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Through a series of unforeseen circumstances, you leave your chess equipment at homeincluding your clock. But only half of the tournaments wood pushers need a timer, right? So, no worries: you just assume to use your opponents clock. Your opponents have provided the clock in each of your other games, and you expect the same result here.

Pairings are up, shouts the TD! You see that your game is booked for board 39, and you get to lead the black chess army into battle. You pick up a scoresheet and fill in your opponents infothe standard stuff like name, rating, etc.

You are the first to arrive at the site of the upcoming game. When your adversary appears, you both go through the usual pleasantries, and then you fess up on your lack of a proper timer, asking: How about we use your clock?

Which draws the unexpected reply: No, I dont own a clock.

Now what?

Getting a fellow chess player to loan out their clock is usually an easy task: just ask around. Most tournament chess players are good people. Finding a loaner clock typically works well in the early rounds, though the last round of the day can sometimes be a hassle. The lender may finish their game early and want their clock back, which turns into a messy situation all around. Some players avoid this hassle simply, by not being a clock loaner during the last round.

Additionally, borrowing a clock in the old days had an upside, as those analog wonders were generally easy to set and use. Today, however, digital timers are high-volume items at most events, and non-familiar models are not always easy to set. Borrowing a clock that is hard to use might work for the moment, but they might not prove worthwhile if they ever need to be reset, stopped or adjusted. And dont expect the TDs to know how to work every model ever produced!

You and your opponent are having problems finding a usable clock or a generous donor. Time to ask the TD for some assistance.

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Your request to help locate a loaner clock could come with one of several different responses, and beware that all TDs and all events are different; there is nothing wrong with any of these replies:

1. Play your game without a clock.

2. I dont have extra clocks, so loaning them out is not an option.

3. Yes, I have extra clocks that I can share with my players.

4. I used to loan out clocks, but the difficulty in getting them back is not worth it.

5. I have spare clocks. They are used only on boards without timers in the last five minutes of the final time control period. I slap a properly set one on those contests.

6. If I find a clock for you, I will place it on your game.

At scholastic tournaments, the first option is often the preferred choice for most TDs, because many of the games in lower sections finish well ahead of the scheduled round time. If a clock in a scholastic game is eventually needed near the end of the round, then the TD typically opts for choice number-five.

So you start your game without a clock and hope for the best. You normally play fast, and the clock has never been an issue in any of your previous games though you are not sure about your opponent, who appears to be moving slower than a river of molasses.

Hooray! The TD found a loaner clock, and only 30 minutes have passed since the round started. The TD explains that the device is properly set for the events time control, and both players will have 15 minutes deducted from the base time control, which splits the elapsed round time equally between the two of you.

You protest! I moved faster than my opponent and should get less time deducted from my clock! But the TD has no way to prove how much time either player took to make the moves, so the correct play here is to split the elapsed time equally between both players.

And don't forget the final, most-important instruction from the TD: Return that clock directly to me at the end of your game. I need to return it to its owner!

And please know how to set and use it! They come with instructions but that is another topic altogether.

The free, updated US Chess Rules (Chapters 1+2 + 10 +11 from the 7th edition rulebook) are now downloadable and availableonline. Past Just the Rules columns can be viewedhere. Plus listen to Tim when he was a guest on the US Chess podcast One Move at a Time.

Tim Just is a National Tournament Director, FIDE National Arbiter, and editor of the 5th, 6th, and 7th editions of theUS Chess Rulebook. He is also the author ofMy Opponent is Eating a Doughnut&Just Law, which are both available fromUS Chess SalesandAmazon/Kindle. Additionally, Tim recently revisedThe Guide To Scholastic Chess, a guide created to help teachers and scholastic organizers who wish to begin, improve, or strengthen their school chess program. Tim is also a member of the US Chess Rules Committee. His new column, exclusive to US Chess, Just the Rules will help clarify potentially confusing regulations.

More here:
Just the Rules: You don't have the time? - uschess.org

Mind sports play a vibrant rolein thelives ofmanygeniuses and, ofthevariousmindsports,chessis the king.Itistheonepractisedmost widely andhas the mostwell-documentedand carefully writtentheory tobackit up.A numberofthe recognised great mindshaveratedchesshighly.Goethe calledthegamethe touchstoneofthe intellect.HarounAl-Raschid,theAbbasydCaliph ofIslam (786809AD),the manidealisedin theArabian Nights,wasthe firstofhis dynasty toplay chess.The 11th-century Byzantine

Emperor,AlexiusComnenus,wasallegedly playing chess when surprisedbyamurderousconspiracy, which being a goodchess player he managed toescape!TheAladdinof thefairytalewas,in real life,a chess player,alawyerfromSamarkandin thecourt ofTamburlaine. Tamburlaine himself lovedtoplaychess andnamed hisson ShahRukh,since Tamburlaine was movingaRookatthe time the birth had been announced. Another genius, BenjaminFranklin,was an enthusiastic chess player indeed the firstchesspublication inAmerica was FranklinsMorals of Chesswhich appearedin 1786.Chesswasmentioned byShakespeare,LeibnizandEinstein.Ivan theTerrible,Queen Elizabeth I,CatherinetheGreat and Napoleon allplayedchess.

However,the firstChess Grandmaster,the firstmental sportsman,the firstgenius ofmindsports, wastheBaghdad chessplayerAs-Suli.Itis difficult for Western audiencestograspthatBaghdad,As-Sulishome city,wasoncetheworld capital of chess;indeed itwasthecapital oftheworld for sometimefrom the9th century onwards.Baghdad was founded inAD762 by the CaliphAl-Mansour, who employed100,000 men tobuild it.Thiscircular city, with a diameter of 8655feet(2638metres) and surrounded byarampartofnofewer than360towers,almostimmediately provedtobetoosmall for theburgeoning population.Bythetime of the CaliphHarounAl-Raschid,

Baghdadhadexpanded, takingin quartersfor commerce and artisans, and by AD 814itwastheworldslargestcity. The stupendousgrowth ofBaghdad wasamostastonishing global phenomenon.By814 ADitcovered an area approximately40 squaremiles (100km2)theequivalent of modern-dayPariswithintheouterboulevards. Baghdadwasthedominant city of the world and As-Suliwasthemulti-talentedmindsportsman,poet,politician,and Chess Grandmaster who exemplifiedthepre-eminent culture of Baghdad atthat time.Baghdaddwarfedallother worldcities, andin termsof culture, art, scientificinvestigationand chess,it was themost convincing andpowerful testament to theastonishing force andvigourofIslam at that time.

In the9thand 10thcenturies chess wasknown in theArabictongueasShatranj,and Baghdad wastoShatranjwhat Moscow becameto the moderngame theworldcapital of chess. Baghdad was a culturedflourishingcentrepacked with Chess Grandmasters and chesstheoreticians, who wrote volume after volume about criticalpositions and chess openingtheory.The maindifferencesbetweenShatranjand chess as wenowknowit,which was developed duringthe Renaissance in the 15thcentury,wasthat in theold game ofShatranj,a win couldbeachieved bytakingall ofyour opponentspieces,apartfrom hisKing.You did not need toforce checkmate. TheQueenknownas theVisierwas a comparativelyhelpless piece,only ableto moveone squarediagonally ineachdirection, whereastoday it is the most powerfulpiece onthechessboard.

Like themodernformerWorld Chess Champion,Garry Kasparov, As-Sulicamefrom anareabordering theCaspian Sea and, as ayoungman,he travelled to thecapitaltobecomethechess favourite ofthepoliticalleader ofhisday,theCaliphAl-Muktafi.ButinAD940 As-Suliutteredanindiscreet politicalcomment, andhad to fleefrom Baghdad.Hedied soon afterwardsinBasra atthegrand old age of 92.

A chess geniuslivesonin hispublished games, studies and puzzles. As-Suliset onepuzzlewhichhedescribed as:Old, very old and extremely difficulttosolve. Nobody could solveitor saywhetherit was a draw or win.Infactthere is noman on earth who can solveit ifI, As-Suli,havenot shownhim thesolution.Thiswashis proud boast andit heldgooduntilonly very recently, when modern Grandmasters armed with computersfinallycrackedthepuzzle.

As-Suliwasthestrongest playerofhistime,a composer of chesspuzzles,andtheauthor of thefirstbook describing a systematic way of playingShatranj.Formorethan600 years afterhisdeath,the highest praise an Arab could bestow onachess playerwastosaythat heplayed like As-Sulihewon every chess matchthat hehas knowntohave contested. As-Suliwas a resident atthecourt oftheCaliph wherehisreputation wasthatof an excellent conversationalistwithimmense encyclopedicknowledge.He ownedanenormouslibrary,andwrotemanyhistorybooks as well ashistwotextbookson chess. He was also a greatteacherofthegamethenextgreat ArabicplayerofShatranj,Al-Lajlaj,was one ofhis pupils.

As-Sulican be seen as a symbol ofthegreat Islamic culture thatflourishedin Baghdad,possessing great qualities ofmind,thought and intellectat atimewhen Europeitselfwas plunged inthe DarkAges and much oftheworld wasinchaos. Hiswasa pinnacle of sophistication and culturenot tobe attained by others formanycenturies.

Now let us jump several centuries to the time ofChristopher Columbus (14511506).

Intrepidexplorer Christopher Columbus was the firsttoplunge out and forward , more or less at right angles to the coastlines of Europe and Africa, acrossavast ocean with uncharted waters.Whereas previousexplorershad followedthe littoral , when they ventured outtosea, Columbus sailed acrosstheAtlanticin 1492-3eventhoughhe did not know what,ifanything, lay ahead.

Columbus,whosename meansthedove,bearer of Christ,discovered theNewWorldfor Spainin 1492. The 15thcenturyisnormally termedthe Renaissance,withits recoveryof ancient Classicalknowledge. But thatage was alsocharacterisedbyanew imperativetowardsfresh ideas inallareas ofhumanendeavour.Takechess,forexample.During the 15thcentury,thesurprisinglyrapid processhad been initiatedwherebythegame emergedfromits slow,tortuous Arabic form,aspractisedby As-Suli;suddenly,castling wasintroduced,pawnsgainedthe privilegeofmovingtwo squaresforwardat theirfirst turn,andthe Queenwastransformedat a strokefroma waddling cripple (theArabicVizier)toaunit of devastating ferocity.

Ifchessis trulyagameof warfare,then the increasedfirepower ofthe Queensurelymirrors thecontemporaryintroductionof artillery as along-rangemeansofdestroying theoppositionin thesphereofbattlefield technology.

These suddendevelopmentsin thegamereflect theoverall 15th-century dynamic.The increasingly urgent perceptionof distance, space andperspectivewhichdistinguishedthat period.Indeed, perspective inart, the invention of thetelescopeandthe microscopewereparalleldevelopments.

Columbusnot onlydiscoveredthe New World: healso exported European ideas andideals there includingchess. A later conquistador, Pissarro, was recorded as teaching chess to the Inca emperor Atahualpa. As was soon seen, at astroke,Columbussdiscoverysuddenly hurledSpainintoaperfectpositionto becomeacentrefor world communication placedatthe junctionofthe European mainlandwithtrade routessouthtowards Africa,and now facing avastnewvista acrosstheAtlantic Ocean.

Columbus was borninGenoa,thesonof a wool comber.At first hewas expectedto take up thesametrade,but attheage of14 hewenttosea, fought againstTunisiangalleys and, around1470, wasshipwrecked off Cape St Vincent. Hereached theshores ofPortugalby surviving on a wooden plank. By 1474 he hadalready conceivedthe ideaof sailingto India by travellingwestwards, andhewas encouragedin this byToscanelli, an astronomerfromFlorence.

Meanwhile,Columbus gathered vital experiencein his intended professionof becoming a greatnavigator. HesailedtoIceland,theCape VerdeIslandsand SierraLeone. In 1485, heapplied for apatron to finance his intendedexpedition westwards,inorderto reach theEast. He approachedJohn IIof Portugal,HenryVII of England andtheCatholic QueenIsabellaof Castile. Over aperiodof seven years,hewasfrequentlyrebuffed; thosewhohad thepowerto decidewhether money wasto bespent on such ventures were oftentraditionally inclinedchurchmen, emotionally opposedto the notion thatthe earth might be round.Eventually, in April 1492, KingFerdinand andQueen Isabellaofthe newly unitedSpain gavehim thegreenlightand, onFriday3 August1492,Columbus sailedincommand oftheSanta Maria,thePintaandtheNinathreesmall ships withjust 120explorers onboardhisavowedintention tocrossthe Atlantic Oceanandreach the rich tradeofthe Eastbythat method.

ByFriday 12 October,landwas sighted afterjustover twomonthsof continuous sailing. Theland he discoveredincludedan island inwhat cameto beknown asthe Bahamas,and Cuba and Hispaniolanowknownas Haiti.Columbusthenset out onthe returnvoyage, arrivingback in Spain on15March1493,wherehewasreceived withthe highesthonours.

ItissaidthatColumbusunderestimated thesizeof theglobe beforeheset out andbelieved hewasen routetoCipangu(Japan),not theNewWorld.Nevertheless,he had the determination,vision, and beliefin hisownnew theoryoftheworld, andthe power toconvertthose inapositionof authoritytoshare andback thatvision andhissingle-minded purpose.

Columbusindeed had thecourageto boldlygo where nomanhad gone before.Itis an ironythat the continent hediscovered America wasnot named after him.Itwas,infact,namedafteralaterexplorer,born in Florencein the same yearas ChristopherColumbus,namelyAmerigo Vespucci.What trulydistinguishes Columbusfromallpreviousmaritime explorersis that hedid notfollowthe coastline.Previousseafarershad allsought to travelin correspondence withestablishedcontinental contours.Not Columbus! Headditionallyhandled hisnervous crews sowell that theyreached theirdestination,and histrailblazing exploitationof thethen-unknown trade winds ensured that he could returnsafely home.

Although therehas been recentspeculationabout Columbuss characterand thewaythat hetreatednativeinhabitants,no one can denyhis genius,determinationand braveryinexploring theunchartedseas. When I learned recently thathis statue in London had been violated byWokistas, my first reaction was to visit it and pay homage.

The very first recorded game of the modern version of chess was played in 1475, less than twenty years before Columbus set out for the New World. Respected websiteChessgames.comhas this to say aboutthe twoprotagonists in the first ever recorded game of modern chess. The intellectual heirs of AsSuli, they were alsofully fledgedcontemporaries of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and in one case, a specific financial backer.

FrancescodiCastellviwas a lord of several manors in the area ofValencia, Spain. He was an advisor in theAragonesecourt of King Ferdinand. He died in Valencia in 1506. He was one of the co-authors of the Scachsdamor (Chess of Love), the Catalan poemwhichdescribes the first modern game of chess.

NarcisoVinyoles was born between 1442 and 1447. He died in Valencia in 1517. He was a politician and writer and belonged to a family of lawyers. In 1495, King Ferdinand recommended him for the position of JusticaCriminal.He spoke Catalan,Castilian, Latin, and Italian. He was married toBriandadeSantangel, niece of a banker who financially supported the first expedition ofChristoperColumbus. He was also co-author of the Catalan poem Scachsdamor written around 1475.

Thegame:Francesco diCastellvivsNarcisoVinyoleswas playedin 1475.

Of contemporary artists, Barry Martin, a friend of both Teeny Duchamp ( Marcels widow) and of composer John Cage ( Duchamps most faithful disciple) is the most prominent chess player. His recent one man show at the Waterhouse Dodd Gallery in Savile Row, can be followed atwww.Waterhousedodd.com/exhibitions

The most impressive single work , which can still be seen, was a piece which sold for 8500 in hisSpanish series, bringing to mind those revelatory lines from Keats : Then felt I as some watcher of the skies, when a new planet swims into his ken; or like stout Cortez , when with eagle eyes , he stared at the Pacific and all his men, looked at each other with a wild surmise, silent, on a peak in Darien.

Raymond Keenes latest book Fifty Shades of Ray: Chess in the year of the Coronavirus,containing some of his best pieces from TheArticle, is now available fromAmazon , and Blackwells .

We are the only publication thats committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one thats needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout the pandemic. So please, make a donation.

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Distance and discovery: As-Suli, Columbus and chess - TheArticle

This 1976 movie arrives in New York with an ideal restoration narrative. Chess of the Wind was made in Iran and screened only briefly before being banned in the tense period leading up to the Islamic revolution. Presumed lost, the films negative turned up in a junk shop years later. Distinguished cinephile organizations then kicked in to make it internationally accessible.

Its a pleasure to report that the actual movie, directed by Mohammad Reza Aslani (who has worked mostly in documentaries since his trouble with Chess), has quite a bit going for it beyond its rediscovery.

Set on a rambling estate in early-20th-century Tehran, Chess is a fevered melodrama conveyed in a poetically measured style. Its opening scenes are enigmatic. A young woman who uses a wheelchair breaks some bottles in what looks to be a fit of spite. A patriarchal-looking figure smokes with associates, then breaks out scrolls and rubber stamps to what appear to be shady dealings.

Aslani pulls story threads together with an elegant moving camera that doesnt immediately give up all the secrets a scene may contain. Hadji Amoo (Mohamad Ali Keshavarz), indeed considers himself the head of this house. But the ailing Lady Aghdas (Fakhri Khorvash), mourning her dead mother, doesnt acknowledge Hadji as her stepfather, let alone as the estate owner. Scheming with her double-dealing handmaiden (Shohreh Aghdashloo), Aghdas determines to usurp him.

Its easy to see why the repressive theocracy in Iran took exception to this movie. The intimations of lesbian romance, sure. But also, the mendacity Aslani conjures (featuring dissembling suitors, secret lovers, and more outlandish components) is palpable, at times seductive. To call this movie a newly found masterwork would be to oversell it. But Chess of the Wind surely is a noteworthy example of a strain of Iranian cinema that the Ayatollahs ensured would be cut off at the knees when they took over in 1979.

Chess of the WindNot rated. In Persian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters.

See more here:
Chess of the Wind Review: A Remnant of an Iran That Used to Be - The New York Times

A poet and production designer who had made short documentaries, Aslani was just 32 when he launched his narrative feature debut with Chess of the Wind (it was shown at last years New York Film Festival as Chess Game of the Wind, a title that makes a bit more sense). Perhaps if hed been older and more established, the film would have received a more attentive and appreciative reception, but its lack of contemporary renown still surprises, because even measured against the Iranian and international cinematic treasures of the 70s, Aslanis vision is still breathtakingly distinctive, an incisively devastating social critique embedded in a complex tale of intrigue, greed, oppression, and murder. The film is also, and perhaps most strikingly, a stylistic tour de force.

The story is set in the early 1920s, the last years of the Qajar dynasty, which had ruled Iran since the 18th century and set new standards of decadence as its end approached. Aslanis film premiered three years before the end of the dynasty that succeeded the Qajars, the Pahlevis, and no doubt Iranian audiences would have understood that the earlier era was meant to implicate the decadence of the current monarchy. In fact, many Iranian films of the 1970s were rife with feelings of gloom, discontent, and dissidence; the shadow of a widely unpopular Shah seemed to loom over the most engaged and daring of his realms artists.

To conjure the Qajars world, the former production designer made the inspired decision to set the films story in a mansion which is almost a character itself, one of the films most important. Sand-colored, with high columns, doors, and windows decorated with bright stained glass, this archetypal Persian pile is not only where the drama occurs; its also, in a sense, what its aboutsince the family inside is in a state of rapid collapse, the house represents both an ungraspable vision of stability as well as the wealth that all crave.

Read this article:
Chess of the Wind movie review (2021) - Roger Ebert

The U.N.-brokered process in Libya focused on the withdrawal of foreign mercenaries and parliamentary and presidential elections in December 2021 remains fragile. Still, the High National Elections Committee said that nominations for the presidency would start in November with voting cards distributed within weeks. Much is uncertain, including the powers of the presidency. Aside from token moves, those who remain include mercenaries brought in by Russia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and others to support General Haftars eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) and those brought in by Turkey, the main supporter of the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli. Reconciliation appears far off but therehas at least been a respite of over a year from fighting.

These developments must have been welcomed by the over 600,000 migrants in Libya, a destination and transit country for migrants hit hard by the conflict and worsened economic conditions exacerbated by the pandemic.But the situation appears to be worsening for those seeking asylum in Europe through the Mediterranean, and especially sub-Saharan Africans who the U.N. says are uniquely vulnerable, pointing to racism. Many are brutally detained in centers managed by the GNAs Department for Combating Illegal Immigration (DCIM) and secured by militias. Often it is Frontex, the EU border and coast guard agency, who guides the Libyan Coast Guard in illegallypushing back and detaining those seeking asylum in Europe. That cooperation increased after Italy signed a memorandum of understanding in 2017 with the GNA in Tripoli. Conditions in detention centers were already well known; German diplomats compared them to concentration camps.

A recent Amnesty International report speaks of the hellscape of detention. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) withdrew from two official government detention centersbecause of violence and inhumane treatment last June. Yet, despite the Geneva Convention and EU legislation prohibiting returning asylum-seekers to unsafe territories and a European Court of Human Rights ruling citing torture and death in Libya, the practice continues.

On October 1, 2021, Ministry of Interior militias ostensibly moved against drug and human traffickers. No such arrests were announced, but over 5,000 migrants, including 540 womensome pregnantand 215 children were violently detained. According to MSF, Entire families of migrants and refugees have been captured, handcuffed and transported to detentions centers people have been hurt and even killed; families split up, homes reduced to piles of rubble.

Taken to miserably overcrowded detention centers in Tripoli already holding 7,000 people, they face extreme physical violence, including sexual violence and torture. There have been numerous attempts at escape with many shot dead, others rearrested to return to brutal detention and starvation rations. The U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which had assisted and registered most of the detained closed its day center in Tripoli when hundreds overwhelmed the facility asking for protection.

Why was the operation mounted? The answer likely lies in a cruel if lucrative business model around migrant exploitation in parts of Libya, with aspects of it increasingly in other Maghreb countries, even victimizing vulnerable locals. The Clingendael Institute says it is now more profitable to detain and further exploit migrants than get them to Europe. Detainees are beaten, tortured, and starved to get funds from their families and friends. They are subject to forced labor and forced prostitution, many are enslaved and sold, often from detention centers. In an October 2021 report by its Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya, the U.N. noted the commission of crimes against humanity, including in its section on migrants. Furthermore, EU border protection at any cost and pandemic closures mean that routes used by human smugglers and those for drugs, guns, and human trafficking now overlap, further endangering migrants.

The timing of the operation may lie in the pandemics impact on the economy and migration patterns in sub-Saharan Africa. A World Bank phone survey in 41 countries of the region underlined that the pandemic has seriously hurt livelihoods, food security, and human capital. Many, especially women, have lost employment, mostly in cities and towns. Closures and mobility restrictions have hurt all. Agricultural income too has declined as markets closed and prices fell. Tellingly, remittances from migrants proved surprisingly resilient and, excluding Nigeria, increased by 2.3 percent in 2020 with a 2.6 percentincrease expected in 2021.

The Mixed Migration Center sees the pandemic as a threat-multiplier, compounding existing risks and vulnerabilities for refugees and migrants. While COVID-19 may have increased the desire to migrate, it also brought decreasing resources to do so and additional fears. Thus, sea departures to Europe of sub-Saharan Africans declined even as sea departures of North Africans increased. With the flow of sub-Saharan Africans diminishedthe main victims of the detention centers and enslavementthe thousands detained in Gargaresh will allow militias to extort more funds, forced labor, and forced prostitution. For many, this would not be the first time they had to pay their way out. According to the U.N., some migrants have endured this horrific loop over 10 times.

Aside from the over 12,000 detainees, thousands of migrants remain in hiding and 4,000 are encamped at the UNHCR center, desperately seeking evacuation. One Gambia-bound evacuation flight was allowed, after a suspension of flights by the Ministry of Interior in August. Yet the EU continues to cooperate with the Libyan Coast Guard and other government agencies, having sent $455 million since 2015. And while investigations into the role of Frontex have been launched by the EU parliament, the European Ombudsman, the European Court of Auditors and other agencies, little has changed. The impunity with which Frontex and EU border and coast guard national agencies operate continues undiminished. EU agreements and legislation on human rights, including the right to apply for asylum are breached daily, including violent pushbacks along the Aegean route to Greece from Turkey and in the Balkans.

Amnesty International noted in July 2021,Violations documented against refugees and migrants are not an accident but rather the clear and anticipated outcomes of an EU-supported system of interception, disembarkation and return to detention centers notorious for abuse, built with the aim of keeping refugees and migrants out of Europe at all costs.Yet, in a political environment in which Frances far right leader, Le Pen, is being outflanked on her right by a Trump-inspired outsider, Eric Zemmour, and even Denmarks social democrats articulate a vision of a country with no asylum-seekers, the growth and persistence of anti-immigrant policies comes as no surprise.

Yet over the past year, there have been growing countervailing voices and actions. It was two 2020 investigative articles by a consortium of newspapers and the investigative media organizations Bellingcat and Lighthouse Reports on Libya and the Aegean route that prompted EUs Frontex probes. Furthermore, on May 25, 2021, three NGOs, Front-Lex, the Progress lawyers Network, and the Greek Helsinki Monitor, took Frontex to the European Court of Justice. In a first, on January 2021 Frontex ceased operations in Hungary after the European Court of Justice ruled that Budapest violated EU rules when it pushed back asylum-seekers to Serbia. Currently, Matteo Salvini, former interior minister and head of Italys right-wing League party, is in court on kidnapping charges for his 2019 denial of entry to a ship carrying migrants and asylum-seekers abandoned at sea. These are harbingers of hopefully a more humane approach to dealing with the reality of migration. All the EU has to do is follow its own values, laws, and regulations and insist on meaningful sanctions on its Libyan counterparts; and cease assisting lawless groups.

Link:
Libyas migrants and crimes against humanity - Brookings Institution