BBC

NPR

 

CNN

“………A recent crackdown on crossings from Libya has led to a backlog of would-be migrants. Thousands of migrants remain in Libyan government-run detention centers, and nightmare accounts of forced labor, exploitation and inhumane conditions at the hands of the men they paid to deliver them across the Mediterranean have emerged…..”

Reuters

“…..All the children managed to escape unhurt before the bus was engulfed in flames…..”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_tZ_tOVyd8

Amnesty

European leaders must end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy which is preventing asylum seekers from leaving the Greek islands and urgently reach a common responsibility-sharing agreement for hosting asylum seekers across European countries, said Amnesty International and 24 other NGOs in an open letter, published on the eve of the deal’s third anniversary.

Letter to European leaders

We, the 25 undersigned humanitarian, human rights and volunteer organizations call on you, in the run up to the third anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal, to take immediate and sustained action to end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy which is preventing asylum seekers from leaving the Greek islands. We also call on you to urgently reach a common responsibility-sharing agreement for hosting asylum seekers across EU Member States.

The policy that traps people on the Greek islands and prevents them from reaching the European mainland has caused a recurrent and endless cycle of overcrowding, substandard living conditions and extremely poor access to services: the European “hotspots” continue to provide accommodation and basic services, such as food and medical assistance, well below minimum standards. The European response in Greece has proven to have disastrous consequences on refugees’ rights, including their health and safety. This has been exhaustively documented and brought to your attention through countless reports over the last three years.

As many as 20,000 asylum seekers were stranded in unsafe, unhygienic and degrading conditions on the Greek islands in 2018. Currently, around 12,000 people are still forced to live in inadequate reception and identification centres built for a maximum capacity of half this population: sleeping in unheated tents or overcrowded containers with limited access to running water and electricity, and often exposed to ongoing violence, harassment and exploitation, amid high tensions, lack of security and minimal protection.

While the number of asylum applications across Europe has dropped over the last three years, the number of asylum applications filed in Greece has increased exponentially. In Lesvos alone, for instance, the number of asylum applications more than tripled between 2016 (5,000 applications) and 2018 (17,270 applications). At the same time, organizations providing medical and legal assistance are stretched beyond capacity. By preventing most asylum seekers from leaving the islands and being transferred to the European mainland, European governments are putting undue pressure on the islands’ residents, local community resources, local authorities, and on Greece, while reception conditions, including the protection mechanisms for asylum seekers are still substandard.

The expectation that most newcomers could be returned to Turkey under the EU-Turkey deal has proved to be dangerously unrealistic. According to Greek Asylum Service representatives in Lesvos, only up to 6% of the asylum-seekers arriving to Lesvos would be eligible for return to Turkey.

It is shameful that, despite this sobering reality, some European governments have been holding hostage any real responsibility sharing mechanism until returns are sped up and increased, focusing instead on deterrence policies and border controls at the expense of basic rights and safeguards. The current situation at the borders of Europe is the direct result of those short-sighted and unsustainable policies implemented following the EU-Turkey deal and the lack of aptitude and political will across Europe to find common ground on key aspects of a common European asylum system.

Yours sincerely,                                                               

ActionAid Hellas

Amnesty International

Avocats Sans Frontières France

Boat Refugee Foundation

Caritas Hellas

CEAR – Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado

Danish Refugee Council

DIOTIMA – Center for Research on Women’s Issues

Equal Rights Beyond Borders

Greek Council for Refugees

Greek Helsinki Monitor

Human Rights Watch

International Rescue Committee

JRS Europe

JRS Hellas

Legal Center Lesbos

Mare Liberum

Médecins du monde – Greece

Oxfam

Praksis

Refugee Legal Support

Refugee Rights Europe

Solidar

Solidarity Now

Terre des hommes Hellas

USA Today

‘….”We are currently facing both a border security and humanitarian crisis along our southwest border,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told reporters.

During the five-month period ended Feb. 28, Border Patrol officers apprehended some 268,000 migrants who entered the United States without legal authorization. More than 76,000 entered in February alone…..’

 

The Guardian

“……The conservation groups said state governments should see if families could prove their claim under the act and, if they could, they should be allowed to live and work on the land. If they failed to prove their claim, they should be evicted by the state government.

The supreme court has ordered the 20 state governments – where claims were considered by special committees – to act on about 1.1m claims now rejected as bogus and evict the families. Depending on the size of the families, more than 1m claims could translate to about 5-7 million people being evicted by 27 July…..”

 

WHO

Copenhagen, Geneva, 21 January 2019

Migrants and refugees are likely to have good general health, but they can be at risk of falling sick in transition or while staying in receiving countries due to poor living conditions or adjustments in their lifestyle. This is the main conclusion of the first “Report on the health of refugees and migrants in the WHO European Region”, released by the WHO Regional Office for Europe today.

“Today, political and social systems are struggling to rise to the challenge of responding to displacement and migration in a humane and positive way. This report is the first of its kind, and gives us a snapshot of the health of refugees and migrants in the WHO European Region, at a time when the migration phenomenon is expanding across the world,” says Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe.

The report summarizes the latest available evidence on the health of refugees and migrants in the WHO European Region – from a review of more than 13 000 documents – and the progress countries have made to promote their health. It was developed in partnership with the Italian National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty (INMP).

Vulnerability to noncommunicable and communicable diseases

Refugees and migrants appear to be less affected than their host populations by many noncommunicable diseases on arrival; however, if they are in conditions of poverty, the duration of their stay in host countries increases their risk for cardiovascular diseases, stroke or cancer. As migrants and refugees are likely to change their lifestyle to engage in less physical activity and consume less healthy food, they are also more prone to risk factors for chronic diseases.

The displacement processes itself can make refugees and migrants more vulnerable to infectious diseases. Yet the report underlines that, for instance, the proportion of refugees and migrants among a host country’s tuberculosis (TB) cases varies broadly depending on the TB prevalence in the host population; and that a significant proportion of migrants and refugees who are HIV positive acquired the infection after they arrived in Europe. Despite the widespread assumption to the contrary, there is only a very low risk of refugees and migrants transmitting communicable diseases to their host population.

“The new report provides insight into what must be done to meet the health needs of both migrants and refugees and the host population. As migrants and refugees become more vulnerable than the host population to the risk of developing both noncommunicable and communicable diseases, it is necessary that they receive timely access to quality health services, as everyone else. This is the best way to save lives and cut treatment costs, as well as protect the health of the resident citizens,” stresses Dr Jakab.

Key findings and myths exposed

• International migrants make up only 10% (90.7 million) of the total population in the WHO European Region. Less than 7.4% of these are refugees. In some European countries, citizens estimate that there are 3 or 4 times more migrants than there really are.
• While communicable diseases are commonly linked with displacement and migration, there is a growing awareness that a range of acute and chronic conditions also require attention.
• Refugees and migrants are at lower risk for all forms of cancer, except cervical cancer. However, cancer in refugees and migrants is more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced stage, which can lead to considerably worse health outcomes than those of the host population.
• Depression and anxiety tend to affect refugees and migrants more than host populations. However, variation by migrant group and in the methods used to assess prevalence make it hard to draw firm conclusions.
• In general, refugees and migrants have a higher incidence, prevalence and mortality rate for diabetes than the host population, with higher rates in women.
• Refugees and migrants are potentially at greater risk of developing infectious diseases because of their exposure to infections, lack of access to health care, interrupted care and poor living conditions during the migration process. It is therefore necessary to protect them and to ensure that health-care workers on the front line understand the risks.
• While refugees and migrants may arrive in Europe with incomplete or interrupted immunization, vaccination uptake is likely to increase with the duration of their stay. The immediate response to new arrivals is to ensure that they receive basic vaccines based on the schedule of the host country.
• *Access to social and health services varies across the WHO European Region, with legal status, language barriers and discrimination generally being influential factors.
• *Unaccompanied minors are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and experience higher rates of depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
• *Male migrants experience significantly more work-related injuries than non-migrant workers.

A series of guidance documents was also developed to translate the report’s findings into practice. Each addresses a specific aspect of the health of refugees and migrants by providing tools, case studies and evidence to inform practices and policies to improve health. They focus on the areas of maternal and newborn health, children’s health, health promotion, mental health and healthy ageing. The documents were produced with financial support from the European Commission.

Towards refugee- and migrant-friendly health systems

Countries in the WHO European Region are making progress in implementing the Strategy and action plan for refugee and migrant health, adopted in 2016 by the WHO Regional Committee for Europe to guide progress on the health aspects of population movement. However, more needs to be done to progress towards refugee- and migrant-friendly health systems, including:

• providing quality and affordable health coverage as well as social protection for all refugees and migrants regardless of their legal status;
• making health systems culturally and linguistically sensitive to address communication barriers;
• ensuring health-care workers are well equipped and experienced to diagnose and manage common infectious and noninfectious diseases;
• enhancing multisectoral action on refugee and migrant health; and
• improving systematic and routine collection of comparable data on refugee and migrant health.

The WHO Regional Office for Europe and partners will continue to support the implementation of the Strategy and action plan, and to assist countries in filling potential gaps in health service delivery. This includes training health-care staff, providing technical assistance, carrying out joint public health and health system assessment missions, and providing policy recommendations using the WHO toolkit to prepare for large influxes of refugees and migrants.

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NYT

“…..By signing their applications, Mr. Orlando hopes to invite a legal challenge by the government that he can take all the way to Italy’s highest court. He intends to argue that Mr. Salvini’s measures are unconstitutional and violate the migrants’ human rights.

“I cannot accept that you produce criminality,” Mr. Orlando said in an interview last month…..

Many liberal mayors across the country, from Naples to Florence to Milan, applauded Mr. Orlando’s intention to defy the government……”

                                                

“……Mr. Salvini refused to offer a safe port to the Sea Watch 3, a vessel that had rescued 47 migrants from the Mediterranean Sea. For nearly two weeks, the ship was adrift as Mr. Salvini spoke of forming a “naval blockade” to seal off the country.

The standoff ended on Thursday, only after European neighbors agreed to take in the majority of the migrants….”