Paper details

Paper authors	Elba Rahmouni
In panel on	Everyday violence and resistance in Europe’s ‘migration management’ during the Covid-19 pandemic
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

'The short film “News from Yonas” originates from a longtime discussion within Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on how to connect the dots of discontinuous projects for migrants, given that beneficiaries often spend short time in transit countries where relief is most needed. Social media such as WhatsApp, already widely used by migrants on the move to remain in touch with those they call their “helpers”, could prove a useful tool. But, notably because European policy makers have been increasingly conflating humanitarians with “smugglers”, aid organizations are often reluctant to engage into activities which could facilitate migrants’ movements toward the North - even in contexts, such as Libya, where it is widely recognized that evacuation to safe countries is the only solution.

The movie tells the story of Yonas, a typical Eritrean asylum seeker, who suffered from various indirect EU policies in Libya and the Mediterranean (including interception by the EU-backed Libyan coastguard, imprisonment in EU and UN-backed detention centers, refoulement by Malta-backed private vessels and imprisonment in Malta). Researcher and aid worker Jérôme Tubiana met Yonas and others as he worked for MSF in Libyan detention centers, and chose to remain in touch with them on a personal basis'.

Michaël Neuman, Director of studies at Crash

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