The stage of receiving and grinding of the qurbani meat.

Stage of cooking and marinating qurbani meat.

Canning stage of the qurbani meat.

At the meeting, President Jasmin Redjepi expressed his gratitude to the partners for the implementation of humanitarian aid in Gaza, in the most difficult conditions that we as humanity are facing so far.  At the same time, he presented them with a Certificate of gratitude on behalf of Legis and all our donors.

Dr. Aydn thanked for the trust, for the successful cooperation so far, and expressed his gratitude to all our donors.

IHH is our long-term partner in all international humanitarian missions.  With their help and logistics on the ground, the donations of our citizens and donors were realized in Gaza, in the form of hot meals and iftars during Ramadan.

During Ramadan, with the donations of our citizens were distributed 19177 iftars/hot meals in Gaza.

In accordance with the planned activities, we have prepared a Public Policy Document “Access to the right to work for asylum seekers and humanitarian protection and foreigners in RSM” which has been delivered in a bilingual hard copy to all 120 Members of Parliament and is now available to the public on our website page.

Public policy document

Yesterday (03.04.2024), our team represented by Mersiha Smailovikj and Jasmina Golubovska held a
working meeting with Tineke Strik, Member of the European Parliament (Group of the Greens/European
Free Alliance) and her team, Aryaan Annabelle Bovenberg and Ruben Robbensom.
At the meeting, the main topic of discussion was migration and humanitarian refugee crisis on the
Southern and Northern border of North Macedonia. We presented the work of our field teams situated
within the transit-border reception centers Vinojug- Gevgelija and Tabanovce- Kumanovo and access to
human rights protection for refugees and people on the move.
Having in mind MEP Strik extensive work in the area of migration, we exchanged information and ideas
on improvement of the reception of people in migration and refugees in the transit- border centers as
well as issues such as push-backs, human rights violations. We presented our reports based on the field
team monitoring and documentation of migration since the beginning of the crisis in 2015.
We also focused on the past 2 months of violent push-backs on the Northern border with Serbia and
Southern border with Greece and the role of Frontex at this specific border.
As an organization advocating for the rights of migrants and refugees, we are pleased with the meeting
with MEP Strik and look forward to our cooperation in future.

Croatian police and officials are sharing sensitive information about migrants trying to enter the country through a WhatsApp group, an independent media outlet reported. Lighthouse Reports said it obtained 60 leaked screenshots and was able to identify 33 participants in an encrypted chat group used between August 2019 and February 2020.

“Croatia has always denied any knowledge of violent and illegal operations by its own police to force asylum seekers to leave the EU. We can now reveal that senior Croatian officials were part of a secret WhatsApp group where such activities were shared and encouraged,” Lighthouse Reports points out.

From there they reported that the group was used to exchange information about the arrests in Western Croatia of over 1,300 people, mainly of Afghan, Pakistani and Syrian nationality.

The news alleges that the WhatsApp group, called Corridor II-West, was used by the police to locate and apprehend irregular migrants. Photos of individuals with clearly visible faces were often shared.

“In certain cases, disturbing photos of individuals and sometimes of people forced to lie face down on the ground or of people who were apparently forced to take off their shoes while armed Croatian policemen stood over them were shared,” the news said.

The group was also used to exchange information for journalists visiting the border area.

Croatian officials neither confirm nor deny the existence of the WhatsApp group.

“We cannot know if these messages are authentic. Corridor II-West is not a covert operation. It is an action against migrant smugglers, intensively in the past five years,” stated the Minister of the Interior, Davor Božinović.

He denies allegations of mistreatment of migrants by the police.

The Ministry emphasized in a statement that the group formed on VatsApp does not represent a specific illegal situation.

EU member Croatia joined the visa-free Schengen zone this year and has repeatedly faced accusations of pushing back migrants at its borders.

Source: TRT Balkan

“At the beginning of Ramadan, we offered citizens the opportunity to donate for iftars in Gaza. In 2 weeks, 14,500 euros were collected and immediately sent to our partner organization IHH, from Turkiye, which immediately started implementing the project.”

During the month of Ramadan, the humanitarian NGO Legis from Skopje organizes a humanitarian action to collect donations for iftar for the population of Palestinian Gaza, which is affected by the Israeli attacks and where the humanitarian situation and living conditions are significantly difficult.

“At the beginning of Ramadan fasting, we offered citizens the opportunity to donate for iftars in Gaza. Within 2 weeks of the start of the action, 14,500 euros were collected and immediately sent to our partner organization IHH, from Turkiye, which immediately started implementing the project. Thanks to Turkey’s strong influence in preventing and mitigating conflicts and natural disasters in the world, permanent humanitarian corridors have been established everywhere in the world, including in Gaza. And that’s how our aid reaches its intended destination and is implemented smoothly together with the aid of the largest Turkish humanitarian organization”, Jasmin Redzepi, president of the non-governmental organization Legis, said in a statement to TRT Balkans.

As he informed, the aid contains a high-calorie liquid hot meal, authentic to the local cuisine, made of flour, meat, eggs, olive oil and water, which meets the needs of a dignified meal in the conditions of war.

Rexhepi explains that due to the difficult security conditions and destroyed infrastructure, food is cooked in makeshift outdoor kitchens to protect the lives of local aid workers serving Palestinians in Gaza.

He adds that the meals are being distributed in the remaining centers (former schools, to house internally displaced people from northern Gaza, mostly women and children.

“With the funds so far, it is planned to distribute 3,600 hot meals, and with the end of the humanitarian action to collect funds one week before the end of Ramadan, we will know how many more meals will be distributed in total,” says Redzepi. He points out that the non-governmental organization Legis has been involved in international humanitarian actions for Gaza since its foundation in 2009. “The penultimate humanitarian operation to distribute hot meals in Gaza was carried out in December 2023.”

“A year ago, Legis was the first humanitarian organization from Macedonia that sent humanitarian aid and its activists to the victims of the earthquake in Turkiye, and at the end of last Ramadan, they donated thousands of hot meals for iftar in Hatay, Kahramanmarash and Reyhanli,” recalls Redzepi.

Source: TRTBALKAN