ASYLNYTT

Som så många gånger förr växer invandringsfientligheten samtidigt som det pågår en ekonomisk kris. I Turkiet är inflationen massiv och människor har svårt att sätta mat på bordet.

- Då skyller man lätt på invandrarna och anklagar dem för att ta alla jobb, säger Paul Levin, chef för Institutet för Turkietstudier vid Stockholms universitet.

Flera attacker, stundtals våldsamma, har de senaste månaderna riktats mot syriska hem och arbetsplatser.

Flera partier, främst ur oppositionen till president Recep Tayyip Erdogans parti AKP, har trappat upp sin kritik mot invandringen inför det allmänna val som enligt lag ska hållas före juni 2023.

Enligt opinionsmätningar har flera kandidater seglat förbi Erdogan i popularitet. Ett nytt nationalistiskt parti har också bildats, och redan skapat rubriker med sin invandringsfientliga politik.

Ovant mottagarland

I Turkiet bor cirka 3,6 miljoner personer från Syrien, de flesta kom med flyktingströmmarna 2014 och 2015. Ytterligare hundratusentals personer från länder som Afghanistan och Irak har också migrerat dit.

- Det är relativt nytt för Turkiet, som tidigare varit mer av ett avsändarland och inte mottagarland när det gäller migration. Nya strukturer, lagar och institutioner har behövt tas fram och man har fått stora problem med integrationen, säger Paul Levin.

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Vårt Europa 22-06-03:

Grekland/ Afghanska Föreningen: 95 % får nu uppehållstillstånd och reser vidare

/utdrag:/

Enliigt Mohammad Mirzay, verksamhetschef hos Afghan community på Solomosgatan alldeles intill Greek Council för Refugees, får 95% av alla afghaner i Grekland uppehållstillstånd nu. (...) Afghan community är den största diasporaföreningen i Grekland.

Alla reser vidare när de har fått uppehållstillstånd, fortsätter han. De väntar in uppehållstillståndet. Får de avslag i första instans överklagar de, får de avslag igen överklagar de igen.

Det finns hela tiden möjlighet att överklaga, förstår jag, och under tiden väntar de i Grekland. Överklagandet det senaste året har först och främst gällt rätten att få sina skyddsskäl mot Afghanistan bedömda, inte mot Turkiet. Enligt grekisk lag från sommaren 2021 ska alla från Syrien, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan och Bangladesh hänvisas till Turkiet för att söka asyl eftersom Turkiet anses vara ett säkert tredje land, och Turkiet har de passerat.

Vänta länge gjorde asylsökande tidigare också, och man kunde till slut överklaga till grekiska staten. Det fanns de som hade väntat i Grekland åtta-tio år, säger verksamhetschefen, och jag känner igen det från mina första år i Grekland 2011-12-13. Sedan installerade Grekland en ny asylordning frikopplad från polisen och extremt långa handläggningsärenden minskade.

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Arkiveringsdatum 220215:

Dagens Nyheter 22-02-05:

Brasilien/ "Hoppas flyktingmordet blir en väckarklocka"

Ett flyktingmord rör upp känslorna i Brasilien. 24-årige Moïse Kabagambe från Kongo slogs ihjäl med påkar när han bad om att få ut sin försenade lön vid en strandbar i Rio de Janeiro. Mordet är ett exempel på den lynchningskultur som råder mot svarta personer i Brasilien.

- Vi svarta behandlas som djur, säger Andrea Costa, från Black Lives Matters i Brasilien.

Hon står utanför strandbaren Tropicália i stadsdelen Barra da Tijuca, bara några minuter från president Jair Bolsonaros bostad, och protesterar mot det våld som drabbar svarta personer i Brasilien. Det var på denna uteservering som den kongolesiske flyktingen Moïse Kabagambe bakbands och slogs ihjäl av tre personer den 24 januari när han bad om att få ut sin lön på 350 kronor för några dagars arbete som servitör.

En man klättrar upp på taket och river ned barens skylt.

- Vi svarta har inget värde. Det enda vi tjänar till är att tvätta den vita elitens underkläder, säger Andrea Costa till DN.

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Arkiveringsdatum 220125:

TT / Squid 22-01-05:

USA/ Från talibaner till liv med mikro och julklappar

Desperata folkmassor tryckte på, kulor ven och skräcken var ständigt närvarande.

Tillsammans med sin gravida hustru tillbringade Mohammad Bilal över ett dygn på och omkring Kabuls flygplats, innan de kunde evakueras. Nu försöker de bygga upp livet igen i USA-delstaten Texas.

- Det som händer i Afghanistan är fruktansvärt. Jag ringer mina föräldrar och syskon där så ofta jag kan.

Mohammad Bilal skakar på huvudet där han står på parkeringsplatsen utanför hjälporganisationen Center for Refugee Services i San Antonio i Texas, tillsammans med sin bror.

Vintersolen strålar och på den fyrfiliga vägen utanför passerar bilarna som om inget hänt. Men för Bilal har livet tagit en dramatisk vändning. Med stöd av sin bror försöker han nu bygga en tillvaro i ett land han aldrig tidigare besökt.

Stoppad av talibaner

I somras var situationen helt annorlunda. Mohammad Bilals fru, som är läkare, arbetade för Röda Korset i Kabul. Själv var han anställd på en USA-stödd organisation som stödjer parasport. Khostfödde Bilal, som haft polio som ung, är delvis förlamad och har tävlat i Afghanistans landslag i rullstolsbasket och sittande skateboard. Stolt visar han segerbilder i sin mobiltelefon.

Tillvaron förändrades i ett slag när talibanerna marscherade in i presidentpalatset i Kabul i augusti. Mohammad Bilal berättar om det kaotiska dygnet på och omkring flygplatsen, innan det stod klart att han och frun var bland de drygt 120?000 afghaner som USA kunde evakuera.

- Vi kördes fram och tillbaka mellan flygplatsen och ett "safehouse" (säker plats). Vid midnatt stoppade talibanerna vår minibuss och sökte igenom den. Vi var rädda, det var särskilt svårt för min hustru som är gravid.

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Arkiveringsdatum 211231:

Samos Chronicles 21-12-23:

Grekland/ Relentless

I met Ahmed and Fatima at the beginning of December. He and his wife are from Aleppo and this summer eventually got their asylum in Greece. In October 2021 new government legislation kicked in which left Ahmed and Fatima with no income and no housing. The government insists that refugees who gain asylum must 'stand on their own feet' within 30 days of being successful. Staying with friends, they live mainly on pot noodles and with eight packets for less than 2 euros they can eat for 2-3 days. Fatima talks of her friend who can no longer buy baby food and gets by mixing biscuits into diluted milk instead.

Tens of thousands of refugees in Greece have been hit by a succession of measures which have plunged them deeper into acute poverty. The monthly payments paid to asylum seekers by UNHCR were taken over by the Greek state from the beginning of October. Over 30,000 refugees have received no money for food and survival since then. Although a Kenyan friend told me that it seems that some payments will be made soon although how much they will receive is as yet unknown. We wait.

The following statement was signed by 27 NGOs working with refugees in Greece and sets out the main dimensions of the plight of thousands of already vulnerable people:

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Arkiveringsdatum 211104:

Balkan Insight 21-10-14:

Grekland/ In Greece, a Refugee Football Club Plays for Respect

A club made up solely of migrants and refugees sees its success on the pitch as a way for the many migrants in the country to win recognition.

Under the lights of a football pitch 10 miles southeast of central Athens, shouts in Greek mix with French and English.

It's the semi-finals of the Summer Cup for anexartito.com, one of Greece's oldest active amateur football leagues. And, for the first time, a team by the name of the Greek Forum of Refugees is set to advance to the finals.

"Bravo, guys. Bravo," Christos Lazaridis, the club manager, yells from the sideline as his players pass the ball in the mid-July heat. A first half riddled with yellow cards and stoppages ended even. But a flurry of goals from the Greek Forum at the start of the second half pushed the team through to a 5-1 win.

"When we focused on football and we started to play, the difference was obvious," Lazaridis told his team after the game. "We're going to shout. The city will hear us today."

The Greek Forum of Refugees is unique to anexartito.com - it's the only team made up of migrants and refugees in the league. Most of the players come from Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast and other African countries. Other players from Afghanistan and Iraq train with the team.

In their third year in the league, the Greek Forum is 12-0 on the season. But for many players, the team means more than football and a victorious record. The club, team officials say, represents all refugees and serves as a way for migrants to gain recognition and respect. "If you look at this team, it's not just about team," Jerry Bolum, the club's captain, said. "This is the only way we can express ourselves."

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Arkiveringsdatum 211006:

The Guardian 21-09-26:

Storbritannien/ Spinach stew, okra dip: taste of home on menu at refugee chef school

Thanks to £200,000 of crowdfunding, the Migrateful charity, which helps migrants get on their feet, now has a permanent base in London

For cookery school teacher Elizabeth Kolawole-Johnson, there is almost nothing more rewarding than seeing people cooking her mother's recipes.

"When people taste the food and they're so appreciative of it, I don't know how to even quantify that feeling. It's a great feeling," she said.

Kolawole-Johnson came to the UK from Nigeria to live with her family, but over a period of eight years ended up becoming an undocumented migrant, living in fear of being arrested and sent back to a place she no longer called home.

Though she had a successful career and has a master's degree in psychology, she was not allowed to work, instead filling her time volunteering. It was through this she found Migrateful, a cooking charity staffed by refugees and other vulnerable migrants, which next month is opening a new £200,000 cookery school, thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign.

The campaign attracted 800 backers, which included £45,000 from Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and met its target in just a month.

The Migrateful cookery school, which teaches classes on more than 20 different cuisines, has transformed the front room of the Peel community centre in Clerkenwell into a bespoke venue with an open-plan kitchen. It has 12 cooking stations where participants will receive one-to-one cooking guidance from a chef cooking their family recipes, which might be Albanian, Nepalese, Syrian or Cameroonian, for example. Overlooking the modern space is a pair of glass doors that open out to a herb garden.

It is a world away from the empty restaurants Migrateful has been using for classes, and it means staff no longer have to move equipment around by taxi or risk getting lost on the way to new places in London.

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No Walls 21-09-28:

Storbritannien/ The British Red Cross: The challenges of refugee family reunion

This piece is about the challenges of reuniting child and young adult refugees with their close family members in the UK from the perspective of the British Red Cross and the young refugees they work with. It is written by Yasmin Millican, Young Refugees Engagement Officer at the British Red Cross.

"... when you're not able to experience the love of your family, it's hard for anything else to matter. There's nobody to give you that real comfort when you're angry or upset; it's like 90% of you is missing."

Wedi* was forced to leave his family behind in Eritrea out of fear of being rounded up for military service. Most of his friends had been forcibly recruited and he was scared he would be next. He was just 13 or 14 when he left. One of 8 brothers and sisters, he grew up in a lively household where they did almost everything together. Since being forced to flee, Wedi has experienced a loneliness that he didn't know possible. He worries desperately for his family members, now in Ethiopia but still unsafe, and is applying to bring his two younger sisters here to join him in the UK.

Hamza, originally from Syria, also had to leave home at just 14 years old, after seeing his older brother tortured for refusing to fight and his father jailed. The journey to the UK took him three years and nearly cost him his life. He arrived here alone and without a word of English.

"I was alone here. I didn't have any family... I was feeling alone all the time. I was thinking to kill myself because I was so alone. They were still in Syria and all the time I was thinking about my family because my mum and dad's health is not well. I was worried about them even more because of the coronavirus. [I knew that] if my parents were here in this country, I would change 100%. I would be a different man."

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Arkiveringsdatum 210921:

The Guardian 21-09-03:

Italien/ How street art is helping young migrants paint a brighter future in Italy

An innovative community project has brightened buildings, 'brought people together' and provided an emotional outlet after traumatic journeys

Jadhav*, 18, from Bangladesh, arrived in Italy 10 months ago, but is still haunted by memories of his journey with people smugglers across the Mediterranean Sea.

"There were 156 people packed into a small boat. There were women and children," says Jadhav in broken Italian and Bengali translated on a smartphone app. "Waves were coming over the side. People were weeping. There was no hope of survival."

Determined to seek a better life in Europe, Jadhav had flown to Egypt via Dubai before reaching Libya by land. He worked for a year in Tripoli - in a supermarket, as a welder and laying roads - where he was jailed for 11 days, tortured, and released only after his parents sent ransom money.

Jadhav gazes up at a huge artwork being painted on a street corner ahead, his eyes glazing over. "The conditions were terrible," he says of the Libyan prison. "Sometimes we were given just one bread bun and a small bottle of water each day."

Thousands of young migrants in Italy have similar stories to tell. As the pandemic drives global migration, 39,000 have reached the country by boat since the start of the year - double the number during the same period 12 months ago. Unaccompanied minors - under-18s who arrive without their parents - account for a nearly a sixth of the total. Experts predict the turmoil in Afghanistan could result in more arrivals.

With Italy plagued by persistent unemployment and government resources for integration stretched, many newcomers to the country, the EU's biggest migration hotspot, face hardship.

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Arkiveringsdatum 210720:

Aljazeera 21-07-06:

Finland/ From child refugee to politician: Finland's first Somali-born MP

Said Ahmed, whose family fled the civil war in Somalia, is intent on driving out racism in the Nordic nation.

In 2008, Said Ahmed was 15 when his family arrived in Finland having fled the civil war in Somalia.

His childhood memory is filled with haunting acts of violence and displacement.

"I saw a dead person being driven in a wheelbarrow," he told Al Jazeera, recalling the horrific scenes that dominate his last memories of Mogadishu.

The fighting in the Somali capital, where Ahmed was born, was so intense that his relatives escaped to neighbouring Ethiopia, before travelling to the Nordic nation through family reunification.

They first settled in Kontiolahti in the northern Karelia region, looking forward to starting a new peaceful life.

But the initial sense of relief wore off quickly and was replaced with hostility and fear.

There was only a handful of Black families in their neighbourhood, surrounded by a "sea of white people", said Ahmed, many of whom were fiercely opposed to refugees and foreigners.

Physical and verbal attacks, including death threats, became "part of our daily life", he said.

When his friend's father was stabbed in broad daylight after leaving Friday prayer, they fled again in search of safety.

At first, Ahmed's mother considered moving to the United Kingdom but they later decided to live in Helsinki, where he began his activism and successful political career.

"I saw a future in Finland despite the challenges and I wanted to do something about it," he said.

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Arkiveringsdatum 210616:

The Conversation 21-05-19:

Storbritannien/ community groups are helping refugees - government making it harder

For the last 12 years, a farm in Yorkshire has had refugees from Iran and Sudan volunteer during lambing season. These sessions, set up by the Darwen Asylum Seeker and Refugee Enterprise and the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, help counter the negative mental-health effect of being isolated and in limbo as they wait for their residency status to be confirmed.

Elsewhere in the Dales, the enterprise has arranged for volunteers to pitch in with building dry-stone walls and haymaking. And throughout the UK, as our recent report shows, there are countless other examples of local people, and groups, doing their bit to support refugees in the challenges they face, including poverty, unemployment and difficulties in accessing local services.

However, while the government, as well as the public, appear to support the idea of integration, our research shows there is little policy guidance - and state support - about exactly how to do this in practice.

Inadequate policy

The so-called migrant crisis, which peaked in 2015, has been overshadowed by COVID-19. The situation facing refugees and migrants in Europe, however, has not improved. In some ways the pandemic has made it worse.

In this context, examining what support - public and private - there is to help refugees is both timely and important. Our research set out to do just that.

Over two years, we interviewed nearly 100 organisations from across the UK's public sector, the voluntary and community sector and the private sector (from local businesses to transport companies). We focused on the Yorkshire and Humber region, but the findings are likely to be transferable to other areas of the country.

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Källor: Informationen på denna sida är hämtad från följande källor (externa länkar): EU (kommissionen, ministerrådet, parlamentet och domstolen), Europarådet (mr-kommissionären, domstolen, kommittén mot tortyr), FN:s flyktingkommissariat UNHCR, FN:s kommitté mot tortyr m.fl. FN-organ, Sveriges Radio, SvT, andra svenska media via Nyhetsfilter och pressmeddelanden via Newsdesk, utländska media till exempel via Are You Syrious och Rights in Exile, internationella organisationer som Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, ECRE, Statewatch och Picum, organisationer i Sverige som Rädda Barnen, Asylrättscentrum, Svenska Amnesty, FARR och #vistårinteut samt myndigheter och politiska organ som Migrationsverket, Sveriges domstolar, JO, Justitiedepartementet m.fl. departement och Sveriges Riksdag.

Bevakning: Hjalte Lagercrantz och Sanna Vestin. Sammanställning: Sanna Vestin. Asylnytt är ett ideellt projekt. Sponsring avser prenumerationsavgifter. Tips emottages tacksamt.