BBC journalist on Samos, immigrants in Greece and the UK

original article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/gavinhewitt/2009/10/greeces_immigrants_in_limbo.html

Greece’s immigrants in limbo

by Gavin Hewitt

Thursday, 15 October 2009

at BBC

photo appeared on the original article

On a hill above the town of Samos in eastern Greece are a series of long buildings with grey walls and red roofs. They could be a barracks but this is a detention centre for immigrants. It was built to hold 300 people. Today, 473 are held there. Fifty-three are women and 10 are under the age of 18. They live behind barbed wire and wait. They stay for between one and three months, their frustration gnawing away at them. These are people who have made long, often dangerous journeys to reach the shores of Europe.

Within minutes of us starting to film through the wire a young man in a red football shirt detached himself from a group and shouted out to us. Clinging to the wire fence he said he was from Somalia but looked as if he had come from West Africa. He demands to know why he is being locked up. “Why?” he pleads with me. In a refugee centre in town someone has written on a wall: “They don’t let us come. They don’t let us stay. They don’t let us go.”

A few claim asylum but that is no longer a popular option. It can tie up a migrant for months. In Greece only 0.1% of asylum seekers are successful compared to 76% in Finland.

The common story is that after a month or so they are transferred to a detention centre elsewhere in Greece. They are eventually freed and told they must leave the country within a month. The vast majority head west to other European destinations.

The UK remains the favourite country. In London they can find their own community which will provide them with work often in the underground economy. It is an abiding belief that the British will eventually allow them to stay. There is another factor that drives them west: Money. Those from Afghanistan are often in the hands of powerful and dangerous traffickers. Some in the camp here in Samos say that it costs the equivalent of £16,000 to get from Afghanistan to Britain.

Often their families back home have sold houses to pay the people smugglers. Some will have to pay the networks from whatever they earn in London or other European cities. Without work they and their families are at risk from the traffickers. They owe a debt and will not be deterred by officials or laws. One lawyer looked at this camp and said there could be £4m of business right there.

The Greeks know that they are, in effect, just passing on the problem but, in their view, they are overwhelmed. They want the rest of Europe to start taking a share of those who arrive on Greek shores. That is unlikely to happen soon. It is difficult for any country to take a quota of immigrants determined by others. In any event some fear that a quota system would only encourage others to head to Europe.

Immigration is a major issue for the European Union. The current plan is called the Stockholm programme and the aim is to have it approved by the end of the year. The

intention is to beef up border patrols by giving more money to Frontex, the relatively new body that operates planes and ships.

Certainly here in Greece there is little evidence that Frontex patrols have a deterrent effect. The traffickers tell the migrants that if a Frontex boat appears to jump in the water and they’ll have to rescue you.

Measures are being considered to make it harder to grant mass amnesties for illegal migrants but that leaves open the question of what should be done with them. The EU is also working on what it calls a “Return Directive”. It is expected to become law by December 2010 and is supposed to make it easier to send home illegal immigrants but the law only applies once a decision has been taken to deport an immigrant.

The UK has opted out of this. If it is intended to deter migrants it is unlikely to be successful. Detainees will have the right to appeal against deportation, to see legal advisers, family members and get medical attention.

It is a directive that will provide a lot of work for lawyers. It is the view of the UK that it could make returning illegal immigrants more difficult because detainees will have more power to challenge deportation.

When economies were growing fast and there were gaps in the labour markets some countries were relatively relaxed about these arrivals but with 22 million people out of work across the EU the mood is changing. There were 238,000 asylum applications last year and just over a third were approved. As to the number of illegal immigrants no one knows. There may be a decline in those trying to get to Malta or Italy from Africa. This is partly because of an agreement with Libya to restrict the crossings. But the numbers have edged up in Greece and Southern Spain.

The reality is that in the midst of a severe recession the migrants have not been deterred. Many fear for their lives if they return home owning money. Currently there is no common European approach to this problem. There are moves and initiatives but, for the time being, Europe is like a trip wire. It makes live difficult for the migrants but it does not seriously put them off coming and neither does it help them settle.

Solidarity blockades against the transfer of refugees in Chios island

info: enet.gr

photo from relevant Athens Indymedia article

Much tension yesterday afternoon at the port of Chios island, where demonstrators, members of the Chios Refugees Solidarity Committee and PAME [note: Communist Party of Greece trade union] tried to prevent the boarding of two buses carrying 60 migrants from the refugee camp of  Mersinidi into the F/B «Theofilos» in order to tranfer them to Thessaloniki.  Port police and Police broke the blockade of the citizens in the port of Chios and manage to board the hand-cuffed Afghan, Pakistani and Somali immigrants.   After the boarding of refugees, one Communist Party member dived in the sea, between the coast and the ship, which caused the ship to leave the island a further one hour later than expected.

It should be noted that the transfers of immigrants  towards Northern Greece come after the recent law which increases detention time to six months.  This has rendered the situation in the centers of Chios and Mytilini extremely tense.  The capacity of the Mersenidi center is 120 people, still, already 220 people are detained therein, while in the Mitilini Pagani camp the respective numbers are  250 and 400!

People protest because they believe that behind these «innocent» transfers is the attempt to expell immigrants without much «trouble»to Turkey via Evros.

EU, Libya, Turkey: the states’ trade in refugee lives continues.

source

EU wants Turkey, Libya to help fight illegal immigration

By Christian Spillmann (AFP)

STOCKHOLM — The European Union will soon undertake tricky political talks with Turkey and Libya as they look for their help in cracking down on people-smuggling rings to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into Europe.

But some of the demands Ankara and Tripoli are making in exchange for their help could prove complicated.

EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot, in Stockholm for a meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers on Thursday and Friday, told reporters he was preparing visits to the two countries.

“I plan to travel to Libya after the summer break and to Turkey in September or October,” Barrot said, adding that he expected “an official invitation” from Turkey’s interior minister soon.

More than 67,000 people crossed the Mediterranean in 2008 to try to enter Europe illegally, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and some of those have died at sea.

Turkey, an EU membership candidate, is considered the main transit country for illegal immigrants from Asia. They arrive on the Turkish coast, and from there make their way to the Greek islands, the gateway to the European Union.

Immigrants from Africa meanwhile tend to converge on Libya, where they set sail for the European Union via Malta or the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The fight against illegal immigration “can only be fought by resolving two issues: ties with Turkey and Libya,” French Immigration Minister Eric Besson told AFP.

“When it comes to Turkey, their willingness to cooperate with the EU needs to be tested,” he added. “The first comments by Turkey’s interior minister have been encouraging. But now we have to see the concrete details.”

“When it comes to Libya, one can see clearly that they can stop illegal immigration when they want to.”

The 27-member bloc wants Turkey and Libya to crack down on the organised people-smuggling rings and to agree to take back the illegal immigrants who departed from their coasts, Barrot said.

It also wants Libya, which has not signed the Geneva Convention on human rights, to agree to protect persecuted people and make it easier for people to seek asylum there.

Barrot said he hoped to visit Libya together with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres.

“I know his administration is not very keen (on the trip), but he understands the problems,” he said.

The UN refugee agency has harshly criticised bilateral agreements signed between Italy and Libya to turn back would-be refugees.

The Italian navy intercepted a boat carrying 82 migrants on July 1 near Lampedusa.

The UNHCR has alleged that some of the migrants were injured during transfer to a Libyan vessel, that some of their belongings were never returned to them and that their possible refugee status was never checked.

Barrot refused to comment on the allegations, which Italy has decried as “false.”

He is determined to curb the influx of illegal immigrants, which threatens to destabilise some countries in Europe — such as Greece — and hampers EU efforts to handle legitimate asylum requests.

“If we don’t link migration to development and diplomacy we won’t succeed,” he warned.

Yet a number of obstacles remain before Turkey and Libya agree to cooperate with the EU.

“Turkey is ready to sign readmission agreements” to take back immigrants who left from its territory,” Barrot said.

“But it says it is merely a transit country and wants similar agreements signed with Pakistan and Afghanistan” to enable Ankara to send back the immigrants who came from those countries, he added.

The issues with Libya are even more complex.

“They are demanding impossible things,” he said, explaining that Tripoli has put “enormous” financial demands on the EU in exchange for its help.

“We proposed 20 million euros, but they are asking for 200 to 300 million,” sources in Barrot’s entourage said.

Tripoli says it needs the funds to monitor its border with Niger and Chad

Emigrating Afghans: no crisis in the smuggling business in a destroyed country

source

Afghans Flee Hell at Home

IslamOnline.net & Newspapers

CAIRO — Many Afghans, young and old, are forking over their life savings to be smuggled into Europe in pursuit of a better life away from the death and destruction plaguing their county.

“People can’t find jobs here,” Abdul Ahad, 26, told the New York Times on Sunday, July 5.

“And if you go to a place where there’s work, you’ll be killed in a week.”

Abdul Ahad was laid off from his full-time driving job and forced to take the only work he could find: a once-a-week driving gig through a dangerous Kabul territory.

In the past eight months, a suicide bomb and a firefight nearly took his life.

“I’m desperate.”

He began scouting potential smugglers to take him elsewhere in the world, where he hopes to find a life.

“It’s not a big dream. I just want to finish my studies and live normally.”

He is one of many Afghans who gave up hope after years of war, death and poverty, losing faith in their shaky government.

“We’ve got a president called Hamid Karzai who has done nothing for Afghan people,” fumes Shuja Halimi, a Kabul resident with three children.

Eight years on after the US invasion, Afghanistan is so destitute and undeveloped that most inhabitants have no central heating, electricity or running water.

According to aid agencies, violence has surged over the last three years with more than 2,500 people killed until the first six months of 2008.

Lesser Evil

Afghan smugglers say the number of “clients” is up 60 percent from last year and business is so thriving that they even turned away some customers.

“It’s out of my power to deal with the demand,” one smuggler in Kabul told the NY Times.

“I never imagined it would get like this.”

The most common route for smuggling Afghans is by road from Iran via Turkey to Greece and costs around $16,000.

Once in Europe, Afghans apply for asylum most often in the United Kingdom, Greece and Italy.

Last year, about 18,000 Afghans applied for asylum in Europe, a figure nearly double the 2007 total.

But immigration experts affirm that Afghans do not often find a better life outside their country.

In France, for example, an immigration detention complex dubbed the Jungle is keeping about 600 Afghans in conditions that are “very, very bad,” said Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration in Geneva.

Halimi, the Kabul father, has a personal experience.

He was deported from the UK after a two-month journey across 12 countries, including Bulgaria, where he says he eluded gunfire at the border.

He insists that while living conditions in Europe were awful, but not as bad as in Afghanistan.

That’s precisely why many war-weary Afghans prefer the struggle abroad to the at home.

Akbar Khan, who was among 30 young Afghans returned from England recently, is one of them

But despite the struggle he endured, he is vowing to try again.

“We’ll try to go back in about a month after we save some money.”

EU group deportations by charter flight

“Sweep operations”, mass arrests, mass detention, group deportations with charter flights.  The Greek Government seems determined to turn this cascade of events into a routine this summer.  This is an article about the last step – charter flighsts – we found at no-racism-net.

clandestinenglish

EU group deportations by charter flight – Hamburg as forerunner

On the 29.4.2004, the European council decided to organise group flights for deporting migrants and refugees who “are required to depart”. The “rehearsal” for flights like this took place from 25 to the 26.5.04 in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel.

The ban on night flights was lifted, the airport turned into a prison and at around 2am eight refugees from four different states were flown to Amsterdam in a KLM plane to be deported to Togo and Cameroon along with 44 other refugees from five EU countries. Since then, there has been at least seven such group deportations to Africa, not only to Togo and Cameroon but also to Guinea, Ghana, Benin and Nigeria. Further charter flights took place from Düsseldorf (see overview at :: Flüchtlingsrat Hamburg)
In July 2005 at a meeting in Evian, the so-called G5 states (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Great Britain) reaffirmed that they would plan deportations together in future. Shortly afterwards the airports in London and Paris were the setting for the joint deportation to Afghanistan. Further flights followed.

Saving costs and business

Such deportation flights are carried out with chartered aeroplanes from different airines e.g. Hamburg International (see box), Aero Flight (the company has since registered concourse), Hello (Swiss company), LTU, Westtours or the Austrian airlines Asylum Airlines founded especially for this purpose. They fly from country to country to round up detainees without valid residency permits, usually in late-night stings and with brutal violence. Or refugees are brought to the place of departure with loading planes, sometimes in small private jets. Around 140 000 euros is what a group deportation costs, and around 70 percent of this is reimbursed by the EU. “If I get the machine full, one deportee costs around 1000 Euros.
From 20 people and up, the cost per head sinks below the price of a scheduled deportation flight”, explained a leading employee of the Hamburg Immigration Authorities to the magazine “Leben” in the newspaper :: “Zeit”. But saving costs through a large number of deportees is not the main reason for carrying out group deportations. An example: In March 2008 the first charter deportation flight from Ireland took place – with only six refugees in the 110 seat machine. What is essential, is that a charter flight carrying only deportees is occupied with more than twice as many policemen, a doctor as well as employees of the involved immigration authorities and the European border protection agency Frontex, and so publicity is completely excluded and resistance is hardly possible.

Protests on charter flights with inhumane measures

In charter flights in recent years it often came to protests from passengers and some of them are on trial, for example in France. If passengers refuse to sit down then a flight cannot take off due to safety reasons. It is also possible for flight attendants to refuse to
carry out deportations. Air France had a one such a campaign with union workers in Summer 2007. The German pilot union, Cockpit, recommends its members to ask people affected by deportations whether they want to fly and if they answer “no” to refuse to transport them because otherwise, in case of death or injury from deportees, the pilot could be sued. Specialty deportation charter flights cannot expect such problems since the staff is specially chosen and mistreatment could occur unnoticed. Only afterwards, in reports from deportees, facts about the operation like medication used to “calm” them, being tied up, gagged, and hit and other illegal measures on board the charter machines were leaked to the public. The authorities justified this mistreatment by claiming that the deportees were “criminal offenders” and “violent”. It’s a fact that for authorities, “illegal” residency is a criminal act and cries of protest or resistance against being tied up or gagged are labelled as “violence” – but not what is done to the refugees.

Dieser Artikel ist mit leichten Änderungen dem :: Camp08 Reader entnommen.

Greek Government’s “Six-point plan” for the war against immigrants in the Aegean

source: ministry of foreign affairs release

Article of Deputy Foreign Minister Valinakis in the Athens daily ‘Kathimerini’

The problem of illegal migrants is one of the 21^st century’s global challenges. Europe and our country are at the heart of this global problem due to their geographical position as a gateway to Europe from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa and we are exposed to these migratory pressures. This problem is particularly acute for our country’s border regions and, more specifically, our eastern border in the Aegean Sea.

For the past few years we have persistently and methodically tried to turn our positions into EU-27 positions because this problem cannot be understood easily by all the European countries, e.g., those countries without sea borders. Since 2004, Greece has been playing a leading role in the creation of a common, integrated European policy on these issues. The problem’s labyrinthine dimensions do not allow for oversimplification based on domestic interests. In fact, they require an integrated plan; that is, a mobilization of human and other resources, use of national and European means, partnerships, synergies, and painful negotiations.

Bearing this in mind, a network of complementary actions could relieve the islands of the Aegean from these pressures and lay the foundations for successful treatment of the problem. This network of actions is based on 6 axes:

1.         A ship of sufficient tonnage to be used as a first reception and transport centre. This ship will sail near the islands of the Aegean where illegal migrants have been arrested, it will take them on board and carry them to the reception centres already in, or due to be put into, operation. The ship must be equipped with the necessary logistics infrastructure so as to ensure a complete health check of illegal migrants and to cross-check their identification data in order to ascertain their country of origin reliably and in a timely manner.

2.         An immediate relaunching of EU-Turkey negotiations on the conclusion of a readmission agreement and an immediate implementation of the existing Greek-Turkish Readmission Protocol. Given that these issues have become part of the framework of relations between the EU and Turkey, our neighbouring country is jeopardizing its European future by dragging its feet.

3.         Use of a specific port on the Turkish coast for the return of illegal migrants who have reached our country through Turkey. This will be a major step that will certainly contribute to the relief of our insular areas. The use of a Turkish harbour in conjunction with the operation of a ship as a reception centre creates the necessary conditions for the faster return of illegal migrants.

4.         Conclusion of European and bilateral readmission agreements with the countries of origin for the overwhelming majority of illegal migrants (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia). Development aid as well as political and economic cooperation can be used as leverage in speeding up the conclusion of these agreements.

5.         Intensification of joint operations on a permanent basis under FRONTEX, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union, on the way towards the creation of a European Coastguard. Our proposal for the creation of a specialised FRONTEX branch in Greece is included within the same framework.

6.         Full use of every potential for financing all the necessary actions with additional EU funds and utilization of European and bilateral programmes.

At Luxemburg immigration meeting “…the debate came even as Spanish officials said that 18 African migrants were feared drowned in a bid to cross illegally to Spain”

This is what the anti-immigration EU ministers discussed while  burgeoing on how to make the route to Europe more dangerous, expensive and degrading  (source):

Mediterranean migration makes EU waves as migrants lost off Spain

Luxembourg – The question of how to calm the waves of illegal migration sweeping into Europe across the Mediterranean Sea reached the European Union’s upper levels on Thursday, even as 18 migrants were reported lost at sea off Spain. “We are all very aware that the situation is quite complicated and problematic, and that many people suffer from this,” Swedish Immigration Minister Tobias Billstrom said at a meeting with EU interior ministers in Luxembourg.

In recent months, Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus have repeatedly called on other EU members to help them deal with the rising tide of illegal migrants crossing the Mediterranean to land on their shores.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive, wants to set up a “pilot project” based on a “voluntary effort of solidarity … involving a resettlement of persons under international protection,” EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said.

That proposal is “interesting, but not sufficient,” Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said.

But ministers from other EU states stopped short of offering to take large numbers of migrants from the Mediterranean, instead calling for a holistic and long-term solution to the problem.

“There is no quick fix to the problems at the southern sea border and the Mediterranean as a whole: we have to work with long-term goals, we have to see to it that we develop good cooperation with countries of transit and origin,” Billstrom said.

The EU should also help the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, begin work in Libya [1] – a key route for migration from Africa to Europe – to receive and identify asylum seekers, Barrot said.

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble stressed that no relocation programme would deal with the economic inequality which is the main driver of migration.

“We can’t solve the problem of poverty by bringing them all into Europe,” he said.

The debate came even as Spanish officials said that 18 African migrants were feared drowned in a bid to cross illegally to Spain.

Greece tries to sell high its geopolitical location and wants more refugee return agreements with war zones (source):

Gov’t on illegal migration via Turkey

LUXEMBOURG (ANA-MPA / V. Demiris) — Greece emphasised to its EU partners here on Thursday that neighbouring Turkey, an EU candidate-state, must absolutely respect the agreements it has signed on the readmission of illegal migrants that entered Greece from its territory — a pressing issue amid an increasing flow of mostly Third World nationals attempting to reach the Union via Turkey.

Interior and Public Administration Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos, who represented Greece at the EU Justice and Internal Affairs Council, reiterated that if Turkey wished to enter the Union as a member it must adhere to Europe’s acquis communautaire [2], of which an immigration and asylum pact entered into effect last October.

Pavlopoulos echoed Greek leadership in reminding that the neighbouring country, with which Greece’s shares an extensive maritime border in the eastern Aegean and an often porous land border in the northeast Thrace province, has not met its commitments to take back migrants entering Greece from its territory.

“We are open to the steps Turkey is taking towards Europe, but this also necessitates simultaneous steps towards its (Turkey) modernisation, particularly with respect to the acquis communautaire,” Pavlopoulos told his EU counterparts, reiterating that a landmark November 2001 Greek-Turkish protocol has not been honored by Ankara.

The Greek minister said the Union’s proposals are generally moving in the right direction, although they will have to meeting all of the EU’s needs, especially given the eastern Mediterranean particularities.

To prove his point, Pavlopoulos said Greece requested the readmission of 65,947 illegal immigrants back into Turkey, with only 2,271 returned over a span of seven years.

Finally, the Greek interior minister, who holds the law enforcement portfolio, said Athens wants the EU to sign and implement other such readmission protocols with other third countries where large numbers of illegal immigrants originate, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Somalia.

[1]  about Libya and the business of turning it into a huge refugee camp [source]

Libya asks EU for $1bn to combat immigration

Ivan Camilleri, Brussels

Libya has asked Brussels for $1 billion (€707 million) worth of technical assistance and equipment in exchange for more collaboration with Europe on the illegal immigration front.

Following its recent decision to collaborate more closely with Italy and take back immigrants who had left from its shores, Libya is now piling pressure on the EU to provide it with boats, helicopters, trucks and other equipment in an attempt to patrol its borders.

In its efforts to offer tangible help to Malta and Italy to curb these migration flows, the EU is more inclined to offer assistance once Libya has started to show more collaboration.

The EU will be discussing the matter this week, first with EU home affairs ministers in Brussels and then through a visit by EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot to Tripoli.

“Finally Libya is engaging, and we want to build on this momentum,” an EU official told The Sunday Times.

“Libya has already sent its ‘shopping list’ to Brussels, which we estimate will cost us around $1 billion. Although we are not giving any commitments we will surely be looking at Libya’s demands more favourably once it is showing signs of collaboration.”

Libya is considered as the main African transit country for almost all the illegal immigrants arriving on Maltese and Italian shores. It is estimated that in the past two years more than 60,000 sub-Saharan Africans have made the desperate crossing on rugged boats departing Libya for Italy.

International organisations estimate that some 4,000 people drowned as their journeys ended in tragedy.

It is estimated that 20 per cent of Libya’s six million population is made up of illegal immigrants, which is causing disquiet on the domestic front since Libyans are blaming the increasing number of African migrants for a variety of social ills.

But the problem is also self-inflicted because for a number of years the country’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has pro-moted an open border policy and endorsed a vision of a single African state, which would allow free movement of people and goods within the continent.

This has led to about two million Africans flooding into Libya unchallenged.

Following intense pressure by Malta and Italy, particularly in recent months, the European Commission last week endorsed a set of new measures aimed to help the two member states tackle the illegal immigration problem in the short term.

These measures, which will be discussed on Thursday with EU home affairs ministers, include financial assistance, a new mechanism of ‘voluntary’ bur-den sharing which would enable member states to resettle refugees and those with asylum status from Malta and Italy.

The proposals also include the opening of UNHCR/EU reception centres in north Africa, particularly in Libya, so that asylum seekers may have their applications processed there.

“These extraordinary set of measures have been drawn up in direct response to Malta’s and Italy’s needs,” the EU official said.

“We are hoping that EU interior ministers endorse our proposals on Thursday so that we can start translating plans into action,” he said.  The Commission will need the green light from the 27 member states to start implementing these measures. Malta will be represented at the Justice and Home Affairs Council by Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

[2] some wiki info on what this is:

The term acquis communautaire, or (EU) acquis (pronounced [aˈki]), is used in European Union law to refer to the total body of EU law accumulated thus far. The term is French: acquis means “that which has been acquired”, and communautaire means “of the community”.During the process of the enlargement of the European Union, the acquis was divided into 31 chapters for the purpose of negotiation between the EU and the candidate member states for the fifth enlargement (the ten that joined in 2004 plus Romania and Bulgaria which joined in 2007). These chapters were:

1. Free movement of goods
2. Free movement of persons
3. …

What is interesting is that the second chapter was subsequently divided into two,

2. Free movement of persons	2. Freedom of movement for workers
	3. Right of establishment and freedom to provide services

...which admits what they aim at: keep creating cheap, seasonal workers, absolutely precarious and expendable at any time, with no future prospects.

Emigrating Afghans…

This is a report on the increase in the rates of immigration from Afghanistan, after so many years of humanistic war.  This is also about the effects that Fortress Europe on the victims of this war: they have to pay much more to smugglers to tranfer them to the west (source).

AFGHANISTAN: Sharp rise in attempted illegal migration to Europe

KABUL, 4 June 2009 (IRIN) – Azizullah Ahmadi told IRIN in Kabul how his son Majid, aged 25, paid US$10,000 to a smuggler to take him to a European country where he wanted to start a better life. But his son drowned in the Mediterranean before reaching Greece in 2008.

“He was very disappointed here [in Afghanistan] and believed Europe would give him a prosperous life,” Ahmadi said, adding that his son had borrowed a lot of money for the trip.

Facing unemployment, insecurity and lack of socio-economic opportunities at home, many Afghans, mostly young males, have increasingly resorted to costly and perilous illegal migration to European and other industrialized countries.

Over 18,000 Afghan asylum-seekers were registered in 44 industrialized states in 2008 – a significant increase on previous years, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

“With 18,500 asylum applications submitted by Afghans in 2008, the number is at its highest since 2002 [29,400] and is almost double the figure of the year before [10,000],” said a UNHCR report entitled Asylum levels and trends in industrialized countries in 2008.

“The deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan is likely to be the main reason, along with lack of economic opportunities,” Ron Redmond, a UNHCR spokesman in Geneva, told IRIN.

Some 80,000-85,000 Afghans applied for asylum in 2000-2001 but their numbers dropped significantly after a new US-backed government, which had inspired hope for a stable and prosperous Afghanistan, was established in 2002.

Smuggling by air – more expensive

Illegal migration and human trafficking from the least developed countries to Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia have become more and more difficult and costly in the past seven years, largely because of stringent border controls.

“Before 9/11 smugglers were taking people by air to any European country for $8,000-10,000, but now prices have increased to $25,000-30,000 per person,” said Naqibullah (who only gave his first name), a local travel agent who also acts as an agent for illegal migrants.

However, nothing seems to be deterring some Afghans, mostly young males, who still pay thousands of dollars to smugglers and/or take the riskiest routes to get to their sought-after destinations.

On 29 May a ship carrying over a dozen of Afghan migrants from Indonesia to Australia capsized near Sumatra. Nine passengers were killed and 11 others were missing, Associated Press reported.

Migrants face trials and tribulations of all kinds: Some end up in prisons and/or border detention centres and reportedly have experienced serious physical and mental violence.

Popular destinations

The UK appeared to be the most popular European Union (EU) destination, with 3,730 Afghan applicants seeking asylum in 2008, according to the Statistical Office of the European Commission. Turkey, Italy and Greece were the next most popular, according to the UNHCR report on asylum levels in industrialized countries.

About 12,600 Afghans sought asylum in EU countries in 2008 – the fifth largest group after Iraqis, Russians, Somalis and Serbs.

By contrast, the USA only had 72 Afghan asylum-seekers in 2008. Fewer still migrated illegally to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, apparently because of the cost of getting there (about $35,000 to fly to Canada) and/or geography.

Plea not to deport Afghans

It is unclear how many of the 18,500 Afghan asylum-seekers were granted protection in developed countries in 2008.

However, of the 240,000 asylum applicants (5 percent of them Afghans) registered in 27 EU member countries in 2008, at least 141,730 (73 percent) were rejected and only 24,425 applicants (13 percent) were granted refugee status, according to a statement by the Statistical Office of the European Commission.

At least 560 Afghans whose asylum applications were rejected in EU member countries were forced back to Afghanistan in 2008, according to the Ministry of Refugees and Returnees (MoRR). In addition, over 545 unsuccessful applicants voluntarily returned to Afghanistan from the EU last year.

“The situation in Afghanistan is not suitable and we call on European and other countries not to forcefully deport Afghan refugees,” Noor Mohammad Haidari, a senior MoRR adviser, told IRIN, adding that the government had requested all host countries to treat Afghans based on the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

MoRR estimates about 500,000 Afghan refugees live in EU countries and over three million in Pakistan and Iran.

Below is a report on the country’s economic situation some months ago (before the harsch winter).  source

Afghanistan: 20 Million People Under the Line of Poverty

Official statistics show that Afghanistan has the highest level of poverty among the South-Asian countries.Afghanistan is now one of the poorest countries on the planet. It takes its place among desperate, destitute nations like Burkina Faso and Somalia whenever any international organization bothers to measure. The official unemployment rate, last calculated in 2005, was 40% percent.

On the basis of the official statistics, the level of poverty in Afghanistan is thirty to forty percent and around 20 million of Afghanistan are living under the line of poverty.

According to recent estimates, it may today reach as high as 80% in some parts of the country.The UN has named the 17th of October as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Different organizations hold programs every year to put an end to poverty in the world.

But the government of Afghanistan, despite the support of the International Community, has not been able to do something considerable for decreasing poverty.

Governmental authorities say that the shortage of food on one hand and drought in the past few years in several regions of Afghanistan on the other hand, have increased the intensity of poverty in Afghanistan.

“Urgent need for food”

Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the United Nations mission in Kabul, says that presently millions of people all over Afghanistan are in urgent need of food.

As said by Mr. Edwards, “The human conditions in Afghanistan are very serious. Continuous insecurity, drought and booming food prices on the world level are the main cause for the emergence of this situation but the condition in the future months is not tangible. There is no doubt that people are in dire need of food.”

Authorities in Afghanistan say that measures have been taken to prevent the spreading out of poverty in the country but according to experts these measures have not been effective.

Experts say that the absence of a proper program regarding the prevention of poverty and lack of attention to the superstructure of past years have brought about poverty and unemployment to many Afghans.

The tension for the rise of poverty in Afghanistan has increased in circumstances where drought and unemployment have greatly affected the lives of the people and have created scores of problems for them.

The coming of the winter season has concerned many people in this country.

Abdul Jamil, one of the residents of Kabul said that he has no job and that the approaching winter has greatly worried him.

Baz Mohammad, an employee of the National Bank of Afghanistan said that his monthly earnings is not enough for the expenses of his family and doesn’t know how he will overcome the difficulties of the cold in the winter.

This year the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is being celebrated with the slogan of “Stand Up and Take Action against Poverty”. Different sources agree that the abolishment of poverty needs the united struggle of all the poor as well as rich countries of the world.