12. April 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Political action by Alarm Phone Tunisia! · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Tunesien · Tags:

Watch The Med Alarmphone | 11.04.2018

On Monday in Zarzis, Tunisia, 100 people demonstrated against the ongoing deaths and disappearances at sea caused by the lethal migration policies of the EU as well as the criminalisation of Rescue Operations in the Mediterranean. Fishermen, human rights defenders and members of civil society, surrounded the port on 5 boats in order to express their anger and to affirm the dignity of all.

Zarzis is a daily witness of the violence of the EU border regime. It hosts the ‚cemetery of the unknown‘ with the bodies of those who are found but never identified on the shores around the town. The fishermen are at the forefront of the migration tragedy. They suffer from the distress of being confronted with the many bodies which get caught in their nets out at sea.

11. April 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Migranti: manifestazione a Zarzis , ’stop alle morti in mare‘ · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Tunesien · Tags:

Demonstration in Zarzis, Tunesien

ANSAmed | 09.04.2018

TUNISI – Al porto di Zarzis, città tunisina testimone della tragedia migratoria, si terrà stamane una manifestazione per ricordare all’opinione pubblica che migliaia di persone, tra cui molti tunisini, continuano a morire nel Mediterraneo nel tentativo di raggiungere l’Europa. Ad organizzarla l’associazione ‚Il Pescatore per lo Sviluppo e l’Ambiente‘ di Zarzis e l’Alarmphone Tunis di Watch The Med, un progetto creato nell’ottobre del 2014 da reti di attivisti e rappresentanti della società civile in Europa e Nord Africa che ha attivato una linea telefonica diretta e auto organizzata per rifugiati in difficoltà nelle acque del Mar Mediterraneo. Le due associazioni, chiamando a raccolta la società civile tunisina, denunciano in un comunicato la politica di dissuasione, di esternalizzazione delle frontiere e di criminalizzazione delle Ong impegnate nel salvataggio in mare dei migranti da parte dell’Unione europea, che renderebbe le traversate sempre più pericolose e il meccanismo restrittivo della concessione dei visti Schengen, che impedisce in pratica la migrazione legale e sicura. Le due associazioni definiscono il regime delle frontiere europeo come „omicida“.

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02. April 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Left to Die in the Aegean Sea? · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Griechenland · Tags: ,

Alarmphone | 01.04.2018

A Statement of Solidarity with the Survivors of the Agathonisi Shipwreck and their Relatives

On the 16th of March, two families tried to reach Europe through the Aegean Sea, one from Afghanistan, one from Iraq. They left Turkey and swiftly moved toward the Greek island of Agathonisi. But shortly before reaching it, they capsized. A relative of the Afghan family on Samos Island notified the authorities repeatedly, via phone and in person. At that point, many of the shipwrecked could have still been rescued. According to the survivors, they stayed afloat for several hours, waiting for help. But a Search and Rescue operation was launched only a day later, after local resident had discovered the first bodies, and they could recover merely more dead bodies. Three survivors, a woman from Afghanistan, and a man and a woman from Iraq, had been able to swim ashore and together with Afghan relative they denounced not only the delayed actions of Greek authorities, but also the inaction of an unidentified boat that was in sight of the shipwrecked people but did not come to their rescue.

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22. März 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für „The Struggle of Women across the Sea“ · Kategorien: Alarm Phone

Alarmphone | 22.03.2018

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 5 February – 18 March 2018

Stories and Struggles of Migrant Women at Sea +++ 458 Deaths at Sea in 2018 +++ Developments in the Central Mediterranean, Western Mediterranean, and Aegean Sea +++ Summaries of 25 Alarm Phone distress cases

INTRODUCTION

In April 2017, Sylvie and Joelle wanted to cross the sea to escape their predicament and start a new life in Europe.[1] They did not know one another until they boarded the small rubber boat in Turkey, together with twenty-two others, including two children.  Sylvie was anxious and entered last, handing over her red bag to Joelle who promised to return it after their safe arrival. They departed, but at some point, somewhere in the Aegean Sea, they ran out of fuel and could not continue. Sylvie tried to call for help, but her phone was caught by a large wave. Lost at sea, Joelle, who was in the 8th month pregnant, started to cry and pray for help, but nobody came. The boat capsized, and everybody fell into the water, drifting away from each other. Sylvie and Joelle were separated but Joelle did not give up: “I had a strong feeling of power in me. I don’t even know where this came from, where we fell in the sea there was nothing, no boats, no fishermen, no police, no one.” She was able to stay together with two others, Guilaine and Teddy. They floated in the water throughout the night, trying to stay conscious and together. But at some point, a wave parted them, and Joelle was all alone. Hours later, she suddenly saw a boat approaching. She was taken aboard of the rescue vessel of the NGO Proactiva and brought to land.

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20. März 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Tausende von Schwimmwesten aus Lesbos vor dem niederländischen Parlament – Video · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Video · Tags: , ,

Vimeo | 19.03.2018

Thousand of life-vests in the pond next to the Dutch parliament

  • Vrijheid van migratie voor allen
  • Freedom of movement for all
07. Februar 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Entering 2018, Mediterranean migration struggles continue · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Mittelmeer

Alarmphone | 07.02.2018

Alarm Phone 8 Week Report, 11 December 2017 – 4 February 2018

+++ 1,925 Alarm Phone emergency cases +++ 2017, a year of radical transformations in the Mediterranean +++ Situation in the Central Mediterranean +++ About 8,000 arrivals in 2018, 321 deaths +++ Mobilisations against Repression continue +++ Developments in the Aegean and Western Mediterranean +++ Summaries of Alarm Phone distress cases

On the 30th of December 2017, the Alarm Phone was contacted by travellers in the Western Mediterranean Sea.[1] After paddling for more than 10 hours, they were rescued by the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM). While they were in distress at sea, our Alarm Phone shift team stayed in close contact with them, and forwarded information about their location to SM, until it was confirmed that they were on board of a rescue vessel. This was the last Alarm Phone case of 2017. Two days later, on the 1st of January 2018, we received our first case of the new year. A group of travellers had arrived on Samos Island in the Aegean, but they were not able to leave the beach on which they had landed. Although we were not able to establish direct contact with them, we alerted the Greek coastguard to the group, and could later confirm that they had safely arrived in the camp on the island.[2] On the same day, we were alerted to two other emergencies in the Aegean region – fortunately, both boats were rescued to Greece.[3] Between October 2014, when we launched the Alarm Phone project, and until the end of December 2017, we have thus worked on a total of 1,925 emergency cases in the Mediterranean Sea. In 2017, we were engaged in 155 distress cases, during a year that saw tremendous changes and transformations in the Mediterranean space.

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19. Januar 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für „Solidarity Messages for those in Transit“ · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Video

Solidarity Messages for those in Transit is a video project that emerged through the WatchTheMed Alarm Phone network. It aims to reach travellers along their migratory trajectories, in order to support them when they navigate the many border obstacles and traps that the EU and its member states have erected in their paths. Through the videos, survivors of the border regime who reached their desired destinations and people still on the move, speak directly to the many thousands who are forced onto dangerous migration routes or into inhumane conditions in Libya and elsewhere, to those who risk their lives when escaping via the sea, and to those who face oppression and the threat of forced deportation after arriving in Europe.

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16. Januar 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für „Klingelt sein Handy, gehts um Leben und Tod“ · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Mittelmeer · Tags: ,

Republik | 15.01.2018

Wenn Mussie Zerai einen Anruf verpasst, geht vielleicht ein Boot mit Flüchtlingen unter. Unterwegs mit dem Priester, der 150’000 Menschen das Leben gerettet hat. Und den Staatsanwälte für einen Menschenhändler halten.

Carlos Hanimann

Im Februar 1975 gebar eine junge Frau in Asmara einen Sohn. Sie wollte ihn Hannibal nennen. Doch die Grossmutter hatte anderes im Sinn, und sie setzte sich durch. So erhielt der Kleine den Namen Mussie. Moses, der Mann, der das Meer teilte.

43 Jahre später, an einem nebelverhangenen Wintermorgen, wirkt es nicht, als könnte Mussie Zerai das Meer teilen. Ein rundlicher Herr mit angegrautem Bart und Halbglatze, in Hausschuhen und grauem Trainingsanzug. Abgestandene Luft im Wohnzimmer, italienische Nachrichten im Fernseher, auf dem Tisch ein angebissenes Brötchen – Mussie Zerai frühstückt in seiner Zweizimmerwohnung in Olten.

Das Meer kann er nicht teilen. Aber immer wieder schafft Abba Mussie, Vater Moses, doch einen Weg durchs Mittelmeer.

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13. Dezember 2017 · Kommentare deaktiviert für The long summer of European border violence · Kategorien: Alarm Phone

Alarmphone | 12.12.2017

Alarm Phone Six Week Report, 30 October – 10 December 2017

+++3,081 counted fatalities at sea +++ Increased returns to Libya and documented mass enslavement +++ Unprecedented movements from Morocco to Spain +++ General developments in the Central Mediterranean, Aegean Sea, and Western Mediterranean +++ Summaries of all Alarm Phone distress cases

Over the past six weeks, the period that this report covers, we have again witnessed significant developments in all three regions of the Mediterranean Sea. Off the coast of Libya, the spectacle of migrant interception has taken on a new dimension. In the presence of EU military actors, thousands of people on the move are captured by EU-financed Libyan authorities and abducted back to Libya where they face systematic forms of torture, rape, and enslavement. The crews of non-governmental humanitarians, while present at the scene and able to bring these people to safety, are prevented from intervening. Interceptions also occur in both the Eastern and Western Mediterranean contexts. In the Aegean Sea, those who escape Turkey’s intercepting authorities and survive the crossing, face inhumane reception conditions in Greek-European detention facilities. With winter approaching, the situation worsens and once again Europe has produced a humanitarian crisis and widespread migrant suffering. The Greek government, blackmailed by the EU, accepts that people freeze to death in tents, rather than allowing them to travel on to mainland Europe. In the Western Mediterranean region, we witnessed unprecedented movements – the arrival of about 3,900 people in Spain in November alone constitutes a new record, never was a higher number of arrivals recorded in a single month.

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22. November 2017 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Solidarity Messages for those in Transit · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Video · Tags: , ,

Alarm Phone – Against fingerprints

‘Solidarity Messages for those in Transit’ is a video project that emerged through the WatchTheMed Alarm Phone network. It aims to reach travellers along their migratory trajectories, in order to support them when they navigate the many border obstacles and traps that the EU and its member states have erected in their paths. Through the videos, survivors of the border regime who reached their desired destinations and people still on the move, speak directly to the many thousands who are forced onto dangerous migration routes or into inhumane conditions in Libya and elsewhere, to those who risk their lives when escaping via the sea, and to those who face oppression and the threat of forced deportation after arriving in Europe. The videos were shot in Germany and Italy, and share the insights of several people who survived the EU border regime and continue to resist it. Based on their lived experiences, they offer information, warnings, support and encouragement. Some of the videos’ themes include ‘Safety at Sea’, ‘Fingerprints and the Dublin Regulation’, ‘Warnings against Frontex’ and ‘Asylum and Detention’. The first three videos about the fingerprint issue have been released in Somali, Amharic and Tigrinya, with English as the subtitle. While we face a time of repression in the aftermath of the long summer of migration, there are still cracks in the system and we hope that these videos will be spread widely, moving alongside those who travel on despite Europe’s desire to deter.