AYS News Digest 27/07/23: Shipwrecks off Senegal and Malta claim 23 lives
Eighty-four people rescued off Gran Canaria // Iuventa Crew’s legal challenge to criminal charge of “facilitating unauthorised migration” goes to ECJ // A woman and child found dead on the Tunisian-Libyan border desert // Testimony about abuses in French detention // Four people suffocate on Greek–Turkish border // Updates on Pylos enquiry, as survivors denied psychological aid; protests at Amygdaleza detention centre as a man dies after being denied medical assistance
SEARCH AND RESCUE
Shipwreck on the Mediterranean kills six people
The summer months have seen an increase in the number of attempted crossings over the fatal waters of the Mediterranean, as well as the Atlantic. In the past few days, tragic shipwrecks have been reported off Senegal and Malta, whilst 84 people were rescued by the Spanish coast guard off Gran Canaria. Every lost life is the result of choices made by those who are not forced to take such risks. Every lost life is an incalculable, incommunicable tragedy.
Shipwreck off Senegal claims 17 people’s lives
Seventeen bodies have been found by the Senegalese navy, after a boat capsized off the coast of Dakar. This is the first time that bodies have washed up on the capital’s shoreline, and it is feared that an increasing number of people on the move will lose their lives there.
Eighty-four people rescued off Gran Canaria, along with a corpse
Mostly hailing from sub-Saharan Africa, these people were rescued 16km off the coast. Eight people were hospitalised upon disembarkation.
IUVENTA CREW
“Facilitating unauthorised migration” appeal goes to ECJ
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is set to examine the legitimacy of “facilitating unauthorised migration” as a criminal offence.
“Our objection is that the European regulation, and consequently the Italian one that transposes it, does not include the intention to make a profit as a constitutive element of the offense and, at the same time, does not oblige Member States to exclude the responsibility of those who act out of altruistic and humanitarian reasons“, explains Francesca Cancellaro.
From the Iuventa campaign:
“This is the first time that the European court has to assess the legitimacy of EU legislation criminalising the facilitation of migration. If successful, the effects of the decision would impact on similar past and future cases in Europe.”
TUNISIA / LIBYAN BORDER
Left to die in the desert
A 30-year-old woman from the Ivory Coast, Fati Dosso, along with her young daughter Marie, have died in the Tunisian-Libyan borderland. Their bodies were discovered on Tuesday, their lives taken by dehydration, having been abandoned in the desert by the Tunisian authorities.
Make no mistake: this is the calculated, sanctioned denial of life. Murder.
The temperatures on the border are almost unliveable, reaching 50 degrees Centigrade. There have been reports of the Tunisian authorities deporting children as young as three months old, actively endangering lives:
GREECE
Protests at Amygdaleza detention centre
A 26-year-old Indian man has reportedly died in Greek detention, having been denied medical care and medicine despite his illness.
Protests have since erupted across the centre, with 10 people believed to have been arrested so far.
This comes after BVMN reported on such abusive detention practices in February this year.
Updates on the Pylos tragedy
The European Ombudsman has asked Frontex about its role in the shipwreck off Pylos last June, as the open enquiry continues:
A report has also emerged that no psychological help has been provided to survivors of the shipwreck. See here:
Four people suffocate to death on the Greek/Turkish border
At the Ipsala border, four people have been found dead in the back of lorry that was travelling from Izmir to Thessaloniki, loaded with refrigerators.
Lack of air and exposure to extreme heat were recorded as the medical causes of death.
More here.
Abuses at Coquelles detention centre
Calais Migrant Solidarity have written a report, based on testimonies of those who were detained, about the physical and psychological violence of detention in France.
“Since their arrests, the detainees have reported being victims of humiliation and beatings by the cops. The pressure imposed on them is so strong that some can no longer bear it and try to end their lives. Suicide attempts are frequent, both a sign of despair and the ultimate strategy of resistance. Yet even after hospitalization for attempted suicide, releases are rarely granted; after a stay in hospital, detainees are placed back in CRA if the administration considers that deportation to another country is still possible.”
CW: the article includes a video of forced deportation, as well as images.
WORTH READING
- “Indifference to the deaths in the Mediterranean is a sign of a collapse in humanity” — although behind a paywall, this article in Le Monde considers the lack of media attention that the Pylos tragedy has received, in relation to other large scale shipwrecks in 2013 and 2015. How come the Pylos shipwreck hasn’t registered on the political spectrum of security-oriented rhetoric and xenophobia?
- Disappearances in Greece. People coming to the Aegean are so desperate to evade pushbacks that they take life-threatening risks, disappearing into remote woodland and mountain areas. This article is about those who go unaccounted for as a result.
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