Since fall 2020, we have taken testimonies of dozens of groups describing the tactic of Greek police and border guards’ use of islands in the Evros/Meriç river (see at the bottom).
In this particularly cruel tactic, groups including children, (pregnant) women and severely injured people are purposefully taken to small islands of the border river instead of being pushed back all across the Evros/Meriç to the Turkish shore.
In most of the recorded cases, this leads to the groups being stranded in the river for multiple days without shelter, drinking water, food or medical care as the water level is too high to cross the river and/or border guards on both sides prevent the groups from crossing to either shore, all too often with the use of firearms.
As the Greek officers routinely take people’s phones from them during pushbacks, in the large majority of these cases, we are only alerted of the incident when people give their testimonies.
In two previous cases, group members were able to hide phones and could thus reach out for help and send footage of the ongoing incidents.
Right now, a third such incident where a group who was stranded is still in possession of a functioning phone is occurring. For more than two days, around 50 people have been stranded on an island on the Greek-Turkey land border without shelter, food or drinking water.
The footage sent from the island a few hours ago shows all group members without shoes, most without proper clothing and many of the group members severely injured with bruises and wounds.
We are calling on the Greek authorities to immediately evacuate these people from the island and grant them their right to claim asylum.
We furthermore urge Frontex once again to intervene to the best of their ability and in accordance with its regulation and international law.
Human lives cannot be abused as leverage in a political conflict! Both the Greek and Turkish authorities are violating human rights on their borders. These incidents also implicate Frontex, the agency which is supposed to protect fundamental rights on our borders, but ignores these incidents and evades responsibility with ludicrous excuses.
August 30, 1pm local time
Some of the group members - two unaccompanied Syrian minors - contacted us from Istanbul. They were able to swim to the TR shore last night when they were able to walk to the other end of the island and cross the river swimming without being detected by Turkish border guards, but two of the rest of the group were so injured - a boy bitten by a dog and a man with broken arm and leg and one woman who cannot swim. 11 others stayed with them since they are related and did not want to split up. These 14 people remain stuck on the island.
Since fall 2020, we have taken testimonies of dozens of groups describing the tactic of Greek police and border guards’ use of islands in the Evros/Meriç river (see at the bottom).
In this particularly cruel tactic, groups including children, (pregnant) women and severely injured people are purposefully taken to small islands of the border river instead of being pushed back all across the Evros/Meriç to the Turkish shore.
In most of the recorded cases, this leads to the groups being stranded in the river for multiple days without shelter, drinking water, food or medical care as the water level is too high to cross the river and/or border guards on both sides prevent the groups from crossing to either shore, all too often with the use of firearms.
As the Greek officers routinely take people’s phones from them during pushbacks, in the large majority of these cases, we are only alerted of the incident when people give their testimonies.
In two previous cases, group members were able to hide phones and could thus reach out for help and send footage of the ongoing incidents.
Right now, a third such incident where a group who was stranded is still in possession of a functioning phone is occurring. For more than two days, around 50 people have been stranded on an island on the Greek-Turkey land border without shelter, food or drinking water.
The footage sent from the island a few hours ago shows all group members without shoes, most without proper clothing and many of the group members severely injured with bruises and wounds.
We are calling on the Greek authorities to immediately evacuate these people from the island and grant them their right to claim asylum.
We furthermore urge Frontex once again to intervene to the best of their ability and in accordance with its regulation and international law.
Human lives cannot be abused as leverage in a political conflict! Both the Greek and Turkish authorities are violating human rights on their borders. These incidents also implicate Frontex, the agency which is supposed to protect fundamental rights on our borders, but ignores these incidents and evades responsibility with ludicrous excuses.
August 30, 1pm local time
Some of the group members - two unaccompanied Syrian minors - contacted us from Istanbul. They were able to swim to the TR shore last night when they were able to walk to the other end of the island and cross the river swimming without being detected by Turkish border guards, but two of the rest of the group were so injured - a boy bitten by a dog and a man with broken arm and leg and one woman who cannot swim. 11 others stayed with them since they are related and did not want to split up. These 14 people remain stuck on the island.
