Sometimes news pass unobserved. On Monday, 20th of April, in Catania, the Linguistic aperitif moved from its’ usual location (a pub near the city harbour) and not for a stupid reason. The harbour had to be the scene of one of the saddest events of the last months. More than 900 people – including 200 women and up to 50 children – tragically died after a boat overturned in one of the worst maritime disasters since the end of World War II. 

Only 28 passengers were rescued after their overcrowded fishing boat tipped over at night on its way from Libya to Italy. One of the survivors, a man from Bangladesh, said that there were 950 migrants on board, about 300 migrants were trapped in the ships’ hold when it sank.
Rescuers recovered 24 bodies from the sea, soon after the disaster, which took place outside of the Libyan waters, south of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, shortly after midnight on the 19th of April.

The small numbers of survivors make more sense if hundreds of people were locked in the hold because with so much weight down below, surely the boat would have sunk. This tragedy comes just days after another shipwreck in the area claimed 400 lives.  This could possibly be the biggest tragedy to have ever taken place in the Mediterranean Sea.

Maybe Italy and Malta need more support in dealing with the migrant crisis?

“Europe can do more and Europe must do more” said Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament- can that be true? “Where is Europe?” is what I hear walking down the streets and talking with people here in Catania: the mistrust in the European Institutions is increasing more and more. We are always talking about “Spreading Europtimism”, but how, in reality, may we convince people to be faithful after such a disaster?

Maybe all is increased by the media, that is creating a gap of information (or maybe, “misinformation”) because the news they pass is not all or not complete enough.

In conlcusion, I think that it is very difficult to feel the “European feelings” when, from the main stakeholders in summits, some decisions are never taken together.

Written by Elisa Tabbì, AEGEE-Catania

The Hungarian government has recently made headlines (again) with the government announcing it is going to erect a 4m high and 176 kms long fence along the Serbian-Hungarian border, investing 23 billions Forints (Hungarian currency, approx. 75 million euros), “protecting the borders of Hungary and protecting the borders of the EU”. Denying help from masses of people fleeing their war-stricken countries and treating refugees like criminals with aggressive border-patrolling measures are acts against inalienable human rights and the Hungarian government’s actions are the manifestation of how the misguided ‘illiberal state’s government is rotten to its core – the international media loudly agrees pointing all fingers at the country.

Do you agree with condemning Hungary’s actions? Do you agree with condemning Hungary’s actions while being fully aware of the circumstances and the reality of the country? You might be surprised to learn some of the internationally lesser-known facts about the migration situation in Hungary.

Imagine Agora sleeping conditions, lasting for 4-6 months and only 5% of you would manage to get the papers for a start of a new life.

1. Hungary is one of the main points of entry for migrants into the Schengen passport free zone and has received more refugees per capita than any other EU country apart from Sweden. Over the past three years the number of people illegally crossing the southern border has become twenty times more. Only in 2015 around 60.000 migrants have entered the country and 95% of those cross from Serbia, which is not a member of the EU but has started accession talks. This massive influx has gone way beyond the capacity of what the national authorities can handle in terms of the evaluation of individual cases; who is a refugee – who is a migrant? The camps are slowly unable to provide even the bare minimum for civilised living conditions for refugees, or proper surveillance for the migrants’ activities of the southern areas of the country. The sudden peak in the number of people entering the country has left the (only!) three existing refugee camps of the country unable to keep up with the workload of providing proper healthcare, shelter and aid with the paperwork for these people.

2. But Hungary did offer help and has opened its borders to refugees in the 1990s, when people from mainly Afghanistan, Iraq, Bangladesh started arriving. The country also accepted around a 100.000 refugees from Romania during the Ceausescu regime and kept its borders open when asylum-seekers from the Former Yugoslav Republic started arriving in masses, fleeing from their war-torn country. Because of the EU requirements Hungary’s policy concerning refugees has become stricter since 2010. Hungary means the Schengen border, therefore neighbouring countries try to defend themselves from illegal migration by putting extra pressure on Hungary. Meanwhile, border patrol stations, detention camps and police lock-ups started filling up with the people waiting for their refugee status to be approved and when they started overcrowding these facilities, the refugees were released to live on the streets.
The United Nations Commissioner for Refugees reported already in 2010 that the decreasing financial resources did not allow the assimilation process to begin for these people. Isolated, unable to learn anything about the new country, the language or culture has been making it increasingly hard for refugees to sustain themselves in the country. Also facing hostility from around 80% of the Hungarian population who do not believe the country should accept refugees – the situation has been getting worse and worse for years.

3. Anti-immigrant propaganda is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how the public opinion handles the immigrant question. Besides firmly defending its political actions in Brussels, the Hungarian government also had to provide its citizens with a clear message on their official position on the matter: trying to highlight how the drastic measures are all being evoked in order to protect Hungarian citizens against the “foreign invaders”. Huge billboards with anti-immigrant slogans were erected all over the country, spending billions of Forints (once again) with the propaganda messages of the “National Consultation” – aiming to gather the opinion of Hungarian citizens on the matter.
After being 10 months away from my country, I came home to see signs like this:

“If you come to Hungary, you cannot steal jobs from the Hungarians!
National Consultation on immigration and terrorism”

The main message of opening a “National Consultation on immigration and terrorism” on the matter is already suggestive enough; the general public is more exposed to the anti-immigrant sentiments, than the humanitarian aspect of saving other human beings who are seeking refuge. With the migrants depicted as invaders “stealing jobs” from the Hungarians and even as terrorists, the public opinion is already against border-crossing and in favour of the fence as a more spectacular than practical tool to make the message clear: the country is reaching its limits regarding illegal border-crossings.
The billboards, radio and television advertisements on the National Consultation are actions of a government that has been facing growing unpopularity in the country as a result of a chain of corruption scandals, and is resorting to rather desperate measures to reconnect with its citizens by means of uniting the country against a common “enemy”.
Several civil society organisations, humanitarian foundations and statements from the political opposition are criticising the government’s plans for the fence, some are even organizing demonstrations. At the same time, in other parts of the country, people are protesting against the establishment of new refugee camps. It is hard to decide who is right.

“We don’t want to be afraid!”
T-shirts: “There is no place for a refugee camp here!”

4. Mr. Orbán Viktor vs. Brussels – Round 145. “Hungary has been trying for months to have the EU recognize that a third of the immigration pressure on the continent is focused on Hungary, with around one third of illegal migrants registered in the country.” (From Magyar Hírlap – Hungarian newspaper, auth. )
While wildly attacking the Hungarian government for its drastic measures, several sources fail to mention that close to a dozen other countries of the EU (including Germany, France, Belgium etc.) are issuing notices for deportation of immigrants from their own countries – sending them back to Hungary, based on the Dublin Regulation of the Schengen Treaty.
The Visegrad Four (alliance of Central European states – Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary) all agree on the misguided EU attempts on trying to remedy the situation. All four countries were strongly lobbying against the compulsory migrant quota proposed by the Commission, urging more effective measures than “superficial act of goodness”.
The Hungarian government is also keen on emphasising how it is protecting not only its own borders, but the borders of the EU, and the Schengen zone. Mr Orbán also makes the claim there is a huge difference between refugees escaping persecution and “existential immigrants” – while the former need humanitarian aid, the latter have a clear intent of not staying in Hungary after they receive their papers to travel with.
With all this said, it might come as a surprise that:
5. Foreigners visiting the country still quickly fall in love with Budapest and Lake Balaton, the easy accessibility in the heart of Europe, the country’s cuisine and culture and a holiday being significantly cheaper than in the western parts of Europe. In the less touristic and developed parts of the country however, the reality strikes as a shock to many, with 40% of the population earning below minimum-wage, with the highest rate of alcohol use disorders in Europe, a middle-class standard slowly disappearing and the rising frustration and desperation over social inequality and a widening chasm between the shamelessly rich and the starving poor.

Many independent observations would testify to the fact that Hungarian people in general are not so welcoming towards foreigners settling in the country, mainly because of the increasing economical and social tension, the working hours/salary ratio being way behind western European standards, and the feeling of uncertainty about the future for many families. The ‘Erasmus generation’ is not only leaving the country to study abroad for half a year, but young people are leaving the country in unprecedented numbers, being unable to find a stable and well-paid job after completing their education.
When we talk about a country whose very own national anthem is a gloomy recollection of hundreds of years of being ravaged by wars and territorial occupation as an glimpse into the mentality of the people, we might realise that the gradually aging society does not see how some of the western ideals of tolerance, solidarity and the dominance of a pro- or anti-European ideology would help them make ends meet at the end of the day.
I am proud to be an AEGEEan who has the chance to look at Europe and the world from a more open-minded perspective, being able to travel and relocate freely in the continent and be an activist fighting for a good cause, for the good of a community and the good of the continent. As AEGEEans, we are striving for a borderless Europe and any act of intolerance against its citizens or violation of basic human rights of those in need should be condemned.
Erecting the fence along the southern border of Hungary is not the solution to the problem. But you cannot pass a valid judgment on the country’s attitude without walking a mile in our shoes.

Written by Réka Salamon, AEGEE-Aachen

If you want to know more about the situation you can read some articles here:

– 444 (Hu) 

– Index (Hu)

– Magyarhirlap (En)

– Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (En)

– 4024 (Hu)

– Reuters (En)

– The Guardian (En) 1 – 2

– The Telegraph (En)

– Fotomemoria (En)

According to the latest communications released by FRONTEX (European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union), the number of immigrants who reached Europe within the first six months of 2014 is higher than the 2013 total. While waiting to see the final score for 2014, it is nice to see how such an important topic is easily forgotten until we hear of the n-th trawler sinking in the Mediterranean sea.

The migration flow management has always been one of the most discussed problems until the economic crisis crashed several EU countries and, with the recent conflicts rising up in Syria and the military coup perpetrated in Libia by Khalifa Belqasim Haftar a few months ago, we have again the conditions for an emergency situation. FRONTEX data shows how the emergency is becoming more and more critical: immigrants arrivals increased to 143,6% in Greece and 823% in Italy. If a few months ago we were celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall, maybe we should not forget that Greece built a new one 2 years ago on the Turkish border in order  to stop immigrants. Italy, on its side, was no better, deporting immigrants back to Africa with the help of Muhammar Ghedaffi, “one of the greatest human rights’ guardians”. Taking into account all these situations, it is easy to understand that a solution is far from being reached.

How is Europe managing the problem?

Of course to answer this question, we need to proceed through a subjective analysis. Living in Italy, a country that receives the 90% of total immigrants coming to Europe, the discussion is always current. Yes, to Europe, because those people do not want to stop in Italy but, instead, reach the countries that are offering more possibilities: Germany, Switzerland and the UK. The Mediterranean Sea has always been surrounded by great political instability and, for people who escape, is a navigable river. But Italy, and many other countries that should be used to it, are completely unprepared.

Well, they are not really unprepared, but rather they want to be unprepared. Since 1990 EU members signed several agreements (Dublin, Dublin II and Dublin III). According to them, the arrival country of an immigrant is responsible for his reception and treatment, residence permit and lodging. Since the arrival countries are always the same and 70% of these people can request asylum (for war, human rights, persecution reasons etc.), is difficult for a country on the border to keep all of them and the easiest solution is to not control them. Yes, because if an immigrant reaches another country and remains hidden for five months, he can request asylum there!

Now, imagine to host an Agora: every AEGEEan knows that at least 700 sleeping place are needed, but you offer a gym with 100, of course 600 hundred people will look for another accommodation going somewhere else. I gave this example because this is more or less the ratio/place per every immigrant coming to my country if we talk about space in welcoming buildings. The system is probably not working on purpose, so as not to keep all these people in only one country.

The EU member states generally do not collaborate with each other to solve the problem. Apart from the last example there are many others: cuts to FRONTEX program in the most critical moment, member countries bounded to send patrolling vehicles (but not doing it in years), an unclear common strategy and a never equally shared responsibility. Meanwhile there are two new threats on the horizon: criminal management of the migration flow and criticisms on freedom of movement for workers.

Criminal management of the migration flow

In the last days of 2014, Italian police discovered a new criminal conspiracy in Rome. The situation is not completely clear, since investigations just started, but what is sure is that this new conspiracy was collaborating with Mafia in Sicily and ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria to exploit immigration in two ways: the management of immigrants detentions centers (buildings, food, goods and everything else they need) and non identified immigrants trafficking. In the second case it is not publicly yet known how big their connection and movement became. In both cases, what is sure is that organised crime substituted again institutions.

Criticisms on freedom of movement for workers

Meanwhile there is a new challenge for Europe: if in the previous lines we were talking about immigration from non-EU countries, now the problem is coming from inside. Back in November, many pro-European activists were celebrating the negative result of a Swiss referendum on limiting immigrants’ access but, to be honest, it has been a Pyrrhic victory. The last referendum , held on the 30th of November, was presented by a group of ecologists extremists and wanted to limit the access to foreign people for not exploiting Swiss natural reserves by building new houses for immigrants. This referendum has been rejected with 74.1%. The real defeat for pro-EU people happened in February 2014, when there was a true referendum threatening workers freedom of movement imposing a yearly limit to immigrants entrances (European workers included). That motion passed with the 50,3% of the votes in favour, and it can affect not only workers movement, but the whole relation between the European Union and Switzerland.

The Swiss Confederation is not part of the EU, but has bilateral agreements with it and only in 2005 joined the Schengen area: the agreement was very particular for its “guillotine clause”, they accepted a contract package with the EU (free movement of people, air traffic, road traffic, agriculture, public procurement, science and technical trade barriers), where if one of the points is put under discussion, all the others are immediately invalid. So, since last February, Switzerland is freezing its relationship with the EU.

If you think Switzerland is an isolated case, watch out! Cracks in this broken gear are making a lot of noise in another country, this time part of European Community: the United Kingdom. After the EU parliament election of May 2014, British Prime Minister David Cameron, is trying to recover right-wing votes he lost in favour of Nigel Farage leader of Ukip, the EU-skeptic party.

In six months there will be the new election round for UK and which solution could be easier than take some of his claims? That’s why Mr. Cameron, in a desperate attempt of recovering some votes and winning the next elections, is starting a discussing about decreasing by 60% the movement of workers from next year on. The last ones are considered as “welfare tourists”, it means they move to UK only to scrounge services from the state they cannot find in their own countries and Cameron declared that “too many Italians and Spanish are in London” and insiders define him scared by the immigration balance of the last period that showed “an invasion from Romania and Bulgaria”. Cameron wants to start reforms to exclude non-UK people from public housing and dole for the first four years and expel those who are not able to find a job within six months.

The only answer Jean-Claude Juncker, the current President of the European Commission since November 2014, gave him is limitation of workers movement can create less capital movement. A very weak argument if we think about the pressure Cameron has; a very traditional answer since the European Union is talking everyday more and more about economics and  less about politics. The risk in this is to find ourselves in a critical situation during the next EU parliament elections and the UK can leave for good. In fact, if Cameron wins the elections he promised to have a in/out EU referendum in 2017. At this very moment the British public opinion is divided with 41% for the withdrawal, 41% to stay in and 18% of undecided voters.

Written by Mattia Abis, AEGEE-Cagliari

And the Local of the Month of July is…. AEGEE-Udine. Located in north-east of Italy, AEGEE-Udine “in the last months was the most dynamic within my area (Italian speaking locals, AEGEE-Valletta and Contact of AEGEE-Europe in Lugano ed.), and probably in the whole Network” quoting the words of Mattia Abis, Network Commissioner (AEGEE-Cagliari). We spoke with the President Alberto De Nardi and two active members, namely Laura Garbelotto and Giancarlo Nicolò, about their past events and their upcoming plans.

The AEGEEan: Tell us a little bit about the history of your local.

Alberto: I could write a book! Where should I start? I’d say that we are experiencing a positive trend started more than one year ago, characterized by an increasing number of active members, projects, partnerships and promotional activities. In the first months of the year we introduced many changes, mainly with the purpose of giving visibility to the antenna and creating a distinctive image of the association to the external public: new logo and stickers, new t-shirt and hoody, new mascot (Mandi), new flag and banner, new web site. The next phase of this improvement process has just started. It will be deeper and it will take some time. It’s a structural change in the antenna and in the human resources management. We are introducing the committees, the mentor system and a kind of membership criteria that each member has to fulfill. It won’t be easy to implement, but the idea is to have active and motivated members from the moment of their subscription. They have to feel like part of a family and we wish that they don’t take the membership for granted, but as something that has to be conquered.

The AEGEEan: You organized a conference about CIEs (immigrants’ detention centers) and immigration problem in Europe. Why choose such a delicate topic? How was the reception?

Laura: We believe that caring about this topic is our responsibility, as citizens and AEGEE members. Being aware about the social and political reality around us doesn’t mean only to learn how to socialize and respect the different culture of the European natives. We need to consider also how the freedom of people’s mobility inside the European Union emphasizes the existence of an external border around Europe and raises the difference in the rights between European citizens and those who comes from outside, who do not have the same freedom of movement. After the conference, more than a few were surprised and astonished. People would have never expected that this could be happening inside the borders of the civilized and advanced EU, a few kilometers away from their houses, in the total silence of the mainstream media.

The AEGEEan: Not only Udine, but the entire region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The EVS Tour with Europe Direct was organized in Trieste, can you tell us more about that? Why Trieste?

Alberto: Despite the fact that our region, Friuli Venezia Giulia, is quite small, there are two universities: Udine and Trieste. As Udine is the only local of our region (AEGEE-Trieste was deleted during Autumn Agora Budapest 2012), we decided to promote AEGEE in the city of Trieste too. The promotion is of course not as intense as in Udine, but we still manage to publish some posts online about AEGEE events. The EVS Tour was organized by the youth association Europe Direct Trieste, and consisted in the organization of many events around the region to present the EVS project. We thought: what a good chance to promote AEGEE amongst youth locals. So we contacted them and attended two meetings introducing our association and activities.

The AEGEEan: The BBalkans were hit by floods and a lot of locals and members showed a lot of support. You organized an info desk to get funds/goods for the flood victims. How did you come up with the idea? How did it go?

Giancarlo: As soon as the floods hit the Balkans we wanted to do something to help our neighbors, so we decided to contact the local Balkan community. Udine is close to the border and lots of people from the Balkans live in our region. The first idea was to inform and make students aware of the situation, so we began to collaborate with other university associations in order to be more efficient, according to the Balkan example United we stand. The result was a conference to explain the project, to inform about the emergency, the sanitary problems, the needs and the collection points. Then we created an info-desk inside the university campus to give information and collect goods to ship to the flooded territories. The whole process was very difficult to manage due to time limits and very slow official communication channels of the university, but thanks to the AEGEE spirit the result was great.

The AEGEEan: AEGEE-Udine in the last year almost doubled the number of members and elected a brand new board. How do you deal with knowledge transfer and activating fresh members?

Alberto: At the moment,  knowledge transfer is the most important task of our local. That’s why we organized a Regional Training Course (RTC) in December and a Local Training Course (LTC) in April. The timing of the LTC was strategic: right after the end of the application period for the SUs, because we had the highest number of fresher members. The LTC took place for two full days during the weekend (no classes), far away from exam sessions, not overlapping other events and completely for free. Then we created an online database to store all the useful materials we need such as documents, forms, tool kits, flyers, presentations, contacts and so on. Finally, besides the direct knowledge transfer between each role of former and new board, we just started to introduce the mentor system and the committees as these are two powerful ways of training and integrating new members in the team.

The AEGEEan: Three of your members went to the European School 1 (ES1) in Enschede and one to the Summer University Project School (SUPS). How was it? How important are for you those kind of trainings?

Alberto: Besides them four, another member attended the Training for Trainers (T4T) and one more applied to the IT School, but it was unfortunately cancelled. Personally I attended the ES1 and I’m extremely satisfied with the program and the trainers of the Academy. We covered all the important managerial aspects for a local, the sessions were stimulating and most important the School was inspiring because I came back with some very useful suggestions that we already started to implement. In the same way, another member went to SUPS in Izmir and claimed that it was an incredible experience as well. Trainers were really experienced and motivating and they shared a lot of good ideas. So we strongly believe in the power and utility of trainings and European schools, we always push our members to attend them giving also a partial reimbursement.

The AEGEEans: What are the next plans of your local?

Alberto: First of all, our Travel Summer University, that will start in Ljubljana in a couple of days. We’ll spend seven days in Slovenia and seven in Italy. Everything is ready and we are very happy about the collaboration with AEGEE-Ljubljana. There is a big team of motivated organizers and the program is fantastic, so we have all the ingredients for a great event. But we have also started to work already on the next big event organized by our antenna…drum roll…the 3rd RTC in a row. The first two were memorable, so we are thinking to repeat it every year. Last year we had 60 participants and we reached the limit of the lodging place and we don’t expect less people to come this year. The dates are already set: 5th-8th of December.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia