June 20th marks the World Refugee Day, which is an opportunity for us all to remember the increasing number of forcibly displaced people in the world, the problems they face with and how our societies react to the arrival of people in search of security. According to statistics from…
June 20th marks the World Refugee Day, which is an opportunity for us all to remember the increasing number of forcibly displaced people in the world, the problems they face with and how our societies react to the arrival of people in search of security. According to statistics from international organizations, there are more than 70 million forcibly displaced people in the world, of which more than 80% live in countries and regions bordering the country they fled – such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan. Although there is a very small percentage of the total number of refugees in the EU, fear, and resistance to the acceptance of refugees in European countries has never been stronger. That is why it is extremely important to point out accurate and verified information on migration and thus break down prejudices and fears. Moreover, with the almost non-existent safe and legal paths, closing the borders and preventing access to the asylum system by violence and constant violations of the EU law, the EU became an increasingly inaccessible place of security.
On this occasion, UNITED for Intercultural Action has also published an updated list of refugees who lost their lives at EU borders, calling them “the victims of Fortress Europe – silent deaths”, as they are not the result of some natural disasters or crises, but the EU’s criminal policy. Namely, on the list of 36,570 deaths, the most common name is NN. Serious attempts at identifying the dead were only initiated by isolated scientific initiatives, not the governments. This list has been running since 1993 and every day is getting longer, though probably thousands still remain unidentified.
The other side of the same story is the criminalization of those who provide support and solidarity. Criminalization of humanity is covered in Bilten’s new text, the Fundamental Rights Agency’s published a report on the criminalization of search and rescue operations and investigations against them, while on this link you can read about possible fines and penalties for people who gave shelter to refugees in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the period between 2004 and 2019, Croatia recognized 793 applications for international protection, while right now there are less than 300 people in Croatia who applied for international protection. These small numbers say a lot, most of all they show how Croatia is a country that can offer more than what it does now and that we can show solidarity, especially if we recall that in recent history many of us need similar protection. The way how we treat in Croatia those who come, go and seek to meet their basic human needs, is described in the letter of the anonymous mountaineer and in the interviews about life in Croatia with the persons who received protection.
A particularly worrying situation in the northwest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Una-Sana Canton, is escalating. After the fire in the Miral camp and numerous conflicts between the refugees and the police, the situation seems to be unsustainable. Poor hygienic and living conditions led the refugees to despair. After the escalation of various forms of violence, local authorities decided to move all refugees outside the camps to an isolated area in Vu?jak, at the same place where a waste landfill was once housed. The authorities de facto closed the camps, refusing refugees to enter or leave the building. Ironically, the UN and IOM, who have run camps in BiH, oppose this solution. By using force, more than 600 people were transferred to that area, including searches and incursions into several private homes where nearly 300 people were accommodated. “Local police and local Red Cross teams are only present because international organizations do not support the idea and accommodation in Vu?jak in the current circumstances. The Red Cross is allegedly only allowed to provide first aid, so there is no medical care for the people who are staying there. Also, food that is distributed is very basic and is not enough to feed people, “AYS reported.
This week, PUSH-BACK MAP (https://pushbackmap.org) was released and is now available. For years we have witnessed the unprecedented expansion of police violence at the borders and this map represents a collective space of resistance to the EU border control regime. The goal is to visualize the efforts to move, challenge and combat the sovereignty of the state. Push-back mapping also means mapping of resistance, mapping of unstoppable movements across and against borders! The purpose of this map is to jointly document a continuous struggle and to provide people with the reporting tool for experienced or witnessed pushbacks who maintain and maintain the fight! The application can be downloaded so you can share it freely with your contacts, field groups, and people on the go! https://pushbackmap.org/
On the World Refugee Day, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung announced the Atlas of Migration, which aims to change the perspectives on migration and its actors, initiate a shift in political terms and contribute to a more objective debate within the left European parties and movements. As stated in the introduction, “figures and facts collected show that although migrations occur in all parts of the world, they do not pose a threat to the social fabric of countries of destination or origin. However, migration is a threat to migrants themselves – especially for refugees and migrants without the appropriate documents.”
In August 2015, just before the official corridor was opened and an easier travel voyage was enabled, the public was shocked by the news of the deaths of 71 people in a truck on a motorway in Austria. This week, four people in Hungary were found guilty of organized smuggling of people and premeditated murder. As we monitor the processes against individuals responsible for the deaths caused by smuggling, we continue to monitor and end the application filed by a group of attorneys at the International Criminal Court against the EU for the deterrence policy and its tragic and lethal consequences.
For week literature we suggest: Bosnia and Herzegovina: Local Authorities Relocate People to “Middle of Nowhere”.
In solidarity,
Source: welcome.cms.hr
