The Greek government boasts of a small number of newly arrived refugees, the European Union is proud to have such a "shield". Activists have no illusions that behind this is the brutal practice of illegal deportations and repulsion of refugees. With silent support from the European Union, hell continues on the Greek borders.
This article was first published in polish on OKO.press: https://oko.press/grecja-uchodzcy-granica/
The Greek government boasts on Facebook of the lowest statistics in years. Indeed, in 2019, about 60,000 refugees reached Greece by the sea and in August less than 9 thousand (according to UNHCR).
Last year, about 15,000 arrived by land, in 2020 the total is reported to be 3,000 so far. Has the help on the spot been effective? Are the persecutions over? According to various activists, new methods of persecution have started – here in Europe.
The eyes of the whole world are on the Lesbos, where the overcrowded refugee camp burned down, leaving 13,000 people without shelter. Non-governmental organizations present in Lesbos have reported about people trapped for several days between police blockades, left on the road without access to food, water, shelter and information on what to do next.
“Police used tear gas on refugees, limiting the volunteer access, but they were still allowing right-wing groups to act. The level of dehumanization of refugees is appalling " - reports OKO journalist Paweł Kołodziej from Legal Center Lesvos.
There are voices criticising the regime, even internally. “There is no migration crisis in the European Union now. But unfortunately, migrants remain in a state of the crisis” says Ylva Johansson, EU commissioner for home affairs. Although he points out that the conditions in the camp are the responsibility of Greece, he admits that one of the sources of the problem is the failure of the EU asylum reform.
The European Union, however, has far worse things on its conscience than the current crisis in Lesvos. "I am very concerned about reports about migrants push-backs at the borders so that they cannot even apply for asylum" says Johannson, referring to a practice that NGOs have been warning about for years.
While the European Union has been debating a solution to the refugee crisis for years, overburdened border states are trying to cope with the influx of refugees on their own. Border violence activists report on an unprecedented scale the number of illegal push backs by services at EU borders. Their brutality has increased rapidly since March.
In March, photos and videos of people pushing through the Greek-Turkish border were released to the media. President Erdoğan decided to show his strength. By breaking the pact with the European Union, according to which he is to keep refugees in Turkey, he unilaterally opened the borders. Europe trembled. "Biological War? Turkey is trying to send coronavirus infected migrants to Greece” reported severa Greek newspapers. Reports of Greek police brutality, tear gas, firearms and violations of the right to apply for asylum fell into a political vacuum. “This border is not only a Greek but also a European border. I thank Greece for being our shield these days, ”said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
“Some were at the border of their own free will, others were just brought there. Refugees from various parts of Turkey were brought in and held imprisoned at the border for a month,” commented Natalie Gruber from the Austrian NGO Josoor, which works with the Border Violence Monitoring Network: “We tried to provide them with the most necessary items, but the Turkish police prevented us from helping on a larger scale. They did everything to attempt to force people to try and cross the border. "
In late March, those who remained on the Turkish side were deported and dumped at random locations in the middle of lockdown Turkey. “Most of them were also handed deportation documents. The reason given was an attempt to cross the border illegally. Some people were taken to the coast and encouraged to try to go to Greece, ”says Gruber.
"We are cards and they play us," commented the father of one of the Syrian families imprisoned on the border in Pazarkule.
Turkish services are still eager to push people to Greece. “If you try to get to Bulgaria or Italy, they stop you. Are you going to Greece? Sometimes they will even advise you on the best place to go on any one particular day.” says Gruber.
Turkey and Greece share the Mediterranean Sea with its oil and gas reserves. The conflict over who will take them over has been going on for years and Erdoğan is doing everything to win it. And refugees flee to Europe because they have no choice. They may be deported from Turkey at any time.
Turkey signed the Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees, but adopted a territorial restriction - it accepts asylum applications only from citizens of European countries.
In 2014, an exception was introduced for Syrians, granting them the status of "guests" and temporary protection. But public approval for their presence is declining, and Erdoğan, with weakening political support, is reluctant to admit that 3.5 million people have come to Turkey, but will have nowhere to return to for many years. There are more and more deportations.
“We've heard a lot about the arrest of Afghans since June. We do not know how many there are and what is happening to them, because they take their phones away when they are arrested. All we can see is that hundreds of Afghans have simply disappeared in the past months,” says Gruber.
Syrians are also not safe. As late as 2019, Amnesty International reported that 315 "voluntary returns" had been the result of frauds and threats. Gruber hears more and more often about the incorporation of Syrians into the Turkish army and sending them to the front in Libya. The government in Tripoli, supported by Erdoğan in the civil war, is keen to support the idea of creating a new sea border between Turkey, Greece and Libya.
Desperate people keep fleeing to Greece. But politics is already there before them.
The main crossing routes from Turkey to Greece are either on the Evros River or the Aegean Sea. Evros has become difficult lately. Refugees are caught at the border or beyond, even after several days of walking. By whom? Sometimes by the police, and sometimes by people in balaclavas about whom nothing is yet known. “There is no official information about who they are. We only know that they cooperate with the police, because they usually hand over caught people to them,” Gruber mentions.
According to EU law, anyone on the Greek side of the border can apply for asylum, and tell their story, which will be verified by the relevant institutions. The reality is different. “The government services take their cell phones, money, documents, clothes and shoes. They keep them for days in some gloomy warehouse. They bring more. When they have 60, sometimes 100 people, they take them to the river. Sometimes in military vans,” says Gruber.
In some instances, they put refugees on boats and illegally deport them to Turkey. The carriers were often other refugees who had struck a deal with the Greek police. "For a month of work, they got a document that allowed them to travel through Greece to the Albanian border." Gruber says.
Increasingly often there are no boats. “The Evros is a dangerous river, it has very strong currents, but sometimes, when the water level is lower, it can be crossed by flowing in some places. We are hearing increasingly often that people are being forced to cross the river,” Gruber mentions.
The degree of cruelty is constantly increasing. "A month and a half ago, we heard about a whole group who had their hands tied behind their backs and thrown into the river to swim to the other side." Gruber also has mentioned evidence of cases of refugees being abandoned on islands in the middle of the river.
“At the end of May, the mother of a Pakistani boy, Faysal Rahmouni, came to see us. She said her son had called her from the island. Others went to the mainland, but he and the two Moroccans could not swim. He sat there for almost a day, he was desperate. " After that, he never called again. He was 16 years old.
The bodies found on the Greek side of Evros back then did not match the description. The mother is still looking for the boy. There are more cases. “Yesterday I heard the story of a group of Moroccans who were told to jump into the water in the middle of Evros and swim to the other side by the border guards. Many could not, two disappeared under the water. Two weeks have passed but they haven't been able to tell the family” says Gruber.
“We don't know exactly how many people are killed trying to get through. The investigating judge who identifies the bodies found in Evros estimates that 1,500 people have been found in the last 10 years. But this is only the Greek side of the border.”
The appearances are still kept up on Evros. Illegal deportations take place at night. There is more freedom at sea. Coastguard activities in the middle of the day in good weather can be seen from Lesvos and the Turkish coast.
The migration route is changing rapidly in response to ever-changing border defense strategies. Contrary to the popular political strategy of "let's stop accepting, they will stop coming", people still have more to lose where they came from. When Evros is too difficult and therefore too expensive (fivefold price increase in June), people choose the sea. It is not known where it is currently worse.
"We are saved," said Winny, a 35-year-old activist from Uganda, when she saw a boat with a Greek flag arriving. She showed that there were small children on board. On her hands she had her 4-month old child. In response, a stream from a water cannon struck them from a Greek coast guard boat. It hit the child who fell out of Winnie's hands and was thrown overboard. At the last moment, the brother sitting next to them caught the baby.
Many reports mention jabbing with a stick with a hook at the end, spraying suffocating and blinding powder, shots at refugee boats, which are even recorded on video. Here, too, masked men often appear, to whom the Greek services do not officially acknowledge their presence.
According to Gruber, a new strategy has been in force at sea since April. The guards not only block the boats from reaching the shore.
"They take passengers on their boat, sink the dinghies, and then put 30 people in an inflatable life raft scheduled for 15. The rafts are then dumped at the Turkish sea." Such rafts are increasingly used to expel people who have already arrived on Greek land.
Official data shows 923 people drowned crossing the Mediterranean Sea in 2019. We will never know the real number of how many die, because many disappear under water unnoticed.
Until recently, the terrible uncertainty and sense of danger ended on the Greek side of the border. It was possible to rest, apply for asylum, get shelter - even a piece of tent in an overcrowded camp. Now, round-ups and illegal deportations extend deep inland to the Albanian border. It's easy to disappear.
“We have six cases of people who obtained refugee status in Germany or Austria and visited friends or family in Greece. The police identified them, took their documents and illegally deported them together with others. They haven't been able to get out of Turkey for years."
There is now less safe space, you have to move quickly. "Somewhere they will welcome us, somewhere it will be safe," says Hosein, whom we meet at the Albanian border with a family of 10. Two children sleep in prams, the other two are walking alongside. Rasha is three months pregnant, her companion is six months pregnant.
They are starting the Balkan route, which is also becoming more dangerous. Activists have been hearing reports of police beatings, dog rats, and taking shoes and clothes during winter crossings. BVMN devoted a separate report to the violence on the Balkan route. It pays off to pursue refugees. “They often have savings accumulated over decades with them. Even tens of thousands of euros. We don't believe that all this goes to the state treasury, ”says Gruber.
Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, has been present on Evros for years, and also patrols the sea. But they failed to identify "serious incidents" of human rights violations. It also does not confirm illegal deportations on the Balkan route, although - according to Gruber's information - the services of various countries seem to cooperate by transferring refugees at the borders.
The material about the illegal activities of the Greek coastguard was published, among others, by The New York Times. They also wrote about illegal places of detention where refugees are secretly held before being pushed to the border. The Guardian, in turn, reported on cooperation between the European navy and the Libyan border guards in the Mediterranean Sea. The Danish Frontex crew patrolling the sea on the Turkish-Greek border has admitted refusing to participate in the illegal repulsion of refugees. The practice was also noticed by the German supply ship "Berlin". There are reports of Frontex being involved in illegal deportations at the Albanian border. Spiegel also wrote about the pushbacks on Evros.
Commissioner Johnasson declared that she would "consider introducing a new mechanism to monitor whether EU countries respect fundamental human rights at their borders".
And if they don't, what then?
In an interview with OKO.press, a member of the European Commission stated that the journalistic materials, although disturbing, were not sufficient evidence. Anyway, neither Frontex nor the European Commission have any possibility of investigation into this matter. Greek Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis has denied that his country is illegally pushing away refugees. He called the reports fake news spread by smugglers whose business are supposedly spoilt by Greek actions. He also described Greece's migration policy as "strict but fair". "Greece cannot be the gateway to Europe," explained the Greek Minister for Migration.
This article was first published in polish on OKO.press: https://oko.press/grecja-uchodzcy-granica/
The Greek government boasts on Facebook of the lowest statistics in years. Indeed, in 2019, about 60,000 refugees reached Greece by the sea and in August less than 9 thousand (according to UNHCR).
Last year, about 15,000 arrived by land, in 2020 the total is reported to be 3,000 so far. Has the help on the spot been effective? Are the persecutions over? According to various activists, new methods of persecution have started – here in Europe.
The eyes of the whole world are on the Lesbos, where the overcrowded refugee camp burned down, leaving 13,000 people without shelter. Non-governmental organizations present in Lesbos have reported about people trapped for several days between police blockades, left on the road without access to food, water, shelter and information on what to do next.
“Police used tear gas on refugees, limiting the volunteer access, but they were still allowing right-wing groups to act. The level of dehumanization of refugees is appalling " - reports OKO journalist Paweł Kołodziej from Legal Center Lesvos.
There are voices criticising the regime, even internally. “There is no migration crisis in the European Union now. But unfortunately, migrants remain in a state of the crisis” says Ylva Johansson, EU commissioner for home affairs. Although he points out that the conditions in the camp are the responsibility of Greece, he admits that one of the sources of the problem is the failure of the EU asylum reform.
The European Union, however, has far worse things on its conscience than the current crisis in Lesvos. "I am very concerned about reports about migrants push-backs at the borders so that they cannot even apply for asylum" says Johannson, referring to a practice that NGOs have been warning about for years.
While the European Union has been debating a solution to the refugee crisis for years, overburdened border states are trying to cope with the influx of refugees on their own. Border violence activists report on an unprecedented scale the number of illegal push backs by services at EU borders. Their brutality has increased rapidly since March.
In March, photos and videos of people pushing through the Greek-Turkish border were released to the media. President Erdoğan decided to show his strength. By breaking the pact with the European Union, according to which he is to keep refugees in Turkey, he unilaterally opened the borders. Europe trembled. "Biological War? Turkey is trying to send coronavirus infected migrants to Greece” reported severa Greek newspapers. Reports of Greek police brutality, tear gas, firearms and violations of the right to apply for asylum fell into a political vacuum. “This border is not only a Greek but also a European border. I thank Greece for being our shield these days, ”said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
“Some were at the border of their own free will, others were just brought there. Refugees from various parts of Turkey were brought in and held imprisoned at the border for a month,” commented Natalie Gruber from the Austrian NGO Josoor, which works with the Border Violence Monitoring Network: “We tried to provide them with the most necessary items, but the Turkish police prevented us from helping on a larger scale. They did everything to attempt to force people to try and cross the border. "
In late March, those who remained on the Turkish side were deported and dumped at random locations in the middle of lockdown Turkey. “Most of them were also handed deportation documents. The reason given was an attempt to cross the border illegally. Some people were taken to the coast and encouraged to try to go to Greece, ”says Gruber.
"We are cards and they play us," commented the father of one of the Syrian families imprisoned on the border in Pazarkule.
Turkish services are still eager to push people to Greece. “If you try to get to Bulgaria or Italy, they stop you. Are you going to Greece? Sometimes they will even advise you on the best place to go on any one particular day.” says Gruber.
Turkey and Greece share the Mediterranean Sea with its oil and gas reserves. The conflict over who will take them over has been going on for years and Erdoğan is doing everything to win it. And refugees flee to Europe because they have no choice. They may be deported from Turkey at any time.
Turkey signed the Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees, but adopted a territorial restriction - it accepts asylum applications only from citizens of European countries.
In 2014, an exception was introduced for Syrians, granting them the status of "guests" and temporary protection. But public approval for their presence is declining, and Erdoğan, with weakening political support, is reluctant to admit that 3.5 million people have come to Turkey, but will have nowhere to return to for many years. There are more and more deportations.
“We've heard a lot about the arrest of Afghans since June. We do not know how many there are and what is happening to them, because they take their phones away when they are arrested. All we can see is that hundreds of Afghans have simply disappeared in the past months,” says Gruber.
Syrians are also not safe. As late as 2019, Amnesty International reported that 315 "voluntary returns" had been the result of frauds and threats. Gruber hears more and more often about the incorporation of Syrians into the Turkish army and sending them to the front in Libya. The government in Tripoli, supported by Erdoğan in the civil war, is keen to support the idea of creating a new sea border between Turkey, Greece and Libya.
Desperate people keep fleeing to Greece. But politics is already there before them.
The main crossing routes from Turkey to Greece are either on the Evros River or the Aegean Sea. Evros has become difficult lately. Refugees are caught at the border or beyond, even after several days of walking. By whom? Sometimes by the police, and sometimes by people in balaclavas about whom nothing is yet known. “There is no official information about who they are. We only know that they cooperate with the police, because they usually hand over caught people to them,” Gruber mentions.
According to EU law, anyone on the Greek side of the border can apply for asylum, and tell their story, which will be verified by the relevant institutions. The reality is different. “The government services take their cell phones, money, documents, clothes and shoes. They keep them for days in some gloomy warehouse. They bring more. When they have 60, sometimes 100 people, they take them to the river. Sometimes in military vans,” says Gruber.
In some instances, they put refugees on boats and illegally deport them to Turkey. The carriers were often other refugees who had struck a deal with the Greek police. "For a month of work, they got a document that allowed them to travel through Greece to the Albanian border." Gruber says.
Increasingly often there are no boats. “The Evros is a dangerous river, it has very strong currents, but sometimes, when the water level is lower, it can be crossed by flowing in some places. We are hearing increasingly often that people are being forced to cross the river,” Gruber mentions.
The degree of cruelty is constantly increasing. "A month and a half ago, we heard about a whole group who had their hands tied behind their backs and thrown into the river to swim to the other side." Gruber also has mentioned evidence of cases of refugees being abandoned on islands in the middle of the river.
“At the end of May, the mother of a Pakistani boy, Faysal Rahmouni, came to see us. She said her son had called her from the island. Others went to the mainland, but he and the two Moroccans could not swim. He sat there for almost a day, he was desperate. " After that, he never called again. He was 16 years old.
The bodies found on the Greek side of Evros back then did not match the description. The mother is still looking for the boy. There are more cases. “Yesterday I heard the story of a group of Moroccans who were told to jump into the water in the middle of Evros and swim to the other side by the border guards. Many could not, two disappeared under the water. Two weeks have passed but they haven't been able to tell the family” says Gruber.
“We don't know exactly how many people are killed trying to get through. The investigating judge who identifies the bodies found in Evros estimates that 1,500 people have been found in the last 10 years. But this is only the Greek side of the border.”
The appearances are still kept up on Evros. Illegal deportations take place at night. There is more freedom at sea. Coastguard activities in the middle of the day in good weather can be seen from Lesvos and the Turkish coast.
The migration route is changing rapidly in response to ever-changing border defense strategies. Contrary to the popular political strategy of "let's stop accepting, they will stop coming", people still have more to lose where they came from. When Evros is too difficult and therefore too expensive (fivefold price increase in June), people choose the sea. It is not known where it is currently worse.
"We are saved," said Winny, a 35-year-old activist from Uganda, when she saw a boat with a Greek flag arriving. She showed that there were small children on board. On her hands she had her 4-month old child. In response, a stream from a water cannon struck them from a Greek coast guard boat. It hit the child who fell out of Winnie's hands and was thrown overboard. At the last moment, the brother sitting next to them caught the baby.
Many reports mention jabbing with a stick with a hook at the end, spraying suffocating and blinding powder, shots at refugee boats, which are even recorded on video. Here, too, masked men often appear, to whom the Greek services do not officially acknowledge their presence.
According to Gruber, a new strategy has been in force at sea since April. The guards not only block the boats from reaching the shore.
"They take passengers on their boat, sink the dinghies, and then put 30 people in an inflatable life raft scheduled for 15. The rafts are then dumped at the Turkish sea." Such rafts are increasingly used to expel people who have already arrived on Greek land.
Official data shows 923 people drowned crossing the Mediterranean Sea in 2019. We will never know the real number of how many die, because many disappear under water unnoticed.
Until recently, the terrible uncertainty and sense of danger ended on the Greek side of the border. It was possible to rest, apply for asylum, get shelter - even a piece of tent in an overcrowded camp. Now, round-ups and illegal deportations extend deep inland to the Albanian border. It's easy to disappear.
“We have six cases of people who obtained refugee status in Germany or Austria and visited friends or family in Greece. The police identified them, took their documents and illegally deported them together with others. They haven't been able to get out of Turkey for years."
There is now less safe space, you have to move quickly. "Somewhere they will welcome us, somewhere it will be safe," says Hosein, whom we meet at the Albanian border with a family of 10. Two children sleep in prams, the other two are walking alongside. Rasha is three months pregnant, her companion is six months pregnant.
They are starting the Balkan route, which is also becoming more dangerous. Activists have been hearing reports of police beatings, dog rats, and taking shoes and clothes during winter crossings. BVMN devoted a separate report to the violence on the Balkan route. It pays off to pursue refugees. “They often have savings accumulated over decades with them. Even tens of thousands of euros. We don't believe that all this goes to the state treasury, ”says Gruber.
Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, has been present on Evros for years, and also patrols the sea. But they failed to identify "serious incidents" of human rights violations. It also does not confirm illegal deportations on the Balkan route, although - according to Gruber's information - the services of various countries seem to cooperate by transferring refugees at the borders.
The material about the illegal activities of the Greek coastguard was published, among others, by The New York Times. They also wrote about illegal places of detention where refugees are secretly held before being pushed to the border. The Guardian, in turn, reported on cooperation between the European navy and the Libyan border guards in the Mediterranean Sea. The Danish Frontex crew patrolling the sea on the Turkish-Greek border has admitted refusing to participate in the illegal repulsion of refugees. The practice was also noticed by the German supply ship "Berlin". There are reports of Frontex being involved in illegal deportations at the Albanian border. Spiegel also wrote about the pushbacks on Evros.
Commissioner Johnasson declared that she would "consider introducing a new mechanism to monitor whether EU countries respect fundamental human rights at their borders".
And if they don't, what then?
In an interview with OKO.press, a member of the European Commission stated that the journalistic materials, although disturbing, were not sufficient evidence. Anyway, neither Frontex nor the European Commission have any possibility of investigation into this matter. Greek Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis has denied that his country is illegally pushing away refugees. He called the reports fake news spread by smugglers whose business are supposedly spoilt by Greek actions. He also described Greece's migration policy as "strict but fair". "Greece cannot be the gateway to Europe," explained the Greek Minister for Migration.
