Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored kidnapping in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had the purpose of circumventing the source country's laws on interrogation, detention, extradition and/or torture. Extraordinary rendition is a type of extraterritorial abduction, but not all extraterritorial abductions include transfer to a third country.
Black sites are clandestine detention centres operated by a state where prisoners who have not been charged with a crime are incarcerated without due process or court order, are often mistreated and murdered, and have no recourse to bail.
The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, commonly known as Frontex is an agency of the European Union headquartered in Warsaw, Poland. In coordination with the border and coast guards of member states, it exercises border control of the European Schengen Area, a task within the area of freedom, security and justice domain. Formally, the Agency's remit is to "support Member States on the ground in their efforts to protect the external borders"; it does not have authority to act otherwise unless "external border control" [by a member state] "is rendered ineffective to such an extent that it risks jeopardising the functioning of the Schengen area".
Human rights in Austria are generally respected by the government; however, there were problems in some areas. There were some reports of police abuse and use of unjustified force against prisoners. Antisemitic incidents, including physical attacks, name-calling, property damage, and threatening letters, telephone calls, and Internet postings occurred during the year. There was some governmental and societal discrimination against fathers, Muslims and members of unrecognized religious groups, particularly those considered "sects". There were incidents of neo-Nazi activity, rightwing extremism, and xenophobia. Trafficking in women and children for prostitution and labor also remained a problem.
The history of human rights in Argentina is affected by the Dirty War and its aftermath. The Dirty War, a civic-military dictatorship comprising state-sponsored violence against Argentine citizenry from roughly 1976 to 1983, carried out primarily by Jorge Rafael Videla's military government. However, the human rights situation in Argentina has improved since.
The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) is an international organisation which makes policy recommendations on migration-related issues to governments and intergovernmental agencies. Founded by Austria and Switzerland as a think tank in 1993, and headquartered in Vienna. As of May 2023 ICMPD was composed of 20 member states.
The National Socialist Underground murders were a series of racist murders by the German Neo-Nazi terrorist group National Socialist Underground. The NSU perpetrated the attacks between 2000 and 2007 throughout Germany, leaving ten people dead and one wounded. The primary targets were ethnic Turks, though the victims also included one ethnic Greek and one ethnic German policewoman.
Uwe Mundlos was a German neo-Nazi, right-wing terrorist and serial killer. Together with Uwe Böhnhardt and Beate Zschäpe, he formed the nucleus of the terrorist group National Socialist Underground (NSU), which was responsible for 10 murders, 43 attempted murders, 3 explosive attacks, and 15 bank robberies in Germany between 1998 and 2011. He died after a bank robbery led to his discovery by police, presumably by suicide.
The National Socialist Underground, or NSU, was a German neo-Nazi militant organization active between 2001 and 2010, and uncovered in November 2011. Regarded as a terror cell, the NSU is mostly associated with Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt and Beate Zschäpe, who lived together under false identities. Between 100 and 150 further associates were identified who supported the core trio in their decade-long underground life and provided them with money, false identities and weapons. Unlike other terror groups, the NSU had not claimed responsibility for their actions. The group's existence was discovered only after the deaths of Böhnhardt and Mundlos, and the subsequent arrest of Zschäpe.
National Action was a British right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi terrorist organisation based in Warrington. Founded in 2013, the group is secretive, and has rules to prevent members from talking about it openly. It has been a proscribed organisation in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000 since 16 December 2016, the first far-right group to be proscribed since the Second World War. In March 2017, an undercover investigation by ITV found that its members were still meeting in secret. It is believed that after its proscription, National Action organised itself in a similar way to the also-banned Salafi jihadist Al-Muhajiroun network.
Proactiva Open Arms (POA) is a Spanish NGO devoted to search and rescue (SAR) at sea. Set up in October 2015, it carried out its first rescue action that same month from its base on the Greek island of Lesbos. As well as maintaining a permanent base on Lesbos, the NGO carries out its rescue operations from three ships, a sailing yacht Astral, the Golfo Azzurro and Open Arms.
Jugend Rettet is a non-governmental organization (NGO) from Berlin. Its goal is to save drowning persons at the Mediterranean Sea. Operations are conducted with the Iuventa, a ship that sails under Dutch flag. This ship was seized in August 2017 after suspicion of cooperation with migrant smugglers.
The migration and asylum policy of the European Union is within the area of freedom, security and justice, established to develop and harmonise principles and measures used by member countries of the European Union to regulate migration processes and to manage issues concerning asylum and refugee status in the European Union.
The CIA controls black sites used by the U.S. government in its War on Terror to detain people deemed to be enemy combatants.
Mare Liberum is a Berlin-based human rights organisation founded in 2018. Since then, Mare Liberum e.V. has been monitoring human rights in the Aegean Sea, which is part of an escape route from Turkey to the Greek islands, on which part there are frequent drownings. The organisation runs two ships, the Mare Liberum which operates under the German flag, and the sailing yacht, Sebastian K.
Since at least 2008, Greece has pushed back tens of thousands of migrants, especially at the Evros border with Turkey and in the Aegean Sea. On land, the pushbacks involve taking people who have arrived at the Greek side of the border and transferring them to the Turkish side; most cases involve some form of abuse. Maritime pushbacks typically involve taking migrants who have either entered Greek territorial waters or landed on Greek islands and depositing them in Turkish territorial waters on craft without any means of propulsion. The number of pushbacks has increased following the European migrant crisis and breakdown in EU–Turkey relations in 2020. This incident occurred as a result of Turkey ceasing to prevent migrants from leaving for the European Union in February 2020, and in some instances actively encouraging them.
Sarah Mardini, alternative spelling Sara Mardini, is a Syrian former competition swimmer, lifeguard and human rights activist. Fleeing her country in 2015 during the Syrian civil war with her sister, Olympic swimmer Yusra Mardini, they pulled their boat with other refugees towards the Mediterranean coast of Greece, saving themselves and the other passengers. Continuing their journey across the Balkans, they reached Berlin, Germany, the same year. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023, alongside her sister.
Seán Binder is a German-born human rights activist and certified rescue diver who has spent most of his life in Ireland. The son of a refugee father from Vietnam and a German mother, he grew up in Ireland and later studied at universities in Dublin and London. From 2017 to 2018, he volunteered with a humanitarian non-governmental organization on Lesbos island, Greece, assisting refugees arriving in small boats from the nearby Turkish coast.
Arne Semsrott is a German journalist and activist. He is the director of the freedom of information NGO FragDenStaat and founder of the political initiative Freiheitsfonds that campaigns for decriminalisation of fare-dodging.
The criminalization of sea rescue in the Mediterranean refers to the increase in policing of individuals and search and rescue (SAR) NGOs aiding migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. It further encompasses the increase in de-legitimisation attempts of SAR NGOs by governments, high-profile politicians and officials.
