For years people have been illegally sent back from #Italy to #Greece in secret prisons on private ships.

After months of investigating, we’ve found where asylum seekers, including children, are being detained.

THREAD 🧵 While European passengers are enjoying their holiday trips on board #Superfast ferries, below deck - in metal boxes & dark rooms - asylum seekers from #Afghanistan #Syria & #Iraq are detained.

I just returned from #Turkey. I have spent days with Afghan & Syrian communities in Istanbul & at the border with #Bulgaria. I spoke with lawyers & local activists & archived evidences of pushbacks filmed by refugees who managed to survive violence & repression.

A few thoughts. For the last years, #Turkey is the 1st address where Afghan refugees either stay permanently or wait at a transit point to cross to #Europe. Besides exploitation by employers & lack of access to public services, they are now facing the threat of detention or deportation to #Iran.

[Thread] Here is a collection of most racist coverage of #Russia's attack on #Ukraine. We are being told who deserves war, missiles, & who looks like a good refugee.
This only serves to mislead viewers & decontextualise conflicts. Hypocrisy & its randomness.. “It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed” - Ukraine’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze
@BBCWorld

[Thread]

Spero abbiate il tempo di leggere la nostra inchiesta su nave #Caprera, mandata dall'Italia in Libia per combattere il traffico di esseri umani. Alcuni dei suoi marinai hanno organizzato un carico di contrabbando + violato l'embargo UN sulle armi
nytimes.com/2020/09/28/wor… L'ex ministro degli interni italiano Matteo Salvini a Tripoli aveva elogiato l'equipaggio della nave Caprera per aver impedito a + 7.000 persone di raggiungere l'Europa.

L'unico problema: la Caprera stessa stava organizzando un carico di contrabbando verso l´Europa.

[Thread]

I hope you’ll take the time to read our full investigation on how #Italy sent a warship to #Libya to fight trafficking &
🇮🇹 sailors gathered a cargo of contraband + broke a UN arms embargo.

On the @nytimes with @PatrickKingsley
nytimes.com/2020/09/28/wor… #Italy's former interior minister Matteo Salvini praised the ship Caprera after it stopped ++ than 7,000 people from reaching Europe.

There was just one problem: the #Caprera was itself smuggling contraband to #Europe.

A local source in #Khoms reported that following disembarkation (70 people) a shooting happened — 5 people were shot, 2 died + other injured. Local IOM team was on the ground.

Survivors have been brought to Souq Al-Khamis detention centre, other escaped. #Libya Staff from @IOM_Libya, reported that local authorities in #Khoms started shooting when the migrants attempted to escape from the disembarkation point.

Full statement iom.int/news/iom-deplo…

#Libya right now refugees in distress at sea. There are ~100 people who escaped from Zwara on a wodden boat. The majority is from #Eritrea — their latest position was communicate to the Italian MRCC #Rome (34.23 12.02). Families have been calling for help. #Libya right now refugees in distress at sea.
A desperate call from the Central Mediterranean.

~100 people in distress on a wooden boat. They fled Libya in search of safety and protection.

#Libya In 2018, when I first met James, he had survived a Mediterranean shipwreck, been shot & spent years being abused & tortured. Two years later, I met him again.

📹James' journey back to #Nigeria & the harsh reality of return James was one of ~81,000 migrants returned home by @UNmigration sponsored by @EU_Commission.

What about people retuned to #Sudan?

Mohi, after 3 years in #Libya, returned to #Darfur. Once back, his package never materialised.

Only 766 out of +2,600 have received economic aid.

#Libya pushback coordinated by @Frontex #Osprey3 asset & Libyan coast guard. ~100 people #Eritrea #Somalia #Sudan intercepted at position 33 38N 13 35E also monitored by #MareJonio @RescueMed @scandura

What happens after interception? #Libya #Tripoli @UNHCRLibya + @IOM_Libya offered medical aid/food at disembarkation. After some pics, people were transferred to militia groups. They simply disappeared in a well-organized & over-documented system of human rights abuses.

What happens after disembarkation?

The EU should suspend funding for its program to stem migration from #Libya b/c the program breaches EU budgetary laws & international human rights law, @GLAN_LAW @asgi_it @ArciNazionale argued in a legal complaint filed today to the @EUauditors. sciabacaoruka.asgi.it/wp-content/upl… In 2018, the @EUauditors has already scrutinised the fund’s operations & found that the EU programme lacks focus, risks EU budgetary inefficiency & ineffectiveness + that its programmes are in need of review. eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocum…

[A thread]

#Libya Since December, Mohammed al-Khoja, deputy head of the DCIM - the government agency responsible for the detention centers, is training soldiers outside the $6m UN’s troubled #Tripoli centre, that was once a flagship initiative. . @UNHCRLibya decided to stop their operation, asking people to leave the center, noting that “training exercises, involving police and military personnel, are taking place just a few metres away”.

*THREAD*

Almost 1 year ago, I wrote on how EU was spending millions in #Eritrea on projects using forced conscription.

A key partner in the project is the Red Sea Trading Corporation, completely owned & operated by the ruling party.

More on @repubblica
repubblica.it/solidarieta/em… #Europe accused of financing #Eritrean project based on 'forced labour'?

#EU spokesperson was saying that this project is part of a new approach to engaging with #Eritrea, which has the improvement of the lives and rights of Eritreans at its core.

@EU_Commission reply here ⬇️

#Turkey motion on military deployment to #Libya debated at Parliament now.
tv.tbmm.gov.tr/?fbclid=IwAR0g… Turkey's special envoy to Libya, AK Party deputy @emrullahisler supporting intervention in #Libya citing Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) & his stand during the #Italia|n-Ottoman war.

#Sudan Alarming violence reports from Al Junaynah, West #Darfur.

Just 1 week ago, the Sudanese attorney general announced the start of the investigation into Darfur crimes + a criminal case was opened against former president al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity.

https://twitter.com/Aleisir/status/1211653001527607296

Tonight, I spoke with people in Al Junaynah. The promise of a new #Sudan is distant in #Darfur: thousands of displaced are fighting hunger, diseases + live in fear of violence.

Some are accusing @SudanPMHamdok of being too slow in setting transitional structures at states level.

[Thread #migration #Niger]

Two years ago, UNHCR established for the 1st time an Emergency Evacuation Transit Mechanism (ETM) for the evacuation of #refugees from detention in #Libya to #Niger.

The full agreement between UNHCR & Niger is available here: asgi.it/wp-content/upl… Since 2017, more than 2,900 refugees and asylum-seekers have been evacuated to #Niger, but while EU has promised to provide safe pathways & EU countries have agreed to host them, the resettlement promises are not respected.

#Parigi Centinaia dormono ogni notte nell’accampamento di fango e tende alla periferia nord della capitale.

La vice-sindaco @dversini parla di una crisi umanitaria e denuncia la politica inefficace degli sgomberi. Dal 2015 ci sono stati oltre 59 sgomberi: le autorità francesi continuano a “smantellare gli accampamenti” solo per vederli spuntare dopo pochi mesi.

Qui l'ultima evacuazione di novembre a Porte de La Chapelle, nord #Parigi dove vivevano ~2000 persone.

https://twitter.com/RemyBuisine/status/1192317304278786049?s=20

[A THREAD]

#Libya #Tripoli The @UNHCRLibya Gathering & Departure Facility (GDF) is no longer the gleaming facility shown off in promotional videos & photos when it opened a year ago.

https://twitter.com/UNHCRLibya/status/1070699584102514688?s=20

According to internal UN documents & several sources, the $6 million center – paid for by int’l donors – has now become unsanitary & is in disarray.

@cochetel is adding that the GDF is costing enormous amounts of money “We pay for food 4 times the level we should be paying.”

#Libya @UNHCRLibya "advise" to asylum seekers hosted at gathering &departure facility(GDF) in #Tripoli "We cannot process your case here. You will not be consider for evacuation/resettlement if you stay at the GDF."

Basically, you cannot exist in this place.
Conditional refugees @UNHCRLibya Imagine you have survived war in #Darfur, experienced human trafficking & abuse while in #Libya & now while asking for protection (that by the way is your right), UNHCR respond that you are in wrong place.

Protecting refugees should not be bonded with the location they are.

At the official opening ceremony of the @2019IGF in #Berlin, @antonioguterres asks for a global political commitment to enhance dignity and rights & calls on the ability to work together across nations, disciplines and political divides. In the era of walls.

#IGF2019 @2019IGF @antonioguterres 30 years after the fall of the #Berlin Wall @antonioguterres
warns of the building of virtual walls that separate people, just as physical walls.

Angela Merkel mentioned that at the same time the web was developed as a hope for freedom & a borderless global community.

#IGF2019

#Libya this is John, I met him last September in tarik sika. After 2 years in detention, this morning the guards brought him by bus to @UNHCRLibya office in gurji together with a group of women & children. What’s the alternative to detention that @EU_Commission is promoting? @UNHCRLibya @EU_Commission #Libya Group of refugees released today from tarik sika & left since morning in front @UNHCRLibya in Gurji

Are @OCHA_Libya @BBoell @UNFPALibya @ARAGhandour @UnicefLibya @SamerWFP @IOM_Libya @UNcoordLibya going to provide any support?

EU has allocated +€46m to Libya since 2014

Here today statement from the ministry of Interior of the UN-backed #Libya-n gov. confirming that an arrest warrant & order to suspend Abd al-Rahman Milad - #Bija, was issued by the Attorney General on 23.04.2019. A #Libya-n lawyer working at the Ministry of Justice confirmed me that the Libyan prosecutor has issued the order although this was never implemented. I wrote about this on my piece from #Libya for @euronews.
euronews.com/2019/10/03/unh…