Historic indeed, the EU has conceded to the demands of far-right Member State governments, legalised illegal acts, normalised racial profiling, and legitimised derogations from the asylum acquis.
Shame on you
@YlvaJohansson
At the
#NewPact
press release, the co-legislators will undoubtedly try to sell this as a 'historic deal' in solidarity and migration management. Do not believe them. This is the abolition of the right to asylum in the EU.
Here's what we know so far⤵️
🚨UPCOMING WEBINAR
Co-legislators in the
@EU_Commission
@EUCouncil
@Europarl_EN
are rushing towards political deals to close negotiations on the New Pact next month. This risks overlooking key safeguards and introducing dangerous loopholes in the interest of expediency.
🔴❗URGENT:
Another group have been stranded on an islet in the #Εβρος border river near to Didymoteicho, reportedly for the last two days. There are 45 Syrians and 4 Kurdish Turkish people, including 16 children and one woman who is four months pregnant. 1/
🚨Despite *overwhelming evidence* of violations of Article 3 in the Edirne Immigration Centre in Turkey, the
@ECHR_CEDH
has rejected an Interim Measure request on behalf of those detained without any reasoning given➡️
**RESOURCES FOR UKRAINIAN REFUGEES** (last updated 25 Feb). Here is basic information about organizations you can contact if you are in a need of assistance while trying to reach safety. Please share!
#Ukraine
⬇️
Today BVMN is releasing its Annual Torture Report, analysing the way pushbacks intersect with extreme brutality against people-on-the-move.
📄See the full report:
Today BVMN publishes it's investigation into the use of islets in illegal pushbacks, disregard for interim measures by the Greek state, and the unfolding dynamic of criminalisation through smear campaigns against human rights defenders.
Yesterday
@nytimes
published a visual investigation following a pushback in the
#Aegean
from start to finish. The excellent work done by
@MatinaStevis
and
@FayadMulla
again brings evidence of what we have been saying for years - pushbacks are happening and they are systematic.
Fire in Lipa Camp outside of
#Biha
ć today. Reports says that no one was inside when it started as folks were already evicted beforehand.
This development only introduces more uncertainty into the lives of refugees and migrants in the
#usk
On the 23 May, along with 28 other organisations, we signed a letter to
@Frontex
and the General Directorate of the Bulgarian Border Police on the case of 103 members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light seeking to lodge claims for asylum in Bulgaria➡️
1/ Today we are sharing our
#October
monthly report, providing a round-up of the situation at borders across the
#Balkans
. It includes 36 testimonies of pushbacks, impacting 986 people-on-the-move.
#Pushbacks
#BorderViolence
➡️
Today at 17.33CET the
@ECHR_CEDH
granted interim measures for the group of 49 Syrian and Turkish asylum seekers trapped on an islet in the #Εβρος border river. The Court has mandated Greece to provide the group with material reception conditions, asylum procedures and 1/
We are hiring! BVMN is looking for a new Coordinator for our Research & Investigations team. Please share in your networks. Deadline 30/04/23. More details here 👉
As part of its annual audit, the
@EU_EDPS
has found that
@Frontex
is in breach of Article 90 of its own Regulation, and has decided to open an investigation into its practice of sharing the personal data from its debriefing reports:
Interim Measures granted! ECtHR demanded the Greek state to give shelter & food to the 34 people stranded on an Evros islet. We are still in contact with the group & they have been approached by men wearing military clothing. We and
@alarm_phone
demand GR to bring them to safety!
‼️ ‼️ ‼️ 34 people including children and a pregnant woman are stuck on an island in the Evros River between
#Greece
and
#Turkey
. They cannot stay another night in the cold! Despite being informed for 24+ hours, Greek authorities &
@Frontex
remain inactive!
[1] In this video we explain the problems associated with the EU’s New Pact on Migration and the proposed increased use of detention, the time limits proposed for the pre-screening process, and the gaps in the proposed ‘independent monitoring mechanism
🚨 THREE UN Special Rapporteurs
@UNSR_Migration
@NazilaGhanea
@fernanddev
and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention call on Turkiye NOT to deport members of the Ahmadi religion➡️
Read the latest CSO statement:
‼️ ‼️ ‼️ 34 people including children and a pregnant woman are stuck on an island in the Evros River between
#Greece
and
#Turkey
. They cannot stay another night in the cold! Despite being informed for 24+ hours, Greek authorities &
@Frontex
remain inactive!
To protest against
#Frontex
disgusting and cynical photo competition, we and other groups are calling for a counter contest!
#stopfrontex
& their
#contestofshame
👊🤬 Join this action to stop the violence!
Today we are sharing our monthly report. 📰
In June 2021, the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) reported on a total of 30
#pushbacks
, impacting a combined number of 1,073 people-on-the-move at borders across the Balkans.
Huge news in Hungary today, wouldn't have been possible without the tireless work of
@hhc_helsinki
Important monitoring work has been done along the Hungarian border by BVMN-members
@collective_aid
and
@rigarduev
over the last three years as well
1/ On day 6 of
#fires
burning 42,000+ ha & 18 deaths in
#Evros
, we publish a statement with researcher
@lk2015r
signed by 27 civil society orgs pointing to the harmful narratives blaming people on the move & mobilising the far right in the
#border
region👇
It has been one year since the Black Book of
#Pushbacks
was published. A 1,500 page long publication that consists of 892 testimonies describing the experience of 12,654 individuals. Since then we added another 431 testimonies to our database, affecting a total of 9,992 people.
Hundreds of people suffer violence every day at our borders at the hands of law enforcement authorities, we documented them in our Black Book of Push Backs released 1 year ago with
@Border_Violence
#InternationalMigrantsDay2021
[1] The use of technology in pushback practices has only contributed to the ease in which racist and repressive procedures are carried out against people-on-the-move in the Balkans. Read more about these practices in our newly available OHCHR submission
🧵🔴 Today, we publish new
#report
revealing widespread violence in Greek
#camps
and
#detention
centres
✖️ Punishment beatings and withholding of food, water and healthcare in a bid to silence people speaking out about the appalling conditions they are being held in 👇
1/Exactly 1 year ago today,
#Bosnia
’s Lipa camp burned down, leaving 1000s of people on the move stranded in freezing temperatures.
But the story didn’t end with the fire. What has happened since then for PoM in Bosnia? Has their situation improved?
This morning we are presenting the 'Black Book of Pushbacks'. Together with our colleagues from
@Left_EU
, this 1500 page book is a damning archive of evidence and we'll hear today from BVMN representatives, MEPs,
@seawatch_intl
&
@hhc_helsinki
.
[1]
The
@ECHR_CEDH
communicated 2 cases against
#Greece
for March2020 when GR suspended the right to asylum and engaged in a country-wide campaign of
#pushbacks
. The two applicants - TRK asylum seekers were arrested at
#Evros
, detained & could not lodge an asylum application
New article from
@nytimes
reveals that the
@Frontex
's Fundamental Rights Officer (FRO) recommended triggering Article 46 in Greece.
🔗
🗣️"The officer wrote that he had gathered continued “credible reports” of the Greek authorities systematically expelling..
🇪🇺 We are publishing our submission to the
@EU_Commission
evaluation of
@Frontex
Regulation. We've raised (again) the following:
🛑 Art.46 should be triggered in multiple Fx operational areas, including for
#Evros
in absence of FR safeguards
➡️
1/ Pushbacks, violence in numbers and (lack of) accountability. Taking a closer look at the practices of illegal expulsion from Greece to Turkey at the Evros border.
[Thread]👇
🚨TOMORROW, alongside
@privacyint
and MEPs
@Tineke_Strik
and
@saskiabricmont
we will be launching our investigative report on "Balkandac" and the interoperability of biometric data collection systems in the Western Balkans with the EURODAC system in EU Member States.
“It documents how almost 25,000 people were beaten, kicked, humiliated and arbitrarily detained before being illegally pushed back"
🔴
@BalkanInsight
:
🔴
@euronews
:
🚨Reminder to sign up for Monday's webinar on
#UnderstandingThePact
If you can't make it - don't worry! The session will be recorded and posted on BVMNs Youtube after the event.
This week, BVMN volunteers in
#BiH
have witnessed an alarming new practice unfolding. Croatian police have started intercepting, detaining and readmitting people on the move en masse, handing them over to Bosnian authorities.
🔗 Press Release:
🚨Today, BVMN shares its new toolkit on criminalisation. Published in collaboration with
@boell_gr
, it gives an overview of practical methods of defence for individuals being
#criminalised
across
#Europe
for their work defending
#humanrights
.
➡️
The "historic" agreement between 🇮🇹&🇦🇱 announced last week is another catastrophic step in the wrong direction when it comes to 'migration management' in Europe, with 🇩🇪 watching closely and set to copy - things don't look good..
🇮🇹🇦🇱 Protocol between Italy and Albania
Our Odysseus Network team proceeded to translate the full text of the protocol in English, to make it accessible to everyone.
➡️You can read our translated version here 🔗⤵️
1/ Today we are sharing a new special report which contains in-depth analysis of the unfolding situation at the borders of Spain's enclaves, Ceuta and Melilla.
1/
#CED
: The latest conclusions of the UN Committee on
#EnforcedDisappearances
on Greece include an overwhelming emphasis on pushbacks and the disappearance of migrants, calling on Greece to immediately refrain from carrying out pushbacks and collectively expelling migrants.
In the last two months members of BVMN have reported on an increasing number of chain pushbacks from Bulgaria, via Greece, to Turkey.
The practice involves officers from Bulgaria pushing back groups close to the "tri-border" area north of Evros where the three borders meet.
[1] Today we are sharing our February monthly report on pushbacks and border violence.
This report highlights the latest trends related to migration policing, offering an eye-level analysis of violent borders all the way from Turkey to Italy.
⚠️ If you are an organisation/collective/association & you are CRITICAL of
#EU
policy on migration & asylum,
@Frontex
,
@EUAsylumAgency
,
@Europol
you might have been labelled EXTREMIST.
How can you find out: make a right of access request to Europol 👇
New
@Frontex
ED
@LeijtensFrontex
says the "toxic" environment that allows pushbacks is a "thing of the past" and promises more transparency - “There should be nothing secret about what we’re doing".
Let's take a look at these claims...
🧵
As the new Executive Director of
#Frontex
"vows to end illegal pushbacks" (), daily life in
#Evros
, a
@Frontex
operational area, continues.
Yesterday, an asylum seeker from
#Turkey
fleeing political persecution was taken off a bus and illegally pushed back
When there are no safe and legal routes to access asylum, people do not stop transiting they simply go by riskier means which results in events like this.
European asylum and border politics kill.
📢81 Civil Society Organisations call on MEPs in
@EP_Justice
to
#StopThisPact
by voting to reject it this week.
The Pact legislates for:
❌de-facto detention at borders for all ages
❌racial profiling
❌swift returns to third countries
It's time to say NO
On May 24, after exhausting all legal pathways to lodge their claims, the group approached the official border crossing point and report being met with extreme violence by Turkish authorities. Since then they have been detained and issued deportation decisions.
Let us share with you our monthly report on
#pushbacks
and border violence. In May, the Border Violence Monitoring Network reported on 43 instances of
#pushbacks
impacting a total of 760 people.
Just up – our new Legal Action Database on Pushbacks.
It covers cases from the ECHR, the Court of Justice of the EU and UN Committees, plus national courts in Europe.
Big thanks to our partners and volunteers, and to
@BoellStiftung
for its support.
In the last fourteen days, BVMN-member
@NoNameKitchen1
have collected testimonies alluding to a spike in pushback violence in the Cetingrad area of the Croatian border with Bosnia-Herzegovina. Follow our full investigation here:
[Thread] From Evros 🇬🇷 to Trieste 🇮🇹, on
#WorldRefugeeDay
we look at the experience of people asking for international protection along the Balkan Route
#RefugeeWeek2021
1/ Today BVMN is releasing a new legal toolkit for applicants, volunteers, advocates and litigators. The report was written and researched by BVMN members
@CMSZagreb
and
#InfoKolpa
, along with inputs from a range of key contributors.
This case has demonstrated, yet again, that there are no viable legal pathways with which to claim asylum in the European Union, forcing people to seek dangerous alternatives to reach protection.
Today, Lesvos, the trial against humanitarian aid workers enters its second day this week. They stand accused of facilitating migrant smuggling & espionage among other charges.
24 aid workers
4.5 years pending trial
25 years in prison potential sentence
It's D-Day on the
#NewPact
with co-legislators set to sit from now til the late into the night for political negotiations on the files. Given the
@eu2023es
document published by
@StatewatchEU
last night, things don't look good with
@Europarl_EN
set to concede on key points.
In 2020 when we published the first Black Book of Pushbacks, one entire volume had to be dedicated to testimonies from Croatia due to their sheer amount (see Vol. II)⬇️
Croatia has always denied any knowledge of violent & illegal operations by its own police forcing people seeking asylum back out of the EU
Now we can reveal that top Croatian officials were part of a secret WhatsApp group where such activities were shared & encouraged
1/ Today BVMN is sharing a submission made to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment focusing on Greece.
"Although, in most cases, women and children are not directly subjected to physical violence by the Croatian authorities, they are still subjected to what can be described as psychological violence, abuse and humiliation,” a representative of BVMN, says
The Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) documented 22 pushbacks in the July reporting period, affecting a total of 544 people-on-the-move across the Balkans.
You can read the full report here 👇
🚨There can be no compromise on human rights.
We've joined 57 human rights groups in an urgent open letter demanding Europe put people's dignity and safety first in its new Migration Pact.
@EU_Commission
@EU2023ES
@Europarl_EN
it's time for you to
#StopThisPact
‼️
Amazing results for our partners
@asgi_it
today - the Court of Rome has ruled that the Italian Ministry of Interior must pay compensation to a Pakistani citizen who was pushed back by 🇮🇹 authorities into 🇸🇮 and ended up being chain refouled to 🇧🇦
BREAKING!
@EUombudsman
opened two new inquiries into
@Frontex
and
@eu_eeas
after
@privacyint
+ partners calling for investigation into EU Surveillance Aid in non-EU countries. An important step forward to potential human rights accountability!
BREAKING! The
@EUombudsman
opens two new inquiries into
@Frontex
and
@eu_eaas
on their support to develop surveillance capabilities in non-EU countries.
🧵
1/3 🟠 What does solidarity mean in 2022?
For our solidarity campaign
#OtherFaceOfEurope
, we are launching a new series called “Voices From the Borders.”
#SafePassageForAll
Scrutiny over
#Greece
's use of private actors in border management. The UN Working Group on
#Mercenaries
visited border regions and asylum facilities to assess the activities of private military and security companies and their impact on human rights. 1/
We've published a visual investigation of
#pushback
from N.Mac to Greece. It confirms that
#Czech
officers are involved and corroborates testimonies of 16 people pushed back from N.Mac and Hungary where 🇨🇿 officers are deployed
📢New report out today by the BVMN and
@ProAsyl
that takes a deep-dive into the support provided by 🇩🇪 authorities to 🇭🇷 authorities since 2016.
The report looks into:
🔴 Donations of equipment
🔴 Deployment of officers
🔴 Provision of trainings
⬇️ Overview of financial support:
On this
#MayDay
, we extend our solidarity and love to all those fighting against racist borders and all other oppressive structures in the world. Real freedom and equality can only be realised via internationalism and common struggle.
#EndFortressEurope
#Nooneisillegal
I welcome the historic agreement on the Pact on Migration and Asylum
Congratulations to the European Parliament and Council for agreeing on this landmark proposal of this mandate.
I thank
@MargSchinas
and
@YlvaJohansson
for their tireless efforts ↓
This week we will be publishing an updated and expanded edition of the Black Book of Pushbacks alongside
@ErnstCornelia
and
@Left_EU
at the
@Europarl_EN
📅08/12/22
🕐10.00-11.30CET
🏢SPAAK 0A50
🗣️ EN DE FR
🔴 MORE INFO:
This morning, BVMN members met with
@Tineke_Strik
@ErikMarquardt
and other members of the
@GreensEFA
delegation to Greece. There have been a number of concerning developments in the areas of migration and technology recently and we were able to put forward our concerns: 1/5
Since 2020, BVMN has recorded 16 testimonies from people-on-the-move who have been intercepted and apprehended in Hungary🇭🇺 and North Macedonia 🇲🇰 and pushed back to Serbia and Greece respectively, with the involvement of Czech 🇨🇿 officers.
Today we publish our latest, months-long investigation with
@counterinv
, an interactive cartographic platform that archives, verifies and maps over 1000 ‘drift-backs’ in the Aegean Sea:
Hope Barker, policy analyst for BVMN described the book as "the most comprehensive collection of evidence to date". Readers can find the two volumes here:
#PushbacksAreIllegal
[2]
The Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) published 35 testimonies of
#pushbacks
in September, sharing the experience of 815 people-on-the-move at borders across the
#Balkans
.
This is a welcome small exception in a context of still rampant criminalisation of movement and of solidarity being used as a tool of the EU's punitive border regime.
Safety and Freedom of Movement for all.
Solidarity is not a crime.
In December 2020, members of BVMN gathered 25 testimonies of pushbacks, impacting a total of 707 people-on-the-move.
This rounds off a year of evidence collected by BVMN, exposing the systematised use of pushbacks along EU borders.