Two years after the capsizing of a small boat on the Drina River, which claimed the lives of a young Syrian family and nine others, we remember the victims, recount the deadly conditions that force people onto perilous crossings, and call for collective mourning as well as recognition of the humanity that European borders continue to deny.
Read MoreToday the Migration Minister arrives on Lesvos, the latest in a series of visits to camps, detention facilities, and so-called ‘hotspot’ locations in recent weeks. During each of these visits, he has taken every opportunity to further entrench the deliberately provocative and dehumanising language, such as referring to people arriving in Greece as an “invasion”, which has already defined his tenure.
Ten years after the so-called Long Summer of Migration in 2015, Greece stands in a moment of further punitive regression, far away from a humanitarian approach to the issue. Rather than learning from the lessons of the past, the Greek government is seen once more to be escalating a strategy that is rooted in deterrence, exclusion and securitization.
Read MoreIf the EU knowingly finances facilities that isolate, endanger, and violate the rights of vulnerable people, can it claim to uphold human rights at all? It is clear that the CCAC system is not just a Greek issue, it is a European one. The funding, political support, and regulatory framing of these centres makes the European Union complicit in the conditions they produce. While leaders speak the language of humanitarianism and protection, their policies produce the opposite: trauma, neglect, and danger.
Read MoreWritten for the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) and co-published with Collective Aid.
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Following Tuesday’s release, this sixth and final summary section released before the final report publication on Thursday 10 July focuses on a number of locations case studies undertaken during this research and mapping project.
Read MoreReflections on Gaza, and what we tolerate
Read MoreFollowing Friday’s release, the fourth of six sections we’re sharing ahead of publication of the full report in July, this fifth summary section focuses on the role of the border regime itself; not merely a backdrop but an active and structuring force. The border regime is simultaneously a causal factor, a web within which all of our context and discussion is enmeshed and from which it cannot be separated, and a central facilitator of EU policy and practice.
Read MoreIn the family camp of Krnjača, on the outskirts of Belgrade, a young Moroccan man explains that he has received a Serbian expulsion order. Having arrived in the country several months ago, he recounts his arrest.
His story is not unique.
Read MoreFollowing Tuesday’s release, the third of six sections we’re sharing ahead of publication of the full report in July, this fourth summary section focuses on the role of activists in documenting, reporting, and challenging official failures in the handling of deaths of people on the move across Serbia As they support families in the pursuit of justice and preserve the memory of those lost.
Read MoreFollowing Monday’s overview of our initial findings and the realities of death on the move in Serbia, we present the second of six sections to be released ahead of publication of the full report in July. This summary section focuses on our work to map the deaths of people on the move in Serbia.
Read MoreOur full report ‘Erased in life and death: intersecting injustices faced by people on the move in Serbia’ explores the systemic neglect, institutional silence, and structural violence surrounding the deaths of people on the move in Serbia.
Following Monday’s overview of our initial findings and the realities of death on the move in Serbia, we present the second of six sections to be released ahead of publication of the full report in July. This summary section focuses on our work to map the deaths of people on the move in Serbia.
Read MoreOur full report ‘Erased in life and death: intersecting injustices faced by people on the move in Serbia’ explores the systemic neglect, institutional silence, and structural violence surrounding the deaths of people on the move in Serbia. It is not a new intervention, nor a pioneering effort. Rather, it builds on the longstanding work of civil society organisations, cemetery workers, communities of faith, journalists, researchers, and families who have long documented, buried, and remembered the dead. Below, the first of six sections to be released ahead of publication of the full report in July offers an overview of our initial findings and the realities of death on the move in Serbia.
Read MoreFrontline humanitarian services and rights-based advocacy across Europe are eroding in real time. The deeper crisis is not vanishing funding - it is the growing needs, isolated responses, and the breakdown of the civic scaffolding that has held this movement together until now. Our response is Strategic Mutualism.
Read MoreToday, Collective Aid publishes the first of our new monthly advocacy reports, sharing conversations with people on the move on the Balkan peninsula and Lesvos.
From violent pushbacks at the Bosnia-Herzegovina/Croatian border to another devastating shipwreck outside Lesvos, April’s conversations highlighted the all-too-familiar, but never less enraging pattern of systemic abuse and daily neglect. In Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, and Greece, people endure overcrowded camps, a lack of basic healthcare, and scant access to vital psychological support.
Read MoreOn May 9, the EU dresses itself in blue and gold, lighting up its monuments to celebrate a shared vision of unity, peace, and prosperity. Simultaneously, across the continent of Europe, fences are being fortified and policies tightened in order to deny these ideals to people on the move at its internal and external borders.
As the Union evolves, what is the price of solidarity which is solidified by the exclusion of the ‘others’ condemned to violence and death at its borders?
Read MoreThe manipulation of migration as a geopolitical tool is not a new concept, but in recent years, states have increasingly exploited the vulnerability of displaced people to advance their political agendas. Migration should be about seeking safety and opportunity, but it has become a tool of coercive diplomacy and hybrid warfare, particularly at the EU's external border.
Read MoreSince his inauguration in January, President Trump has enforced deportation raids, sent US Marines to construct a ‘fortified’ border wall extension in San Diego, and terminated the existing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) asylum scheduling system, cancelling all existing appointments, effectively making it impossible for people on the move to apply for asylum in the United States (US).
Read MoreThis 8th of March, on International Women's Day, we would like to shed light on a central issue in the solidarity sector which is not talked about enough: the invisible weight of care work.
Read MoreWhat happens to Syrians seeking protection in the EU?
Read MoreFor people on the move, staying updated on news from home can be just as important as knowing what is happening around them; a phone helps people to stay in touch with their family and friends, offering comfort against feelings of isolation and loneliness while supporting psychological well-being.They can also help to gather evidence, documenting illegal pushbacks, and other violence exerted against them.Most importantly, phones can save lives. Yet, despite the vital role phones play, authorities often fail to recognise - or deliberately ignore - their importance. We have heard, worryingly, numerous accounts of Serbian, Croatian and Bulgarian police smashing or confiscating devices. Our Advocacy and Communications Officer in Sarajevo looks further into the issue…
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