japonais New Sukiyaki, en plein quartier touristique et festif de la Bastille, à Paris, Abdourahmane Guiro, 27 ans, embauche six jours sur sept, à raison d’une cinquantaine d’heures par semaine. « Je suis payé 1 500 euros, explique ce Sénégalais. Mais sur le bulletin, c’est affiché 1 100 euros. » Le reste, il le touche de la main à la main. Son collègue Yacouba Dia, 27 ans lui aussi, et chef de cuisine, travaille soixante-six heures par semaine, payées 1 700 euros.

    Dans les restaurants #KFC de la place d’Italie ou de Tolbiac (13e arrondissement), de Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), de Vitry-sur-Seine ou du Kremlin-Bicêtre (Val-de-Marne), les « employés polyvalents » et sans-papiers aimeraient bien, eux, faire davantage d’heures.
    La durée minimale de travail du salarié à temps partiel est fixée à 24 heures par semaine mais Mahamadou Diakite ne travaille que vingt heures et Mamadou Niakate travaille, lui, quinze heures, tout comme son collègue Boubou Doukoure. « Parfois, on travaille plus, assure ce Malien de 34 ans. Mais on n’est pas payé. Le patron nous dit qu’on a mal compté nos heures. »

    « Les employeurs font écrire une décharge aux salariés pour qu’ils disent que c’est eux qui ne veulent pas travailler au minimum légal », ajoute Kande Traoré qui, lui, culmine à vingt-huit heures par semaine. « Les gens sont dociles alors ils en profitent, s’indigne Boubacar Doucoure, délégué CGT pour l’enseigne KFC. Il y a dix ans de cela, j’étais comme vous, dit-il en s’adressant à ses collègues. J’étais dans la peur. »

    Boubacar Doucoure est aujourd’hui manager et en situation régulière en France, après avoir fait grève en 2008. « Entre 2000 et 2008, j’ai travaillé sans papiers. J’ai cotisé, j’ai payé des impôts. Et pourtant, je n’aurai jamais de retraite », fait-il remarquer. Quand il entend le discours ambiant qui tend à assimiler les migrants à de potentiels resquilleurs, ça le « révolte ».

    « On a peur d’être virés »
    La plupart des salariés en grève ont été embauchés sous alias, c’est-à-dire en présentant des documents d’identité d’une personne en situation régulière. « Un frère m’a fait une photocopie de sa carte de séjour, de sa carte Vitale et d’une attestation d’hébergement et j’ai amené ça au patron qui m’a fait un contrat à durée indéterminée (CDI), explique Mamadou Niakate. Au travail, on m’appelle Diaby. » Son collègue Mahamadou Diakite arbore, lui, un badge au nom de Mantia.
    Quand un travailleur sans papiers veut entamer des démarches de régularisation auprès d’une préfecture, il a besoin – pour remplir les critères d’admission exceptionnelle au séjour – que son employeur établisse un #certificat_de_concordance_d’identités et, dans tous les cas, qu’il remplisse un formulaire Cerfa de demande d’autorisation d’embauche d’un salarié étranger non-européen. « On n’ose pas demander parce qu’on a peur d’être viré », confie Moussa Diakite, un Malien de 44 ans qui travaille dans la démolition via la société d’intérim Cervus, basée à Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine).

    C’est peu ou prou ce qui est arrivé à Boubou Doukoure. Pendant sept mois, il a travaillé en CDD dans un abattoir de Lorient (Morbihan). Il accrochait des poulets sur une ligne d’abattage. Lorsque son employeur a voulu lui faire un CDI et qu’il s’est rendu compte de sa situation, il l’a congédié sur le champ.

    Moussa Diakite dit avoir « plusieurs fois essayé de demander une régularisation » en déposant un dossier en préfecture. Sans succès.
    « Ces travailleurs sont soumis à un double arbitraire, patronal et préfectoral », souligne Maryline Poulain. Moussa Diakite s’est mis en grève pour la première fois de sa vie. Il craint un « durcissement des conditions » de vie des immigrés, lui qui se sent déjà « limité dans [ses] #libertés » et « réduit dans [ses] déplacements ». En seize ans de présence en France, il n’est retourné qu’une seule fois au Mali, où il a une femme et deux enfants.

    Sollicitées mardi 1er octobre, plusieurs entreprises concernées par le mouvement de grève n’avaient pas souhaité faire de déclaration au Monde. Certaines se sont rapidement engagées à accompagner leurs salariés dans leur démarche de régularisation, conduisant à la levée, mardi soir, de trois des douze piquets de grève.


    Au KFC de place d’Italie, à Paris, le 1er octobre. KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU POUR « LE MONDE »

    #intérim #travail #économie #luttes_sociales #salaire #conditions_de_travail #xénophobie_d'État #liberté_de_circulation #liberté_d'installation

  • Ce tweet, m’a donné envie de mettre ici les affiches dans lesquels le parti #UDC en #Suisse (mais pas que eux) utilise des images d’#animaux pour ses campagnes électorales...


    https://twitter.com/mathieuvonrohr/status/1178256562923692037
    En cette année 2019 c’est donc le #octopus qui est l’animal fétiche...
    #poulpe #pieuvre

    Il fut un temps il y a eu :
    des #requins...

    des #corbeaux :

    ... et évidemment des #moutons (noirs) :

    Et au #Tessin, un groupe probablement financé soit par l’UDC ou alors par la #Lega_dei_Ticinesi, avait utilisé des #rats...

    #affiche #campagne #animal #invasion #migrations #xénophobie #immigration_de_masse

    Pour celleux qui veulent en savoir un peu plus sur ce type de campagnes qui tapissent la Suisse, un article que j’avais écrit pour @visionscarto :
    En Suisse, pieds nus contre rangers


    https://visionscarto.net/en-suisse-pieds-nus-contre-rangers

  • Rollstuhlfahrer aus Libyen angegriffen

    In Chemnitz ist ein libyscher Rollstuhlfahrer attackiert und leicht verletzt worden. Der Tatverdächtige ist der Polizei wegen rechtsmotivierter Straftaten bekannt. Das Dezernat Staatsschutz ermittelt in dem Fall.

    https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/chemnitz-rollstuhlfahrer-aus-libyen-angegriffen-a-1287159.html
    #Allemagne #racisme #xénophobie #extrême_droite #attaques_racistes #réfugiés #anti-réfugiés #migrations #asile #Chemnitz
    ping @_kg_

  • Ouhhh, le coup de « ne pas être “un parti bourgeois” » sur « le sujet de l’immigration », y’en a vraiment qui osent tout, là. Y’a du pubard qu’a phosphoré…
    https://www.francetvinfo.fr/politique/emmanuel-macron/emmanuel-macron-veut-regarder-le-sujet-de-l-immigration-en-face-et-ne-p

    Emmanuel Macron veut regarder le sujet de l’immigration « en face » et demande à la majorité de ne pas être « un parti bourgeois »

    • Behind the #Johannesburg riots: How did they happen?

      The latest outbreak of mob violence and xenophobia was allegedly orchestrated by members of the All Truck Drivers Forum (ATDF), which held mass meetings that went into last weekend in different parts of Gauteng.

      The Mail & Guardian has reliably learned that intelligence agencies — which sent a briefing note last week Friday to the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster (JCPS), chaired by Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula — have been investigating the forum’s involvement.

      The cluster consists of the ministries of police, home affairs, state security, justice and constitutional development, as well as the National Prosecuting Authority.

      High-ranking security officials have also discussed the political motivations behind the flare-up in violence, with theories that the violence was part of a campaign to embarrass and ultimately destabilise the presidency of Cyril Ramaphosa.

      Despite the intelligence and warnings, these parts of the cluster failed to prevent the violent attacks and the burning and looting of shops in Jeppestown on Sunday night and into Monday morning.

      On Monday, the violence spread to parts of central Johannesburg and Alexandra, as well as Boksburg and Thokoza on the East Rand. Shops, cars and other buildings were set on fire. More than 400 arrests have been made since.

      In parts of KwaZulu-Natal, freight trucks were attacked and set alight.
      Drivers found to be foreign nationals were also assaulted.

      ATDF, which purports to represent only South African truck drivers, has dismissed the intelligence, saying that its organisation is anti-violence. Its spokesperson, Sipho Zungu, said on Thursday: “When this latest violence started on Monday we were in court, so there is no way this was us. ATDF has never even had a strike, let alone [engaged in] violence [and] looting. The nation is being misled here.

      “What needs to be clarified is that ATDF is fighting for all truck drivers in the country, no matter if they work or not.” He went on to add: “The reality is that South African truck drivers no longer have jobs, and we have been engaging truck owners and government that they must get rid of foreign truck drivers.”

      This kind of sentiment, and existing tensions, were worsened by political rhetoric around access to healthcare and unemployment before the elections. It reached boiling point last month, when police operations in Johannesburg to find fake goods were thwarted by shopkeepers, who pelted law-enforcement authorities with rocks, forcing a retreat.

      Public reaction to this took on a xenophobic tinge, with some South Africans blaming foreign nationals for a host of problems — from the proliferation of drugs and fake goods, to crime and filth in inner-city Johannesburg.

      Information shared with the JCPS cluster last Friday indicated that meetings to discuss strategy and co-ordinate attacks on foreign nationals were to scheduled to take place this past weekend. The meetings were to be held at venues in different parts of Gauteng, including the Mzimhlophe grounds in Soweto, Alexandra at Pan taxi rank, Randburg taxi rank, Ezibayeni in Hillbrow and Part Two, Diepsloot.

      Foreign nationals also held their own meetings over the weekend, and discussed how to protect themselves against potential attacks.

      The M&G understands that the government was concerned that foreign nationals could retaliate violently, which might escalate matters. A source in the JCPS cluster said: “If action was taken and those meetings disrupted, what happened on Sunday evening would not have happened.”

      Now, Police Minister Bheki Cele has been forced to react after the fact. He has focused on the hostels this week and has had several meetings with iinduna to try to quell the unrest.

      Cele’s office announced he would also be hosting imbizo, to be attended by residents, as well as local, provincial and national politicians, at the Jeppe hostel on Sunday.

      Cele’s spokesperson, Lirandzu Themba, said: “Izinduna who met with Minister Cele have assured the Gauteng Saps [South African Police Service] management that hostel dwellers have been urged to refrain from acts of violence leading up to the imbizo, planned for Sunday.”

      Themba also said Cele had briefed Ramaphosa on the latest situation in Johannesburg on Monday, after a visit to Jeppe hostel. “There was a Cabinet meeting where this issue was discussed and brought to the attention of all ministers, including those in the JCPS cluster.”

      “The JCPS cluster and various operational structures have been meeting and engaging continuously during the past weeks — and in some instances on a daily basis,” she said.

      News of the imbizo has not been well received by all in the hostel. Nduna Manyathela Mvelase, who met with Cele during his visit, said: “It’s almost as if they are saying ‘It’s the hostels and the Zulu people that are responsible for this.’”

      “It was unfortunate that a fire started not too far from here on Sunday and people died. At the same time, some criminals took advantage of that fire, and now it looks as if this started here,” he said. “This started in Pretoria and there are no hostels there … All our children are unemployed and on drugs.”

      The government and the presidency’s slowness to get a handle on the situation has prompted severe criticism from observers, as well as heads of state across the continent.

      Two former government officials expressed surprise that the JCPS had not met by Wednesday or made any public statements.

      One said: “By now you should have been seeing all the different ministers visible on the ground … The fact that Nigeria’s president [Muhammadu Buhari] was even tweeting disinformation [that Nigerians were killed in the violence] means there could have been no information from our government to affected embassies.

      “When government is this silent it becomes easy for the situation to escalate,” he added.

      Department of international relations and co-operation (Dirco) spokesperson Clayson Monyela said on Wednesday that the department would try and secure meetings with consulates and high commissions of affected nationalities by today.

      “Dirco has not received any official complaint or inquiry from an embassy. However, we are maintaining regular contact with the diplomatic corps to update them on government’s measures and interventions to deal with the spate of violence,” he said.

      Johan Burger, a senior research er at the Institute for Security Studies, said he was extremely disappointed that Ramaphosa had remained silent about the attacks until Wednesday.

      “I say, very reluctantly, that South Africa is at fault in terms of how it handled this issue from the top. I’m extremely disappointed that it took so long to say something,” Burger said. “He should have spoken to his security cluster ministers and asked what was happening and given instruction and direction.”

      A senior government official suggested Ramaphosa was being let down by his Cabinet, particularly in the JCPS cluster, which met for the first time on Wednesday. “Not once in the former president’s tenure would so much time pass before security cluster ministers meet and strategise. Not once.”

      The Nigerian government took a harsh tone this week, saying it would not tolerate any more attacks on its citizens, and deployed envoys to meet Ramaphosa, whose public statement condemning the attacks was issued only on Tuesday, to discuss the situation.

      On Wednesday the Nigerian presidency announced that Nigerian airline Air Peace airlines would send an aircraft today to evacuate any of its citizens who wished to leave South Africa. Yesterday, South Africa shut down its embassy in Lagos and several South African businesses in that country were attacked and looted.

      https://mg.co.za/article/2019-09-06-00-behind-the-johannesburg-riots-how-did-they-happen

    • South African Riots Over ‘Xenophobia’ Prompt Backlash Across Africa

      Pop stars have announced a #boycott. Air Tanzania has suspended flights to Johannesburg. #Madagascar and Zambia are refusing to send their soccer teams. Nigeria has recalled its ambassador and pulled out of a major economic forum.

      South Africa is facing a backlash after rioters in and around Johannesburg targeted immigrants from other African countries this week, torching their shops and leading to at least 10 deaths. Now, angry citizens and governments across the continent are lashing out at South Africa and its businesses, denouncing what they call “xenophobia.”

      Africans across the continent once rallied behind South Africans in their struggle to defeat the apartheid government, which was finally replaced in elections held 25 years ago. Now, some Africans find themselves in the unfamiliar position of protesting the actions of the same communities in South Africa that they once stood with in solidarity.

      “The only time we’ve seen this type of cooperation of African countries in terms of backlash,” said Tunde Leye, a partner at the Nigerian political research firm SBM Intelligence, “was in terms of support of the anti-apartheid movement.”
      Sign up for The Interpreter

      Subscribe for original insights, commentary and discussions on the major news stories of the week, from columnists Max Fisher and Amanda Taub.

      The current level of political solidarity on the continent, he said, was “almost unprecedented.”

      The riots, and the retaliatory measures, could not come at a more inopportune time for regional cooperation. This week, African leaders are meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, to discuss the African Continental Free Trade Area, an agreement made this year that sets the stage for the creation of the largest free-trade area in the world. It would join Africa’s more than one billion consumers into a single market.

      The conflict, while not likely to imperil the free trade agreement, could at least slow its implementation, which is expected to take years, African analysts said.

      Nigeria’s government, angry that its citizens have been victimized in the South African riots, has pulled out of the Cape Town meeting.

      Nigeria is the continent’s largest economy, and South Africa is the second-largest. Both countries were already reluctant participants in the accord, which is supposed to help knock down the many barriers to trade among African countries.

      Anti-immigrant sentiment is a longstanding issue in South Africa, where the legacies of colonialism and apartheid run deep, and a political shift has not delivered meaningful change to many poor South Africans. Immigrants from countries like Nigeria, Mozambique, Somalia and Zimbabwe are often regarded by South Africans as competitors for jobs and social services.

      In South Africa, attacks on foreigners have become common, and they surged beginning Sunday when rioters stormed neighborhoods in and around Johannesburg, lighting fires and breaking into shops.

      At least 10 people have died in the riots, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a video address on Thursday, in which he also condemned the violence.

      “There can be no excuse for the attacks on the homes and businesses of foreign nationals,” he said. “Equally, there is no justification for the looting and destruction of businesses owned by South Africans.”

      In Gauteng, the province that includes Johannesburg, authorities have arrested at least 423 people, said Colonel Lungelo Dlamini, a police spokesman. On Thursday, he said that many shops owned by foreigners remained closed and that more shopping centers in the eastern part of the province “are being targeted.”

      Police seized guns, he said, not just from South Africans, but also from at least two foreign nationals.
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      The rolling backlash has united broad swaths of the continent. Two popular Nigerian musicians, Burna Boy and Tiwa Savage, said they were boycotting South Africa. Burna Boy was set to headline the Afropunk festival in Johannesburg in December, alongside artists like Solange Knowles. Tiwa Savage had an appearance in South Africa scheduled for mid-September.

      On Tuesday and Wednesday, protesters rushed and sometimes looted South African-owned businesses in Nigeria and Zambia, including Shoprite supermarkets. The company closed stores. The South African telecommunications giant MTN did the same.

      On Thursday, the protests spread to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where demonstrators outside of the South African Embassy in Kinshasa held signs that read “Don’t kill our brothers” and “No xenophobia.” In Lubumbashi, they broke windows at the South African Consulate.

      Nigeria recalled its ambassador to South Africa. South Africa has shuttered its diplomatic missions in Nigeria, citing threats.

      The clashes cast a cloud over the World Economic Forum in Africa, which began in Cape Town on Wednesday. Leaders were set to discuss the free trade pact, an agreement signed by 54 countries that supporters have said could reshape economic relationships on the continent.

      The accord has the potential to bolster intra-African trade by 52 percent by 2022, according to the United Nations. Right now, intra-African trade accounts for just 16 percent of the continent’s trade volume. It can be cheaper to ship something from Nigeria to Europe, and then to Senegal, rather than directly from Nigeria to Senegal. This is a major barrier to regional development, economists say.

      Still, a host of challenges await before the pact is put in place.

      African analysts differed on whether Nigeria’s decision to skip the Cape Town meeting would have any effect in the long term.

      Gilbert Khadiagala, a Kenyan professor of international relations at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said Nigeria’s move was little more than “grandstanding,” and that would not impede the trade agreement.

      But Mr. Leye, of SBM Intelligence in Nigeria, said that in his view, Nigeria’s boycott of the Forum “will have an impact in terms of the pace of implementation.”

      https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/05/world/africa/south-africa-xenophobia-riots.html
      #Zambie

    • Refugees and police clash at Cape Town protest against xenophobia

      Around 100 people were arrested on October 30 as part of an operation to disperse a group of refugees and asylum seekers who had staged a prolonged sit-in near the United Nations refugee agency in Cape Town, South African police said.

      Local media showed footage of police firing water cannon into the crowd of protesters and arresting some of them. The South African Police Service (SAPS) said in a statement that they evicted around 300 people from the area in accordance with a court order.

      The refugees and asylum seekers have been camping outside the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for weeks, asking to be moved out of South Africa, where they say they do not feel safe after a wave of xenophobic violence.

      The refugees want to be repatriated to their home countries or moved elsewhere after a spate of deadly riots and attacks in September, which killed at least 10 people and left many foreigners afraid to live in the country.

      https://www.euronews.com/2019/10/30/refugees-and-police-clash-at-cape-town-protest-against-xenophobia

  • France : Des enfants migrants privés de protection
    Human Rights Watch

    Le rapport de 80 pages, intitulé « ‘Ça dépend de leur humeur’ : Traitement des enfants migrants non accompagnés dans les Hautes-#Alpes », montre que les évaluateurs, dont le travail consiste à certifier la minorité d’un enfant, c’est-à-dire qu’il a moins de 18 ans, ne se conforment pas aux normes internationales. Human Rights Watch a constaté que les évaluateurs utilisent diverses justifications pour refuser d’octroyer une protection aux enfants, telles que des erreurs minimes de dates, une réticence à aborder dans le détail des expériences particulièrement traumatisantes, des objectifs de vie jugées irréalistes, ou encore le fait d’avoir travaillé dans le pays d’origine ou au cours du parcours migratoire.



    Vidéo https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2019/09/05/france-des-enfants-migrants-prives-de-protection
    et rapport https://www.hrw.org/fr/report/2019/09/05/ca-depend-de-leur-humeur/traitement-des-enfants-migrants-non-accompagnes-dans-les
    #mineurs #MNA #frontière #refoulement #France #Italie #âge #réfugiés #asile #migrations #frontière_sud-alpine

    ping @cdb_77 @cede @isskein

    • Hautes-Alpes : HRW pointe des violations des droits des enfants migrants

      L’ONG Human Rights Watch publie ce jeudi 5 septembre un rapport sur la situation des mineurs migrants non accompagnés dans le département des #Hautes-Alpes, à la frontière franco-italienne. Basé sur une enquête auprès d’une soixantaine d’enfants et adolescents, essentiellement originaires de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, ce rapport dénonce de multiples violations aussi bien du droit français que des normes internationales de protection des #droits_des_enfants.

      Ils ont entre 15 et 18 ans. Victimes d’abus dans leurs pays d’origine, ils ont traversé la Méditerranée pour chercher refuge en Europe. Mal accueillis en Italie, ils tentent de passer en France, au risque d’être refoulés par la police aux frontières.

      « D’après ce que les enfants que nous avons interviewé nous ont raconté, quand il y a des renvois, ils sont souvent arbitraires et reposent souvent sur le bon vouloir d’un ou des agents. La conséquence, c’est que de nombreux enfants -pour éviter une interpellation- passent la frontière à travers la montagne dans des conditions extrêmement difficiles », explique Bénédicte Jeannerod de Human Rights Watch (HRW).

      Et quand ils arrivent à passer en France, ils ne sont pas au bout de leurs obstacles. La reconnaissance de la #minorité leur est souvent refusée. « Les procédures, telles qu’elles sont mises en oeuvre dans le département des Hautes-Alpes, sont extrêmement défectueuses, souligne encore Bénédicte Jeannerod. Par exemple, dans son entretien d’évaluation, l’enfant va être accusé de mentir ; ou alors il va donner beaucoup de détails sur son parcours et on va lui dire que c’est un signe de (sa) majorité... Tous les éléments donnés par l’enfant sont retournés contre lui et aboutissent à des rejets de minorité #arbitraire. »

      Human Rights Watch rappelle que la France a l’obligation de protéger tout migrant mineur et de lui assurer l’accès à l’hébergement, à l’éducation et à la santé.

      Les personnes aidant les migrants également ciblées

      HRW dénonce aussi le harcèlement policier à l’encontre des bénévoles humanitaires qui participent aux opérations de recherches et de sauvetages des migrants en montagne. « Ce ne sont pas des associations en particulier, ce sont vraiment les personnes qui mènent ce travail d’assistance et de secours en montagne et qui subissent des contrôles d’identité injustifiés, qui sont poursuivies par la justice ou alors qui vont voir leur véhicule fouillé de manière abusive », poursuit Bénédicte Jeannerod.

      Ce sont des #pratiques_policières qui dissuadent ces opérations qui peuvent être des opérations vitales et qui s’opposent à la dernière décision du Conseil constitutionnel qui considère « qu’une aide apportée à des migrants, même en situation irrégulière, ne peut pas être criminalisée ou sanctionnée tant que cette aide s’effectue dans un objectif humanitaire et qu’elle ne bénéficie pas de contrepartie. »

      Le Conseil constitutionnel a consacré l’an passé la valeur constitutionnelle du « principe de fraternité » en réponse précisément à une requête de plusieurs associations et particuliers dont Cédric Herrou, un agriculteur devenu le symbole de la défense des migrants de la vallée de la Roya (Alpes Maritimes), l’un des principaux points de passage des migrants arrivés en Europe par l’Italie.

      https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/19312/hautes-alpes-hrw-pointe-des-violations-des-droits-des-enfants-migrants

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


      #frontières #enfants #enfance #PAF #solidarité #délit_de_solidarité #maraudes_solidaires

      Le rapport en pdf:
      https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/france0919fr_web.pdf

    • Les militants promigrants dans les Hautes-Alpes harcelés par la police, selon HRW

      Contrôles d’identité, contraventions pour un prétexte fallacieux… Human Rights Watch déplore, dans un rapport, les manœuvres des forces de l’ordre pour « entraver les activités humanitaires ».

      « #Harcèlement » et « #intimidation », tels sont les outils de la police française pour « entraver les activités humanitaires » des militants venant en aide aux migrants à la frontière franco-italienne, affirme, dans un rapport publié jeudi 5 septembre, l’organisation non gouvernementale (ONG) Human Rights Watch (HRW).

      La publication, qui intervient une semaine après la condamnation de trois dirigeants de l’organisation d’extrême droite Génération identitaire pour une opération menée dans cette même région en 2018, documente également les refoulements de « mineurs non accompagnés » vers l’Italie.

      Lors de leurs maraudes, les bénévoles et militants associatifs sont régulièrement ciblés par des contrôles d’identité « abusifs », souligne le rapport, qui se focalise sur la situation dans les Hautes-Alpes.

      « Dans de nombreux cas, la police semble recourir à ces procédures de façon sélective, à des fins d’intimidation et de harcèlement ou pour entraver les activités humanitaires », poursuit l’ONG de défense des droits humains qui réclame une enquête sur ces pratiques. L’objectif, « c’est de leur mettre des bâtons dans les roues » et de « gêner leurs actions », résume pour l’Agence France-Presse (AFP) Bénédicte Jeannerod, directrice France chez HRW.
      « Le délit de solidarité continue d’être utilisé »

      « Systématiquement, lorsqu’on part en maraude à Montgenèvre [commune limitrophe de l’Italie], il y a des contrôles (…), souvent plusieurs fois dans la soirée », raconte un bénévole cité dans le rapport, qui porte sur une enquête menée entre janvier et juillet 2019.

      Contraventions pour un balai d’essuie-glace défectueux, une absence d’autocollant signalant des pneus cloutés… « Le délit de solidarité continue d’être utilisé », déplore Mme Jeannerod.

      Même si le pic de la crise migratoire est passé, en matière de flux, « la pression sur les militants continue de s’accentuer », confirme Laure Palun, codirectrice de l’Association nationale d’assistance aux frontières pour les étrangers (Anafé), qui a publié en début d’année un rapport sur la situation à la frontière franco-italienne.

      Légalement, l’aide à l’entrée, à la circulation ou au séjour irréguliers en France est passible d’une peine maximale de cinq ans d’emprisonnement et de 30 000 euros d’amende. En juillet 2018, le Conseil constitutionnel a jugé qu’un acte « humanitaire » ne pouvait pas faire l’objet de sanctions, sauf s’il est effectué dans le cadre d’une aide à l’entrée sur le territoire.

      Malgré cette décision, des poursuites continuent d’être engagées contre des personnes soutenant des migrants, déplore encore Human Rights Watch.

      https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2019/09/05/les-militants-pro-migrants-dans-les-hautes-alpes-harceles-par-la-police-selo
      #mineurs_non_accompagnés

    • Il linguaggio dell’odio è stato ‘normalizzato’ e la manifestazione dell’odio è divenuta accettabile, secondo l’ultimo rapporto dell’#Ohchr

      Che la diffusione del linguaggio dell’odio sia un problema per l’Italia e dell’Italia ce lo dice l’ultimo Rapporto sulla missione dell’Alto commissario per i diritti umani delle Nazioni Unite nel nostro Paese, da poco pubblicato. Una missione incentrata proprio sulle questioni della discriminazione razziale e sull’incitamento all’odio. Il documento traccia un quadro preoccupante di un Paese, segnato nel 2018 da un forte incremento degli episodi di discriminazione e tuttora da una persistente mancanza di attenzione e di analisi del fenomeno nel suo complesso da parte delle istituzioni. A colpire è soprattutto il capitolo sull’incitamento all’odio razziale alla discriminazione e alla violenza. Nel Rapporto, l’Alto Commissariato delle Nazioni Unite evidenzia l’emergere di discorsi razzisti basati su stereotipi negativi contro i migranti, i musulmani, le persone di origine africana, le comunità rom, sinti e caminanti. E ciò avviene – si legge nel documento – soprattutto nei discorsi politici e nei media: a incoraggiare la crescita dell’intolleranza, dell’odio religioso e della xenofobia sono alcuni leader politici e talvolta gli stessi membri del Governo. Sicurezza e difesa dell’identità nazionale, sono le parole chiave di tali discorsi, che si fondano sulla criminalizzazione della migrazione e sul principio “prima gli italiani” di fronte alla crisi economica. Un modo – si legge nel Rapporto – per rendere la discriminazione razziale socialmente più accettabile. Le conseguenze sono evidenti: una escalation di «hate incidents» contro singoli o gruppi per motivi etnici, del colore della pelle, della razza o dello status di immigrato.

      Le stesse leggi, in alcuni casi – secondo il Rapporto dell’Alto Commissario ONU – contribuiscono a rafforzare tale clima, come nel caso del ‘decreto sicurezza’ che stabilisce una relazione tra immigrazione e sicurezza, «rafforzando in tale modo una percezione discriminante che stigmatizza e associa i migranti e le minoranze alla criminalità». Così come preoccupa la campagna contro le associazioni della società civile impegnate nelle operazioni di soccorso nel mare Mediterraneo, campagna che il documento definisce diffamatoria. Tutto ciò non può essere ricondotto a singoli casi. Il linguaggio dell’odio, riporta il documento, è stato ‘normalizzato’ e la manifestazione dell’odio è divenuta accettabile. Perché questo linguaggio è nello stesso tempo espressione ed elemento costruttore di culture diffuse. Ed è proprio sul piano culturale che occorre agire, restituendo significato alle parole, rimettendo al centro le persone, ognuna nella sua singolarità, ricordando che i diritti non sono mai dati una volta per tutte, ma vanno tutelati e rafforzati, va fatta memoria della sofferenza e delle battaglie che sono dietro alla loro conquista. La diffusione di una cultura dei diritti è uno dei terreni su cui si gioca la sfida della prevenzione e della tutela delle persone più vulnerabili. Un terreno su cui sono chiamati a contribuire tutti: le istituzioni pubbliche, le organizzazioni della società civile, il mondo della cultura e dei media. A cominciare dal linguaggio.

      https://www.cartadiroma.org/news/in-evidenza/lincitamento-allodio-razziale-e-un-problema-per-litalia-il-rapporto-onu
      #médias #presse