We hope you are keeping safe and well in these challenging and uncertain times.
At Refugee Rights Europe, we have been as busy as ever, calling for a Covid-19 response that includes displaced people and refugees across Europe. Read on to find out how.
Our response to the Covid-19 crisis
To develop a truly effective response to the ongoing and unprecedented coronavirus crisis, we cannot leave anyone behind.
That is why we have been leading or joining advocacy efforts to include displaced people in the Covid-19 response in Greece, France, Italy and the UK.
Influencing the United Nations
The evidence we submitted with frontline partners to UN Committees in recent months is making an impact on international policy recommendations:
New analysis on our blog
As always, none of this work would have been possible without the incredible support from donors like yourself. Thank you infinitely for all of your ongoing support, and please take care.
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First of all, on behalf of the RRE, a very happy new year! Thank you for your continued support, making all of our work possible.
In this update, you'll find out about our latest activities over the past months, which were characterised by increased work at the European Union level, where we continued to call for human rights centered asylum and migration policies.
New report: Displaced people in Belgium
Our latest report sheds light on displaced people’s lives in limbo in Belgium. Many hope to reach the UK to seek asylum while others struggle to navigate Belgium’s asylum “labyrinth”.
The report finds evidence of sweeping human rights violations of displaced people and refugees. It builds on RRE’s previous field research, as well as desk research and evidence from frontline partners: La Plateforme Citoyenne de Soutien aux Réfugiés, Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen, and Refugee Community Kitchen. Read the report here.
Spotlight on Calais women in the European Parliament
On 5th December, a high-level roundtable at the European Parliament discussed the situation of women and girls in displacement in northern France.
Hosted by Jackie Jones MEP, Claude Moraes MEP and Refugee Rights Europe, the meeting looked at collective action that could be taken in solidarity with women and girls. In the new year, RRE will launch a joint call for action, hoping that the backing of MEPs and experts will help bring about much-needed change.
Over 100 MEPs co-sign letter to end humanitarian crisis in Greece
Aimed at the EU Council of Ministers, the letter describes the human rights violations and complete lack of basic protection and services in the overcrowded EU hotspots on the Greek Islands. It calls on Europe’s leaders to immediately improve the living conditions and relocate asylum seekers to other member states.
The letter was initiated by MEPs who had visited the Greek “Hotspots” of Samos and Lesvos with Refugee Rights Europe earlier this year. This is a major outcome of our series of field trips with MEPs to key migratory nodal points in Europe, showing them the lived realities of displaced people first-hand so they can take action. Read the letter here.
France falls short of implementing the European Asylum Acquis
We met the European Commission’s Asylum Unit to draw their attention to the shortcomings in France’s attainment of the asylum acquis in northern France and Paris.
As a result, our concerns will be shared with French officials, and the Asylum Unit is now considering a visit to northern France to witness the situation themselves.
In other news
Magid Magid wrote to the Italian and French Interior Ministers calling for urgent change, following our field visit with him this autumn.
Our partners on the ground in Lesvos shared an update on the situation for displaced people.
Our intern, Bana, blogged about what she’s learned in her experience as Programme Officer at RRE.
Those were our key updates for the time being. We hope you enjoyed learning more about our work, and we're really grateful for your support, making it all possible.
Please do consider making a small donation again, or perhaps consider inviting your friends and family to do so.
Kindest regards,
Marta and the RRE team
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We hope this message finds you well! Here at Refugee Rights Europe, we've spent the last few months advocating for the rights of refugees and displaced people across Europe. We've outlined some of our key achievements below, which include some positive progress - none of which would have been possible without the support from generous individuals like yourself. Thank you for your invaluable support.
New report highlights plight of children stuck in legal limbo
After the recent UK-French ministerial ‘refugee crisis’ talks regarding asylum-seekers’ attempts to cross the English Channel, we released a new report with first-hand accounts from Calais and Dunkirk.
Our field research highlights cases of extreme neglect and a failure to uphold a duty of care towards unaccompanied minors in the area. It calls for expanded safe and legal passageways and a commitment to relocating children from European locations to the UK.
New blog for World Humanitarian Day
On World Humanitarian Day, 19th August, RRE researcher, Elizabeth Hobbs, published a blog on the worrying rise of criminalisation of solidarity occurring across Europe. The blog highlights the cases of Sarah Mardini and Sean Binder who were both arrested in Greece in September 2018, after trying to save lives at sea. Read the blog here.
Committee Against Torture adopts RRE recommendations
The Committee Against torture released its recommendations for Greece following on from its review of Greece. We were pleased to see several of the concerns and policy recommendations raised by RRE and partners included in the 'concluding observations', along with a strong condemnation of the Greek government's current treatment of asylum seekers in detention, as well as its response to gender based violence and the criminalisation of solidarity. You can read the concluding observations here.
French human rights authority responds to our concerns in northern France
Following a disconcerting meeting with individuals in detention in northern France earlier this year, we passed on their messages to the French human rights authority Jacques Toubon (Défenseur des droits), and asked him to take urgent action.
We received a response from Mr Toubon who confirmed that our concerns have been addressed in both a report outlining health risks for asylum seekers, and in direct communications with the Ministry of the Interior.
EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee adopts RRE recommendations
We were pleased to see our recommendations included in the final report of the EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee on its inquiry on Brexit implications for refugee protection and asylum policy.
Following our recommendations, in both our written and oral submissions, the Committee:
Read our full submission here.
Our new website
Make sure to check out our new website, which contains new content and additional resources! www.Refugee-Rights.Eu
As always, please don't hesitate to contact us should you like to receive any additional information or updates. Once again, on behalf of the entire Refugee Rights Europe team, thank you ever so much for your invaluable support!
Sincere regards,
Marta and the RRE team
Dear friends,
The past three months have been busy here at the RRE headquarters! We are, as always, incredibly grateful for your support which makes all of our work possible.
Standing up for Young Asylum Seekers in the UK
In late June, RRE handed in an open letter to the Home Secretary signed by 38 cross-party MPs, 31 NGO’s, civil society organisations, and experts, calling for Youth Welfare Officers to be placed in asylum accommodation in the UK. This is a clear sign that our proposal is already gaining significant support.
New briefing on the Common European Asylum System (CEAS)
In the wake of the EU elections, we prepared and launched a new briefing outlining our key recommendations for the reforms of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Read our latest blog here and the briefing here.
RRE gave evidence to the House of Lords on asylum and migration
Our Advocacy & Policy Manager, Alice Lucas, delivered oral evidence to the House of Lords EU Home Affairs Subcommittee inquiry into the UK-EU relationship on asylum and migration post-Brexit. You can watch our oral evidence session here.
In other news
We moreover submitted a joint report alongside Greek Helsinki Monitor and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) ahead of the Committee Against Torture’s review of Greece. We also co-signed an open letter alongside 16 actors across civil society and academia, calling for urgent action on the unsuitable conditions in places of detention in Greece.
As part of our work relating to Northern France, we sent an appeal to the French Defender of Human Rights and the General Controller of Places of Deprivation of Liberty, asking them both to investigate the situation in the detention centre in Northern France, and to take a firm human rights stance vis-a-vis the French government.
Last but not least, we were delighted to join the Detention Forum, a network of civil society organisations calling for an end to indefinite detention in the UK, and the Lift the Ban coalition alongside over 80 civil society organisations calling for asylum seekers to be given the right to work in the UK.
Thank you!
We would like to thank you once again for your invaluable support, and we hope you're having a wonderful summer!
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We hope you're doing well and enjoying the spring time! We're writing today to share the latest updates of our work. We've had another fruitful few months here at Refugee Rights Europe and we're excited to share our updates with you.
Since we last wrote to you, we’ve launched our Vision for Change. This is a document which outlines the concrete change RRE deems to be crucial in order to alleviate human suffering and widespread human rights violations unfolding in three key geographical areas in Europe, namely: (a) the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, which are doomed by a harmful containment policy; (b) the dire bottle-neck scenario at the French-Italian border, and; (c) the violent and precarious British border zone in Northern France. We believe that meaningful change can and must be accomplished in Europe in the immediate term, in anticipation of wider reforms, and we look forward to working collaboratively across civil society to achieve meaningful change.
Over the past period, we have also published two research reports, which serve as powerful tools as we continue to advocate for human rights centered policy change at national and European levels. The first of our new reports, launched by the Baobab Women’s Project and Refugee Rights Europe, alongside several frontline organisations working with refugee and asylum seeking women in the UK, highlights the shortcomings in the UK’s fulfilment of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and ensures the representation of asylum seeking women in the UK at the highest policy levels. Our collective of civil society organisations were moreover represented at the UN headquarters in Geneva, to raise the voices of women which are far too seldom heard or considered.
The second report published over the last period shone a light on displaced individuals arriving via the Western Mediterranean route. Entitled ‘On the Western doorstep’, the report contains a combination of desk and field research findings regarding displaced people’s lived experiences on Moroccan soil, in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, during the sea crossings, upon arrival in Spain, and at the French-Spanish border. In the context of increasing European ‘externalisation’ of borders, the report presents a number of recommendations anchored in universal human rights.
We’ve also been able to disseminate our human rights centred advocacy messages through several blogs published on different platforms. One of the blogs addressed child mental health among displaced children in Greece, and was published by our partners Terre des Hommes. Another one dealt with the UK’s response to asylum-seekers arriving by boat across the Channel from France, while a third blog looked at the complex challenges facing young asylum-seekers as they arrive in Britain.
We were also really pleased to see our report, 'In Dangerous Transit', on the French-Italian border, cited by the Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings' (GRETA) report on the situation in Italy. The report contains strong, concrete recommendations to the Italian government to urgently ensure that the situation on the border is addressed and that specialist support is offered to victims of trafficking, particularly women and unaccompanied children.
None of our human rights advocacy work would have been possible without generous supporters like yourself, and we are immensely grateful the support. Keep watching on our Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter pages for upcoming reports, events, and information!
To support our work please consider making another small donation via GlobalGiving. With your help, we can continue our efforts to promote the human rights of some of the world’s most disadvantaged groups.
Thanks again for your continued support, and please feel free to drop us a line if you would like any further feedback about our work.
Warmest wishes,
Marta and the RRE team
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