E.U. Auditors Say Hotspots Overcrowded, Not Safe for Children
A report from the European Court of Auditors on the hotspot system in Italy and Greece urged Europe to urgently improve conditions and better protect unaccompanied children.
The hotspots are centers that were set up in Italy and Greece to process asylum seekers and migrants in the wake of the 2015 surge in arrivals.
While this has improved the registration of migrants in the short term, the centers are inadequate for handling the long-term situation, the report said, documenting their poor conditions, lack of security and inadequate water, food and healthcare.
The report said hotspots designed for 8,000 people are regularly sheltering double that number. Italy needs two more hotspots and in Greece facilities are “seriously overcrowded” and must be improved, the auditors said.
Many of those living in “restrictive conditions” at the hotspots are lone migrant children, and the auditors urged Europe to deploy child-protection officers at each hotspot.
“The amount of child abuse, rape and smuggling that is going on is horrific,” said Claude Moraes, chair of the European parliament’s justice and home affairs committee. “If the E.U. is to have any sort of value it has to care for unaccompanied minors when they arrive in Europe.”
Only Two Survivors in Deadliest Shipwreck in Aegean Sea This Year
Greek authorities ended the search for survivors after a boat capsized on April 24 in the deadliest incident in the Aegean Sea this year.
The Greek coast guard had earlier found the bodies of six women, two men and a child, while Turkish authorities recovered the bodies of six men and a child.
The only survivors are believed to be two women from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of whom is pregnant.
They told authorities they departed Turkey on a smugglers’ boat with around 25 people on board.
“The number of people crossing the Aegean to Greece has dropped drastically over the past year, but this tragic incident shows that the dangers and the risk of losing one’s life remains very real,” UNHCR’s Greece representative Philippe Leclerc told Reuters.
Expert Warns Trafficking Will ‘Skyrocket’ Under Trump
An expert has warned that anti-immigration policies implemented by U.S. president Donald Trump will cause an increase in human trafficking.
“Policies that push migrants to live and work in the shadows make the perfect prey for abusive employers,” said Denise Brennan, professor and chair of the department of anthropology at Georgetown University, at a Thomson Reuters Foundation conference.
“We cannot effectively fight trafficking when migrants fear reporting exploitation and abuse.”
Besides his stalled effort to suspend refugee resettlement, Trump has made it easier to deport more undocumented immigrants and is pursuing funding to reinforce the border with Mexico.
“Trafficking will skyrocket under President Trump,” Brennan warned. “Anti-immigrant policies make trafficking possible.”
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- BBC News: Meeting an Organ Trafficker Who Preys on Syrian Refugees
- The Conversation: Fact Check: Are a Million African Migrants Already on Their Way to Europe?
- The New Republic: Life in Africa’s Last Colony
- Reuters: China’s ‘Christmas Town’ Opens Doors to Middle East Migrants but Future Uncertain
- The Times Higher Education: Platforms and Pathways Build Brighter Future for Syrian Refugees