*[Enwl-eng] International Migration Day
ENWLine
It’s been over a week since we started calling for the EU's border agency director to resign over abuses of migrants in the Aegean Sea. Over 60,000 of us have joined you, Vladimir, in asking for his resignation. [1]
But the EU’s Commissioner in charge of migration, Ylva Johnasson, hasn’t asked him to resign. She’s even told journalists that she still has confidence in him. [2]
Today is International Migration Day - a day dedicated to raising awareness about protecting migrants. But while Johansson talks about how migration has enriched our culture and shaped our lives, the reality is that no one is being held accountable for abuses and violence towards our fellow human beings. [3]
We wrote to Johansson asking for an urgent meeting to discuss allegations of human rights abuses against migrants by Greece and EU’s border agency Frontex, but neither she nor her office have gotten back to us yet. This issue is urgent. If she sees our whole community reaching out to her on social media, it could convince her to meet with us and take this issue seriously.
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Three months have passed since we submitted a 67-page legal complaint to the EU Commission asking that it act to end abuses and violence toward migrants. [4] Not only has the Commission not taken any action, but we’ve also since discovered that the EU’s own border agency Frontex has been complicit in the illegality we documented in the complaint. [5]
The President of the European Commission von der Leyen recently said that “human rights must be respected everywhere. We need to be able to act against those who violate them.” [6] But while words are easy to share on social media, all our demands for action have fallen on deaf ears. That’s why we’ve requested a meeting with Ylva Johansson, the EU Commissioner in charge of migration.
Let’s spring into action. Send a tweet or Facebook message to Johansson so that she takes notice and meets with us.
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People like us are not normally involved in pushing the Commission to take on legal complaints or in calling for a resignation, and so the EU Commission usually doesn’t feel much pressure to act. But together let’s change this: make sure decision-makers know we are monitoring them and that we won’t stop until they agree to meet with us. Send a tweet or Facebook message now!
Here's to action, not words,
David (London), Giulio (Rome), and the entire WeMove Europe team
References:
[1]
https://act.wemove.eu/campaigns/leggeri-resign?utm_campaign=gz5KJtdEsB&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share
[2]
https://euobserver.com/tickers/150337
[3]
https://europa.eu/newsroom/content/speech-commissioner-johansson-new-pact-migration-and-asylum_en
[4]
We submitted the legal complaint to the European Commission together with Oxfam,
also with the support of Human Rights Watch. Donations from this community
allowed us to conduct over 350 hours of specialist research to gather enough
evidence to make a strong legal case. It was widely covered in the media:
https://euobserver.com/migration/149509
[5]
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/world/europe/frontex-migrants-pushback-greece.html
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/10/23/frontex-at-fault-european-border-force-complicit-in-illegal-pushbacks/
https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/eu-border-agency-frontex-complicit-in-greek-refugee-pushback-campaign-a-4b6cba29-35a3-4d8c-a49f-a12daad450d7
[6]
https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1336036853661753345
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