Month: November 2019

News Highlights: Malta to cooperate with Libyan coast guard, Peace Institute launched in Ethiopia, ICC renews call to surrender Libyan human traffickers.

In this week’s news highlights: Mereb Institute for peace-building is launched in Ethiopia; South Sudan delays formation government; Workshop in Kenya discusses technology and human trafficking; Pax Romana petitions for reopening Catholic health facilities in Eritrea; France creates stricter migration policies; UK care criticized in exposé on Eritrean refugees committing suicide; Europe continues building walls, 30 years after the fall of the Berlin wall; EU countries break Schengen rules; Libyan coast guard in secret discussions on cooperation with Malta; ICC requests the surrender of alleged Libyan human trafficking criminals; United Arab Emirates may be involved in the airstrike on the Tajoura detention centre; And family trying to reach Europe tells their story.

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‘The Walls of Europe’

On Saturday November 9, Europe celebrated the 30-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall that marked the end of a separated Europe from two different, controlling ideologies. However, 30 years later Europe is building walls again, only this time to keep refugees and migrants from entering Europe. A report recently published by the Dutch organisation Stop Wapenhandel argues that “Europe is divided not so much by ideology as by perceived fear of refugees and migrants, some of the world’s most vulnerable people”. The report finds that Europe is spending a lot of money and technology on protecting its borders in a time where new migration policies permeate interior policies in Europe.

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Human rights abuses in Eritrea: A cry from a prison cell

“Dawit Isaak once was free but now is silent,” says the preface of his book, Hope. Dawit is a Swedish-Eritrean writer and journalist, who wrote award-winning books, articles and theater plays. Until 2001. That year, Dawit was imprisoned in Eritrea. He was never put on trial and is not in contact with lawyers, agencies or friends. Up to today, even his family does not know where he is. On November 5, the Swedish NGO Free Dawit organized a seminar, hosted by Member of the European Parliament (MEP) David Lega (EPP), to discuss the human rights situation in Eritrea and to highlight the case of Dawit Isaak, a prisoner of conscience.

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