Desperate trips between sea and woods… New tactics, risks, and legal problems

The number of recent statements made by western politicians mentioning an increase in asylum seekers has increased. Some of the new numbers presented have broken previous records set in some European countries, especially by asylum seekers of Syrian, Afghan, or Iraqi origins. This report attempts to study the resurfacing of the illegal migration trips trend, particularly carried out by Syrian youth, in an attempt to present a clearer understanding of it and the risks it carries.

This report primarily depends on the analysis and observation of groups concerned with this issue, delving into the unsuccessful migration attempts recorded in the third quarter of 2022. The team expects that the number of victims and casualties is much higher than what was recorded, as most of the rescuing efforts were provided by volunteer groups rather than organizations or institutions.

The observation results came to conclude that there are at least 155 recorded cases in the 3^rd quarter of 2022, 75% of these cases coming from Turkey, 23% from Lebanon, and only 3% from Libya. Furthermore, these cases included at least 4637 illegal migrants, 214 of whom died, being 4% of the migrants, 224 were arrested, and 225 went missing, amounting to 5% of the total number for each group, while the rest of them were rescued.

In addition, the results indicate that 88% of missing immigrants were on sea trips, which helps us assume that the missing people in those cases are in fact dead. On the other hand 12% of them were on land trips. Alongside this, 86% of the victims died during sea trips, while 14% of them died on land trips. Finally, 98% of rescued immigrants were on unsuccessful sea trips, and only 2% of them were on land trips.

According to the results, it is noticed that illegal immigration tactics changed recently, for both immigrants and smugglers. That is because some immigrant groups started to give new advice and instructions based on their previous experiences, instructions that can be bought. New tactics have appeared in the land smuggling business. In these tactics they hire a “guide” who leads these groups in land, which may face exploitation from the smuggler or the guide, and some smugglers might try to convince immigrants to use some sorts of drugs to help them endure the road’s difficulties.

Furthermore, immigrants who use land routes suffer from high rates of sicknesses because of changing weather and bites from venomous insects and reptiles. They also face attacks from wild animals or trained guard dogs, or intoxication, which became one of the most frequent cases recently. Alongside that, immigrants who take land routes face risks of getting lost, fatigue, or separation from the group, in which survival chances become low, as well as the chances of finding them.

In addition, getting caught by Greek or Serbian border guards, and facing their violations is considered one of the biggest risks that asylum seekers might face, which many testimonies confirm that Greek border guards committed systematic violations that led to the death or disappearance of many of the asylum seekers. In some cases they made the asylum seekers work for them inside networks that aim to obstruct other asylum seekers, to sink them, or to harm them.

On another side, the cases of sinking boats, death and missing tolls on board these sea trips have increased. In addition, the observers noticed that the number of sea trips that carry asylum seekers from different countries, especially from Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Afghanistan, going from Lebanon to Italy, instead of Greece, has increased, which resulted in the failure of reaching the destination and frequent sinking near the regional waters of Turkey and Greece.

Immigration attempts increased in every region in Syria, within the regime-controlled, the SDF-controlled, or the opposition-controlled regions, and even the Syrian refugees in Turkey and Lebanon. And the reasons behind this are the economic situation, lack of security, and the absence of any sign for any diplomatic solution for the Syrian crisis able to bring stability to the country.

With regards to the Syrian refugees in Turkey and Lebanon, the reasons are the lack of stability and safety, due to the recent statements by the governments of the two countries about voluntary return or the normalization of relationships with Assad’s regime, besides the rising racism wave against refugees in both countries.

Besides that, although EU countries could not evade their responsibilities towards refugees that reached them, the actions on the ground point out that these countries did pushback–one of forced return forms- in some countries via EU’s Frontex, and these actions contain human rights violations. The EU also turned a blind eye to many violations that asylum seekers have faced during their journey, although it was recorded in many UNHCR reports.

Despite many legal texts written in various international conventions about banning forced return, we noticed that some countries, that signed these agreements, are involved in forced return cases, without giving asylum seekers any chance to investigate their cases, and even putting their lives in danger by sinking their boats or ignoring the gangs on borders that commit serious crimes such as killing, raping, and human-trafficking.

These forced return violations were not limited in pushbacks, but it came to the real forced return for immigrants who have already reached their destination by sending them back to Syria, the place they escaped from, under individual and different pretexts. And these cases have occurred without an investigating whether the return conditions about the safety of returning refugees were reached or not, although there are many reports assure that Syria is still not safe for return.

Syrians today need to understand the current conditions and the details of signed agreements. They also need to benefit from available tools, especially legal ones, in order to organize themselves and establish institutions that concentrate on following human rights violations against asylum seekers everywhere, and pushing towards decreasing the number of these cases and its victims, and raising awareness about these problems.

Syrians also need to develop their concepts about immigration and asylum, and to work on producing reports and academic researches on these topics, which try to introduce realistic visions and ideas from the huge Syrian immigration experience. In addition, they need to research ways and tools that reinforce the stability of refugees and defend their rights against any kind of exploitation. As well as help introduce solutions to the immigration problem, which became a major crisis in the whole world, that help in containing it and reducing its humanitarian losses, and increasing its political, economic, and cultural gains.

To Read the Complete Report (Arabic)