Border guards in Greece have been accused for years of systematically abandoning asylum seekers in the Mediterranean or forcibly returning them to Turkey. A recent report again raises allegations against the government.
Greece should use asylum seekers to push back other migrants. In a report published on Thursday, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch made corresponding accusations against the Greek authorities. She refers to descriptions of several Afghans who were forcibly brought back to Turkey by Arab or South Asian people.
According to Human Rights Watch, 23 Afghan asylum seekers said they were robbed in the Evros region between September 2021 and February 2022 and then taken to Turkey. Sixteen of them reported that the boatmen who took them to the Turkish bank of the Evros River spoke Arabic or South Asian languages.
Greece denies allegations
The human rights organization highlights in its report the testimony of a 28-year-old former Afghan soldier who said he was sent back to Turkey in December. The boat used for this was steered by a Pakistani with whom he was able to converse in Pashtun. The Pakistani said: “We’ll do this work for three months and then we can get our papers.”
For years, the Greek border guards have been accused of systematically rejecting asylum seekers in violation of the right to asylum, abandoning them in the Mediterranean or forcibly bringing them back to Turkey. The Greek government rejects the allegations, which have been covered by numerous journalistic investigations.
At the end of February, the UN refugee agency UNHCR expressed concern about the “normalization” of illegal refusals of migrants at Europe’s borders and referred in particular to Greece. Around 540 incidents of informal deportations have been registered there since the beginning of 2020.
“It is undeniable that the Greek government is responsible for illegal refusals at the border,” Human Rights Watch said. “Using middlemen to carry out these illegal acts does not relieve her of responsibility.” The human rights organization demanded that the EU Commission take legal action against Athens.
Source: Stern
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