Guide for Families of Border Victims

La Guía tiene como principal objetivo ayudar a todas esas familias a iniciar y facilitar las labores de búsqueda de las víctimas de las fronteras, ofreciéndoles distintas estrategias para sortear las dificultades con las que se irán encontrando a lo largo de todo el proceso; desde la denuncia hasta la repatriación de los cadáveres.

Destacamos lo doloroso y complicado que ha sido, en muchas ocasiones, poder arrojar algo de luz a la desesperación de las familias. Obtener información ha sido una labor ardua y complicada, pero esperamos que todo el resultado de nuestra investigación se traduzca en el reconocimiento de las familias como víctimas de las fronteras y en un señalamiento explícito al sistema que permite que esta sea la terrible realidad de miles de personas.

Descarga la Guía para Familias Víctimas de la Frontera aquí

Descarga el informe de análisis Construyendo Memoria Migrante aquí

La Guide vise principalement à soutenir toutes ces familles à commencer et faciliter les opérations de recherche des victimes des frontières, en leur offrant plusieurs stratégies pour surmonter les difficultés qu’ elles trouveront tout au long du processus ; depuis la dénonce jusqu’au rapatriement des cadavres.

On souligne la douleur et les problèmes auxquels les familles ont dû souvent faire face afin de faire la lumière sur le désespoir qu’elles éprouvent. L’obtention des informations a été un travail acharné et difficile, mais on espère que tout le résultat de notre enquête se traduira dans la reconnaissance des familles en tant que victimes des frontières et dans une responsabilisation explicite vers le système qui permet que cela soit la terrible réalité pour des milliers de personnes.

Téléchargez la Guide pour la recherche de Personnes Disparues à la Frontiere ici

The main aim of the guide is to help all these families to initiate and facilitate the searches for border victims, offering them different strategies to tackle the obstacles they will face in the process, from reporting the disappearance to repatriating the body.

We underline how painful and complicated has been to give some hope to these desperate families. Obtaining information has been an arduous and complicated task but we hope that the result of our investigation will lead to families being acknowledged as border victims and to the system being exposed as one that allows this to be the terrible reality of thousands of people.

Download the Guide for Families of Border Victims here

 

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Our report ‘Victims of the Necrofrontier 2018-2022’ is presented in Barcelona (19/12) and Pamplona (21/12)

The report summarises the last five years of work by our Observatory of Human Rights on the Western Euro-African Border.

At the end of each year, Ca-minando Fronteras takes stock of the current situation for migrants. We publish an annual report containing data on the victims of migration policies during that year: people who have gone missing or died while migrating to Europe, boats that have capsized, countries of origin and routes where hundreds of people are lost forever. In 2022, we decided to adopt a slightly different perspective. We published an update on the numbers of victims of the western Euro-African border between 2018 and 2022 (up to 30 November 2022) and conducted a diachronic analysis that reveals the impacts of contemporary necropolitics.

The ‘Victims of the Necrofrontier 2018-2022’ report will be presented at two events: the first will be held in Barcelona on 19 December and the second in Pamplona on 21 December.

Voces desde la Frontera, en el Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona

Presentación internacional del informe ‘Víctimas de la necrofrontera 2018-2022’: un abordaje cuantitativo de los datos recabados por nuestro Observatorio de Derechos Humanos en los últimos cinco años, así como de un análisis cualitativo del efecto de las políticas migratorias contemporáneas en las personas migrantes y sus familiares. Con la participación de Helena Maleno (fundadora de Ca-minando Fronteras), Soda Niasse (activista por los derechos humanos) y Oussman Ba (responsable del equipo psicosocial de la Delegación Diocesana de Migraciones). Modera la investigadora Blanca Garcés.

Cuándo: 19 de diciembre de 2022, 18:30h

Dónde: CCCB, Barcelona. Carrer de Montealegre, 5.

Extra: Habrá streaming con traducción simultánea en castellano y catalán.

Voces desde la frontera. Presentación del informe Víctimas de la necrofrontera 2018-2022.
Más información en la web del CCCB: Voces de la frontera
Víctimas de la necrofrontera 2018-2022. Por la memoria y la justicia, en el Centro Cultural Fundación Caja Navarra de Pamplona

«¿Cuáles son las cifras que perpetúan las muertes en la frontera y cuáles son las que sirven para defender la vida? La observación de la realidad en la Frontera Occidental Euroafricana no es neutra y quienes se acercan al conocimiento desde una perspectiva de defensa de la vida se encuentran inmediatamente con los derechos de las víctimas y sus familias», explicamos en el informe para dar cuenta de la importancia de contar a las víctimas de las fronteras con herramientas cuantitativas y cualitativas.

Compartiremos el informe en un diálogo con las organizaciones SOS Racismo Nafarroa y Ongi Etorri Errefuxiatuak y debatiremos sobre Frontera Sur, Frontera Norte, racismo y necropolítica. Participan Helena Maleno (fundadora de Ca-minando Fronteras), Maite Santamaría (Ongi Etorri Errefuxiatuak) y Beatriz Villahizán (SOS Racismo Nafarroa).

Cuándo: 21 de diciembre de 2022, 18:00h.

Dónde: CIVICAN, Pamplona. Av. de Pío XII, 2.

Extra: Nuestra compañera Helena Maleno estará presente en una rueda de prensa que tendrá lugar en la mañana, previa a la presentación del informe. Lugar y hora por confirmar.

Presentación informe Víctimas de la necrofrontera 2018-2022. Por la memoria y la justicia.

Read the full report here: Victims of the necrofrontier 2018-2022. For memory and justice..

Are you looking for a relative or a friend who has gone missing while attempting to migrate? If so, you can contact us here.

Missing: 47 migrant men who disappeared on the Algerian route

On 8 November 2022, two boats set off from Boumerdès (Algeria) for Cabrera in the Balearic Islands. One of them departed at 07:00 (UTC) with 26 Algerian men on board. The other carried 21 migrant men (12 Algerians and nine sub-Saharan Africans).

Several weeks later, a community leader informed us that both boats had gone missing; we immediately passed the information on to Salvamento Marítimo in the Balearic Islands. The rescue services informed us that they had already received the alert and explained the action that had been taken: a passive search for the vessel, a simulation to try to identify the areas where it might be and an alert issued to other boats currently in the area. At that time, the boat had still not been found but they continued to alert nearby vessels. Four weeks have now passed since the boat set off from the Algerian coast.

We continue to search for the two boats but no further information has yet become available. As part of the Right to Life area of our work, we call for greater effort and coordination to search for migrant people who go missing at the border.

Are you looking for a relative or a friend who has gone missing while attempting to migrate? If so, you can contact us here.

STATEMENT: Police violence at the border continues to cause deaths in Morocco

In response to the death of a young migrant woman at a beach in Akhfennir following an operation by Moroccan police forces.

According to witnesses, on Monday 12 September, a young migrant woman died of gunshot wounds to the chest as the Moroccan police attempted to stop the boat that she and other migrant people were about to board to cross to Spain from entering the water. She was part of a group of 35 people from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa, who were preparing to board a vessel on a beach located between Akhfennir and Tarfaya in Morocco.

When the authorities reached the site, they launched a violent operation to prevent the boat from departing and used real firearms against the migrant people waiting to board.

The young woman who died was not the only victim of this police violence. Several others from the group were admitted to hospital, including three young Moroccan men in a very serious condition. One of them, who is in intensive care, was shot in the back. Two young people were hit by a car as they tried to flee the site of the attack.

In light of the incident, the signatories to this statement would like to emphasise the following points:

  • The use of firearms against unarmed civilians points once again to the exponential rise in the use of force by the law enforcement agencies in their operations at the borders, where migrant people are viewed as a threat rather than as subjects of care and rights.
  • The absence of mechanisms to monitor and supervise police operations perpetuates the impunity surrounding the use of force against communities on the move, denying victims the right to reparation for the harm they have suffered and leaving them helpless against attacks on their physical, moral and psychological integrity.
  • The externalisation of border control to the Kingdom of Morocco by the European Union and the Spanish State, which was recently endorsed with 500 million euros from the EU budget (an increase of 44.5% on the previous year), continues to exacerbate the extreme vulnerability experienced by migrant people in these regions and systematically violates their fundamental right to life.

After the tragic deaths at the border fence in Melilla, we cannot continue to accept that human rights are conditional upon economic partnerships between countries.

Rest in peace. Truth, justice and reparation for the victims.

September 13, 2022.

This statement is open to new signatories. Please send the name of your organisation to info@caminandofronteras.org

Ca-minando Fronteras

Asociación Apoyo

CIEs no Madrid

Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Iltre Colegio de Abogados de Baleares

Coordinadora de Barrios

Asociación Karibu

CP San Carlos Borromeo

Solidary Wheels

Asociación Elin

Mundo en Movimiento

Red Solidaria de Acogida

Balears Acollim