[11]
AAN DE GRENS TUSSEN WIT-RUSLAND EN POLEN/DE EU IN HAAR NAAKTE ONMENSELIJKHEIDASTRID ESSED27 NOVEMBER 2021
https://www.astridessed.nl/aan-de-grens-tussen-wit-rusland-en-polen-de-eu-in-haar-naakte-onmenselijkheid/
ZIE OOK PUBLICATIE OP UITPERS.BE
https://www.uitpers.be/de-eu-in-haar-naakte-onmenselijkheid/
Wie mij een beetje heeft gevolgd weet, dat ik regelmatig heb geschreven en schrijf over vluchtelingen en wel over de schandalige manier waarop met hen door Nederland en andere EU landen wordt omgesprongen.
Over het terugsturen van vluchtelingen naar gevaarlijke situaties en de vaak desastreuze gevolgen daarvan. [1] Over een van de belangrijkste redenen, waarom vluchtelingen worden
geweerd. Het zijn ”armoedzaaiers” [2] en daar heeft geen enkel welvarend land zin in.[3] Zo wordt het zelden of nooit gezegd. Zo is het WEL. Dat was in het niet zo verre verleden zo [4], dat is nu zo. En het argument om de vluchtelingenstroom te beperken ”aanzuigende werking”, wordt niet alleen nu gehanteerd [5]. Dat was ook al zo, toen Joodse vluchtelingen op de vlucht sloegen
voor de terreur van het Nazi Beest [excuus aan alle dieren]. [6]
Over de gevaarlijke deals met dubieuze regimes om maar zoveel mogelijk vluchtelingen tegen te houden, waarbij niet alleen het recht op asiel wordt geschonden, maar mensen ook worden overgeleverd aan gevaarlijke situaties, zoals in Libië, waar vluchtelingen zelfs als slaven worden
verkocht! [7]
Over Denemarken, het eerste EU land dat openlijk van het recht op asiel een lachertje maakt, door een Wet aan te nemen, die het mogelijk maakt vluchtelingen buiten Europa op te vangen. [8] Zie de misdadige krankzinnigheid: Je vraagt asiel aan in Denemarken, je moet je aanvraag afwachten in een land, dat buiten Europa ligt en als je asiel wordt toegekend, wordt je in dat land opgevangen. Buiten Europa. [9] Ik kan dat niet volgen en ik hoop de lezer ook niet!
Over die rare, misdadige koehandel in de Nederlanden, met het ”Kinderpardondeal”. Want het Kinderpardon, dat werd ”verruimd” met enkele tientallen, misschien honderden kinderen [10], werd daarna direct definitief opgeheven! [11]Het was dus het laatste kinderpardon! Daarbij werd de discretionaire bevoegdheid van de toen Staatssecretaris Harbers ook per direct opgeheven. [12] En raad eens, wie NU die ”discretionaire bevoegdheid” kreeg…..De IND [Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst]! [13] Dezelfde instantie dus, die de vluchteling al eerder had beoordeeld en afgewezen. [14] Het gemeenste vond ik nog, dat met dat ontroerende ”Kinderpardon”het aantal door de VN-Vluchtelingen geselecteerde ”uitgenodigde vluchtelingen” van wie Nederland er jaarlijks 750 opnam, teruggebracht werd tot 500. [15] DIT ZIJN KWETSBARE MENSEN, DIE KOMEN UIT OORLOGSGEBIEDEN! [16] Zo zijn ”Onze Waarden……” [17]
Over dappere mensen, die vluchtelingen hebben gered en gevangenisstraf boven het hoofd hangt of reeds zijn veroordeeld [18]
Over het drama in de Nederlanden met de Wij Zijn Hier vluchtelingen, onuitzetbare mensen, die niettemin geen verblijfsvergunning krijgen [via het buitenschuldcriterium] en gedoemd zijn door Amsterdam en elders te blijven zwerven. [19]
Zo kan ik nog meer tragedies, meer voorbeelden noemen, maar laat ik deze lijst even stoppen en naar een nog grotere tragedie gaan. Het drama van de vluchtelingen aan de grens tussen Polen en Wit-Rusland. Maar wie een echte Inkijkje wil krijgen in de meest extreme vorm van inhumaan asielbeleid, hoeft daarvoor geen stukken van Astrid Essed, Joke Kaviaar [20] of andere vluchtelingenactivisten te lezen. Kijk alleen maar TV, naar het Journaal: Ja, lezers: Je hoeft helemaal niets te lezen en slechts te kijken en luisteren, wat zich afspeelt aan de grens tussen Wit-Rusland en Polen. Wat zich daar al wekenlang afspeelt: Hoe ontstond dit allemaal?
Vanwege EU-sancties tegen Wit-Rusland [anders genoemd: Belarus] [21] besloot de Wit-Russische dictator Loekasjenko terug te slaan, met als inzet: VLUCHTELINGEN! Deze dictator, president Loekasjenko, laat vluchtelingen, die Wit-Rusland binnenkomen, nu al sinds maanden ongehinderd door, richting grens met Polen, om zo de EU, die -laten we het maar zeggen zoals het is- niet op meer vluchtelingen zit te wachten, onder druk te zetten, vooral ook, omdat het om duizenden gaat. [22] En wat we al weten is gebeurd: Polen wil ze ook niet doorlaten, waardoor ze in een soort niemandsland terechtkomen. In een winterse kou, in een bos, waar het vriest [we leven in november/december], zonder voldoende eten, drinken, medische voorzieningen
en noem maar op!
Mensenrechtenactivisten spreken van een mensonterende situatie! Kou, miskramen, geen eten……. [23] Mensenrechtenorganisatie Human Rights Watch, die over deze mensonterende situatie een rapport heeft uitgebracht ”Die here or go to Poland: ”Belarus’ and Poland’s shared responsibility for Border Abuses” [24] vermeldt in het statement daaraan voorafgaand onder andere: ”“Men, women, and children have been ping-ponged across the border for days or weeks in freezing weather, desperately needing humanitarian assistance that is being blocked on both sides.”
Ook schrijft Human Rights Watch in diezelfde verklaring: ”Trapped on the Belarusian side, stranded or lost on the Polish side, people told harrowing stories of trudging through forests, swamps, marshlands, and rivers in freezing temperatures for days and even weeks without food or water. Some said they were forced to drink swamp water or collect rain water in leaves to drink. At least 13 people have died as a result of inhumane conditions, including a 1-year-old Syrian boy.” [25]
Ondertussen staat er aan Poolse kant een tot de tanden bewapend leger [26], alsof het om een buitenlandse vijand ging. Ondertussen sterven er steeds meer vluchtelingen in dat onzalige niemandsland, nu reeds elf [27] en inmiddels misschien meer, en krijgen ze ook nog eens te maken met pushbacks aan Poolse kant [28] en mishandelingen van zowel Wit-Russische als
Poolse grenswachten en militairen. [29]
Wit-Russische loods voor vuchtelingen
Ondertussen heeft Wit-Rusland dan een loods [normaal gesproken gebruikt voor de opslag van goederen] ter beschikking gesteld aan vluchtelingen [volgens de Wit-Russische regering zou het gaan om duizend migranten] die vastzitten in dat onzalige Niemandsland [30], terwijl de Iraakse regering begonnen is, terugvluchten te regelen onder het mom, dat de vluchtelingen toch niet welkom zijn in de EU [31], op zijn zachtst gezegd een understatement, maar niettemin volmondig waar. En het mag cynisch klinken: Maar hier lijkt het, alsof de keiharde dictator Loekasjensko nog meer menselijkheid getoond heeft dan de EU met haar politici, die leuteren over ”Onze Waarden” [32]
Ondertussen, de EU
Want hoe is ondertussen de reactie van EU politici op deze humanitaire crisis: Dat ga ik jullie vertellen:
De Belgische Staatssecretaris voor Asiel en Migratie: “Alle steun aan Polen. De buitengrenzen zullen met Europese steun versterkt worden. Dit is hét moment voor Europa om tot een krachtdadiger migratiebeleid te komen. Alleen een sterke EU met controles aan de buitengrenzen kan pushbacks en migratiecrisissen voorkomen.” [33]
Europarlementariër Hilde Vautmans [Open VLD] verklaart: ”We hebben vandaag nog steeds geen asiel- en migratiepact, met een versterking van de buitengrenzen. (…) Hierdoor kunnen we zo’n druk niet weerstaan. Dit is een zoveelste wake-up call voor de lidstaten om hier werk van te maken, ook voor Polen. Ik reken er dan ook op dat ze eindelijk constructief zullen meewerken aan zo’n beleid en om in de toekomst ook beroep te doen op Frontex.” [34]
De Duitse minister van Binnenlandse Zaken, Horst Seehofer: “We moeten de Poolse regering helpen de buitengrens te beveiligen. Dit is de taak van de Europese Commissie. Ik roep haar op actie te ondernemen.” …. “We kunnen ze niet bekritiseren om het feit dat ze Europa’s buitengrenzen beschermen. Niet door vuurwapens te gebruiken natuurlijk, maar met andere middelen die beschikbaar zijn.” [35]
Onmenselijkheid EU
Polen beschermen, solidair zijn met Polen, de Buitengrenzen van de EU beschermen. Alsof het om een buitenlandse agressor gaat. In die hele EU discussie is de menselijke maat weg. Het gaat slechts om het ”beschermen” van de buitengrenzen. Maar wie beschermt die vluchtelingen tegen de honger, kou, vijandige grenswachten aan beide zijden en de te bouwen ”Muren” om Europa?
Van alle cases van EU-onmenselijkheid is dit Drama, dat zich voor het Oog van Camera [voor zover journalisten er wat van kunnen waarnemen, want die worden ook weggehouden] [36] en TV afspeelt, het meest naakte, het meest bizarre voorbeeld van de EU onmenselijkheid.
Ziedaar het Steekspel tussen Wit-Rusland en de EU, met vluchtelingen als Inzet. [37] ”Onze verworvenheden, met onze normen en waarden, is het alles of niets het is geen cafetaria model (……). We hebben het over onze verworvenheden, die voortkomen uit humanisme, uit Verlichting, die we in honderden jaren hebben opgebouwd” [38]
JA, ZO ZIJN ONZE WAARDEN ……. ONE SHOT IN THE DARK AND A REFUGEE WAS DEAD……[39]
ASTRID ESSED
NOTEN
NOTEN 1 T/M 10
NOTEN 11 T/M 20
NOTEN 21 T/M 29
NOTEN 30 T/M 39https://www.astridessed.nl/noten-30-t-m-39-eu-en-de-vluchtelingen/
HUMANITAIRE CRISIS POLEN/WIT-RUSLAND EN DE EUONMENSELIJKHEID/VERVOLGASTRID ESSED30 NOVEMBER 2021
VAN THE REFUGEE CIRCLE OP FACEBOOK
8 dec 2021, door Anna Albot in the Guardian. Zij is met in Narewka, Polen, vlakbij de grens met Wit-Rusland.Het helpen van vluchtelingen die verhongeren in de ijzige grensbossen van Polen is illegaal, maar het is niet de echte misdaadEén gedachte gaat constant door mijn hoofd: “Ik heb kinderen thuis, ik kan niet de cel in, ik kan niet de cel in.” De politiek ligt buiten mijn bereik of dat van de slachtoffers aan de grens tussen Polen en Wit-Rusland. Die gaat erom dat de vertrekkende Duitse kanselier Angela Merkel doordringt tot Alexander Loekasjenko, de president van Wit-Rusland. Het is ironisch dat deze grens meer dan 50 mediaploegen op de been heeft gebracht, maar Polen de enige plaats in de EU is waar journalisten niet vrijuit kunnen rapporteren.Ondertussen nadert de strenge Noord-Europese winter en bevriezen mijn vingers in de donkere sneeuwnachten.De grenssituatie laat de kloof zien tussen wat legaal is en wat moreel is. Hij beheerst de inspanningen van degenen die levens redden. Het enige wat wij, activisten in de bossen aan de grens tussen Polen en Wit-Rusland, kunnen doen is water, voedsel en kleding naar wanhopige mensen brengen. Maar deze fundamentele humanitaire daad, kan alleen in het geheim worden uitgevoerd. We moeten ons verstoppen en door de bossen sluipen. De aandacht trekken van grenswachten, politie of leger zou een nieuwe pushback kunnen forceren.We ontmoeten bange ogen, uitgeputte gezichten, lichamen kapot door de kou … Bevroren, dorstige, hongerige mensen.Ik heb verschillende groepen tussen de bomen ontmoet: gezinnen, moeders met kinderen, vaders met gehandicapte kinderen, ouderen en mensen uit de meest kwetsbare groepen ter wereld – etnisch, religieus en LGBTQ+. Ze zochten vrijheid, maar werden sinds augustus tot nu, december, vijf, tien en zelfs vijftien keer teruggedreven naar Wit-Rusland.Tijdens mijn nachtelijke tochten ben ik uitgerust met een grote rugzak vol thermoskannen warme soep, sokken, laarzen, jassen, handschoenen, sjaals, mutsen, pleisters, medicijnen en powerbanks. Ik loop in het donker en verschuil me achter bomen als ik helikopters hoor of de felle lichten van de politie zie. Ik hoor het geplons van de soep in de kannen op mijn rug, ik hoor mijn kortademigheid – niemand heeft me geleerd om te sluipen en onzichtbaar te zijn als een beroepsmilitair. Ik heb jarenlang voor mensenrechten gewerkt, de meeste EU-grenzen en vluchtelingenkampen bezocht, maar ik was nooit bang om takken onder mijn voeten te laten kraken of voor het ritselen van de bomen boven mijn hoofd terwijl ik me voortbeweeg.Uit persoonlijke verhalen en bewijzen verzameld door Minority Rights Group International en collega’s van Grupa Granica, een alliantie van 14 Poolse maatschappelijke organisaties die reageren op de crisis, weten we dat er minstens 5.000 mensen in de bossen zijn geweest en dat er momenteel minstens 1.000 zijn. We hebben met iedereen contact gehad: wanhopige slachtoffers van een walgelijk machtsspel tussen staten.Elke keer dat we reageren op een telefoontje van iemand in nood, of hun moeder die nog in Irak of Afghanistan is, of een neef in Berlijn, hangen we onze rugzakken om en gaan. Dag en nacht – lang nadat de wereld zijn interesse heeft verloren. Soms zijn we uren op zoek naar mensen. Die veranderen voor de veiligheid vaak van locatie. Soms zijn bejaarde grootmoeders of de kleine kinderen die geen energie meer hebben om te lopen, gestrand in Poolse moerassen. Nu de bossen bedekt zijn met sneeuw en mensen ons niet kunnen bellen omdat hun telefoons zijn vernietigd door het Poolse leger, gebruiken we infrarood camera’s.We ontmoeten bange ogen, uitgeputte gezichten, lichamen kapot door de kou, wanhopig verzwakt na weken in het ijzige, natte bos. Bevroren, dorstige, hongerige mensen. Ik had geen idee wat honger betekende. Ik gaf mijn kinderen wel eens een stuk chocola als ze klaagden voor het eten. Ik heb armoedestatistieken en geschiedenisboeken gelezen. Ik wist niets van honger.Mensen aan de grens tussen Polen en Wit-Rusland hebben al weken niet gegeten. Om de paar dagen krijgen ze, als ze geld hebben, misschien een oude aardappel van een Wit-Russische soldaat na een gewelddadige pushback over het prikkeldraad. Die delen ze met de kinderen. Ze hebben dagenlang niets te drinken. Of drinken moeras- of regenwater, dat maagkrampen en een verlammende hoofdpijn veroorzaakt, waardoor ze verder verzwakken.We wensen hen het beste aan het einde van onze ontmoeting. Voor een paar dagen voldoende voedsel en water achterlaten is onmogelijk: niemand heeft de kracht om zoveel te dragen. We kunnen geen mensen meenemen of naar een veilige plek brengen. Dat zou een strafbaar feit zijn. Maar het is geen misdaad om deze mensen langzaam dood te laten gaan…Waar is het Rode Kruis, de Internationale Organisatie voor Migratie van de VN en de VN-vluchtelingenorganisatie? Die organisaties die zelfs in oorlogsgebieden opereren? Die voedsel en water naar de gevaarlijkste criminelen brengen? Is Elina, 5, gevaarlijker of minder waard? Ze heeft epilepsie, maar geen medicijnen. Ik ontmoette haar in het bos met negen andere Koerden, allemaal zonder laarzen. Ze hebben thuis oorlogen en luchtaanvallen overleefd, maar kunnen in het Poolse bos doodvriezen. Bij elke pushback pakken Poolse en Wit-Russische officieren alles af: geld, kleding en schoeisel.Er was de groep van negen vrouwen uit de Democratische Republiek Congo, waarschijnlijk verhandeld. Toen ik ze de situatie uitlegde, huilden en huilden ze maar. Of de Yezidi-zussen, die zeven jaar geleden ontsnapten aan de genocide in Sinjar, Irak, maar nog steeds op zoek zijn naar een veilige plek. Of de jongens uit Jemen, die perfect Engels spreken. Of de drie homoseksuele mannen uit Iran, wanhopig om niet teruggestuurd te worden naar Wit-Russische soldaten.We blijven contact houden. Als ze erin slagen hun telefoons te verbergen, kunnen we communiceren na een pushback. Ze delen foto’s en video’s van Wit-Russische honden. Laten me bijtwonden zien als we elkaar aan de Poolse kant ontmoeten. Zij huilen. Ze vragen om advies. Ze willen hun familie niet vertellen over hun benarde situatie, maar ze hebben iemand nodig om mee te praten.“De vijfde pushback. Na de zesde pleeg ik zelfmoord.”“Ik heb mijn zoon verloren, hij heeft astma. De laatste keer dat hij belde was drie dagen geleden. Weet je waar hij is?””Wanneer ben je hier? Heb je water? Al is het een druppel?”Onderworpen aan een desinformatiecampagne krijgen de vluchtelingen tegenstrijdige berichten van Wit-Russische diensten, die formulieren verspreiden over de vestiging in Polen of Duitsland. Dit schept hoop op een veilige reis. Maar het echte doel is om ze aan de Poolse grens neer te zetten om druk uit te oefenen op de EU. Sommige verontrustende berichten suggereren dat migranten worden gedwongen om deel te nemen aan geweld als onderdeel van Wit-Russische pogingen om Poolse functionarissen te provoceren.Met het risico van een escalatie van geweld willen wij, de activisten in de bossen, de wereld eraan herinneren dat vluchtelingen geen agressors zijn. Ze zijn gijzelaars van het regime van Loekasjenko, dat hen voor zijn agenda gebruikt.Polen sturen me berichten: “Waar moet ik warme en donkere kleding naartoe sturen?” “Hoe is de situatie aan de grens? De media laten ons alleen video’s zien van het Poolse ministerie of de Wit-Russische autoriteiten.” “Ik huil als ik mijn kinderen in bed stop. Schrijf alsjeblieft iets dat kan helpen.”Dunja Mijatović, de commissaris voor mensenrechten van de Raad van Europa, verbleef vier dagen in Polen en ging met ons mee het veld in. Ze zei: “De grootste kracht van de hulpbeweging voor vluchtelingen aan de grens tussen Polen en Wit-Rusland zijn de inwoners van de naburige steden – in de noodzone en ernaast. Het is hun compassie en empathie die het leven van mensen in het bos verlengt. Hun moed en onbaatzuchtigheid. Hun goedheid redt levens.”Anderen zien het natuurlijk anders: mensen die aan de grens helpen zijn “vijanden van de natie”, “agenten van Loekasjenko”, “schuldig aan het vernietigen van Europese waarden”, “het uitnodigen van terroristen hier”.We maken ons schuldig aan het achterlaten van pakken water in het bos voor de dorstigen. We maken ons schuldig aan het uitdelen van soep. Aan schoenen aan koude voeten doen die niet meer konden bewegen. Als helpen illegaal is, begrijpen we dan wel wat misdaad is?Anna Alboth is vrijwilliger bij Minority Rights Group
EINDE BERICHT THE REFUGEE CIRCLE
MINORITY RIGHTS.ORGPEOPLE AS PAWNS TO POWER: THE UNFOLDINGHUMANITARIAN CRISIS ON THE BELARUSIAN BORDERNEEDS URGENT ATTENTION24 SEPTEMBER 2021
https://minorityrights.org/2021/09/24/belarusian-border/
By Anna Alboth, Europe Media Programmes Coordinator at MRG
For an organisation established on the back of a humanitarian disaster that shocked the world, the lack of discussion at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly about events unfolding on the Polish-Belarusian border is deeply disappointing.
As feeble international efforts to hold Lukashenka to account failed, he instead consolidated power extending a vice-like grip on power in Belarus.
His revenge has been devastating and suggests a new level of depravity unfolding: dislocating and moving hundreds of desperate people to use them as pawns in a battle to re-establish his power and relevance.
Chastened by the fact that Belarusian dissidents took refuge in neighbouring Lithuania, Poland and Latvia, Lukashenka has been making public statements his revenge since May. He planned to ‘flood’ those countries with people and drugs; and as of yesterday, he further upped the ante, promising to unleash ‘terrorists’ into the European Union, whatever that may mean.
The world’s press is apparently not interested in this story which allows it to exist beyond global conscience.
Unfolding in the darkness, is the following: incentives and false promises are made through ‘travel agencies’ in Baghdad, Beirut, Karachi, Abuja, Yaounde and elsewhere to transport people to the European Union where they may be able to claim asylum.
Money changes hands, creating a lucrative trade with direct flights arranged to Minsk to fly people often in grave fear for their lives, away from caldrons of conflict, in the belief that they and their families will be able to make it to safety.
This expensive journey, sometimes also facilitated through visa-free travel from certain areas, is obviously a far safer option that the perils of overland and sea journeys that have now been well-documented as resulting in death.
The unfolding Afghan crisis has provided another source of people desperately fleeing the political deterioration of their home country.
From personal testimonies and evidence collected by Minority Rights Group International in conjunction with colleagues at Grupa Granica, a loose alliance of ten Polish civil society organisations working to respond to this crisis, it seems that there are around 4000 people trapped on the Lithuanian, 3000 on the Polish and 300 on the Latvian borders with Belarus right now, with a ‘supply chain’ directly into conflict and strife-ridden countries.
Eyewitness accounts that have penetrated the news blanket over Belarus indicate that the government is bussing people from Minsk airport to the border, where armed guards then force them over.
But with those borders being sealed, and with Poland declaring a state of emergency in the border zone—the first of its kind in Polish history, they are met with an armed presence on the other side that forces them back.
The consequence is that people with families, young children, some Yezidi women who are travelling unaccompanied, are all left in no-man’s land with no food or shelter. This week the first deaths happen: three people died so far. The most recent: a woman, surrounded by her three children.
Poland’s state of emergency comes with heavy militarized presence, a ban on outsiders, preventions of recording of any events, and a governmental narrative about a ‘hybrid war’ against ‘illegal migrants’ language not really used since the height of the refugee crises of 2015.
Local residents have been unable to act—some in fear that providing food to desperately hungry people they can hear crying out in the forest, is in violation of the law. The ban on recording information and disseminating it means that the crisis can conveniently be ignored.
Following on swiftly from Latvia and Lithuania, Poland has now also passed law that violates the Geneva Conventions—legitimizing ‘push-backs’ of asylum seekers over their borders. Individuals who have managed to make contact speak of being forced back and forward between border guards as many as 20 times in what is becoming a deadly game of ping-pong.
Despite desperate pleas from civil society organisations who are engaged with the situation, Red Cross either appears unwilling or unable to act to seek to penetrate the walls of this deathly game to provide humanitarian relief. For the many trapped in this situation, they are now desperate for deportation back home.
The impending arrival of winter is a looming threat as is the possibility of more arrivals into Minsk. It is imperative that the world’s media put this crisis where it belongs — high on the global agenda of issued to be addressed, and it is vital that an urgent humanitarian response is organised.
Forget about the inherent dignity and worth of every individual, if desperate people can be used as pawns in this manner to serve the interests of power, the world has not yet seen the depths of depravity that may still visit us.
EINDE ARTIKEL
[12]
EU EN TURKIJE SLUITEN DEAL OVER VLUCHTELINGEN/BRIEFAAN DE NEDERLANDSE EUROPARLEMENTARIERSASTRID ESSED23 MEI 2016
https://www.astridessed.nl/eu-en-turkije-sluiten-deal-over-vluchtelingenbrief-aan-nederlandse-europarlementariers/
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCHWORLD REPORT 2021TURKEY
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/turkey
The assault on human rights and the rule of law presided over by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continued during the Covid-19 pandemic. The president’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and an allied far-right party enjoy a parliamentary majority enabling them to consolidate authoritarian rule by passing rushed legislation that contravenes international human rights obligations. Opposition parties remain sidelined under Turkey’s presidential system and the government has reshaped public and state institutions to remove checks on power and to ensure benefits for its own supporters. The political opposition nevertheless controls the municipalities of Istanbul and Ankara.
Executive interference in the judiciary and in prosecutorial decisions are entrenched problems, reflected in the authorities’ systematic practice of detaining, prosecuting, and convicting on bogus and overbroad terrorism and other charges, individuals the Erdoğan government regards as critics or political opponents. Among those targeted are journalists, opposition politicians, and activists—in particular members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). The largest targeted group consists of those alleged to have links with the movement headed by US-based Sunni cleric Fethullah Gülen which Turkey deems a terrorist organization and calls FETÖ and holds responsible for the July 2016 coup attempt.
Turkey’s move to begin gas exploration in the East Mediterranean in the context of maritime boundaries contested with Greece and Cyprus almost spiraled into a naval clash with Greece in August. The European Union has made efforts to broker dialogue over conflicting claims in a dispute originally ignited by the discovery of gas reserves off Cyprus with its contested status.
Turkey provides military support to the United Nations-recognized Government of National Accord in Libya against a breakaway government in the east of the country. Turkey has expressed strong support for Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey continues to exert effective control via Syrian non-state actors over areas of northern and northeast Syria where it has intervened militarily in the past four years, and where significant human rights abuses continue unabated. Turkey cites its aim as removing Kurdish forces formerly controlling the area closely linked to the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) with which Turkey has been engaged in a decades’-long conflict (see Syria chapter). Turkey played a key role in securing a March ceasefire in Syria’s northwestern Idlib governorate, which has largely held.
Freedom of Expression, Association, and Assembly
Most TV and print media in Turkey are owned by companies close to the Erdoğan presidency or avoid reporting critical of the government. Critical online news and commentary websites persist, nevertheless. At the time of writing, an estimated 87 journalists and media workers were in pretrial detention or serving sentences for terrorism offenses because of their journalistic work.
Plans for strict regulation of social media companies in Turkey were made law in July after President Erdoğan used the example of insults against his family on social media to justify a need for stricter regulation. Under the new law, social media companies with over one million users a day will be required to have offices in Turkey and comply with government demands to block and remove content or else face very heavy fines. Companies that do not open an office will be fined and eventually have their bandwidth restricted, rendering the platform unusable. At time of writing, Facebook had indicated it would not comply with the law.
While Turkey in January lifted a blocking order on Wikipedia in place since April 2017, authorities continue to block thousands of websites, including critical news websites, and order the removal of online content.
Thousands of people face arrest and prosecution for their social media posts, typically charged with defamation, insulting the president, or spreading terrorist propaganda. In the context of Covid-19, the Interior Ministry announced that hundreds of people were under criminal investigation or detained by police for social media postings deemed to “create fear and panic” about the pandemic. Some of these postings included criticism of the government’s response to the pandemic.
Turkey’s official media regulation authority, the Radio and Television Supreme Board (RTÜK), ordered arbitrary fines and temporary suspensions of broadcasting of media outlets such as Halk TV, Tele 1 TV, and Fox TV, which include content critical of the government. Netflix complied with RTÜK’s April demand that it remove an episode of TV drama series Designated Survivor on the grounds that it offered a negative portrayal of President Erdoğan, as well as in July canceling filming in Turkey of a new Turkish drama after RTÜK requested the removal of a gay character from the script.
Selectively using Covid-19 as a pretext, provincial governors banned peaceful protests of women’s rights activists, healthcare workers, lawyers, and political opposition parties.
Terrorism charges continue to be widely misused to restrict the rights to free expression and association in the fourth year after the coup attempt. As of July 2020, Ministry of Justice and Interior figures stated that 58,409 were on trial and 132,954 still under criminal investigation on terrorism in cases linked to the Gülen movement. Of those 25,912 were held in prison on remand.
There are no published official numbers of prisoners held on remand or convicted for alleged links with the PKK, although on the basis of the previous years’ figures the number is at least 8,500 and includes elected politicians and journalists. An April law on early prisoner release to reduce crowding in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic excluded remand prisoners and all prisoners detained or convicted of terrorism offenses. Covid-19 cases have been reported in prisons throughout Turkey, although authorities do not provide numbers of confirmed cases.
Human Rights Defenders, Lawyers
In February, an Istanbul court acquitted rights defender Osman Kavala and nine others of “attempting to overthrow the government by force and violence” in connection with the 2013 mass protests which began in Gezi Park. However, hours after his acquittal another court ordered Kavala’s detention in the scope of an investigation into his alleged role in the July 2016 attempted coup. In October, the investigation culminated in another bogus indictment accusing Kavala and US academic Henri Barkey of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and espionage. Kavala has been detained since November 2017, with Turkey flouting a European Court of Human Rights’ judgment ordering his release on the grounds that his detention has been pursued for political aims.
In July, in a case against human rights defenders detained in 2017 while they attended a training workshop, an Istanbul court convicted Taner Kılıç, Amnesty International Turkey’s honorary chair, on charges of membership of a terrorist organization to over six years in prison. İdil Eser, Amnesty Turkey’s former director, and rights defenders Özlem Dalkıran and Günal Kurşun received sentences of 25 months on charges of aiding a terrorist organization, and 7 others, 2 of them foreign nationals, were acquitted. All are at liberty and the case is under appeal.
The government’s restrictive approach to the public activities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights groups continued with the banning of events including Pride marches for a sixth year running and homophobic speeches by senior state officials.
The government in July passed a new law to reduce the institutional strength of Turkey’s largest bar associations, which have strongly criticized Turkey’s backsliding on human rights and the rule of law. Defense lawyers representing defendants in terrorism prosecutions have faced arrest and prosecution on the same charges as their clients. In September, the Court of Cassation upheld the conviction of 14 out of 18 lawyers for links with an outlawed leftist organization. One of the lawyers, Ebru Timtik, died on August 27 after a prolonged hunger strike in demand of a fair trial.
The first hearing against three police officers and a PKK militant accused of the fatal shooting of human rights lawyer Tahir Elçi on November 28, 2015, began in October with further hearings postponed until March 2021.
From May to July, at least 45 Kurdish women’s rights activists were detained and face prosecution for links with the PKK. Femicide and domestic abuse are significant problems in Turkey. While official disaggregated data on numbers are not available, women’s rights groups have reported that hundreds of women are killed annually as a result of domestic violence. Conservative groups and some government officials suggested Turkey may withdraw from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention), which Turkey was among the first to ratify in 2014.
Torture and Ill-Treatment in Custody, Enforced Disappearances
A rise in allegations of torture, ill-treatment, and cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment in police and military custody and prison over the past four years has set back Turkey’s earlier progress in this area. Those targeted include people accused of political and common crimes. Prosecutors do not conduct meaningful investigations into such allegations and there is a pervasive culture of impunity for members of the security forces and public officials implicated.
There have been no effective investigations into the around two dozen reported cases of enforced disappearance over the past four years. In February and June 2020, two men out of six who resurfaced in police custody in Ankara months after disappearing in February 2019, stated in court hearings that they had been abducted, tortured, and forced to sign statements confessing to links with the Gülen movement.
In June, the government passed legislation to increase the numbers and powers of night watchmen who assist the police with community policing functions, granting them authority to stop and check IDs and to use lethal force. There have been reported instances of watchmen abusing their powers and ill-treating people.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has conducted three visits to Turkey since the July 2016 coup attempt. In August, the Turkish government granted permission for publication of two of the CPT reports from 2017 and 2019 visits identifying ill-treatment in police custody and degrading conditions and overcrowding in prisons.
Kurdish Conflict and Crackdown on Opposition
While sporadic armed clashes between the military and the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) occur in Turkey’s eastern and southeastern regions, the focus of the conflict is in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where Turkey conducts regular cross-border operations and airstrikes against PKK targets, in some cases killing and injuring civilians.
The Erdoğan government refuses to distinguish between the PKK and the democratically elected Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) which won 11.7 percent of the national vote in the 2018 parliamentary elections and 65 local municipalities in the 2019 local elections. Former party co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ have been in detention since November 2016. Turkey has refused to comply with a 2020 European Court of Human Rights ruling that Demirtaş should be immediately released.
Since August 2019, the Interior Ministry has justified the removal of 48 elected Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) mayors on the basis that they face criminal investigations and prosecutions for links with the PKK. Repeating the approach taken in 2016-17, the government has replaced mayors in the southeast with Ankara-appointed provincial governors and deputy governor “trustees.”
At time of writing, 19 mayors remain in pretrial detention. In March, a Diyarbakır court sentenced Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı, the dismissed mayor of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, to over nine years in prison based on a witness statement accusing him of links with the PKK. The case is under appeal. In October, an Ankara court ruled for the pretrial detention of Kars mayor, Ayhan Bilgen, and 16 other HDP officials, in connection with an investigation into their alleged role in 2014 protests.
In June, the Turkish parliament revoked the parliamentary seats of two HDP deputies, Leyla Güven and Musa Farisoğulları, on the grounds that the Court of Cassation had upheld convictions against them for membership in a terrorist organization, and Enis Berberoğlu, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, for revealing state secrets by sharing video footage of trucks of weapons being transferred to Syria with Cumhuriyet newspaper.
In June, an Istanbul appeal court upheld the conviction of Canan Kaftancıoğlu, Istanbul chair of People’s Republican Party (CHP), to nearly 10 years in prison for tweets she made years ago. A further appeal is underway.
Refugees and Migrants
Turkey continues to host the world’s largest number of refugees, around 3.6 million from Syria, and over 400,000 refugees and migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries. On February 27, 2020, Turkey announced that authorities would not intercept asylum seekers wishing to leave Turkey through its borders with the European Union.
As a result, thousands of migrants and asylum seekers gathered at the Turkish-Greek border. Many of those that managed to cross the Evros River into Greece were summarily and violently pushed back by Greek security forces. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic prompted Turkey to close the border again, but attempted crossings by migrants of land and sea borders and pushbacks from Greece continued.
At least 60 Afghans and others died after entering Turkey from Iran and crossing Lake Van in the eastern part of the country in a fishing boat. The border with Syria has been closed to new asylum seekers since 2016; Turkish border guards have killed or injured some of those attempting to cross and carried out mass summary pushbacks.
Key International Actors
Turkey’s relationship with the European Union was strained by tensions in the East Mediterranean over contested maritime borders and access to gas reserves, as well as by Turkey’s willingness to use migration as a political bargaining tool by briefly opening its border to Greece in February-March. Turkey formally remains a candidate for EU accession without expectation on either side of progress towards its membership.
In its Turkey report in the context of the accession process, the EU Commission stressed the “continued deterioration of democracy, the rule of law, fundamental rights and the independence of the judiciary … with further backsliding in many areas.” The EU made a number of statements on negative developments, criticizing in February the re-arrest of Osman Kavala, and in July, the conviction of rights defenders including Taner Kılıç.
Turkish-US relations remain strained for multiple reasons, including the presence on US soil of Fethullah Gülen, US support for Kurdish-led forces in Syria, Turkey’s acquisition of Russian S-400 missiles, and the forthcoming New York trial of a state-owned Turkish bank for Iran sanctions-busting and money laundering.
In June and October, Istanbul courts convicted two local employees of the US consulate in Istanbul on terrorism charges, imposing prison sentences ranging from five to nearly nine years because the employees had prior professional contact, years earlier, with police officers later accused of being Gülenists.
In a February report, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights focused on measures by authorities that have had “devastating consequences” for judicial independence and “unprecedented levels of disregard for the most basic principles of law” in terrorism prosecutions. Following the review of Turkey’s human rights record by UN member-states in the context of the Universal Periodic Review, Turkey rejected core recommendations regarding its human rights record or claimed that it had already implemented them.
[13]
”Deugde die Turkije deal al van geen meter [45] nogerger is die EU-Libie deal:Die houdt in, dat vluchtelingen en migranten, dievia Libie de oversteek naar Europa proberen tewagen, worden tegengehouden door de Libische kustwacht.In ruil daarvoor ondersteunen en financieren de EU landen de Libische kustwacht en nemen ze kwetsbare vluchtelingen van Libie over. [46]Wat deugt daar niet aan?Nou, in de eerste plaats weer die schending van hetrecht op asiel, gecombineerd met de schending vanhet recht op vrijheid van beweging.Dat was zo bij die EU Turkije deal, dat is zo bij die EU Libie deal.Erger nog:Libie is een onveilig tot zeer onveilig land!Er woedt een aanhoudende burgeroorlog, centraalgezag, ho maar en migranten, die daar in detentiecentra zitten worden slecht tot zeer slecht behandeld. [47]En welkom in de 21 ste eeuw:Er zijn SLAVENMARKTEN! [48]”
VLUCHTELINGEN/VAN ARMOEDZAAIERS, WEGWERPARTIKELEN, BEHEERSBARE GETALLEN EN SLAVENASTRID ESSED20 SEPTEMBER 2021
https://www.astridessed.nl/vluchtelingen-van-armoedzaaiers-wegwerpartikelen-beheersbare-getallen-en-slaven/
AMNESTY INTERNATIONALLIBYA/HORRIFIC VIOLATION IN DETENTION HIGHLIGHT EUROPE’S SHAMEFUL ROLE IN FORCED RETURNS15 JULY 2021
Fresh evidence of harrowing violations, including sexual violence, against men, women and children intercepted while crossing the Mediterranean Sea and forcibly returned to detention centres in Libya, highlights the horrifying consequences of Europe’s ongoing cooperation with Libya on migration and border control, said Amnesty International in a report published today.
‘No one will look for you’: Forcibly returned from sea to abusive detention in Libya documents how decade-long violations against refugees and migrants continued unabated in Libyan detention centres during the first six months of 2021 despite repeated promises to address them.
The report also found that since late 2020 Libya’s Directorate for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM), a department of the interior ministry, had legitimized abuse by integrating two new detention centres under its structure where hundreds of refugees and migrants had been forcibly disappeared in previous years by militias. At one recently rebranded centre, survivors said guards raped women and subjected them to sexual violence including by coercing them into sex in exchange for food or their freedom.
“The report also highlights the ongoing complicity of European states that have shamefully continued to enable and assist Libyan coastguards in capturing people at sea and forcibly returning them to the hellscape of detention in Libya, despite knowing full well the horrors they will endure.”
Amnesty International is calling on European states to suspend cooperation on migration and border control with Libya. This week Italy’s parliament will debate the continuation of their provision of military support and resources to Libyan coastguards.
The report details the experiences of 53 refugees and migrants previously detained in centres nominally under the control of DCIM, 49 of whom were detained directly following their interceptions at sea.
Libyan authorities have vowed to close DCIM centres rife with abuse, but similar patterns of violations have been reproduced in newly opened or re-opened centres. In an illustration of entrenched impunity, informal sites of captivity originally run by non-DCIM affiliated militias have been legitimized and integrated into the DCIM. In 2020, hundreds of people disembarked in Libya had been forcibly disappeared at an informal site, then controlled by a militia. Since then, Libyan authorities have integrated the site into the DCIM, named it the Tripoli Gathering and Return Centre, colloquially known as Al-Mabani, and also put the former director and other staff of the now-closed Tajoura DCIM centre in charge. Tajoura, which was notorious for torture and other ill-treatment, was ordered closed in August 2019, a month after airstrikes that killed at least 53 detainees.
Ongoing abuse in Libyan detention centres
In the first half of 2021, more than 7,000 people intercepted at sea were forcibly returned to Al-Mabani. Detainees held there told Amnesty International they faced torture and other ill-treatment, cruel and inhuman detention conditions, extortion and forced labour. Some also reported being subjected to invasive, humiliating and violent strip-searches.
Tripoli’s Shara’ al-Zawiya centre is a facility which was also previously run by non-affiliated militias and was recently integrated under DCIM and designated for people in vulnerable situations. Former detainees there said that guards raped women and some were coerced into sex in exchange for their release or for essentials such as clean water. “Grace” said she was heavily beaten for refusing to comply with such a demand: “I told [the guard] no. He used a gun to knock me back. He used a leather soldier’s shoe … to [kick] me from my waist.”
Two young women at the facility attempted to commit suicide as a result of such abuse.
Three women also said that two babies detained with their mothers after an attempted sea crossing had died in early 2021 after guards refused to transfer them to hospital for critical medical treatment.
Amnesty International’s report documents similar patterns of human rights violations, including severe beatings, sexual violence, extortion, forced labour, and inhuman conditions across seven DCIM centres in Libya. In Abu Issa centre in the city of al-Zawiya, detainees reported being deprived of nutritious food to the point of starvation.
In Al-Mabani and two other DCIM centres, Amnesty International documented the unlawful use of lethal force when guards and other armed men shot at detainees, causing deaths and injuries.
Libyan “rescue” missions endangering lives
Between January and June 2021, the EU-backed Libyan coastguards intercepted around 15,000 people at sea and returned them to Libya – more than in all of 2020 – during what they describe as “rescue” missions.
People interviewed by Amnesty International consistently described Libyan coastguards’ conduct as negligent and abusive. Survivors described how Libyan coastguards deliberately damaged their boats, in some cases causing them to capsize, leading refugees and migrants to drown on at least two occasions. One eyewitness said after Libyan coastguards caused a dinghy to capsize, they filmed the incident with their phones instead of instead of rescuing all survivors. Over 700 refugees and migrants drowned along the central Mediterranean Sea route in the first six months of 2021.
Refugees and migrants told Amnesty International that as they attempted sea crossings, they frequently saw aircraft overhead or ships nearby that did not offer them assistance before the Libyan coastguards’ arrival.
Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard agency, has carried out aerial surveillance over the Mediterranean to identify refugee and migrants’ boats at sea and has operated a drone over this route since May 2021. European navies have largely abandoned the central Mediterranean to avoid having to rescue refugee and migrants’ boats in distress.
Italy and other EU member states have also continued to grant material assistance, including speedboats, to Libyan coastguards and are working to establish a maritime coordination centre in Tripoli’s port, mostly funded by the EU Trust Fund for Africa.
“Despite overwhelming evidence of reckless, negligent and unlawful behaviour by Libyan coastguards at sea and systematic violations in detention centres after disembarkation, European partners have continued to support Libyan coastguards to forcibly return people to the very abuse they fled in Libya,” said Diana Eltahawy.
“It’s well past time for European states to acknowledge the indefensible consequences of their actions. They must suspend cooperation on migration and border control with Libya and instead open urgently needed pathways to safety for the thousands in need of protection currently trapped there.”
EINDE STATEMENT AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
RAPPORT AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
”NO ONE LOOK FOR YOU”, FORCIBLY RETURNED
FROM SEA TO ABUSIVE DETENTION IN LIBYA
15 JULY 2021
Libya has long been unsafe for refugees and migrants. Both state and non-state actors subject them to a catalogue of human rights violations and abuses including unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, rape and other sexual violence, indefinite arbitrary detention in cruel and inhuman conditions, and forced labour, among others. Despite well-documented patterns of horrific abuse committed with impunity for over a decade, European states and institutions continue to provide material support and pursue migration policies enabling Libyan coastguards to intercept men, women and children attempting to flee to safety by crossing the Mediterranean Sea and forcibly return them to Libya.
RAPPORT
file:///C:/Users/Essed/Downloads/MDE1944392021ARABIC.pdf
IOM
IOM LEARNS OF ”SLAVE MARKET” CONDITIONS ENDANGERING
MIGRANTS IN NORTH AFRICA
11 APRIL 2017
Libya – Over the past weekend, IOM staff in Niger and Libya documented shocking events on North African migrant routes, which they have described as ‘slave markets’ tormenting hundreds of young African men bound for Libya.
Operations Officers with IOM’s office in Niger, reported on the rescue of a Senegalese migrant (referred to as SC to protect his identity) who this week was returning to his home after being held captive for months.
According to SC’s testimony, while trying to travel north through the Sahara, he arrived in Agadez, Niger, where he was told he would have to pay 200,000 CFA (about USD 320) to continue north, towards Libya. A trafficker provided him with accommodation until the day of his departure, which was to be by pick-up truck.
The journey – over two days of travelling – through the desert was relatively smooth for this group. IOM has often heard from other migrants on this route who report seeing the remains of others abandoned by their drivers – and of trucks ransacked by bandits who siphon away their fuel.
SC’s fate was different. When his pick-up reached Sabha in southwestern Libya, the driver insisted that he hadn’t been paid by the trafficker, and that he was transporting the migrants to a parking area where SC witnessed a slave market taking place. “Sub-Saharan migrants were being sold and bought by Libyans, with the support of Ghanaians and Nigerians who work for them,” IOM Niger staff reported this week.
SC described being ‘bought’ and then being brought to his first ‘prison’, a private home where more than 100 migrants were held as hostages.
He said the kidnappers made the migrants call their families back home, and often suffered beatings while on the phone so that their family members could hear them being tortured. In order to be released from this first house, SC was asked to pay 300,000 CFA (about USD 480), which he couldn’t raise. He was then ‘bought’ by another Libyan, who brought him to a bigger house – where a new price was set for his release: 600,000 CFA (about USD 970), to be paid via Western Union or Money Gram to someone called ‘Alhadji Balde’, said to be in Ghana.
SC managed to get some money from his family via mobile phone and then agreed to work as an interpreter for the kidnappers, to avoid further beatings. He described dreadful sanitary conditions, and food offered only once per day. Some migrants who couldn’t pay were reportedly killed, or left to starve to death.
SC told IOM that when somebody died or was released, kidnappers returned to the market to ‘buy’ more migrants to replace them. Women, too, were ‘bought’ by private individuals – Libyans, according to this witness – and brought to homes where they were forced to be sex slaves.
IOM collects information from migrants returning from Libya and passing through IOM transit centres in Niamey and Agadez. “Over the past few days, I have discussed these stories with several who told me horrible stories. They all confirmed the risks of been sold as slaves in squares or garages in Sabha, either by their drivers or by locals who recruit the migrants for daily jobs in town, often in construction, and later, instead of paying them, sell their victims to new buyers. Some migrants – mostly Nigerians, Ghanaians and Gambians – are forced to work for the kidnappers/slave traders as guards in the ransom houses or in the ‘market’ itself,” said an IOM Niger staffer.
During the past week, IOM Libya learned of other kidnapping cases, like those IOM Niger has knowledge of.
Adam* (not his real name) was kidnapped together with 25 other Gambians while traveling from Sabha to Tripoli. An armed Gambian man and two Arab men kidnapped the party and took them to a ‘prison’ where some 200 men and several women were being held.
According to this witness, the captives were from several African nations. Adam explained that captives were beaten each day and forced to call their families to pay for their release. It took nine months for Adam’s father to collect enough money for Adam’s release, after selling the family house.
Adam said the kidnappers took him to Tripoli where he was released. There, a Libyan man found him and due to his poor health condition, took him to the hospital. The hospital staff published a post on Facebook requesting assistance. An IOM colleague saw the post and referred the case to an IOM doctor who visited him in the hospital. Adam spent 3 weeks in the hospital trying to recover from severe malnutrition – he weighed just 35 kilograms – and the physical wounds from torture.
Upon release from the hospital, IOM found a host family who sheltered him for approximately one month, while the IOM doctor and protection colleagues made frequent visits to the host family to provide Adam with food and medication and assist him with his rehabilitation. They also brought him fresh clothes.
Adam was also able to call his family in the Gambia, and after his condition stabilized, he was assisted by IOM Libya’s voluntary returns programme. On 4 April, he returned to Gambia.
The IOM doctor escorted Adam to Gambia where he was reunited with his family and immediately hospitalized. IOM Libya will continue to pay for his treatment in Gambia and he will also receive a reintegration grant.
Another case IOM learned of this month, involves a young woman being held in what she describes as a warehouse near the port in Misrata by Somalian kidnappers. She is believed to have been held captive for at least 3 months, although the exact dates are unknown. Her husband and young son have lived in the United Kingdom since 2012, and they have been receiving demands for money.
It has been reported that this victim is subjected to rape and physical assault. The husband has paid via family and members of the Somalia community USD 7,500, although they have recently been told the kidnappers are demanding a second payment of USD 7,500.
“The situation is dire,” said Mohammed Abdiker, IOM’s Director of Operation and Emergencies, who recently returned from a visit to Tripoli. “The more IOM engages inside Libya, the more we learn that it is a vale of tears for many migrants. Some reports are truly horrifying and the latest reports of ‘slave markets’ for migrants can be added to a long list of outrages.”
Abdiker added that in recent months IOM staff in Libya had gained access to several detention centres, where they are trying to improve conditions. “What we know is that migrants who fall into the hands of smugglers face systematic malnutrition, sexual abuse and even murder. Last year we learned 14 migrants died in a single month in one of those locations, just from disease and malnutrition. We are hearing about mass graves in the desert.”
He said so far this year the Libyan Coast Guard and others have found 171 bodies washed up on Mediterranean shores, from migrant voyages that foundered off shore. The Coast Guard has also rescued thousands more, he added.
“Migrants who go to Libya while trying to get to Europe, have no idea of the torture archipelago that awaits them just over the border,” said Leonard Doyle, chief IOM spokesman in Geneva. “There they become commodities to be bought, sold and discarded when they have no more value.”
Doyle added: “To get the message out across Africa about the dangers, we are recording the testimonies of migrants who have suffered and are spreading them across social media and on local FM radio. Tragically the most credible messengers are migrants returning home with IOM help. Too often they are broken, brutalized and have been abused, often sexually. Their voices carry more weight than anyone else’s.”
EINDE STATEMENT IOM
AL JAZEERA
IOM: AFRICAN MIGRANTS TRADED IN LIBYA’S ”SLAVE MARKETS”
11 APRIL 2017
People are held for ransom, forced labour or sexual exploitation after being sold for up to $500, UN agency says.
Hundreds of African refugees and migrants passing through Libya are being bought and sold in modern-day slave markets before being held for ransom or used as forced labour or for sexual exploitation, survivors have told the UN’s migration agency.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday that it had interviewed West African migrants who recounted being traded in garages and car parks in the southern city of Sabha, one of Libya’s main people-smuggling centres.
| Refugees in Libya: ‘Smugglers have lost all humanity’ |
People are bought for between $200 and $500 and are held on average for two to three months, Othman Belbeisi, head of the IOM’s Libya mission, said in Geneva.
“Migrants are being sold in the market as a commodity,” he said. “Selling human beings is becoming a trend among smugglers as the smuggling networks in Libya are becoming stronger and stronger.”
The refugees and migrants – many from Nigeria, Senegal and The Gambia – are captured as they head north towards Libya’s Mediterranean coast, where some try to catch boats for Italy.
Along the way, they are prey to an array of armed groups and people-smuggling networks that often try to extort extra money in exchange for allowing them to continue.
Most of them are used as day labourers in construction or agriculture. Some are paid but others are forced to work for no money.
‘HORRIBLE STORIES’
“Over the past few days, I have discussed these stories with several who told me horrible stories.
“They all confirmed the risks of been sold as slaves in squares or garages in Sabha, either by their drivers or by locals who recruit the migrants for daily jobs in town, often in construction, and later, instead of paying them, sell their victims to new buyers.
“Some migrants – mostly Nigerians, Ghanaians and Gambians – are forced to work for the kidnappers/slave traders as guards in the ransom houses or in the ‘market’ itself.”
IOM Niger staffer
“About women, we heard a lot about bad treatment, rape and being forced into prostitution,” Belbeisi said.
The IOM said it had spoken to one Senegalese migrant who was held in a Libyan’s private house in Sabha with about 100 others, who were beaten as they called their families to ask for money for their captors.
He was then bought by another Libyan, who set a new price for his release.
Some of those who cannot pay their captors are reportedly killed or left to starve to death, the IOM said. When migrants die or are released, others are purchased to replace them.
‘Valley of tears’
The agency said migrants are buried without being identified, with families back home uncertain of their fate.
“The situation is dire,” Mohammed Abdiker, IOM’s director of operations and emergencies, who recently returned from a visit to Libya’s capital, Tripoli, said in a statement, calling Libya a “valley of tears” for many refugees and migrants.
“What we know is that migrants who fall into the hands of smugglers face systematic malnutrition, sexual abuse and even murder,” he added.
“Last year we learned 14 migrants died in a single month in one of those locations, just from disease and malnutrition. We are hearing about mass graves in the desert.”
To warn potential migrants, the IOM is spreading testimonies of victims through social media and local radio stations.
Libya is the main gateway for people attempting to reach Europe by sea, with more than 150,000 people making the crossing in each of the past three years.
So far this year an estimated 26,886 migrants have crossed to Italy, over 7,000 more than during the same period in 2016.
More than 600 are known to have died at sea, while an unknown number perish during their journey north through the desert.
EINDE BERICHT AL JAZEERA
EINDE BERICHT AL JAZEERA
[14]
”Europa bereikte afgelopen najaar een akkoord met de Turken: in ruil voor onder meer 3 miljard euro financiële hulp voor de opvang van vluchtelingen zouden de Turken meer gaan doen om de boten te stoppen. Eurocommissaris Frans Timmermans reist dit weekend naar Ankara. ,,We zijn nog lang niet tevreden met de Turkse inspanningen,” zei hij.”
ADVLUCHTELINGEN BLIJVEN DE ZEE OVERSTEKEN9 JANUARI 2016
https://www.ad.nl/buitenland/vluchtelingen-blijven-de-zee-oversteken~ac42faab/
Nog elke dag steken grote aantallen migranten in rubberbootjes de zee tussen Turkije en Griekenland over. Eurocommissaris Timmermans gaat dit weekend de Turken aansporen meer te doen om de vluchtelingen-stroom tegen te houden.
Het aantal mensen dat de oversteek maakt, 1000 tot 1500 per dag, is duidelijk kleiner dan in december. Maar we zien nog elke dag de boten aankomen op de eilanden,” zei een woordvoerder van de Internationale Organisatie voor Migratie (IOM) in Griekenland gisteren. De Syriërs, Irakezen en Afghanen onder hen reizen door naar West-Europa.
Duitsland stelt nog elke dag meer dan 3000 nieuwe asielzoekers binnen te krijgen: mensen die de oversteek eind vorig jaar hebben gewaagd en toen aan hun doorreis zijn begonnen of mensen die via gezinshereniging naar het land komen. In Nederland meldden zich vorige week ongeveer 700 asielzoekers.
Verplichtingen
In Griekenland ontstaan steeds grotere kampen met gestrande migranten. De grens met Macedonië is nog gesloten voor asielzoekers uit andere landen dan Syrië, Irak en Afghanistan. De Griekse minister van migratie zei recent dat ‘Turkije blijkbaar niet in staat is aan zijn verplichtingen te voldoen’.
Europa bereikte afgelopen najaar een akkoord met de Turken: in ruil voor onder meer 3 miljard euro financiële hulp voor de opvang van vluchtelingen zouden de Turken meer gaan doen om de boten te stoppen. Eurocommissaris Frans Timmermans reist dit weekend naar Ankara. ,,We zijn nog lang niet tevreden met de Turkse inspanningen,” zei hij.
Hek
Gisteren stelde de Hongaarse premier Orbán voor een hek langs de volledige noordgrens van Griekenland te bouwen om op die manier vluchtelingen tegen te houden. Hongarije bouwde zelf al een hek aan zijn zuidgrens en krijgt sindsdien nauwelijks meer asielzoekers binnen. De Slowaakse premier Fico zei eerder deze week dat zijn land helemaal geen islamitische vluchtelingen meer wil opnemen.
EINDE BERICHT AD