Collins was an assistant nurse in a military hospital in Douala, Cameroon. After two years of working without getting paid,she and her husband decided to head to Banki, in the north of the country. The town was captured by Boko Haram, and Collins and her husband were kidnapped and held in the bush. After a couple of months, Collins managed to escape with the help of an older woman and started a six-month journey that finally brought her to Libya. It was not easy, she was already eight months pregnant at that time and she was beaten while the women travelling with her were raped.

When the Dignity I crew found her on a rubber boat at 08:00 in the morning, her face showed she was in pain. Her labour contractions had already started. Astrid, an MSF midwife on board, helped Collins deliver a baby boy she called Divan. The delivery went smoothly. It is Collins’ second child. Besides her husband, of whom she has had no news since leaving Cameroon, she also left behind a two-year-old son, Warren, with her mother in Douala,.

After the delivery, Collins was transferred to the Spanish Guardia Civil boat that will take mother and son to Italy.

Source: MSF

We are treating the medical consequences of the journey, including hypothermia and dehydration, but also acute conditions requiring medical evacuation such as septic shock, pneumonia and wounds inflicted by abuse and violence. We are trying to improve living conditions for people stranded in Greece, Italy, FYROM and Serbia. But all of our work amounts to filling the gaps left by states unwilling or unable to fulfil their responsibilities.

Many people are fleeing war, oppression and torture. Others are fleeing poverty, persecution and human rights violations. All want a safer and better life. But their exit routes are growing scarcer, while refugee hosting countries such as Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan become more overburdened. The world is faced with the worst displacement crisis since World War II. The conflict in Syria shows no sign of abating. Yet Europe is closing its borders.

Categorisations of ’migrants; , ’refugees’ or ’asylum seekers’ do not adequately or fairly describe the reality that pushes people to embark on long and dangerous journeys. Every person has a story to tell about why they were forced to risk their lives to reach Europe. When people need medical care, food, water and shelter, they should receive this assistance regardless of their legal status.

When your ministers gather this Monday for yet another summit on the so-called ‘migration crisis’, bear in mind that the decisions adopted in previous summits have so far largely failed to improve the situation. Some measures have made the situation worse: fences and forced fingerprinting only push people to choose more clandestine and dangerous routes. Lives continue to be lost at sea, in the back of lorries and in make shift camps where people live in unacceptable conditions in the heart of the European Union. It is time to put an end to these policies of deterrence. They have turned a foreseeable and manageable influx of people fleeing for survival into a policy-made human tragedy on Europe’s beaches, borders, train platforms and motorways. They are jeopardising the right to seek asylum. The current approach of ’non-reception’ and closed borders is causing death, injury and chaos.

Europe is faced with an increasing number of people seeking assistance and protection. These people are only a small portion of the millions who are fleeing intolerable suffering. No matter the obstacles, they will continue to come. They have no other choice. The current policies are untenable in the face of this situation. The only way Europe can prevent a worsening crisis on its territory is to replace the smugglers by providing a safe, legal and free alternative. We ask you to provide safe passage. Legal crossing of sea and land borders must be authorised for asylum seekers into and inside the EU. All forms of legal avenues allowing refugees to reach Europe must be put in place urgently. Efficient solutions to relocate asylum seekers from one EU member state to another must be found. Effective access to coherent asylum procedures and assistance should be provided at entry points, throughout Europe and along migratory routes. Swift registration and access to temporary protection should be provided upon arrival. Legal migration pathways must be created. Dignified reception conditions must be offered to all.

Make this life vest redundant. Provide humane, dignified and safe alternatives.

Sincerely,

Dr. Joanne Liu

International President

Médecins Sans Frontières

Lindis Hurum, MSF Emergency Coordinator on the boat describes the situation:

“It was intense. I spent 45 minutes on our fast rescue boat, staying close to them and talking to them in order to keep them calm until the other vessels arrived to assist us. It is an impressive sight when so many desperate and frightened people are crammed on a boat like this.The boat was close to tipping over – at one point I really thought it would capsize. During the rescue there was a mass man-overboard as people jumped ship, but we had passed sufficient life jackets onto the boat so all the people who jumped were rescued and no one drowned. There were many women, children and elderly men. Afterwards, I went on the boat to check that everyone had been rescued. What a sight – the conditions in the hold were terrible and I still cannot believe no one died. They were very lucky.

We transferred everyone we rescued to a Norwegian Navy Boat for immediate passage towards Italy late last night. Already this morning [Friday 07 August] we have saved a further 128 people from a rubber boat. They were all ecstatic to be alive and safe. Very emotional scenes of joy, prayer and singing broke out once they were safe on our ship. We are awaiting a transfer of a hundred or so people from another boat, and then we will also make our way towards Italy.”

Source: MSF

According to the authorities, this year more than 14,000 people – of whom more than 90 percent are fleeing war-torn Syria – have made the perilous journey in small boats across the Aegean sea from Turkey to the Dodecanese islands, in search of protection. With too few suitable facilities to host them, many refugees find themselves forced for days at a time to sleep outside in the cold and rain or in badly overcrowded police station cells while waiting to be transferred to the Greek mainland.

“Over the past four months, we have seen no will to improve the reception system,” says Kostas Georgakas, MSF field coordinator. “No medical screening is provided for the arrivals and, more importantly, vulnerable people are neglected. Recently a group of doctors from the Ministry of Health was sent to screen refugees for Ebola – despite the fact that most refugees come from Syria and Afghanistan, not from West Africa. But those suffering cardiovascular problems or diabetes receive nothing.”

The Greek authorities have a responsibility to conduct vulnerability screenings and provide adapted care for these people, yet a lack of resources and political will means little concrete action has been taken on the ground.

“We have seen intolerable overcrowding, with 53 people crammed into a cell meant for six,” says Georgakas. “These conditions are unbearable for even one night, especially for people already suffering physically and psychologically from fleeing war. What little they are offered after such a grueling journey is shameful, and is dangerous for their health.”

As a result of the deplorable reception conditions, an MSF mobile team has launched two emergency operations in the Dodecanese islands since late August. In that time, the team has provided medical care to more than 350 refugees and distributed more than 3,000 kits of essential relief items including sleeping bags, soap and other hygiene items.

Patients have told MSF teams that they were pushed back to Turkey before eventually being able to reach Greek shores. Greece has the obligation to honor the fundamental rights of all persons under its jurisdiction, regardless of nationality. States must, at all times, guarantee the non-refoulement of refugees and asylum seekers from territorial lands and waters, and ensure that those persons receive decent treatment upon arrival, including access to an efficient and equitable asylum procedure.

“Greece closed its land borders and now it must respond to the flow of refugees arriving on the Aegean islands with the dignity and respect that these people deserve,” says Manu Moncada, MSF’s operations coordinator for migration. “Higher fences and inhumane living conditions on the islands will not deter the desperate, who will be forced to take ever more dangerous routes in search of safety, with many losing their lives in the process.”

Since 2008, MSF has responded to the urgent medical and humanitarian needs of newly arrived migrants in Greece, as well as to asylum seekers and migrants in administrative detention. In collaboration with two Greek organisations, MSF is also providing medical rehabilitation for victims of torture in Athens.

Following reports of a second ship capsizing off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the international community to protect the rights of migrants and take action to prevent such tragic incidents.

“The Secretary-General is deeply saddened to hear reports of the loss of lives as another boat carrying migrants capsized last Friday off the coast of Italy, only a few days after the tragic incident near Lampedusa which had already claimed more than 300 lives,” Ban’s spokesperson said in a statement.

According to media reports, at least 27 people died and 221 were saved on Friday after their boat capsized near Lampedusa.

The incident occurred just over a week after more than 300 migrants, mostly Ethiopian, lost their lives when their boat caught fire half a mile from the coast, leading the vessel to capsize in the same area.

“The Secretary-General calls on the international community as a whole to take action to prevent such tragedies in the future, including measures that address their root causes and that places the vulnerability and human rights of migrants at the center of the response,” the statement said.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) said that during the first six months of 2013, more then 46,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen, a country that has received close to half a million refugees since 2006.

“UNHCR staff and our partners, such as the Yemeni Red Crescent and the Danish Refugee Council, work daily to record new arrivals and offer them support,” UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva. “That help takes many forms, including food and water, first aid and transportation to transit and reception centres, hot meals, welcome packages including blankets and clothing, accommodation and counselling.”

Fleming said UNHCR had witnessed a significant change in the refugee and migrant population arriving in Yemen over the past two years, with more arrivals from Ethiopia. Previously, Somali refugees made up between one-third and one-quarter of total arrivals. Other arrivals come from Djibouti and Sudan, she said.

“Refugees and migrants are vulnerable to exploitation, violence and sexual abuse at all stages of their journeys,” Fleming said. “Boats crossing the Arabian Sea or Red Sea to Yemen are often overcrowded. Smugglers may force passengers into the water to avoid detection. Smugglers and traffickers often wait on the coast to receive the new arrivals.”

The Government of Yemen automatically recognizes Somali arrivals as refugees, while UNHCR determines the refugee status of Ethiopians and other nationals. Fleming said few Ethiopians seek asylum as many want to travel beyond Yemen or do not know how the asylum process works.

“As a result, most Ethiopians are left extremely vulnerable,” she said.

Fleming said there have been positive developments, as the number of dead or missing refugees and migrants has dropped significantly – to five people so far this year from 43 in all of 2012. Yemeni authorities have also had some success in locating smugglers’ and traffickers’ bases and cracking down on their operations.

“We are also engaged with the Yemeni Government and national and international partners. Together we are working to enhance services offered to refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants as well as find sustainable solutions,” she added.

The anniversary of Operation Xenios Zeus, on August 4, marks one year of abuses conducted by the Greek police against migrants and asylum seekers in Athens.

Xenios Zeus is an epic-scale sweep operation aiming at cracking down on irregular immigration and crime in Athens. Since the start of the operation, tens of thousands of people presumed to be undocumented migrants have been subjected to abusive stops and searches on the streets, and hours-long detention at police stations. Human Rights Watch documented the use of ethnic profiling and arbitrary deprivation of liberty in the recent report “Unwelcome Guests”.

With its deep economic crisis, and after years of mismanaged migration and asylum policies, anti-migrant sentiment has grown rapidly in Greece. Golden Dawn, a far-right, anti-immigrant party has gained in popularity, making it hard not to see Xenios Zeus as a government effort to win voters back.

Confronted with our report during a BBC interview, Minister of Public Order Dendias rejected and denied our findings, as did other government officials when we met with them in mid-June in Athens.

Officials also insisted that Greece is historically tolerant with a longstanding tradition of hospitality, and that it’s “in the DNA of Greeks not to be racist.”

Our July 2012 report “Hate on the Streets” shows the opposite. Xenophobic violence in Greece has reached alarming proportions, with gangs regularly attacking migrants and asylum seekers in the streets of Athens. Despite some positive steps to improve state response, attackers are rarely arrested and police inaction is the rule.

Xenios Zeus, an operation that stigmatizes migrants and asylum seekers, is a dangerous distraction from the real policing challenges the country faces. The one-year anniversary should be markedby reforms to ensure that all measures to identify irregular migrants fully respect human rights law prohibiting discrimination, including ethnic profiling, and arbitrary deprivation of liberty.

“Unwelcome Guests” Report Link / “Hate of the Streets” Report here.

The 40-page report Frontier Europe: Human Rights Abuses on Greece’s border with Turkey examines the Greek authorities’ dangerous use of ‘push backs’- when they turn groups of migrants back across the border, denying them the right to have their individual cases heard or to challenge their expulsion.

The report also highlights the dangers refugees and migrants face trying to cross from Turkey to the Greek islands, and explores the appalling detention conditions those who do make it are often held in.

Since March, Amnesty International has spoken to nearly 30 people in Greece and Turkey who, in at least 39 separate instances, have been stopped trying to cross the Aegean or the northern land border between the two countries along the river Evros.

Almost all of them described how they had experienced or witnessed violence and/or other ill-treatment by the Greek authorities. Many said guards had taken their belongings, including money, family photos and heirlooms, and in some cases thrown them into the sea.

“What’s happening along the Greek border does not just shame Greece. It shames the European Union as a whole,” said Jezerca Tigani, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia.

“The number of push back stories we collected is extremely alarming. It suggests that the Greek authorities are employing this practice on a regular basis, despite the fact that it is unlawful. And it is also extremely dangerous – to the point where it puts people’s lives seriously at risk.”

Testimonies collected by Amnesty point to the blatant disregard for human life shown by the Greek coastguard during these operations carried out in the Aegean Sea. Thirteen of the 14 interviewees who described being returned to Turkey said how their inflatable boats were rammed, knifed, or nearly capsized while they were being towed or circled by a Greek coastguard boat. They said their boats’ engines were disabled and their oars removed, then they were just left in the middle of the sea. Life-endangering practices were also reported by people caught after crossing the river Evros.

The route across the Aegean has become more popular since last year when authorities built a 10.5 kilometre fence and deployed nearly 2,000 new border guards along the border at the river Evros. But it is a dangerous one. As well as the threat of push backs, since August last year more than 100 people – including women and children and mostly Syrians and Afghans – have drowned trying to reach Greece.

“As the weather gets better and conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia continue, we expect more people to attempt the journey and we are likely to see more tragedies like these,” said Jezerca Tigani.

Those who do make it to Greece are routinely detained in dark, dirty cells for long periods. Many of the people Amnesty spoke to had spent nearly nine months behind bars. Health problems are rife.

“The conditions refugees and migrants are being held in are often appalling. In fact, when we visited people in those cells it was difficult to remember we were actually in the EU. Many of them are fleeing conflict, poverty and hunger but too often they are being held in dark, dirty, damp cells, with limited access to fresh air and not enough food,” said Jezerca Tigani.

“Some detainees told us they had to call the police when they needed to use the toilet as there were no toilets in their cells. They said their calls were often not answered for hours so they had to urinate in bottles. Others said their bedding had not been washed for months, and that they had limited access to soap, shampoo or sanitary towels,” she added.

Amnesty International is calling on the Greek authorities to stop push backs immediately and investigate allegations of collective expulsions and ill-treatment, and to prosecute those involved. It wants all those intercepted trying to cross borders to have their cases for international protection heard fairly. It wants the Greek authorities to end the indiscriminate and prolonged detention of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers; and use alternatives to detention.

The EU has a role to play too. It must support the Greek authorities by helping to improve reception services instead of sealing off borders. The EU should also explore new ways of sharing responsibility for refugees and migrants.

“It is obviously Greece’s prerogative to control its borders, but not at the expense of the human rights of those trying to reach safety, or looking for a better life, in Europe. These are difficult times in Greece, and for millions across Europe, but there is no excuse for how refugees and migrants are being treated,” said Jezerca Tigani.

“Other EU Member States appear only too happy for Greece to act as their gatekeeper. But the policies and practices along the Greek border expose the bitter irony of European countries pressing for peace abroad while denying asylum to and putting at risk the lives of those seeking refuge in Europe. The EU must act now to stop these human rights violations at its borders,” she said.

Around 7,800 of the migrants and asylum-seekers arrived in Italy, while Malta received around 600, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Most of those making the journey departed from North Africa, principally Libya (around 6,700 people). The remaining 1,700 crossed from Greece and Turkey, landing in southern Italy.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are the main places of origin of these migrants and asylum-seekers, particularly Somalia and Eritrea. Other countries of origin include Egypt, Pakistan and Syria. Nationals of Gambia, Mali and Afghanistan also make these crossings, but in smaller numbers, noted UNHCR.

The agency has also recorded some 40 deaths in the first six months of 2013 by people attempting to cross the Mediterranean between North Africa and Italy.

“The Mediterranean is one of the busiest seaways in the world, as well as a dangerous sea frontier for migrants and asylum-seekers en route to southern Europe,” said UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards.

“In view of the perils, UNHCR again calls on all vessels at sea to be on alert for migrants and refugees in need of rescue,” he said at a news conference in Geneva. “We also renew our call to all shipmasters in the Mediterranean to remain vigilant and to carry out their duty of rescuing vessels in distress.

“International and European law also requires States to ensure that people intercepted or rescued at sea who seek asylum can gain access to territory and to an asylum procedure where their international protection needs or claims can be examined,” he added.

UNHCR noted that the peak crossing period for migrants and asylum-seekers runs from May to September.

“At this time of year, when there is an increase in the number of people trying to make this perilous journey, it is essential to ensure that the long-established tradition of rescue at sea is upheld by all and that international maritime law is adhered to,” said Mr. Edwards.

Last year, some 15,000 migrants and asylum-seekers reached Italy and Malta by sea, while almost 500 people were reported dead or missing at sea.

The organization said that the rights of millions of people who have escaped conflict and persecution, or migrated to seek work and a better life for themselves and their families, have been abused. Governments around the world are accused of showing more interest in protecting their national borders than the rights of their citizens or the rights of those seeking refugee or opportunities within those borders.

“The failure to address conflict situations effectively is creating a global underclass. The rights of those fleeing conflict are unprotected. Too many governments are abusing human rights in the name of immigration control – going well beyond legitimate border control measures,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“These measures not only affect people fleeing conflict. Millions of migrants are being driven into abusive situations, including forced labour and sexual abuse, because of anti-immigration policies which means they can be exploited with impunity. Much of this is fuelled by populist rhetoric that targets refugees and migrants for governments’ domestic difficulties,” said Shetty.

In 2012 the global community witnessed a range of human rights emergencies that forced large numbers of people to seek safety, within states or across borders. From North Korea to Mali, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo people fled their homes in the hope of finding safe haven.

Another year has been lost in Syria, where little has changed apart from the ever-increasing numbers of lives lost or ruined. Tens of thousands have died and millions have been displaced by the conflict. The world stood by while Syrian military and security forces continued to carry out indiscriminate and targeted attacks on civilians, and to subject to enforced disappearance, arbitrarily detain, torture and extrajudicially execute those deemed to oppose the government, while armed groups continue to hold hostages and to carry out summary killings and torture on a smaller scale.

The excuse that human rights are ‘internal affairs’ has been used to block international action to address rights emergencies such as Syria. The UN Security Council – entrusted with global security and leadership – continue to fail to ensure concerted and unified political action.

“Respect for state sovereignty cannot be used as an excuse for inaction. The UN Security Council must consistently stand up to abuses that destroy lives and force people to flee their homes. That means rejecting worn-out and morally bereft doctrines that mass murder, torture and starvation are no one else’s business,” said Shetty.

People attempting to flee conflict and persecution regularly encountered formidable obstacles trying to cross international borders. It was often harder for refugees to cross borders than it was for the guns and weapons that facilitated the violence that forced such people from their homes. However, the UN’s adoption of an Arms Trade Treaty in April 2013 offers hope that shipments of weapons that may be used to commit atrocities may at last be halted.

“Refugees and displaced people can no longer be ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Their protection falls to all of us. The borderless world of modern communications makes it increasingly difficult for abuses to be hidden behind national boundaries – and is offering unprecedented opportunities for everyone to stand up for the rights of the millions uprooted from their homes,” said Shetty.

Refugees who were able to reach other countries seeking asylum often found themselves in the same boat – literally and figuratively – as migrants leaving their countries to seek a better life for themselves and their families. Many are forced to live in the margins of society, failed by ineffective laws and policies, and allowed to be the targets of the kind of populist, nationalist rhetoric that stokes xenophobia and increases the risk of violence against them.

The European Union implements border control measures that put the lives of migrants and asylum-seekers at risk and fails to guarantee the safety of those fleeing conflict and persecution. Around the world, migrants and asylum-seekers are regularly locked up in detention centres and in worst case scenarios are held in metal crates or even shipping containers.

The rights of huge numbers of the world’s 214 million migrants were not protected by their home or their host state. Millions of migrants worked in conditions amounting to forced labour – or in some cases slavery-like conditions – because governments treated them like criminals and because corporations cared more about profits than workers’ rights. Undocumented migrants were particularly at risk of exploitation and human rights abuse.

“Those who live outside their countries, without wealth or status, are the world’s most vulnerable people but are often condemned to desperate lives in the shadows,” said Shetty. “A more just future is possible if governments respect the human rights of all people, regardless of nationality. The world cannot afford no-go zones in the global demand for human rights. Human rights protection must be applied to all human beings – wherever they are.”