Story collected on the phone on the 13th and 14th of June 2012

Detainees from Otopeni migrants camp (Romania) keep calling Migreurop office to make their voices heard. Mr A., married to a Romanian women for nearly two years, doesn’t understand the reasons for his detention. He tells us about life conditions in the centre, his confusion and revolt.
Story collected on the phone on the 13th and 14th of June 2012

The practice of detaining migrants is growing dramatically, and has become a prime political tool in the management of immigration and asylum. This is not only true in Europe. Recent events in Greece, Canada and Israel (see attached analysis) show the evolution of the excessive use of detention by governments. The resulting sidelining of people considered undesirable remains largely hidden from civil society and the media. Yet, access to information is an inalienable right of European (…)

Detainee’s stories collected on the phone on the 11/06/2012

Migreurop has received a new distress call from detainees of a Romanian detention camp. Few months ago, the network has already been warned about the dramatic situation of migrants detained in the Arad closed camp, in the western part of the country. Few days ago, detainees of the second detention camp of the country, Otopeni, near Bucharest, wished to make their cry for help heard.
« At the moment, we are about 70 in Otopeni. There are a lot of different nationalities.
Life conditions (…)

On 5 June 2012, Doros Polycarpou, the Executive Director of Cypriot anti-racist NGO KISA, was acquitted of the charge of rioting during the 2010 Rainbow Festival in Larnaca. This decision is final and is not open for appeal. The judge found the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses to be not credible.
This ruling confirms the view of a wide coalition of international NGOs: the accusations were manifestly false and represented only the most recent in a series of attempts by the Cypriot (…)