Serious accusations from activists
Athens to hire migrants for pushbacks
4/7/2022 12:34 p.m
Greek border guards have been accused of illegally turning away asylum seekers for years. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch raises another serious accusation: Greece is said to use migrants to push back other refugees – in exchange for asylum papers.
Greece should use asylum seekers to push back other migrants. in one report the human rights organization Human Rights Watch has 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.
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 Pashto. The Pakistani said: “We do this work for three months and then we get a three-page document. With it we can move freely in Greece and after that we can get a ticket for another country.”
The human rights organization Josoor recorded a similar statement. A Syrian told asylum seekers that those who speak English could work for the Greek police for six months and “then you will be given the asylum papers”.
The government has been denying allegations for years
For years, Greek border guards have been accused of systematically rejecting asylum seekers, abandoning them in the Mediterranean Sea or forcibly returning them to Turkey, contrary to the provisions of asylum law. 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.