On Sunday evening, we are leaving the YES Summer camp: tired, yet packed up with impressions and full of excitement about our upcoming vacation in Sicily. When traveling to our first stop in Trapani, we receive messages of comrades from all over Europe sending in pictures of their symbolic “refugees welcome” paper boats being photographed at the Airport of Palermo. We are happy about having spread our political message in so many countries, but especially in Sicily since it is one of the few places in Europe for which simply relying on the Dublin Agreement has never been an option. As a result, the island has been left alone for years trying to cope with the high numbers of newly arriving refugees.
In Trapani we find a Bed and Breakfast located close to the harbor. When passing by, one specific boat immediately captures our attention: The Aquarius. Despite its bright orange color and its former name “Meerkatze” (engl. Sea cat) showing through the fresh coat of paint, it is not its look, but its mission that makes it unique. It is one of three boats the NGO “Médecins sans Frontières” (Doctors without borders) together with SOS Mediterranée is currently operating with in the Mediterranean.
We all sigh. Even though we had spent the last weeks discussing all the theoretical aspects of the challenges refugees face at European borders on a daily basis, seeing the impact of Europe’s policies so closely makes us shiver.
While we stand in front of the boat, two women of the crew approach us. One of them quickly turns out to be the doctor on the boat. Her colleague is working for SOS. As her main tasks she describes interviewing refugees about their journey and their treatment by Libyan and European authorities.
We ask them, how much time they get to spend in Trapani until the boat goes offshore again. They both look at each other and explain that they usually get three days off. This time, however, their stay has been elongated by a day because the crew still needs to recover from their last mission. This time, they have had to salvage 22 bodies, 22 human beings that had not made it through the Mediterranean Sea.
Not knowing what to say, we remain silent. The two women, both acting in a very professional manner, fill our silence by continuing their stories. Usually they spend about three weeks offshore, most of it close to Libyan territorial waters awaiting rescue calls.
They explain Libya to be the preferred leaving country due to its lack of governmental infrastructure. Around 20 boats are leaving from Libya daily, none of them carrying enough fuel to make it to Italy, not to mention their poor conditions and overfilled capacities.
They explain that most refugees do not make it out of Libyan territories on their first attempt, many being captured before and often being made to pay high sums to human traffickers.
SOS explains to be patrolling all areas close to the Libyan coast, including the areas covered by the FRONTEX mission Triton.
As a reason they diplomatically state the different mandates of FRONTEX and doctors without borders. Expecting to know what they are referring to, we ask about their experiences with Push Backs[1].
Their faces darken and they confirm our concerns: even though there are no direct incidents with FRONTEX, they suspect the EU of having made a deal with Libyan authorities. Similar to the case with the Turkish Deal, the European Union has handed over the dirty work to Libyan coast guards.
We do not want to keep them from anything, but they seem to be happy about our curiosity.
They continue by telling us about their last mission from which they had just returned the day before yesterday. They were taking care of more than 200 people on board, a comparably small number as we should find out later.
According to the doctor, one out of 23 refugees dies trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. “If fleeing was a disease, the world would be shattered by its deadliness”, she explains. Despite all the tragedies they are facing on a daily basis, they still have joyful experiences to talk about. They tell us about a baby being born on the boat just two days ago, an event which she describes as an amazing experience to the crew and all of their guests. The fact that they refer to the refugees as their guests as well as their political awareness leaves us deeply impressed.
After the unexpected conversation with these fascinating women we politely ask for a more detailed interview. They ask us to come back tomorrow – an offer which we happily accept. When returning to the boat the next morning, a security guard is protecting the ship. Luckily, the SOS employee we have been talking to yesterday is standing on deck and recognizes us. She tells the security to invite us on the ship – an invitation we have not been expecting. When entering the boat, we are not sure how to deal with this overwhelming situation. A volunteer approaches us. Judging by his outfit, he is about to go for a run. He seems accustomed to tourists being interested in his work and explains that he drives one of the smaller rescue boats. He offers us a medical tour with the two nurses. Besides the doctor and a midwife, they are the only medical staff working on the boat, taking care of up to 600 guests.
They talk about their daily routine on boat and how – in case of emergency – journalists, nautical and medical staff are working together side by side taking care of people.
All members of the current team have already been working for Doctors without borders in the past, they are all highly skilled and familiar with the challenging work. As language of communication they state English, but all of them speak at least French in addition, some even more than three languages.
Several team members including the two nurses belong to the permanent staff of doctors without borders, others just temporarily work for them. A new doctor who usually works in a hospital in London had just arrived the day before.
Technically speaking, the crew consists of two legal entities, MSF and SOS, but in reality, they work as one – especially in situations of emergency. For those cases the crew is regularly provided with trainings; white boards explaining how to react in case of emergency can be found in every single room.
If there are no patients in serious conditions they continue looking for other boats, if immediate medical treatment is required, they ask for permission to enter a port on the Italian coast. The guests then get to apply for asylum in Italy and the Aquarius leaves right away to continue its mission offshore.
Our tour leads us to the sick room. We cannot keep from wondering how so many people could even fit inside that small room, not to mention being medically treated.
A German couple that has joined the tour asks about security measures such as masks and protective suits being used by governmental authorities. The nurse describes them as unnecessary in their case. The risk is minimal and wearing it would only make their work more difficult and frighten their guests.
As most difficult they describe the situation on board, when it is exceptionally crowded. The nurse explains how hard it is to ensure a dignified, yet safe and calm stay for such a large number of people. Something they want to provide to all of their guests.
We are impressed, shocked, sad and angry and yet burning to know more. However, we do not want to keep them from spending their well-deserved free time off the boat before going offshore again.
We are leaving the Aquarius behind with mixed feelings, waving the crew goodbye. One sentence of the nurse echoes in our heads.
“Change European politics and our work here would not be needed at all.”
By:
Naomi Dutzi
Ella Hofreiter
Matthias Krainz
Miro Verdel
[1] A push back is the deportation of a refugee before having the possibility to apply for asylum. Push backs violate the principle of non-refoulement as well as the 1951 Refugee Convention.
IUSY condemns the proposed ascendency of Swaziland’s King Mswati who is set to Chair Southern African Development Community (SADC) in August 2016 when the SADC heads of state Summit is held in Swaziland. King Mswati’s dictatorship in Swaziland is against the very same principles and values such as democratic governance that SADC espouses to. Mswati’s rule continues to suppress political parties, as political parties remain banned in Swaziland since 1973. Imprisonment of activists who are against the regime is the order of the day under his rule.
The taking over of SADC by a despot in Mswati does not augur well for the region’s endeavour in promoting democracy, respect for human rights and good governance. The region is currently facing political problems that need a decisive leadership that believes in democracy, tolerance and the value of transparency in settling internal disputes facing regional member states. The dictatorship in Zimbabwe cannot be solved under the leadership of Mswati as SADC chair. The people of Zimbabwe shall continue to plunge into economic abyss and repression when another dictator is at the helm of SADC. The ‘armed’ insurgency impasse in Mozambique is does not inspire a brighter future for the region. Mswati’s leadership is not capable of tackling the challenges confronting the region. The political crisis in Lesotho also needs a credible leader who can ensure that the work done under the outgoing SADC Chairperson President Khama is not reversed.
IUSY calls upon all the democratic states in the region not to endorse Swaziland’s ascendency to the Chairpersonship of SADC. We further call for action to be taken by all progressive forces in the region and the world to pressure Mswati’s regime to allow political freedoms and stop human rights abuses.
On Monday 18th July the full sentence of the judicial process for the Curuguaty Massacrre against 11 campesino men and women where they were declared guilty of all charges was made public, with sentences ranging from 4 years to 35 years in prison. The same was marred by irregularities without respecting the procedural safeguards for the accused.
After the massacre on 15th July 2012 in which 11 peasants and 6 policemen where killed which triggered the President Fernando Lugo coup, 9 Farmers and 3 peasant were prosecuted for invasion of private property, criminal association and homicide in land taken over illegally in times of the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship, which have been declared by the Paraguayan State as their own but that the Judiciary has not recognized as such going forward with the process, also showing the partiality of the Judiciary and the Office of the Prosecutor, as well as the lack of transparency in the process.
In addition to this, there have been numerous violations of the right to defense and the lack of investigation into the death of the 11 peasants that were killed in Curuguaty, including allegations of extrajudicial executions by the police.
For these reasons, we demand full respect for Human Rights and the monitoring of its compliance on the part of state institutions. As well, we repudiate the sentence issued by the Judiciary despite the flaws in the legal process and demand that the trial be declared null for that reason.
Invalidity now!
Freedom to Curuguaty prisoners!
IUSY is following the development in Turkey with great concern. The last years escalation of violations of human rights must come to an end.
The last months the situation has escalated even more. IUSY expresses its deep concern over the arbitrary reclusions in Turkey in the aftermath of the failed military coup d’état. We believe that the retaliation carried out by the government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, over the failed coup, has gone beyond any acceptable threshold, using threats to national security as an excuse to get rid of dissidents and political opponents. This suspension of the democratic rule of law is inadmissible and it must end immediately.
IUSY calls on the European Union and Council of Europe to strongly ask the reinstatement of those values stated in their respective founding treaties that have been violated by Turkey, an applicant state of EU and Member State of CoE. We urge the European Union to take into account the current situation in its neighbouring country while discussing the implementation of the refugee deal and the liberalization of the Turkish visa in the Union.
IUSY expresses its proximity to its two Member Organizations present in the area, CHP youth and HDP youth, whose members have been subject to arbitrary violence and persecution. HDP had to bear the arbitrary arrest of at least 60 of its members only in this month, in great part young militants. Furthermore, CHP youth recently reported the arrest of 13 comrades, half of which still incarcerated. We stand in solidarity by our friends and comrades of CHP Youth and HDP Youth in their battle for social justice and democracy, and we will use all peaceful measures in our hands to protect their basic democratic rights.
Violence against political opponents in Turkey must end now, we won’t let the deterioration of the basic human rights of the Turkish people go unnoticed.
#CHPliGençlereÖzgürlük
#HDPliGençlereÖzgürlük
What: Regional meeting for members of the black sea region
When: 25-28 August 2016
Where: Bucharest, Romania
Age: 16-35 years
Size: 2 participants per member organisation
Deadline: Sunday 8 August 2016 (23:59 CET)
The Black Sea Area Cooperation meeting 2016 will bring together the young leaders of IUSY member organisations in the Black Sea region, in partnership with our member organisation TSD Romania. The aim of the meeting is to strengthen the participating IUSY organisations and enhance the cooperation in the region. The meeting will offer a platform to discuss current political situations in the region, give space to engage in a dialogue on common struggles and obstacles, and work together to come up with strategies to enact political and social change. Participants can look forward to getting involved in political debates and discussions, sharing experiences and ideas, taking part in workshops and building up their regional network.
Fighting injustice and corruption
The programme will take place over two days on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August. A draft programme will be sent out in advance of the event.
Each member organisation in the region may register up to two participants for the meeting. Please note that delegations must be gender-balanced and a delegation cannot consist of two men. Participants must hold a leadership position in their organisation and organisations will need to approve all applications.
Participants must be able to attend the entire programme of the seminar. All participants must be aged 16-35 years old, with no exceptions. IUSY organisations that have a membership debt and/or haven’t paid their 2016 membership fee (without an agreement with the Control Commission) are not eligible to participate in the event.
Participants must apply by completing the digital registration form by Sunday 7 August 2016 at 23:59 CET.
Dear Friends,
We are glad to extend to you the:
CALL FOR TRAINERS
Structural Empowering – Training of Trainers
17th – 25th September 2016, Mollina, Malaga (Spain)
In IUSY we organise many international events, whether they are regional committees, seminars or political schools. We regularly meet to debate and discuss, and more often than not we’re the ones facilitating such exchanges and dialogues. Therefore we believe we must have an active role in the preparation, delivery and evaluation of the methodology we use for these events.
We see non-formal alternatives to formal education being increasingly used in our society, in all sorts of different environments. Non-formal education methodology offers us the chance to develop opinions and skills through experiential learning, is inclusive to different learning styles and provides variety in programme. This is why we believe we should mainstream diverse methodologies into the activities of IUSY. Through this training we aim to position ourselves in the challenge zone in order to offer greater diversity on our events and obtain richer outcomes from our meetings and discussions.
In this Training for Trainers we aim to provide active members of IUSY the chance to acquire and develop training and facilitating skills. We’ll think about how non-formal methods can improve our activities, explore the different ways non-formal education can be utilised as a tool in our programmes, and, in addition, we will also create a network of trainers to help us deliver future IUSY activities.
We encourage you to disseminate this call for participants among the members of your organisations. Please be aware it is unlikely that more than one member per organisation will be selected to participate in this event, therefore we would encourage you to discuss internally who to put forward from your organisation before applying. Please keep in mind that the application deadline is Monday 6th August 2016.
Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the IUSY Secretariat at: iusy@iusy.org.
Howard Lee Evin Incir
IUSY President IUSY Secretary General
OBJECTIVES
The workshops will be facilitated based on the core values of participatory non-formal education/learning and on the basis of global education. The programme will promote critical analysis and be tool-oriented to improve the capacities of young activists and youth organisations at the national and local levels.
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
Trainers should:
WHAT DO WE ASK FROM YOU?
You should have the availability to prepare the programme in advance with the rest of the team. At the moment there’s no plan to have a face-to-face prep meeting but an online prep meeting, however this could change depending on the costs. You must be able to attend the whole of the event, from the 17th (4pm at the venue) to the 25th of September.
WHAT DO WE OFFER?
HOW TO APPLY?
Send a training CV and a motivation letter to iusy@iusy.org by the 6th of August.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact the coordinator of the project at the IUSY office:
Eugeni Brigneti
IUSY Project Manager
Tel: 0043 699 1353 2970
Mail: eugeni.brigneti@iusy.org
Dear Comrades,
We are glad to invite you to the
IUSY Capacity Building:
STRUCTURAL EMPOWERING – TRAINING FOR TRAINERS
19th – 25th September 2016, Mollina, Malaga (Spain)
In IUSY we organise many international events, whether they are regional committees, seminars or political schools. We regularly meet to debate and discuss, and more often than not we’re the ones facilitating such exchanges and dialogues. Therefore we believe we must have an active role in the preparation, delivery and evaluation of the methodology we use for these events.
We see non-formal alternatives to formal education being increasingly used in our society, in all sorts of different environments. Non-formal education methodology offers us the chance to develop opinions and skills through experiential learning, is inclusive to different learning styles and provides variety in programme. This is why we believe we should mainstream diverse methodologies into the activities of IUSY. Through this training we aim to position ourselves in the challenge zone in order to offer greater diversity on our events and obtain richer outcomes from our meetings and discussions.
In this Training for Trainers we aim to provide active members of IUSY the chance to acquire and develop training and facilitating skills. We’ll think about how non-formal methods can improve our activities, explore the different ways non-formal education can be utilised as a tool in our programmes, and, in addition, we will also create a network of trainers to help us deliver future IUSY activities.
We encourage you to disseminate this call for participants among the members of your organisations. Please be aware it is unlikely that more than one member per organisation will be selected to participate in this event, therefore we would encourage you to discuss internally who to put forward from your organisation before applying. Please keep in mind that the application deadline is Monday 1st of August 2016.
Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the IUSY Secretariat at: iusy@iusy.org.
– – – – –
OBJECTIVES
The workshops will be facilitated based on the core values of participatory non-formal education/learning and on the basis of global education. The programme will promote critical analysis and be tool-oriented to improve the capacities of young activists and youth organisations at the national and local levels.
– – – – –
WHO CAN APPLY? PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS
This activity is not aimed towards the leadership of IUSY member organisations, it is addressed to youth activists. Please note that this is an educational activity therefore it is required that the participants stay for the whole activity duration and also to contribute to IUSY activities after the training.
Participants should:
Since we expect to provide all regions with trainers for their events, we’re aiming for participants from all regions and from a variety of member organisations.
According to the IUSY statutes, we’re also looking to achieve a gender-balanced training so we reserve the right to select participants based on gender criteria if needed.
– – – – –
HOW TO APPLY
Due to limited space of 12 people, there will be an application process. To apply you must complete the following by Monday 1st of August:
Follow this link to complete the application form.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMiCieFysWiZ7mUvArE30GTdPKBoBVlaBFcHmy_UwcXp1Gbw/viewform
Please note you should not buy any flight tickets before your application is approved.
– – – – –
TRAVEL REIMBURSEMENT
IUSY will cover your flight ticket up to a fixed reference price. The maximum amount for travel reimbursement will be sent to you together with a confirmation letter.
– – – – –
PARTICIPATION FEE
The participation fee is set for 50 euro and should be transferred to IUSY bank account before the event starts. Bank details will be sent along with a confirmation letter.
– – – – –
CANCELLATION FEE
There will be a 50€ cancellation fee charged to each organisation whose participant withdraws after 7 August and without a valid reason.
– – – – –
CONTACT INFORMATION
Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact the coordinator of the project at the IUSY office:
Eugeni Brigneti
IUSY Project Manager
Tel: 0043 699 1353 2970
Mail: eugeni.brigneti@iusy.org
(Picture of a previous edition of the UYD)
