Borders, Reception and Rights in Sicily and Europe: Workers, Legal Experts and Researchers in Conversation

Tuesday July 5^th 2016, University of Palermo, Via Maqueda 172, 90134 Palermo.

A day of work and dialogue proposed within the remit of the “EVI-MED” international research project, conducted by Middlesex University London in collaboration with Borderline Sicily and the University of Palermo.

The event is open to everyone, but online registration is requested, which can be carried out here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/biglietti-frontiere-accoglienza-e-diritti-in-sicilia-e-in-europa-26075000027. 

(all the registered participants will receive a voucher for lunch at “Moltivolti”).

The truth about the Hotspot policy – violations and illegal actions on Lampedusa island

In the last couple of weeks, dozens of people coming from Mali, Gambia, Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea and Nigeria, have arrived in Palermo as well as in Catania and other Sicilian cities. In their hands a decree of deportation, which orders them to leave Italy within seven days via Rome Fiumincino airport. All these people first arrived in Lampedusa, where they have been brought after having been intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea. 

Those migrants were not given the right to ask for international protection, although they have been in contact with the UNHCR. 

Hotspots for Migrants, „an uncontrollable meat grinder that is soon going to be clogged.”

Lawyer Fulvio Vassallo Paleologo is analyzing the first hotspot to open on Lampedusa on the day that EU commissioner Avramopoulos is visiting the center. “The hotspots are a system of incarceration and deprivation of individual liberties; they lack a legal basis and foster illegality.”

2013 – Disaster without end! Human rights were only a marginal issue.

Süddeutsche.de - In October, Europe was shaken when nearly 400 people drowned off Lampedusa. A change in refugee policy seemed the only right response. Since then, a lot has happened. However, human rights were only a marginal issue.

Human rights award for Boderline Sicilia Onlus

During the 30^th Summer Academy in Schlainingen (Austria) all partners of the transnational European Project “About the Europeanisation of the Aliens Law of Italy, Cyprus and Spain: CIE/Detention Centers versus Return Directive 2008/115/EC (EACEA)” received the Human-Rights-Award of the platform “Right of Residence and Respect of Asylum-, Refugees- and Human Rights”. The award winner by name are the following organizations: ACOGE (Sevilla, Spain), MUGAK (San Sebastian, Spain), Borderline Sicilia (Palermo, Sicily) and KISA (Cyprus).