"Please Free Us": EU's Outsourcing of Refugees Drives Crisis to New Low
Published on
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
by
Common Dreams
"Please Free Us": EU's Outsourcing of Refugees Drives Crisis to New Low
Conditions for asylum seekers in wake of EU/Turkey deal are so inhumane that
residents of one refugee camp in Greece launched a hunger strike in
desperate plea for help
by
Nika Knight, staff writer
Men, women, and children in Greece's Schisto refugee camp entered their
second day of a hunger strike, appealing to European and U.N. officials to
"please open the border." (Photo: Yannis Androulidakis and Agelos
Kalodoukas, via AnalyzeGreece)
Conditions for refugees seeking asylum in Europe descended to new depths
this week, as residents of a Greek refugee camp launched a hunger strike to
protest inhumane living conditions, the United Nations warned Greece to stop
imprisoning refugee children in police cells, and deported Syrian refugees
said they were being illegally detained in Turkey and stripped of their
rights.
"I'm forcing my children to eat because I don't have any money to buy
anything, but they refuse because there are bugs in it."
a Syrian mother deported and detained in TurkeyIndeed, Syrians recently
deported to Turkey from Greece under the terms of the controversial
EU/Turkey deal told the Guardian on Monday that they were "detained in a
remote camp for the past three weeks with no access to lawyers," meaning
they have been unable to apply for asylum in Europe.
Such reports "undermine the legitimacy" of the deal, the Guardian notes, as
the deal is predicated on Turkey being a "safe third country" to which
asylum seekers may be sent under international law.
"The returnees have warned that those following in their wake face arbitrary
detention, an inscrutable asylum process, and substandard living
conditions," the newspaper wrote.
"You can't imagine how bad a situation we are in right now," said one Syrian
mother detained with her children in Turkey to the Guardian. "My children
and I are suffering, the food is not edible. I'm forcing my children to eat
because I don't have any money to buy anything, but they refuse because
there are bugs in it."
"One of the hundreds of other Syrian refugees also detained at [the same
detention center] said that he had been held since 10 February after being
seized from his home," the Guardian reported. "He said he was still unsure
of why he was detained, or when he would be released, and doubted any inmate
would be freed soon."
Unaccompanied minors are also being detained without cause or explanation in
Greece, according to the United Nations.
"The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, François
Crepeau, said he had met unaccompanied children held in police stations for
more than two weeks without access to the outdoors, and 'traumatized and
distressed' by the experience," reported Reuters.
An "estimated 2,000 unaccompanied children who traveled alone to Europe or
lost their families on the way are stranded in Greece," according to the
charity Save the Children.
Children "are put in ... protective custody and the only place there is
space [for them] is the cell in police stations and that's where we find
them quite often," Crepeau said. "Spending 16 days [in a police cell] is way
too long."
Meanwhile, in the Schisto refugee camp in Greece, residents have entered the
second day of a mass hunger strike.
Women at the Schisto refugee camp during the second day of the residents'
hunger strike protesting dire conditions. (Photo: Yannis Androulidakis and
Agelos Kalodoukas, via AnalyzeGreece)
"No food, no water, please open the border," reads an appeal written on a
piece of cardboard.
"Those certain individuals who [have] money, they cross all borders," reads
the refugees' statement to EU and UN officials, which was written out on a
sheet and hung from a windowsill, yet "we are all humans." The statement
describes camp conditions as "like prison" and says that "all women,
children, and men are sick."
"Please free us," the refugees plead.
"This is not the first hunger strike to have taken place in refugee camps in
Greece this year," reports leftist Greek magazine AnalyzeGreece. "Just last
week, refugees in Elliniko went on hunger strike, complaining about the
detention conditions, while hunger strikes have also taken place in Eidomeni
(March 2016) and in the VIAL detention camp in Chios."
Humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) lays the blame for the
ever-worsening situation on the EU/Turkey deal, in an excoriating
condemnation published Monday in the Huffington Post.
MSF describes the frightening ramifications of the deal's treatment of human
beings as bartering chips:
While the concept of outsourcing migration management is sadly not new, this
is the most organized and collective attempt so far to pursue the cruel
logic of pushing people back instead of taking them in. Europe is sending a
troubling signal to the rest of the world: countries can buy their way out
of providing asylum.
If replicated by many nations worldwide, the concept of refugee will cease
to exist. People will be trapped in war zones unable to flee for their
lives, with no choice but to stay and die. The recent bombing of a camp
hosting displaced people near Idlib that killed at least 28 people shows
that the concept of safe spaces in Syria is not viable.
Through this deal, EU leaders have made a choice that should raise serious
questions for the citizens of affluent Europe. In 2016 who still counts as
human? Whose lives matter? What happened to empathy? And where has
solidarity gone when faced with the anguish and despair of those whose lives
have been shattered?
The organization writes that it is ambivalent about continuing to provide
humanitarian aid to refugees in Europe under such conditions.
"Unsatisfied with deterrence measures like their layers of razor wire, their
sniffer dogs and their construction of ever higher walls, European leaders
have resorted to now abusing humanitarian and development aid as a tool for
border control," MSF writes.
"Europe is proffering billions of euros to implement this deal, hanging a
dilemma over the heads of the humanitarian community," says the group.
"Should aid agencies provide desperately needed aid in service of an
anti-humanitarian policy that has the ultimate goal of keeping people away
from European soil?"
In an open letter released Thursday, MSF appealed to Europe to recall the
world's last refugee crisis, when it was Europeans who were the ones sent
scattered around the world seeking refuge from war: "Is World War II so long
ago that you no longer recall the basic human need to flee from violence and
persecution when left with no other choice?"
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
Skip to main content
//
DONATE
SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTER
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Home
World
U.S.
Canada
Climate
War & Peace
Economy
Rights
Solutions
Election 2016
Break Free 2016
Bernie Sanders
Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump
Panama Papers
"Please Free Us": EU's Outsourcing of Refugees Drives Crisis to New Low
Published on
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
by
Common Dreams
"Please Free Us": EU's Outsourcing of Refugees Drives Crisis to New Low
Conditions for asylum seekers in wake of EU/Turkey deal are so inhumane that
residents of one refugee camp in Greece launched a hunger strike in
desperate plea for help
by
Nika Knight, staff writer
0 Comments
Men, women, and children in Greece's Schisto refugee camp entered
their second day of a hunger strike, appealing to European and U.N.
officials to "please open the border." (Photo: Yannis Androulidakis and
Agelos Kalodoukas, via AnalyzeGreece)
Conditions for refugees seeking asylum in Europe descended to new
depths this week, as residents of a Greek refugee camp launched a hunger
strike to protest inhumane living conditions, the United Nations warned
Greece to stop imprisoning refugee children in police cells, and deported
Syrian refugees said they were being illegally detained in Turkey and
stripped of their rights.
"I'm forcing my children to eat because I don't have any money to
buy anything, but they refuse because there are bugs in it."
a Syrian mother deported and detained in TurkeyIndeed, Syrians recently
deported to Turkey from Greece under the terms of the controversial
EU/Turkey deal told the Guardian on Monday that they were "detained in a
remote camp for the past three weeks with no access to lawyers," meaning
they have been unable to apply for asylum in Europe.
Such reports "undermine the legitimacy" of the deal, the Guardian
notes, as the deal is predicated on Turkey being a "safe third country" to
which asylum seekers may be sent under international law.
"The returnees have warned that those following in their wake face
arbitrary detention, an inscrutable asylum process, and substandard living
conditions," the newspaper wrote.
"You can't imagine how bad a situation we are in right now," said one Syrian
mother detained with her children in Turkey to the Guardian. "My children
and I are suffering, the food is not edible. I'm forcing my children to eat
because I don't have any money to buy anything, but they refuse because
there are bugs in it."
"One of the hundreds of other Syrian refugees also detained at [the same
detention center] said that he had been held since 10 February after being
seized from his home," the Guardian reported. "He said he was still unsure
of why he was detained, or when he would be released, and doubted any inmate
would be freed soon."
Unaccompanied minors are also being detained without cause or explanation in
Greece, according to the United Nations.
"The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, François
Crepeau, said he had met unaccompanied children held in police stations for
more than two weeks without access to the outdoors, and 'traumatized and
distressed' by the experience," reported Reuters.
An "estimated 2,000 unaccompanied children who traveled alone to Europe or
lost their families on the way are stranded in Greece," according to the
charity Save the Children.
Children "are put in ... protective custody and the only place there is
space [for them] is the cell in police stations and that's where we find
them quite often," Crepeau said. "Spending 16 days [in a police cell] is way
too long."
Meanwhile, in the Schisto refugee camp in Greece, residents have entered the
second day of a mass hunger strike.
Women at the Schisto refugee camp during the second day of the residents'
hunger strike protesting dire conditions. (Photo: Yannis Androulidakis and
Agelos Kalodoukas, via AnalyzeGreece)
"No food, no water, please open the border," reads an appeal written on a
piece of cardboard.
"Those certain individuals who [have] money, they cross all borders," reads
the refugees' statement to EU and UN officials, which was written out on a
sheet and hung from a windowsill, yet "we are all humans." The statement
describes camp conditions as "like prison" and says that "all women,
children, and men are sick."
"Please free us," the refugees plead.
"This is not the first hunger strike to have taken place in refugee camps in
Greece this year," reports leftist Greek magazine AnalyzeGreece. "Just last
week, refugees in Elliniko went on hunger strike, complaining about the
detention conditions, while hunger strikes have also taken place in Eidomeni
(March 2016) and in the VIAL detention camp in Chios."
Humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) lays the blame for the
ever-worsening situation on the EU/Turkey deal, in an excoriating
condemnation published Monday in the Huffington Post.
MSF describes the frightening ramifications of the deal's treatment of human
beings as bartering chips:
While the concept of outsourcing migration management is sadly not new, this
is the most organized and collective attempt so far to pursue the cruel
logic of pushing people back instead of taking them in. Europe is sending a
troubling signal to the rest of the world: countries can buy their way out
of providing asylum.
If replicated by many nations worldwide, the concept of refugee will cease
to exist. People will be trapped in war zones unable to flee for their
lives, with no choice but to stay and die. The recent bombing of a camp
hosting displaced people near Idlib that killed at least 28 people shows
that the concept of safe spaces in Syria is not viable.
Through this deal, EU leaders have made a choice that should raise serious
questions for the citizens of affluent Europe. In 2016 who still counts as
human? Whose lives matter? What happened to empathy? And where has
solidarity gone when faced with the anguish and despair of those whose lives
have been shattered?
The organization writes that it is ambivalent about continuing to provide
humanitarian aid to refugees in Europe under such conditions.
"Unsatisfied with deterrence measures like their layers of razor wire, their
sniffer dogs and their construction of ever higher walls, European leaders
have resorted to now abusing humanitarian and development aid as a tool for
border control," MSF writes.
"Europe is proffering billions of euros to implement this deal, hanging a
dilemma over the heads of the humanitarian community," says the group.
"Should aid agencies provide desperately needed aid in service of an
anti-humanitarian policy that has the ultimate goal of keeping people away
from European soil?"
In an open letter released Thursday, MSF appealed to Europe to recall the
world's last refugee crisis, when it was Europeans who were the ones sent
scattered around the world seeking refuge from war: "Is World War II so long
ago that you no longer recall the basic human need to flee from violence and
persecution when left with no other choice?"
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
