35. The European Union’s Violence Against Asylum Seekers

I spoke with Jack Sapoch, coordinator of No Name Kitchen‘s border violence reporting, itself part of the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN).

We spoke about the EU’s policy of violence against asylum seekers on the so-called ‘Balkan Route’ and how BVMN partners have been trying to document it and support those being victimised by it.

BVMN works through a democratic and horizontal management, in which each NGOs (or partner) is involved in different areas and carries out several tasks:

A group of NGOs which works on reporting (collecting pushback cases): No Name Kitchen, Collective Aid, Escuela con Alma, Re:Ports Sarajevo.
A group of NGOs which dedicates its effort to the advocacy strategy: Are You Syrious, Centre for Peace Studies, Info Kolpa, Mobile Info Team, Mare Liberum .
Rigardu, a German-based NGO which is responsible for the management and administrative coordination and forms the legal frame for the Network.

Topics covered also include: the role of the Croatian government and other governments on the so-called ‘Balkan Route’; EU-funded/supported (re)borderisation processes which violates the rights of asylum seekers; lack of awareness by EU citizens of this Balkan Route; and how BVMN uses open-source investigations like that used by Bellingcat and Forensic Architecture to uncover these abuses.

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Music by Tarabeat. Photo from the BVMN website by artist Ena Jurov. Find more of Jurov’s work here.

Elia J. Ayoub

July 6, 2020

The Fire These Times

Asylum seekers, Balkan Route, Border Violence Monitoring Network, European Union, fortress europe, Migrants, racism, refugees, Violence, Xenophobia

5 responses to “35. The European Union’s Violence Against Asylum Seekers”

antira-Wochenschau: Grenztote, DNA-Rassismus, StopIsolation-Proteste

July 13, 2020 at 3:28 pm

[…] Erschossen an der bosnisch-kroatischen GrenzeIm Grenzgebiet zwischen Bosnien-Herzegowina und Kroatien wurde eine Person beim Versuch, die Grenze zu überqueren, erschossen. Der Mann soll aus einem Jagdgewehr in den Rücken getroffen worden sein und erlag seinen Verletzungen. Der mutmassliche Täter stellte sich später der Polizei. Er gab an, in den Wäldern gewildert zu haben und dass es sich bei dem tödlichen Schuss um einen Unfall gehandelt habe. Die Umstände, unter denen dieser Mann starb, können hingegen nicht als Unfall bezeichnet werden. Warum sind Menschen in diesen Wäldern, in unwegsamem Gelände, zu jeder Jahreszeit? Aktuell bis zu 7.000 wählen diese gefährliche und oftmals tödliche Fluchtroute, weil es keinen legalen und sicheren Weg gibt, in Europa Asyl zu beantragen. Stattdessen gibt es seit Jahren geschlossene Grenzen, Milliardeninvestitionen in die Kontrolle dieser und Gewalt gegen Menschen auf der Flucht. Die kroatische Grenze ist in diesem Gebiet eine grüne Grenze. Es gibt keinen meterhohen Zaun mit Stacheldraht. Dennoch ist das Gebiet bestens überwacht, mehrfach technisch aufgerüstet und zuletzt auf einem kilometerlangen Streifen für eine bessere Sichtbarkeit der Menschen auf der Flucht entwaldet worden. Gewaltsame Push-backs sind an der Tagesordnung. Das Border Violence Monitoring Network, das auf der Balkanroute ein Monitoring betreibt, spricht von sechs Toten Menschen allein im Juni und jährlich zehntausenden Push-backs auf der Balkanroute. https://deutsch.rt.com/europa/104139-bosnien-herzegowina-wilderer-erschiesst-migranten/https://kroatien-nachrichten.de/fluchtling-auf-dem-weg-nach-kroatien-erschossen/https://thefirethisti.me/2020/07/06/35-the-european-unions-violence-against-asylum-seekers/ […]

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HFT Newsletter #1 – hummus for thought

October 4, 2020 at 6:33 am

[…] 35. The European Union’s Violence Against Asylum Seekers with Jack Sepoch […]

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49. Moria Camp and the Deadly Cost of Fortress Europe – the fire these times

October 11, 2020 at 9:19 pm

[…] more on that you can listen to episode 35 (July 6, 2020) on the deadly ‘Balkan Route’, with Jack Sapoch, […]

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No Peace in Patriarchy | aNtiDoTe Zine

May 7, 2021 at 5:54 pm

[…] take the opportunity to mention two previous episodes of The Fire These Times, numbers 35 and 49. Episode 35 is on the European Union’s violence against asylum seekers; I interviewed Jack Sapoch of the Border Violence Monitoring Network, which focuses a lot on the […]

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69/ The Entrenched “Manliness” of Ethnic Power-sharing Peace Agreements (with Aida A. Hozić) – the fire these times

May 7, 2021 at 7:25 pm

[…] take the opportunity to mention two previous episodes of The Fire These Times, numbers 35 and 49. Episode 35 is on the European Union’s violence against asylum seekers; I interviewed Jack Sapoch of the Border Violence Monitoring Network, which focuses a lot on the […]

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