
On April 13, the number of deaths due to the Corona virus in Italy exceeded 20,000, and this is the news that made headlines around the world. That afternoon, Saeed carefully packed his bag and put his phone, 3 portable charging batteries, a box of cigarettes, a sleeping bag, and a picture of his two children in Pakistan.
In this special investigative report, the authors Roshan distone, David Saper and Hannah Kirmes Daly said that Saeed had been forcibly held for more than a month in the Leba camp for migrants and asylum seekers, in the Bosnian canton of Una Sana, located directly next to the Croatian border. Having reached this point, Saeed was ready for the last leg of his trip to Europe.
That night, Saeed left the camp. On his way to the Croatian border, he was joined by 9 other immigrants. For 21 days, the group walked through forests and mountains across Croatia, Slovenia and Italy, avoiding roads and cities. They were always careful that no one would see them, and even they abstained from taking off their shoes and did not sleep.
During the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus infection in the spring, European Union member states justified strengthening border security, sending the army to patrol the borders, and suspending freedom of movement, as a legal measure to combat the spread of the virus.
This has drastically affected migration, giving migrants and asylum seekers another reason to cross the border surreptitiously. Saeed and his companions were well aware of this, and when they crossed the last border into Italy, they thought their worst nightmares were over.
On their way down the mountains, the group stopped at the border town of Banuli for a cup of black coffee, as a small reward for the arduous journey they had taken. But across the street, a woman was peering out of her window and then reaching for the phone, and within minutes, the police surrounded the place.
Saeed and his companions were arrested and taken in an Italian police car to be handed over to Slovenian officials, and taken to the common Croatian border with Bosnia in less than 24 hours. They were finally released in a field on the bank of a river and ordered to take off their clothes and shoes.
Once Saeed took off his shoes, his feet were severely sore, two of his companions were severely beaten with batons, and another was flogged. "Go back to Bosnia" was the last thing they heard from the Croatian officers in civilian clothes as they walked back to the other riverbank of the Bosnian border. On the morning of May 7, Saeed returned barefoot to the same camp he had left three weeks earlier.
Happy meeting
Since the start of the outbreak, the European Agency for Border and Coast Guard "Frontex" has announced a decrease in the total number of irregular crossings of European borders. This was the case on all major roads to Europe except for the Balkan route, where the number of migrants who crossed was higher compared to the same The period of last year, despite the outbreak of the virus.
On 10 July, two months after his deportation from Italy, Said was seated in Piazza Liberta, which is located in front of the Trieste train station and the main meeting point for migrants and asylum seekers who are more precisely defined as "people on the move" who have just arrived or depart to Other destinations.
Said managed to reach Trieste on his fifth attempt, then applied for asylum in Italy. Early in his thirties, Saeed was clean-shaven and dressed in fashionable ripped jeans with flawless white sneakers, even looking like a regular tourist, were it not for the scars on his arms.
At a time when he was clarifying what he meant by drawing lines on the dirt using a stick, Said said, "The most dangerous border that is difficult to cross to enter Europe from the east is here and here. The first border is on the Evros River that separates Greece and Turkey." This is the only solution for those who want to avoid the risk of crossing by boat to the Greek islands, where recent reports spread about the return of migrants to Turkey.
He continued, "The second border is between Bosnia and Croatia," then stopped for a while and continued, "The road through these two border lines and all the way to Italy or Austria is what we call the game." "I've got these scars here," he says, pointing to the scars on his arms.
The outbreak of the epidemic coincided with incidents of violence at the border that became more cruel and humiliating. In some accounts, it was reported that some were subjected to sexual assaults with tree branches, and the police forced them to cross over each other naked while beating them and spraying paint on their heads.
People on the move reported that all their belongings were often stolen during the pushbacks, with officers even breaking their phones and throwing them in the water.
In fact, Saeed - the youngest of his thirteen siblings - seeks to reach his cousin who lives in Marseille (France), get a chance to escape unemployment in Pakistan, and send money home to his family and children in Karachi.
Under current regulations governing refugee law, Saeed's asylum application is unlikely to be accepted in Italy. In other words, poverty and the dream of a better future are not among the recognized reasons for granting asylum in Europe.
International refugee law, which was framed at the end of World War II, laid the foundations for a long-term bilateral narrative between refugees fleeing war and persecution and migrants fleeing poverty, and the distinction between deserving and unworthy of the European Union's openness.
For people fleeing poverty or natural disasters from countries like Pakistan, obtaining European work visas and residence permits is nearly impossible. The only way to avoid refoulement is to seek asylum and hope for a human rights manifestation on the borders of the old continent.
"I hope the European Union will realize that instead of paying thousands of euros to cross the border illegally, I would try to use this money to buy a plane ticket and rent a room while looking for work," Saeed said.
He joked, "I was worried about the outbreak of the Corona pandemic and the possibility of catching the infection, but fortunately I have worse problems that I have to deal with first." Since most hotels that usually host homeless people in Trieste were forced to close during the first closure, people today have little choice. The same applies to earning a living.
Although Said has the distinction of being a skilled electrician and carpenter willing to work, he is banned from working in Italy as an asylum seeker. To stay alive, Saeed set out as a guide and simple smuggler who makes the most of what he learned during the "game".
Saeed took a second phone out of his pocket and got a call. "There are 70 men crossing the mountains to Italy and they will be here by 4:00 tomorrow morning," he said. "When they arrive, I will be the liaison between them. I will explain to them where they can get help, how to get an Italian SIM card and give them the money that their families sent me through the Western Union service," he added.
He paused, then continued his speech, "I know some of them because we used to live in the same camp in Bosnia. I try to help them because I realize what they are really going through. In return, they pay me a nominal fee."
There are people like Saeed who have improved their living conditions through irregular migration. And there are the smugglers who get large sums of money in this trade, which has been estimated to be worth around one million dollars.
In this context, Saeed, pointing to two Afghan boys, recalls that they asked him where they could go to prostitution and pay for the next stage of the journey. "There are a lot of people willing to make money from our suffering," he commented.
The question remains: Did the strengthening of border security in Europe, and random returns, allow more room for traders and smugglers to exploit the most vulnerable groups among migrants?
Mission Impossible for Law Enforcement
But the uncertainty that characterizes Covid-19 policies, with regard to health and security, does not only affect migration. Since residents without legal documents try to escape from the authorities in order not to be deported, as they are not likely to abide by the COVID-19 prevention measures. Therefore, they will be at risk of contracting the virus, and at the same time they pose a danger to others.
Migrants have been denied the right to health care, and overcrowding and inadequate conditions in reception centers are making the situation even worse.
This was confirmed by Lorenzo Tamaro, representative of the Trieste Police Union, who explained that "the matter is very dangerous for them, as it is for us," noting that tackling irregular entry operations has become an impossible task, with the Italian police performing exceptional tasks after nearly two months of Strict closure.
He also says in this context, "The epidemic reveals a systematic crisis in monitoring migration processes, which we have been suffering from for years." He adds, "The Italian police are suffering from a lack of personnel and resources to confront irregular migration, especially during the closure measures imposed due to the outbreak of the new Corona virus."
According to the police representative, "Foreigners who enter our lands without a permit violate the law. We are not responsible for enacting the law, but our task is to ensure that it is respected and not violated." Tamaro and his colleagues have been facing waves of immigration from Balkan countries for years.
The state of emergency caused by the increase in the number of arrivals during the period of strict lockdown in Italy prompted the Ministry of the Interior to request the deployment of an army unit of 100 personnel on the border in March to help discover and arrest migrants, and transfer them to quarantine camps on the outskirts of the city.
"We were left to deal with immigration and public health emergencies without providing any real support," Tamaru says. "The army is helping to stop the influx of illegal immigrants, but the police have to conduct medical checks without adequate protective equipment. The ministry should have assigned a medical team from Order this mission. "
To deal with the increase in arrivals from the Balkans, Italy revived a bilateral agreement with Slovenia dating back to 1996, which stipulates that anyone who immigrated irregularly and was found within 10 kilometers of the Slovenian border within the first 24 hours of arrival can be returned.
"In my opinion, the repatriation of migrants is successful, as smugglers began to transport migrants to Udine and Gorizia, which are outside the area 10 kilometers away, because they know that if they are stopped in Trieste, they will be sent back to Slovenia," Tamaro comments.
On September 6, the Italian interior minister confirmed that 3059 migrants from Trieste would be returned to the Slovenian authorities in 2020 alone. The number increased by about a thousand irregular migrants compared to the same period last year.
Human rights monitors have criticized this agreement because it deprives refugees of their rights, which is contrary to European Union laws.
Migrant deportations
"We know that Italy is sending back immigrants to Slovenia, but the deportations don't end here," says Miha, a member of the Slovenian organization InfoColpa.
In his apartment in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, Miha explains how Slovenia decided to return to the Migrant Return Agreement with Croatia in June 2018, which allowed for an increase in deportations from Slovenia to Croatia.
"Migrants are then deported from Croatia to Bosnia. What Europe ignores is that the deportations are carried out in a coordinated and sequential manner, and migrants return in the end to Bosnia, a country that does not belong to the European Union," Miha says.
Although it is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, many human rights reports question the enjoyment by refugees of their basic rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Next to Maiha sits Khaled, an Eritrean activist and member of InfoColpa, whose asylum application has been rejected in Slovenia, and he is currently appealing the ruling.
Like many Eritreans, Khaled left his country to escape military service imposed for life under the "tyrannical" Isaias Afewerki regime. "They make you a slave of the system, so those who managed to escape are considered lucky," he says in this context.
During his journey through Sudan and Egypt, he was forced to pay smugglers to obtain false documents to reach Turkey. By 2015, he arrived in Sweden and was able to submit an asylum application, which he thought would achieve his goal.
As he was previously fingerprinted by the Bulgarian authorities, he was deported to Sofia. "I was kicked out of Sofia 10 times until I finally got to Ljubljana," Khaled says. In fact, his story is testament to how blurry the difference between legal deportations and illegal expulsions has been over the past few years.