Episode 61: Labour, immigration raids, and far-right riots
Release Date: 08/10/2024
Episode 85: Greece's criminalisation of Sudanese refugees
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Mustafa, Bairbre and Louise about the treatment of Sudanese refugees in Greece. Mustafa tells us about the revolution and ongoing proxy war in Sudan. He'll also tell us why he had to flee the country, and the Kafkaesque situation he found himself in after seeking asylum in Greece. Louise and Bairbre tell us more about the situation for people on the move in Greece, how refugees (including children) are being criminalised and sentenced to decades (and sometimes hundreds of years!) in prison for allegedly captaining a boat across the sea...
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Episode 84: Doctors Without Borders returns to the Mediterranean
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Juan Matias Gil, a search-and-rescue representative for Doctors Without Borders (MSF). He tells us how the Italian government made it impossible for the medical charity to use its Geo Barents rescue ship, and about the Oyvon — MSF's new, smaller, faster rescue vessel. He also tells us about the first rescue mission aboard the Oyvon. ---Support--- ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: info@civilfleet.com ---Show notes--- For more on MSF,...
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Episode 83: Britain and France's ‘one-in-one-out’ refugee deal
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Diane Taylor, a journalist at the Guardian newspaper, about Britain's "one-in-one-out" deal with France, and about the British government's new, even harsher asylum-seeker policies. Diane also tells us about the refugees she spoke to in France recently after they were deported from Britain, and about a group of asylum-seekers who went on hunger strike in protest against their forced return trip across The Channel. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: info@civilfleet.com ...
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Episode 82: Monitoring human rights the Channel
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Peter from The Channel Monitoring Project. He tells how the new project plans to monitor people crossing over from France to England, how the group hopes to counter the toxicity around this in Britain, and how anyone can get involved. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: info@civilfleet.com Join me at the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair, see here: --- Show notes --- For more on The Channel Monitoring Project, see their website here: ...
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Episode 81: Kidnapped by the IDF – The Global Sumud Flotilla story
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Lorenzo D'Agostino, a journalist who took part the Global Sumud Flotilla's civilian-led mission to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. He tells us about joining sailing from Barcelona towards Gaza, how its boats came under repeated drone attacks, and how the activists were eventually intercepted and kidnapped by the Israeli Navy. Lorenzo tells us how, once in Israel, his captors treated them all like terrorists and subjected them to torture, before deporting them to Turkey. We also hear how most European governments totally failed to stand...
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Episode 80: Under attack from the Libyan ‘Coastguards’
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Patrick, a search and rescue worker on SOS Mediteranee's ship the Ocean Viking. Patrick is going to tell us about the Libyan Coastguard's attack on the Ocean Viking in August this year. The tells us how the EU-funded Libyan Coastguards circled the ship and peppered it with bullets at head and chest height. There were 80 rescued people on the ship, including unaccompanied children. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Despite their attack on a European-flagged ship, the EU has said it will continue to fund and work with the Libyan Coastguards. ...
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Episode 79: Documenting the UNHCR's failures in North Africa
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with human rights campaigner and Refugees in Libya co-founder David Yambio. He gives us an update on Refugees in Libya's Unfair campaign, which demands the UNHCR change the way it treats people in need of its protection. He tells us about the Book of Shame — which he and his fellow Refugees in Libya campaigners co-wrote with members of Refugees in Tunisia and Refugees in Niger. He tells us how the book outlines the UNHCR's failures to protect people-on-the-move, in North Africa. David also tells us how he found out...
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Episode 78: Solidarity on trial in Poland
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode we speak with Aleksandra from Grupa Granica, a refugee support coalition working at the Poland-Belarus border, and Ola, a member Szpila, an anti-repression feminist collective based in Warsaw. They are going to tell us about the trial of a man called Bartek, who, in October 2024, provided humanitarian assistance to a young Somali man who wanted to apply for asylum in Poland. However, the border guards pushed the Somali man back to Belarus without lodging his asylum application. When Bartek told the guards that he would file a complaint against...
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Episode 77: Occupy Fortress Europe!
The Civil Fleet Podcast
We speak with Manon and Camille, two activists with F.Lotta - a horizon network organising protests across Europe this weekend and the central Mediterranean, demanding free movement for all and an end to fortress Europe's murderous policies. Camille and Manon tell us how and why F.Lotta was formed, about all the different campaigns taking part in the continent-wide protests, and how they hope the protests will show that a different world is possible. --Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: info@civilfleet.com ...
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Episode 76: Stop the inhumanity at Europe's borders
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Jeff Crisp, formerly of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and now part of the campaign group United Against Inhumanity (UAI). He tells us how and why UAI was set up, how it is trying to get European governments to treat people-on-the-move humanely, and about the organisation's recently published manifesto: Stop the Inhumanity at Europe's Borders. We also discuss the far-right's anti-asylum-seeker protests in the UK, Italy's failed deportation deal with Albania, and the US's similar deals with countries in Africa and Latin America. ...
info_outlineIn this episode, we speak with Dan Sohege, director of the human rights advocacy organisation Stand For All.
We've a new government here in the UK. So I thought it'd be a good idea to ask Dan to give us his analysis of the Labour's plans for asylum seekers.
Dan tells us how Labour's plans to increase immigration raids will only make things worse for victims of trafficking.
We also discuss the recent far-right riots happening across Britain and Northern Ireland, and how our media and politicians bear much of the blame for the violence.
---Get in touch---
Twitter: @FleetCivil
Mastodon: @civilfleet@kolektiva.social
Bluesky: @thecivilfleet.bsky.social
Instagram: thecivilfleet
info@civilfleet.com
Support:
---Show Notes---
Follow Dan Sohege on Twitter: @stand_for_all
For more on Stand for All, visit: standforall.co.uk
Ben mentions a website where you can see a decade's worth of headlines on immigration. You can see that here: stuartleech.com/canto/dehumanising-headlines
Check out episode 44 of The Civil Fleet Podcast with Reclaim the Sea for more on the Bibby Stockholm
Ben mentions episode 49 with Paul O'Connor from the Public and Commerical Services (PCS) union in this episode. Check that out.
For more episodes focused on the UK, see episodes 57, 49, 44, 42, 40, 39, 38, 32, 25, 21, 17 and 11.
Check out this story on the UK Border Force carrying out push back training: https://thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/2022/01/14/uk-border-force-may-have-begun-attempts-to-push-refugees-back-across-the-channel-already-evidence-suggests/
Read more about UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's comments on Bangladeshi asylum seekers here: middleeasteye.net/news/uk-labours-keir-starmer-caused-diplomatic-row-over-bangladesh-comments
Corporate Watch have a story here on the state of the hotels housing asylum seekers in the UK: https://corporatewatch.org/refugees-are-being-housed-in-an-infested-hotel-while-the-home-offices-slum-landlords-are-raking-it-in/
For more on the Southport murders and the far-right conspiracies that set off the riots in Britain, see here: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/31/how-false-online-claims-about-southport-knife-attack-spread-so-rapidly
Dan mentions a far right protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Knowsley last year. Read about that here: morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/refugee-hate-and-rabble-rousing-who-are-patriotic-alternative