Alarm Phone Weekly Report 9th – 15th of November 2015

18. November 2015 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Alarm Phone Weekly Report 9th – 15th of November 2015 · Kategorien: Alarm Phone · Tags:

39 Emergency Situations in Europe’s maritime borderzones

In the past week, the Alarm Phone was in contact once again with hundreds of travellers who attempted to cross sea borders. We dealt with 38 emergency situations in the Aegean Sea and 1 in the Western Mediterranean Sea. On Wednesday the 11th of November, yet again, many people died at sea. 14 refugees, including 7 children, drowned in Turkish waters when their vessel capsized. 27 travellers were rescued by the Turkish coastguards. Summaries of the cases and links to the more detailed reports on http://watchthemed.net can be found below.

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Alarm Phone Weekly Report 2nd – 8th of November 2015

16. November 2015 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Alarm Phone Weekly Report 2nd – 8th of November 2015 · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Mittelmeer · Tags:

Stranded in the Aegean

The Alarm Phone received various distress calls from those who reached Greek Islands and needed immediate support

Between the 2nd and the 8th of November, we witnessed another dramatic, sometimes deadly, week in the Aegean Sea. Once again, fishermen and others found bodies floating in the sea or washed up at the shores of Greek islands1. The arrivals on the Greek islands continue to be very high for the month of November. On most days of the week more than 3,000 and on two days more than 6,000 travellers arrived on the Greek islands.2 As those fleeing have no prospect for legal entry and with the winter months looming, they seize their last chance to cross to Europe, risking their lives on the dangerous crossing.

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Most deadly week of 2015 in the Aegean Sea, Alarm Phone alerted to 100 distress cases

06. November 2015 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Most deadly week of 2015 in the Aegean Sea, Alarm Phone alerted to 100 distress cases · Kategorien: Alarm Phone

Quelle: Alarm Phone

Alarm Phone Weekly Report 26 October – 1 November 2015

Between the 26th of October and the 1st of November, the Alarm Phone experienced the most emergency cases since its launch about one year ago. Within just 7 days we were alerted to a total of 100 cases of distress – all but one in the Aegean Sea – and were able to provide help and support to several thousands of travellers both on boats in distress at sea and to those who had stranded on several Greek islands. In doing so, we cooperated with and relied on the invaluable work of numerous volunteers, contact persons and support networks, who forwarded distress calls to us, provided us with information and helped us to follow-up on the many incidents. The sharp rise of alerts to the Alarm Phone also reflects the enormous increase of border crossings in the Aegean Sea, where more than 210.000 travellers have entered the European Union within the last month alone – about as many as in the entire year of 2014.1 Without any prospect of legal entry and with weather conditions becoming even worse in the weeks ahead, travellers in need of protection seek to use their last chances to enter Europe through dangerous and life-threatening sea crossings.

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Sea-Watch startet neue Rettungsmission auf Lesbos

05. November 2015 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Sea-Watch startet neue Rettungsmission auf Lesbos · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Deutschland, Griechenland · Tags: ,

Download als pdf-Datei

Einladung zur Pressekonferenz am 06.11. / Pressemitteilung

Immer wieder werden an den Stränden der griechischen Insel Lesbos Tote angespült. Mit dem kommenden Winter wird die Passage von der Türkei nach Griechenland für Flüchtende immer gefährlicher.

Sea-Watch hat sich deshalb entschlossen, eine Rettungsmission in der Ägäis zu starten. Am Freitag, den 06.11.2015 werden wir mit einem für den Rettungseinsatz ausgerüsteten Schnellboot von Hamburg aus in den Einsatz starten.

Wir laden sie deshalb herzlich für den 06.11.15 um 10.00 an den Lotsekai nach Hamburg-Harburg ein, den Ort, von dem auch die Sea-Watch 1 ins Mittelmeer startete.

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„I made an SOS call for the Aegean refugees. Now I’m lost for words“

30. Oktober 2015 · Kommentare deaktiviert für „I made an SOS call for the Aegean refugees. Now I’m lost for words“ · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Griechenland, Mittelmeer · Tags: ,

Quelle: The Guardian

by Justine Swaab

When I first hear the news about the boat sinking in the Aegean sea on the radio, I think of the SOS call I made to the Turkish coastguard that afternoon about what might have been this very boat. I often call in the coordinates of such refugee boats in distress from my base in Amsterdam, so I can’t be sure. I am a volunteer for and the founder of Crossing Channels, an organisation that mediates between refugees, volunteers, aid workers and rescue teams. A record 242 lives were saved from the Lesbos wreckage. This should be cause for celebration. But between 40 and 60 lives are possibly lost. And I am lost for words.

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Gibraltar: 39 ertrunken – unter Präsenz von Frontex und Militärs

30. Oktober 2015 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Gibraltar: 39 ertrunken – unter Präsenz von Frontex und Militärs · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Marokko, Spanien · Tags: ,

Gibraltar: 39 drowned while Frontex and military Units were present

On Tuesday the 27th of October 54 or 55 refugees and migrants departed from El Hoceima (Morocco) to Andalusia (Spain). The next day (Wednesday the 28th) the boat was floating in the strait of Gibraltar with a failed engine. The same day activists communicated the SOS signal to the responsible rescue center. The boat sunk in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, and was localized by the Frontex airplane Condor 2 on Thursday. It was located 39 sea miles to the northeast of El Hoceima and 52 sea miles off the coast of Malaga. An international military maneuver took place in the immediate vicinity. Columbian units discovered the first bodies. LaterPortuguese andIcelandicNavy vessels showed up at the location of the disaster. So far, four dead people were pulled out of the sea. Still 35 persons are missing, among them at least two babies and pregnant women.

Why did the Spanish rescue forces not take immediate action after receiving the SOS signal or even afterthe confirmed localization on Thursday by Frontex?

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Maurice Stierl: „The WatchTheMed Alarm Phone“

27. Oktober 2015 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Maurice Stierl: „The WatchTheMed Alarm Phone“ · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Hintergrund, Lesetipps

Quelle: movements-journal

Maurice Stierl (2015)
The WatchTheMed Alarm Phone
A Disobedient Border-Intervention

In: movements. Journal für kritische Migrations- und Grenzregimeforschung 1 (2)

Bi-weekly Alarm Phone Report 5-18 October 2015

25. Oktober 2015 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Bi-weekly Alarm Phone Report 5-18 October 2015 · Kategorien: Alarm Phone

Quelle: Alarm Phone

Alarm Phone witnessed armed attacks on 6 boats in the Aegean Sea

In the past two weeks the Alarm Phone witnessed awful and inacceptable forms of violence committed against travellers at sea. In the Western Mediterranean we directly witnessed how several groups of travellers were forcefully intercepted and detained, with one group being even deported to the Moroccan border to Mauretania. In the Aegean Sea, travellers informed us about six attacks on boats in Greek territorial waters. In all of these cases, armed and masked forces supposedly of the Greek coastguard beat travellers, stabbed their rubber boats and disabled or stole their engines. Afterwards, they would push them back and leave them behind in Turkish waters, in serious danger of capsizing. The human rights NGO Human Rights Watch also documented several such attacks on boats in the last couple of weeks.i

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Watch The Med: Alarm Phone’s 1 Year Anniversary Statement

12. Oktober 2015 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Watch The Med: Alarm Phone’s 1 Year Anniversary Statement · Kategorien: Alarm Phone

Quelle: WTM Alarmphone | [EN] [SP] [DT] [IT] [FR]

October 12, 2015

„While we are confronted with a lot of despair, we have also been inspired uncountable times by the willingness to overcome the sea and to move on to desired places throughout Europe.“

They grew stronger, louder and more visible every day in the past months: the incredible social and political struggles of refugees and migrants for the freedom of movement. To overcome the Mediterranean Sea in small overcrowded boats is one of the most dangerous aspects of these migration journeys towards the European Union as safe and legal pathways are closed down and fenced off by its government.

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Alarm Phone Weekly Report, 28th of September to 4th of October 2015

06. Oktober 2015 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Alarm Phone Weekly Report, 28th of September to 4th of October 2015 · Kategorien: Alarm Phone · Tags:

Quelle: WTM

The fundamental crisis of the European border regime continues, and we as the Alarm Phone are able to witness first-hand how thousands succeed to overcome Europe’s borders day after day, despite their securitisation and fortification. As a reaction to these unprecedented movements, the EU seeks to militarise its borders even further and announced on the 28th of September that its second phase of the naval operation ‘Eunavfor Med’ would be launched on the 7th of October. In this second phase EU forces go beyond gathering surveillance on ‘smuggling networks’ and engage actively in boarding, searching, seizing and diverting vessels ‘suspected of being used for human smuggling or trafficking on the high seas’. As many other human rights groups and freedom of movement activists throughout and beyond Europe, we denounce this mission in the strongest possible terms as it will make sea crossings evermore dangerous and will imprison thousands who want to escape Libya and Northern Africa. In addition, the EU began negotiations with the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan over plans to further outsource EU border control to its neighbouring countries and secure its eastern borders in the Aegean region.

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