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MEET OUR MEMBERS

The BVMN works via a horizontal network of member projects. BVMN members are NGOs, co-ops, collectives, and grassroots initiatives spread across South East Europe. Through the Open Assembly, members jointly make Network-wide decisions in a democratic, consensus-based voting system. Their operational contributions to the Network can be summarised as:

Are You Syrious?

Founded in 2015, Are You Syrious (AYS) is a watchdog and humanitarian organization based in Zagreb, Croatia. The NGO is internationally recognised for their advocacy and media work, especially the AYS Daily News Digest – a civic journalism project that remains one of the most prominent daily sources of information from the migratory routes. 

After the closure of the so-called Balkan Route in 2016, AYS stopped most of its field activities along the Balkans to focus on providing holistic support to the refugees arriving in Croatia. Today, they have an integration centre near the refugee camp in Zagreb, where people, regardless of their status, can access language classes, procedural advice, job-seeking services and other forms of direct support for their integration. AYS is also running a daily NFI distribution in the AYS Free Shop in Zagreb, and is supporting children, families and single people in their educational path through the mentorship project Big Brother/Big Sister. The international teams of AYS are mostly focused on reporting and supporting local grassroots initiatives, by providing them mobile kitchens, showers and logistics.

AYS is also one of the most vocal NGOs when it comes to exposing human rights violations at the EU’s external borders, for which it was often targeted by the Croatian authorities.

Blindspots

Blindspots is a non-profit association that is based in Germany. We offer direct support to people in areas of humanitarian and political crises and document discrimination and systematic violence in order to draw attention to human rights violations and to generate political pressure. 

Along the so-called Balkan route, we have projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Serbia. With our work at the EU’s external borders, we want to improve people’s living conditions, support them in covering their basic needs and increase their security and autonomy.

We install stoves and distribute firewood to People on the Move in Squats. This way, the residents of the squats can provide themselves with food and protect themselves from the cold in winter. We also carry out construction work in Squats, such as installing doors, windows and solar panels. This insulates rooms, provides electricity and ensures a minimum of privacy. We also install water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) structures such as temporary showers and toilets in squats, provide access to clean drinking water and provide logistics for waste disposal. This helps to prevent disease and conflict with local residents.

Blindspots is a member of the Border Violence Monitoring Network. Through qualitative interviews with People on the Move, testimonies on border violence and internal violence are documented and collected in the network’s database.

Through public outreach we want to draw attention to those places of humanitarian and political crises. We regularly report on the situation in the areas where we are active and track current developments on our blog and on our social media channels. We actively contribute to political education with workshops, lectures and speeches in Germany.

Collective Aid

Collective Aid was established in early 2017 in Belgrade to channel independent efforts to support the residents of the Belgrade Barracks. Since then, it has focused on providing direct support to people-on-the-move in Serbia, Bosnia and France, adapting to the changing needs of people transiting these countries. Currently, Collective Aid operates a WASH centre in Belgrade, which provides showers and laundry services to people-on-the-move sleeping rough in the city, and runs mobile distributions of clothing, hygiene and shelter items, food packs, drinking water, firewood and mobile showers in multiple locations across Northern Serbia, Sarajevo and Calais.

As a member of BVMN, Collective Aid collects testimonies on pushbacks in Serbia and Bosnia, documenting the violence against people-on-the-move that takes place everyday at Europe’s external borders. Moreover, the different teams on the ground also monitor cases of violence targeting transit groups and individuals within the countries that we work in.

I Have Rights

I Have Rights e.V. (IHR) is a legal and political NGO based on Samos, one of the 5 Greek “hotspot” islands. IHR works to defend the right to asylum in Europe and fights against pushbacks and the detention of people-on-the-move. IHR on Samos is made up of three teams: casework, strategic litigation and advocacy.   IHR’s casework team provides legal information and support to people-on-the-move, including people seeking asylum, refugees, and migrants. IHR informs people-on-the-move in one-to-one appointments about their rights, prepares asylum seekers for their asylum interview and where necessary legally represents them in the asylum procedure. In addition to individual appointments, the IHR’s casework team holds workshops for  people-on-the-move on the island. 

IHR’s strategic litigation and advocacy teams work to challenge structural injustices faced by people-on-the-move on Europe’s external borders. For example in 2022, Interim Measures to the European Court of Human Rights, Special Procedure complaints to UN Special Rapporteurs and appeals to the Committe for the Prevention of Torture were used to address human rights violations on Samos. In addition to legal advocacy, IHR produces reports and engages in public campaigns. For example, based on a Freedom of Information request, IHR’s advocacy team has highlighted Frontex’s knowledge of and involvement in pushbacks in the Samos region and across the Aegean, both in its own publications and in a larger campaign by a coalition of Samos actors.

With Samos being currently one of the few locations in Greece  with an operating Closed Controlled Access Centre, IHR points out the devastating impacts these detention facilities have on people-on-the-move. Instead of a European asylum system based on deterrence and detention IHR fights for dignified access to asylum, housing, work, education and health care for all. 

InfoKolpa

Numerous testimonies of refugees and reports done by NGOs and other solidarity initiatives with people travelling along the Balkan Route have shown the existence of illegal and violent chain returns (also known as Pushbacks). According to these testimonies, the Slovenian police systematically and in-mass violates the right to asylum procedures and returns asylum seekers to Croatian police. The latter uses physical violence whilst pushing people to return to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many examples of brutal beatings and other types of abuse are extensively documented.

In 2018, we launched a project to monitor police procedures at the borders and established the civil initiative Infokolpa as a response to pushbacks, police violence, and increasingly repressive migration policies.

The purpose of the blog is to inform the public about violations of people’s rights on their way to Europe, as well as inform it about the illegal and unethical police procedures. The information collected is authentic and is the result of cooperation between people who are travelling through the Balkan Route with activist networks.

Legal Centre for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (PIC)

Professional legal support to individuals, vulnerable groups and non-governmental organization in exercising and protecting their rights and strengthening their position in the society. Activities cover  legal assistance, advocacy, informing, training, encouraging civil dialogue in national and international projects, involvement in policy-making and decision-making processes.

PIC is participating in decision-making processes, working bodies, committees, networks and forums, in order to advance the position of non-governmental organizations in Slovenia and increase their influence on decision-making. We endeavor towards strengthening the integrity in the non-governmental sector and advocate transparent and responsible activity on all levels of the social system.

PIC encourages social responsibility and active citizenship.

Protecting human rights covers, protection from discrimination, realization of the gender equality principle, protection of vulnerable groups (persons with disabilities, victims of family violence, victims of human trafficking, the elderly et al.), protection of asylum applicants, refugees, foreigners, migrants

PIC’s main goal is to ensure the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms and endeavouring  respect for the rule of law, a social state and democracy. We provide various types of legal protection of human rights and intervene in cases of threats to fundamental freedoms.

Mare Liberum

Mare Liberum e. V. documents human rights violations and border violence against people on the move.  Our monitoring focuses on the border region in the Aegean, which has reached an even higher level of militarisation since the EU-Turkey deal of March 2016. On the life-threatening escape routes between Turkey and Greece, people are regularly pushed back by authorities with violent means to hinder them from reaching the EU.  The aim is to observe, document and draw public attention to the situation at the European border between Turkey and Greece. Through publishing testimonies, we make the voices of affected people visible and fight together to strengthen fundamental human rights. By collecting and publishing data on the general situation in the Aegean we increase pressure on responsible authorities to respect human rights and to hold them accountable for their human rights violations.

Mobile Info Team (MIT)

Mobile Info Team has been working in Northern Greece for more than six years, providing comprehensive information and assistance to people throughout all stages of the asylum procedure. MIT operates through Whatsapp hotlines, Facebook, email and in-person information sessions offering tailored responses in a language that people can understand. MIT’s team of caseworkers provides vital information to more than 5,000 individuals per year, as well as providing individual support for more complex legal cases. The legal team focuses on cases which necessitate the allocation of further resources and attention, particularly regarding integration, the Dublin Regulation, family reunification, and vulnerable people in detention. Additionally, MIT carries out research grounded in our access to communities, to raise awareness and advocate for changes to the asylum system in Greece and more broadly, the EU. As a BVMN member organisation, MIT collects testimonies and works to end pushbacks and violence against people-on-the-move. Based on its work in Greece, MIT has published numerous reports on lack of access to asylum  and pushbacks, as well as on the situation of asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection with regard to living conditions, integration, and risk of destitution. MIT envisions an inclusive, empowering, rights-based approach to borders, international protection and the related asylum procedures.

Rigardu e.V.

Rigardu is a German non-profit association whose members have been campaigning for refugees and their rights since 2015. This initially included humanitarian projects on the so-called “Balkan Route”, from which further projects such as political education or the documentation of human rights violations as part of the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) emerged. Rigardu currently forms the legal and administrative framework of BVMN. Also, we are offering various workshops and project days for schools. Through our civic education program we want to help shape a society that respects universal human rights.

 The BVMN is also composed of other members who have chosen to remain anonymous to protect their operations in the increasingly restrictive environment in Greece and the Western Balkans.