Archive for category: ANNOUNCEMENTS

More than 12,000 immigrants have been rescued in the blue seas of the Mediterranean in the past four days, a spike that has some overwhelmed Italian policymakers threatening to partly bar their ports to rescue ships, operated by humanitarian groups that weren’t flying the Italian flag unless they received more help from other EU members.

On Sunday, July 2, an informal meeting of the French, German and Italian interior ministers took place on this issue. After the meeting, Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti once again urged European partners to open their own ports on ships that rescue immigrants so as to relieve a little of Italy, which, along with Greece, is heavily burdened by continuing migratory flows.

“If the only ports to which immigrants come are Italian, it cannot go any further. This is the heart of the problem ” as he stated. “I am a European, but I would be proud if a single ship with immigrants, instead of coming to Italy, went to another port. That would not solve Italy’s problem, but it would be a great sign that Europe wants to help Italy” the Minister added.

At the same time, Rome has sent a rigorous warning to Austria that there will be serious implications for relations between them if the Austrians proceed to the development of an army at the border in order to control and stop the influx of immigrants.

It is estimated that Europe will be able to manage more effectively migration in the future, said Dimitris Avramopoulos, noting that the EU has made significant progress in the last two years at all levels.

Speaking in Paris, the Commissioner for Immigration, Home Affairs and Citizenship in the presentation of the OECD’s International Migration Survey 2017 stressed that this report confirms that immigration is rising overall, that over the last two years it has been particularly high in terms of Humanitarian reasons, and that the two main channels of legal immigration to the EU are family reasons and job finding.

According to Mr. Avramopoulos there is considerable confusion and incomplete information about migration, but the findings of the OECD report, he said, help to dissolve some myths. As pointed out, migration to the EU is not new and most immigrants arriving in the EU arrive in a legal and controlled way, for family reasons, for studies or for work, while in fact almost one-third of the EU residence permits given To third-country nationals related to people who migrated for family reasons.

Finally, the Commissioner expressed his conviction that a comprehensive integration strategy should be coupled with a strong European asylum policy and the use of other legitimate immigration channels, not only for family reunification but also for the attraction of highly qualified people through Of the new blue card system, such as, for example, students and seasonal workers.

Lack of hospitality, inadequate identification of vulnerable cases, encroaching on the islands, risk of a return to Turkey. Victims of torture are coming to Greece to look for a better future, but in some cases, they are experiencing new injuries.

The above were found during an event organised by the Hellenic Council for Refugees, the Vavel Day Center and Médecins Sans Frontières, on the occasion of today’s World Torture Victims Support Day. The three organisations also carry out a rehabilitation program for torture victims in Athens in 2014.

“The big issue we are facing with the victims of torture is housing,” explained the social worker of Médecins Sans Frontières. This problem is mainly faced by non-family men and recognised refugees. Lack of housing causes the already overwhelmed psyche of the victims of torture “insecurity, fear, difficulty in joining and rehabilitation, and a rebellion condition,” he noted.

The biggest challenges for the healers of torture victims are the continuing trauma, frequent population movements, the traumatic asylum process and the absence of support mechanisms, “the coordinator of the rehabilitation program for torture victims,

The head of the Greek Council for Refugees described the difficulty of torture victims to talk about what happened to them. “We have people so vulnerable that we have not been able to persuade them to describe the torture they have suffered. There are people who do not want to approach them, they do not want to be opened – and these are the most difficult cases, “he said. However, this creates difficulties in the process of examining their asylum claim.

The main countries of origin of the victims are the Democratic Republic of the Congo (21%), Iran (10%), Syria (9%), Afghanistan (6%), Sudan (5% ), Nigeria (4%) and Cameroon (4%).

25% of the victims said they have also suffered sexual violence, such as rape, physical and verbal sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, and forced pregnancy. It is notable that 70% have mental health problems.

Intense reactions have emerged followed the proposal by Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurtz for the complete closing of the so-called Mediterranean Route for Refugees and Immigrants.

Mr Kurtz now asks refugees rescued in the Mediterranean to be transported directly to reception centres in Tunisia or Egypt, which has been categorically rejected by the former, while strong reservations are expressed by the latter.

According to the Foreign Minister’s suggestion, for refugees coming from war zones, resettlement programs would be the only way to reach Europe, and for this to be the case for international organisations in crisis areas to choose people to relocate. In his view, in this way, Europe would be more targeted to help the weak, not those who are able to pay the illegal traffickers.

With his earlier initiative, Sebastian Kurtz had asked the European Union to adopt the “Australian model” in the refugee issue and to turn Mitilini and Lampedusa into refugee detention camps, which had caused a shock of protests in many respects.

Austria’s federal chancellor and head of the Social Democrats, Cristian Cern, has provoked Sebastian Kurt’s proposal, pointing out that the proposal is impossible to implement, refers to the high cost, the risk of terrorism, the possible destabilization of North Africa and the need to invest in these countries and to create normal immigration conditions.

The Kurtz proposal was categorically rejected by the UN refugee expert and UNHCR official Kilian Klinsmint as inappropriate.