Important:
#WeatherAegean: United Rescue issues an IMPORTANT warning for the Aegean Sea: A huge storm is expected Saturday the 16th of January and Sunday the 17th of January which will be a thunderstorm on some of the islands accompanied by high waves. Also, snow is expected to fall on some of the islands in the Aegean Sea with a significant drop in temperatures. Dear refugee friends, please cancel all crossings.
تحذير هام :
عاصفة قوية محملة بالأمطار و الثلوج ستضرب المناطق و الجزر المطلة على بحر إيجه . مما سيسبب ارتفاع عالي بمستوى أمواج البحر و ذلك في تاريخ السادس عشر و السابع عشر من شهر كانون الثاني و الذي يصادف أيام السبت و الأحد الرجاء من الاخوة المهاجرين اخذ الحيطة و الحذر و عدم تعريض انفسهم و اطفالهم لخطر الغرق و الموت
أخي المهاجر سلامتك و سلامة اطفالك أولا
A larger update on the EU borderzones by the activists from Are You Syrious?
17.1.2016 Balkan route and some Northern EU countries
AYS DAILY NEWS DIGEST 16/1/2016 /// STOP THE SIEGE IN DEIR EZZOR /// HUGE STORM EXPECTED IN THE AEGEAN SEA CONTINUES ON SUNDAY /// THREE ARRESTED VOLUNTEERS IN GREECE RELEASED /// TURKISH COASTGUARD CUTS FUEL PIPES ON REFUGEE BOAT LEAVING IN STRANDED IN AEGEAN /// FIVE DEAD BODIES; LIKELY REFUGEES; FOUND NEAR SAMOS /// SNOWSTORMS EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 72 HOURS IN SERBIA, REFUGEES ARE ADVISED NOT TO TRAVEL BY FOOT DURING THAT TIME /// QUESTIONABLE DETENTION METHODS FOR MIGRANTS AND INADEQUATE CONDITIONS IN THE DETENTION CENTRE IN SLOVENIA /// ALL OCCUPIED DWELLING CLEARED FROM THE JUNGE AREA INTENDED FOR BULLDOZING /// THE FIRST GROUP OF ASSYLUM SEEKERS TO BE RELOCATED TO THE NETHERLANDS ON FRIDAY ///
#SYRIA: We at AYS would like to draw attention to yet another city under siege and ask the appropriate authorities to intervene as they did in #Madaya. And we ask you all to share this information as much as you can in order to raise awareness and help stop another siege – the one at #DeirEzzor. It is our duty and responsibility to raise our voices and help those in need in every way we can. More than 200.000 are under siege in this Syrian city, by ISIS and the government regime. There is no food, no electricity, no medicines and water is available only for 2 to 3 hours per week.
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#TURKEY: Volunteers notice that in #Izmir, through which it is believed that over 75% of refugees pass in order to get to Greece, women remain together with their children in tea shops while the men are out dealing, finding a way to get across the Aegean. They got the information that many refugees were deceived into believing that the Turkish mafia or others were legitimate salespeople and would sell them a spot on a boat and then never showed up. Volunteers notice that everyone is on the lookout for one another and that desperation abounds.
NY Times reports on the information from Anadolu Agency, says that The Turkish authorities briefly detained 27 scholars on Friday, accusing them of spreading “terrorism propaganda” and of insulting the state after they signed a petition denouncing the military’s campaign against Kurdish militants in southeastern Turkey. Most of the scholars were from Kocaeli University in northwestern Turkey and were detained in early-morning raids on their homes. By Friday evening, all had been released, according to Turkish news media reports. All 27 scholars were among more than 1,000 academics from 90 Turkish universities who signed a public statement, “We Won’t Be a Party to This Crime,” that urged the government in Ankara, the capital, to end the “deliberate massacre” of Kurds caught in clashes between Turkish security forces and militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K.
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#GREECE: According to UNHCR, 4,150 people arrived yesterday to this country, which is an increase of 43.2% in comparison to the day before (Jan 14th). UNHCR also says that the in the period from Jan 1st to Jan 11th, 44% of refugees were men, 21% women and 35 % children, that most of the refugees came from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, and in lesser numbers from Iran, Morocco and Pakistan. Yesterday, 2,663 people arrived to #Lesvos, 1,085 to #Chios, 291 to #Samos, 59 to #Kos, no one to #Leros, and 11 Southern Dodecanese, while1,551 person departed from the islands to the mainland.
Instead of a general overview, we are bringing you what a volunteer at Lesvos islan, @BenGow, wrote in his post today: „These are interesting times, there seems to be a shift in atmosphere. Reports of boats being paddled for five hours, with the two emergency paddles and hands, to the Greek shore, because the Turkish coastguard cut the fuel lines. Just this morning I hear a boat came in at 5am, packed with exhausted, shivering people and crying children. Some of the petrol from cut pipes flowed into the boat. All breathed in the petrol fumes, and a five month pregnant women was sick and vomiting on shore. While here in Greece, three Spanish lifeguards have been arrested for towing in a stranded dinghy with 51 refugees, and charged with human trafficking (…).
This follows moves to require volunteers and NGOs to register with police, and an agreement between authorities on Lesvos and the International Rescue Committee that effectively gives the IRC control over aid efforts in the north of the island. Frontex has shut down a spotting station run by volunteers. Used to spot the boats from Turkey, it sent signals to the beach crews alerting them where boats were landing. Greece came under pressure to “secure Europe’s borders”, threatened even with exclusion from Schengen, accused that it wasn’t doing enough to control the refugee exodus. (…).
The first actions are to close down infrastructure like soup kitchens and the watchtower, and establish fast deportation routes back to Turkey, without the option to claim asylum here, and arrest volunteers. Independent volunteers can act quickly and provide support and avoid the bureaucracy that slows larger NGO’s down. The evidence is here for all to see that when we all work together the results are incredible. Every day I can see if it weren’t for the small NGOs and individual volunteers stepping up to help a lot of people would have drowned, starved or died of hypothermia and lack of medical treatment. What’s happening in Greece is the inevitable outcome of a Europe that doesn’t know what to do with itself. The problem is not “too many NGOs.” It’s “too little action, too late, by those who should be acting.” The atmosphere seems to have turned as cold as the winter storms threatening the horizon.“
#WeatherAegean: United Rescue issues an IMPORTANT warning for the Aegean Sea: A huge storm is expected Saturday the 16th of January and Sunday the 17th of January which will be a thunderstorm on some of the islands accompanied by high waves. Also, snow is expected to fall on some of the islands in the Aegean Sea with a significant drop in temperatures. Dear refugee friends, please cancel all crossings.
#IslandsBoats: By 8PM not one boat has arrived to Lesvos. Also, due to very strong winds prevailing in the Aegean Sea today, the BLUE STAR PATMOS – one of the 3 ships chartered for the transportation of refugees from Lesvos and #Chios to #Piraeus – scheduled to arrive #Piraeus-E1 tomorrow Sun17/1 at 9:30 AM is stuck at Chios port on its way to #Mytilene port of Lesvos island.
Two volunteers from Team Humanity and three from Proem Aid teams who were arrested and charged with people trafficking were released today at the court in Mytilene where they waited for the decision for 10 hours. In their post, Team Humanity stated that everyone was released on a €5,000 bail each, except for one member, Salam Aldeens, on a €10,000 bail and he is the only one who cannot leave Greece until next trial which might take 18 months. He has to show up at the Police Station once a week. It is not clear whether the bail of the other team member, Mos Abbassi needs to be paid up front or whether he can leave the country or not.
Sirius Help reports that the last night (10pm-7am) patrol on the southern coast of Lesbos island became more dramatic than usual. They assisted the mooring of 6 boats and 220 passengers including approximately 50 small children to go on shore. The engine of one of the boats stopped 30m from shore at 2 meters deep water. Three volunteers including SIRIUS.HELP team’s Dalma swam to push and pull it to ground. Also, they report on a boat which was approaching the coastline, and the early alert reached the team around 5am. The boat was packed with exhausted, shivering people and crying children. As Sirius team learned, the Turkish Coast Guard impeded them, cut the fuel pipes and abandoned the rudderless, tumbling boat. Petrol from cut pipes flowed partly into the boat. All breathed in the petrol fume. A fifth month pregnant women fall ill and continued vomiting on shore. People rowed with the two emergency paddles and their hands to get closer to the Greek coast. Fortunately, there was a qualified technician who made an effort to fix the unusable engine. After 3 hours of hard work he succeeded. This is how the otherwise 30-minute trip lasted for 5 hours, with people frightened of dying. 90% of the people in the boat were Syrians fleeing from the war.
Regarding the new introduction of mandatory registration for volunteers in Lesvos (and according to some information also in Chios) that we reported about in one of our last news digests, it will start sometime next week at the Ministry of the Aegean building (there is also a plan for introducing on-line registration system). You should go to this office with your passport/ID and register as a volunteer – whether part of an NGO or an independent. You will fill out forms and declare any special qualifications you have and intend to apply on your volunteer work. Those with life-saving qualifications need to register at the port police as well. Some volunteers’ groups report on the similar police request to record data of the volunteers belonging to organizations and independent groups on Chios.
Volunteers from Lesvos at #Moria Olive Grove Medical barn inform that a few official changes have been made to the operation of the camp which means volunteers now have to move most of their medical personnel to the inside of the camp to support the compound clinic on the other side. The barn will now be used as a storage area for doctors to store medicines and also grab medical supplies. The barn will also be used as a resting and break point for the medical staff who will also be patrolling the registration queues and the camp in general to make sure everybody gets a chance to receive medical attention. Volunteers are still aiming to provide immediate and extensive 24/7 medical care: staff will always operate inside the compound but are now also extending their services to patrol the registration queues and check on the new bus arrivals. They encourage all volunteers to introduce themselves to the medical staff who will be roaming around the camp from now on. They are looking forward to working with everyone closely and providing the best possible care to the refugees.
Greek media published the news on 5 bodies of people who were likely refugees, which have been found dead at the eastern Greek island of #Samos (according to Greek authorities). The Greek coast guard has recovered the bodies of two men and three women, and are trying to recover the sixth in rough seas, a coast guard spokeswoman told The Associated Press. No vessel has been recovered yet. The rescue operation continues, said the spokeswoman, who was not authorized to be identified because of the continuing operation.
Volunteers from #Chios report that they found just two destroyed boats in the morning at the shore. They do not know what happened with the people in there. Volunteers are providing fresh food to the refugees at the island. 470 people spent the night there yesterday.
Greek media report on the situation at the detention center in #Corinth, as shared by NoBorders initiative. They write about 383 prisoners with an average age of 23-24 years, 50 of which are citizens of Algeria, 5 Tunisians and the rest citizens of Morocco. The population of prisoners varies per day – for example, 28 people left the camp the day before yesterday, while 28 people were brought from the islands on the same day. According to information from the detainees, some 120 have applied for voluntary return and only 2 for asylum. Information on asylum, as it appears, is not clear. Communication with the detainees is extremely difficult as few speak little English, while at the same time there is no interpreter. Lack of care is visible, with the majority of prisoners to complain about itching, and many have visible rashes. Some people are ill and do not receive adequate care, while the food portions are inadequate as well. Chambers are dirty. And these people continue to ask – “Why am I here, I am not a criminal!” We remind that the people held in detention center have started a hunger strike yesterday as a struggle for better conditions in the center.
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#MACEDONIA: It’s raining at the north state border of Macedonia in the refugee transit center #Tabanovce. The Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Frosina Remenski paid a working visit to the Transit Center Tabanovce today in order to get acquainted with the activities under the jurisdiction of the ministry. The Minister announced that she will work on improving conditions after getting acquainted with the current situation. Regarding the question what will be the fate of economic migrants in detention centers which Serbia refuses to accept, the Minister said that they have the right to stay six days in the camps, then the institutions have to decide on their fate.
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#SERBIA: The weather in #Dimitrovgrad is reported to be extremely bad and snowstorms are expected for the next 72 hours. The refugees are advised not to cross the border until further notice as the level of snow on the ground is expected to reach 1 meter tonight. 84 people from Iraq and Afghanistan, including 6 women / 5 kids and 2 babies (3 and 10 months old) made it to Dimitrovgrad yesterday and reported: “the smugglers left us when it started to snow and we walked for 8 hours alone through the forest and river.” iHo team was on site all night delivering and helping those who had to completely change their clothes and a lot of socks/shoes/pullovers/gloves/hats/scarves, jackets and blankets were given today. Some left by train to Belgrade and others by taxi to Šid. The need volunteers from Monday onwards. If you can help, please e-mail them at: info@iho.org.uk. They also need donations, specifically shoes (sizes 40-44), socks, gloves and hats. You can ship your donations to: Ja sam covek Organization, Balkanska 140, Dimitrovgrad, Serbia.
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#CROATIA: 832 refugees entered the Republic of Croatia from midnight until 9 a.m.11 persons are currently on the premises of #SlavonskiBrod Temporary Admission Center. Yesterday a total of 2,493 refugees entered Croatia. Volunteers report that they had a pretty active day today due to the four full trains that arrived to Slavonski Brod. Due to the improvement in weather conditions, the refugees were generally in better state than yesterday. However, they also noticed a large number of children and elders who were visibly exhausted. Magna organization URGENTLY needs pediatricians as there are currently none in Slavonski Brod. Please send an e-mail to ocb@magna.sk. Miro Kovač, one of the likeliest candidates for the new Minister of Foreign Affairs has stated “if Austria and Slovenia close their borders, then Croatia should close its borders with Serbia as well…” At the meeting of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, Members of Centar za mirovne studije, a Croatian organization active in Slavonski Brod, expressed their concern (together with other members of the Council) regarding the overall failure of the EU and its Member States to provide an adequate response to the refugee humanitarian crisis.
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#SLOVENIA: Today 1,674 refugees entered Slovenia by 6 PM while 1,605 refugees left Slovenia today. Centers across the country are empty, with the exception of Postojna, with 35 refugees and #Livarna 839. The Slovenian Government has denounced that it is planning to install razor-wire fence along the entire 670 km long border with Croatia.
On the 14th of January, local volunteers went to the detention center in #Postojna (DC) – a prison for people who do not have the “right papers”. Within the frames of the arbitrary segregative politics, it has also become a transitional detention center for those who are denied entry into Austria because of false documents or lies about their country of origin. Most of the detained have been excluded from the groups in which they were travelling without any explanation or information on what will happen to them. Also, a few individuals who asked for asylum in Slovenia but got a negative response through quick procedure (within a few hours) were transferred to Postojna and are now detained here. There are currently 50 men detained in the section of the DC. The oldest person is a 42 years old man, others are not older than 30 years. In DC, there is also another separate, smaller section, where 4 minors are detained (2 from Afghanistan and 2 from Morocco/Algeria). None of them has been detained for more than 2 months. Currently, persons who have applied for asylum in Slovenia are also detained.
There is no translator present. Currently, one of the detainees who spoke with the volunteers is translating, since he speaks 6 languages. As a “counter-favour”, the police allow him longer visits. Therefore, they were allowed to talk to him for 63 minutes, rather than the legally permissible 30 minutes. Currently, there are no NGOs going to DC. The only activity of the detained people is playing ping-pong or max. 2 hours of release into the courtyard of DC. Because of the conditions in DC, the situation among the detainees there is tense. 6 social workers are employed, 2 per shift. They mainly do grocery shopping for the detainees in the nearby store. They do not offer psycho-social aid. According to the interviewed detainee, they are present in the office, but given that there is a linguistic barrier, he sees no point in this. The doctor arrives if there is need for medical help. They can only shave once a week, under police supervision. Meals are very bad. For example, lunch is bread and salami or bread and cheese. Dinner is “better”, since they also sometimes receive warm soup.
For calls made from the common, public telephone of DC, people have to pay 5 euros for 50 seconds of phone call. Even though a computer exists there, it can be used only occasionally – the only website they are allowed to access is Youtube. 6-8 people are accommodated in rooms, where they sleep on iron bunk beds. On the message board at the entrance of the DC, there is the daily order and the activities/rights of those detained in DC. Our co-speaker emphasized that none of the rights can be exercised by those detained (psycho-social aid, courses of Slovenian language, daily minimum of 1 hour exit to the court yard of DC, 20 minute access to computers on weekends, creative and other activities, NGO visits, etc.)
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#FRANCE: Urgently needed are Dari, Pashtu, Amharic speakers who are free on Thursday and Friday (21st, 22nd) to travel out to #Calais to help lawyers identify children with relatives already in the UK who can be reunited with their families. If you can help, please PM Mitch Mitchell or London2Calais on Facebook.
Calais Actions announced that volunteers finally managed to move the homes of approximately 1,300 people. The entire buffer zone is cleared now of all occupied dwellings is almost ready to be bulldozed. Everyone has been safely moved and re-settled and the entire relocation process has taken place with respect, dignity and co-operation. Tomorrow, they will move the remaining unoccupied shelters (rescuing them for future use) and will continue building. They built 23 shelters today and are aiming for a further 11 tomorrow to ensure that everyone who needs it has a roof over their heads. Total shelters built since the eviction notice currently stands at 70 – hopefully 81 by close of play tomorrow. They also point to the fact that new people still arrive in Calais and Dunkirk. Another group of volunteers report that the new ‘humanitarian’ camp has opened and that its metal boxes look inhumane. They also report that the jungle’s depopulation is at an advanced stage and that many people have left even before the self-evictions in the last days. The buses are allegedly driving people to new accommodation places.
Rastplatz team is urgently searching for long term volunteers in #Dunkirk or teams to help the refugees in the “forgotten camp”. They are currently looking for volunteers who could manage the men’s clothing distribution centre, the women’s clothing distribution centre and the new arrivals centre. If you are interested (ideally a team, but individuals are welcomed as well), please e-mail dunkerquerefugees@gmail.com. Volunteers from Dunkirk also report that the warehouses are full and they are now only taking men’s trousers and winter coats, and women’s leggings in order to prevent throwing donations away. They will put out a call for clothes when they are again needed. They also ask people not to try and sneak in tents and building material, which are forbidden by the police. A van was caught doing it this morning and were permanently banned from the camp. More importantly, if more people are caught doing this, they will put other volunteers at risk of losing control over the aid access and, thus, cause damage to the camp and the refugees inside.
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#GERMANY: The decision of a bath in Bornheim, a city between Cologne and Bonn, to suspend every male refugee, caused a lot criticism. Media reports that they want to withdraw this decision. The city council will decide on Monday when refugees are going to be allowed in there again. Before it was reported that refugees pestered women in the bath, but no complaint has been reported to the police.
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#DENMARK: In one of the Danish cities, Hells Angels are supposed to be evicted from a facility which is to be repurposed for the refugees. After citizens protested against this decision, Hells Angels published a statement on their website saying that there is no need for people to turn against those seeking salvation and that focus should be placed on those who contribute to conflicts, mainly emphasizing large political unions such as the EU and the UN.
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#NETHERLANDS: Dutch media reports that the first group of asylum seekers to come to the Netherlands under the EU-wide resettlement programme will arrive in the Netherlands on Friday, broadcaster Nos says. In total, 50 Eritrean nationals will be brought to the Netherlands from Italy on two flights – one arriving in the morning, the other in the afternoon. In total, 160,000 refugees who have arrived in Italy and Greece will be relocated to other European countries via the plan. The Netherlands is set to accept some 9,000 people under the quota plan.
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#UK: Guardian reports that protesters have staged a “die-in” at St Pancras station in London over plans to clear an area of the makeshift migrant camp in Calais known as the Jungle. Dozens of demonstrators gathered at the Eurostar terminal at noon on Saturday for an emergency protest organised by the London2Calais Convoy, which organises convoys of essential supplies from London to refugees in the French port. A statement posted on London2Calais’s event page on Facebook, which had nearly 400 people down to attend on Saturday, said: “The French state is preparing to bulldoze large sections of the so-called ‘Jungle’ refugee camp in Calais. “Around 2,000 people have been given three days notice of the planned eviction, coerced into applying for asylum in France without providing a real alternative for them to live. “Many of the people living in the Calais ‘Jungle’, including unaccompanied minors, have close family in the UK. As activists in Britain, we believe that while the ‘Jungle’ is a symptom of the crisis in Calais and Dunkirk, the root cause is British migration and foreign policy.”
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