Archive for category: ANNOUNCEMENTS

Members of far-right organizations, mainly from Germany, Italy and France, chartered a 40-meter boat claiming to fight the uncontrolled immigration. Their purpose is to prevent refugees from reaching Europe by patrolling the coasts of Libya and Italy.

The far-rightists claiming that with this action they want to protect Europe named this business ‘We Defend Europe’. The real purpose of their action is revealed from the statements of Clemen Golan, a leading member of this network, who says their team wants to collect evidence to prove the cooperation between NGOs and traffickers. They also argue that they will rescue irregular immigrants and call Libya’s coastguard to save them, caring for their safety until they arrive. Their aim is to return immigrants back to Libya.

Many NGOs involved in rescue operations in the Mediterranean expressed their concern at the arrival of this ship. Verena Pakce from the humanitarian organization “SOS MEDITERRANEE” said: “These are suspicious, armed groups that the last few weeks and months have harassed various NGOs. They threaten ships and take people back with violence”.

According to international, European and national law for EU Member States, the direct or indirect (via third country) return of refugees and asylum seekers in the country from which they have escaped or their resignation when they reach the border is prohibited. The repelling businesses deprive people of the right to explain their individual circumstances and to raise any protection or other issues. Therefore, they constitute violations of international obligations and EU law.

Cypriots and non-Cypriots have come together in the centre of Larnaca to create a new urban garden of earthy delight where refugee families will be able to plant their own vegetables.

The Oasis Refugee Project whose work is entirely volunteer/donation-based, first saw the light of day at Larnaca’s Grace Church about five years ago. It is now supported by five of Larnaca’s Christian communities – the Greek Evangelical Church, Trinity Church, Grace Church, Larnaca Community Church and Home Church.

Today, at any one time, the joint project assists from 30 to 80 refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. In late May, volunteers devoted a day-long effort to begin transforming a large space surrounding an old traditional house in the centre of Larnaca into a flower and vegetable paradise.

“The Cyprus Permaculture Association visited us numerous times and made detailed plans as to what we would need to do to create the garden,” recalls Heather Lewis-Shayesteh, one of the coordinators of the Oasis Project Centre, which operates out of the old house. Their aim is a practical project designed to help refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers in the Larnaca area.

Once a week, on Mondays, the centre prepares around 75 bags of fresh vegetables. These are a welcome treat among the resource-strapped families who visit the centre, providing them with nutritional choices and variety that might otherwise be unaffordable and unavailable to them.

The centre has a wide range of activities directed at making the life of Cyprus-based immigrants a bit easier. One hub of activity is the social café where visitors and clientele can talk, play games or simply relax. Greek and English language classes are available. Clothing is distributed.

The centre also offers film screenings, sports events, barbeques and a range of workshops for the handicapped and for skills development. An informal translation/interpreter service is also in place to help clients in need of assistance when visiting hospitals or government offices.

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Akid and Ferhad Hasan, two young Kurds who remain outside the Presidential Palace since April 7, 2017, are on hunger strike for the 37th day today. The Hasan family are stateless persons arrived in Cyprus in 2006 from Syria and complain about the collective rejection of their individual applications for the acquisition of Cypriot citizenship.

The family stated in a letter to the President of the Republic that the Syrian government refused to naturalize them because of the anticorruption action of their ancestors and that they had applied for asylum in Cyprus, believing that they are entitled to it because of their ethnic origin. They went to a protest outside the Interior Ministry along with other stateless Kurds to express their despair at the fact that having no citizenship they had no rights and they can’t return to their country.

In August 2015, the previous Minister of the Interior suggested the immediate grant of Cypriot citizenship to three members of the family who then met the conditions. Finally, it was given citizenship to one family member and, as they say, the others were promised that their applications would be examined as soon as they had completed seven years of legitimate presence in Cyprus. Eventually in the coming years they submitted applications for naturalization, but they were rejected.

The Interior Ministry said that he doesn’t intend to change anything about his policy towards the hunger strikers and the other protesters outside the Presidential. “They do not meet the criteria of citizenship. They should respect the process; the legislation doesn’t allow us to give them a passport. If we do this, others will also come and we will have a problem with the European Commission, “a source said.

Thousands of refugees and immigrants who want to reach Europe choose a new maritime route, the one through Spain. Arrivals have more than doubled since the beginning of the year, mainly due to the situation in Libya.

Since Wednesday eight ships carrying 380 people have been located off the Andalusian coast of Alboran between Morocco and Spain. Michel Araguas, spokesman for SOS Racism in Spain, stated: “We are worried because we observe numbers we haven’t seen for years, and it is a treacherous area where the currents are strong”. Africans from Guinea, Gambia, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Burkina Faso leaving their countries because of political or economic instability seem to avoid the way through Niger and Libya to Italy.

Every year migratory routes are changing. Following the closure of the Balkan Road in March 2016, migrants turned to Libya and Italy. Helena Malena Gartagone member of Caminando Fronteras, a refugee organization, says that some people now know that this road is dangerous and that the controls are getting tighter. The dramatic testimonies of the situation in Libya, which is submerged in chaos after the fall of Gaddafi in 2011, are multiplying. So far, Spain has been cautious about appealing to Italy and other European countries to allow ships rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean to use its ports and help accommodate tens of thousands of refugees.

 

Communities across Wales desperate to help displaced Syrian refugees are raising money to fund the resettlement of families themselves. One group in Cardigan, Ceredigion, has raised £12,000 as part of its application to the Home Office’s community sponsorship scheme.

The money will be used to help the families set up home and find work. Vicky Moller, who started the group, said residents were so keen to help they took matters into their own hands.

All councils in Wales have now resettled Syrian families with more than 400 people taken in under the UK government’s Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.

Across the UK, more than 5,400 people have been resettled. There are about 13 community groups already sponsoring or looking to sponsor families across Wales, including ones in Fishguard and Narberth in neighbouring Pembrokeshire. They are in contact with their local authorities but are totally independent and self-funded.

Ms Moller said the Cardigan group were looking to buy a house to help with refugees’ accommodation needs with the hope of welcoming their first families in the autumn. She said: “Through groups of neighbours, communities are making a plan to integrate people, raising money, finding homes, welcoming them at the airport. “There’s a huge longing by people in the area I live in to do this. People are very, very keen to help” she concluded.