GREECE
Coast guard filmed during active pushback
Greece has long been criticized for its illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers at the EU's external border. Human rights experts speak of a breach of asylum and international law. According to the "New York Times" ("NYT"), asylum seekers who had already arrived on the island of Lesbos are now said to have been returned by masked men to a Greek coast guard ship bound for Turkey.
Online since today, 12.13 p.m. (Update: 12.31 p.m.)
Corresponding film footage was taken by Austrian refugee aid worker Fayad Mulla and leaked to the "NYT". The video, dated April 11, shows masked men getting out of a box van on the coast of Lesvos and forcing the twelve asylum seekers inside - men, women and children - to board a speedboat. This takes them on to a Coast Guard vessel that sails to the maritime border between Greece and Turkey.
There, the asylum seekers are abandoned on a black inflatable raft. "What you see very, very clearly in the footage then is that the Greek coast guard is sailing their ship up and down, next to this life raft, so that the swell will push the life raft into Turkish waters, where at some point the Turkish coast guard will come to rescue the people," Mulla told the "NYT."
"New quality of documentation"
Mulla also wants "clear circumstantial evidence" that the masked men were Greek police officers. Greece has so far denied such allegations. Migration expert Bodo Weber of the Democratization Policy Council commented that the footage would capture "virtually gapless pushback of almost the entire chain." This is "yet another quality of documentation.
The "NYT" meticulously reviewed the footage, comparing it with maritime traffic data of that day. Reporters from the newspaper also interviewed eleven of the affected asylum seekers from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, whom they had tracked down in a detention center in Izmir on the Turkish coast.
Athens speaks of 'tough but fair' approach
The Greek government did not respond to repeated requests for comment. However, during a campaign appearance in Lesvos last week ahead of Sunday's parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis defended his government's "tough but fair" migration policy and boasted of a 90 percent drop in the arrival of "illegal migrants."
Greece is far from the only country cracking down on migrants. Poland, Italy and Lithuania have recently changed their laws to make it easier to turn away refugees and punish those who help them. However, the new videos suggest that Greek authorities are going even further and using illegal methods.
EU concerned
The European Commission expressed "concern about the footage." Greece must "fully respect its obligations under EU asylum rules and international law, including ensuring access to the asylum procedure," said Anitta Hipper, the commission's spokeswoman on migration.
Source (ORF.at)
Online since today, 12.13 p.m. (Update: 12.31 p.m.)
Corresponding film footage was taken by Austrian refugee aid worker Fayad Mulla and leaked to the "NYT". The video, dated April 11, shows masked men getting out of a box van on the coast of Lesvos and forcing the twelve asylum seekers inside - men, women and children - to board a speedboat. This takes them on to a Coast Guard vessel that sails to the maritime border between Greece and Turkey.
There, the asylum seekers are abandoned on a black inflatable raft. "What you see very, very clearly in the footage then is that the Greek coast guard is sailing their ship up and down, next to this life raft, so that the swell will push the life raft into Turkish waters, where at some point the Turkish coast guard will come to rescue the people," Mulla told the "NYT."
"New quality of documentation"
Mulla also wants "clear circumstantial evidence" that the masked men were Greek police officers. Greece has so far denied such allegations. Migration expert Bodo Weber of the Democratization Policy Council commented that the footage would capture "virtually gapless pushback of almost the entire chain." This is "yet another quality of documentation.
The "NYT" meticulously reviewed the footage, comparing it with maritime traffic data of that day. Reporters from the newspaper also interviewed eleven of the affected asylum seekers from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, whom they had tracked down in a detention center in Izmir on the Turkish coast.
Athens speaks of 'tough but fair' approach
The Greek government did not respond to repeated requests for comment. However, during a campaign appearance in Lesvos last week ahead of Sunday's parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis defended his government's "tough but fair" migration policy and boasted of a 90 percent drop in the arrival of "illegal migrants."
Greece is far from the only country cracking down on migrants. Poland, Italy and Lithuania have recently changed their laws to make it easier to turn away refugees and punish those who help them. However, the new videos suggest that Greek authorities are going even further and using illegal methods.
EU concerned
The European Commission expressed "concern about the footage." Greece must "fully respect its obligations under EU asylum rules and international law, including ensuring access to the asylum procedure," said Anitta Hipper, the commission's spokeswoman on migration.
Source (ORF.at)
MEDIA REPORT
How refugees are kidnapped on Lesbos and dumped in the sea
According to "New York Times" research based on video of an Austrian refugee worker, asylum seekers are being driven back to Turkey from Greek islands on lifeboats
Irene Brickner, May 19, 2023, 09:57
Hooded men arresting asylum seekers on Greek islands and abandoning them at sea in inflatable life rafts to take them back to Turkey: That such illegal practices exist has long been suspected. Evidence was lacking, however - until now.
Now there is far more than the previous speculations. This is thanks, among others, to Fayad Mulla, a humanitarian aid worker from Austria who was on duty on the island of Lesbos until two weeks ago. He made a video of a refugee abduction and abandonment in the sea on April 11, 2023. His footage provides detailed insights into what happened that raise urgent questions for Greek asylum officials and those responsible for the EU's closure to refugees.
"New York Times" found abductees in Turkey.
Mulla provided the video to the "New York Times". Journalists from the renowned U.S. medium managed to recover eleven abductees in Turkey - including a baby and several small children. They interviewed the adults. They confirmed that they had been arrested on Lesbos by hooded men and abandoned on a lifeboat.
The fact that they can additionally be recognized in photos taken by the Turkish coast guard on April 11 underscores the probative value of what was said. Also the rescue island, on which one left them to their fate, was registered by the Turkish coast guard. According to a list of all apprehensions of refugees at sea, it was discovered at 2:30 p.m. on April 11, 2023, in the sea between Lesbos, Greece, and the Turkish coast near Izmir.
Deadly abandonments on the high seas
On Lesbos, the refugees would be brought to shore in box vans without license plates and then transported on Greek Coast Guard vessels to the Turkish maritime border, Mulla described. There, they are set adrift on inflatable life rafts - so-called life boats.
The Turkish coast guard usually finds the life rafts. The people are then brought back to Turkey.
In some cases, however, the abandonments would prove fatal. For example, according to an official report from the Interior Ministry in Ankara, on Sept. 13, 2022, Turkish forces retrieved the bodies of four children and a woman from the water not far from a half-flooded life raft that still contained seven people. The Greek coast guard had put them in the companions, they recounted.
Extensive "New York Times" report.
On Wednesday, a comprehensive, interactive "New York Times" report on what happened on Lesbos went online. No comment was received from the Greek government in response to requests from the paper.
The EU Commission said it would contact the Greek government about the allegations. The EU supports the Greek refugee system with millions of euros, for example through the EU Asylum Agency (EUAA).
Several hundred kidnappings since 2020
Mulla, who is also the chairman of the left-wing Austrian party "Der Wandel," described to the STANDARD how he got on the trail of the kidnappings. He had heard rumors about it since his arrival on Lesbos in September 2020.
"The deportations started with the beginning of the Corona pandemic. So from the moment after which there were no more legal returns from Greece to Turkey," he says.
Informants, he says, told him about sea bays where people were forced onto boats. He also received tips about where on the island the masked search parties were on the move: "This enabled me to observe two such actions. According to the Turkish coast guard's arrest lists, there must have been several hundred of them in total, with thousands of people affected," Mulla estimates.
Found with thermal imaging cameras
According to the Austrian, it is unclear who exactly the hooded men are who are picking up asylum seekers on the islands. They do not have uniforms or other insignia that identify them as police officers. Their approach, however, is characterized by trained efficiency and harshness. The hands of men who are picked up are tied with cable ties, and anyone who resists is beaten.
The close cooperation of the search teams with the Greek coast guard also points to police officers. The refugees are found in the bushes of the island with the help of thermal imaging cameras of the coast guard. Chinese drones with such cameras are also in use.
In many cases, there is a kind of race to determine the fate of the asylum seekers, he said. "If they are found by NGOs or official representatives of the authorities, by the so-called 'good guys,' they come to the camp and can apply for asylum. If the hooded special forces, the so-called 'bad guys,' are faster, they are taken back to the sea."
Mulla: "What was documented here are crimes".
This March, Mulla says, he received a tip that a special forces operation was underway on the island: "I joined them as the refugees were being taken away toward the coast." By car, he said, he followed the convoy of box trucks: "The cars with the refugees in the back were speeding along the bumpy gravel roads at up to 100 kilometers per hour."
With the cell phone and a Dash cam he made photographs of the journey, they are available to the STANDARD. At the end of the journey, a speedboat had already been waiting in the bay to take the asylum seekers to a Greek coast guard ship and out to sea with it. The bay was easily visible, so he set up a camera trap there. It soon snapped shut: "So I was able to precisely film the transport on April 11 all the way out to sea."
"What was documented here are crimes," Mulla says. The revelations would have to have consequences. In Greece, he says, the question is who gave the order for the kidnappings and financed them. The EU must rethink its support for Greek asylum policy, he said. In this regard, he planned a series of factual presentations. (Irene Brickner, 5/19/2023)
Source (derstandard.at)
Irene Brickner, May 19, 2023, 09:57
Hooded men arresting asylum seekers on Greek islands and abandoning them at sea in inflatable life rafts to take them back to Turkey: That such illegal practices exist has long been suspected. Evidence was lacking, however - until now.
Now there is far more than the previous speculations. This is thanks, among others, to Fayad Mulla, a humanitarian aid worker from Austria who was on duty on the island of Lesbos until two weeks ago. He made a video of a refugee abduction and abandonment in the sea on April 11, 2023. His footage provides detailed insights into what happened that raise urgent questions for Greek asylum officials and those responsible for the EU's closure to refugees.
"New York Times" found abductees in Turkey.
Mulla provided the video to the "New York Times". Journalists from the renowned U.S. medium managed to recover eleven abductees in Turkey - including a baby and several small children. They interviewed the adults. They confirmed that they had been arrested on Lesbos by hooded men and abandoned on a lifeboat.
The fact that they can additionally be recognized in photos taken by the Turkish coast guard on April 11 underscores the probative value of what was said. Also the rescue island, on which one left them to their fate, was registered by the Turkish coast guard. According to a list of all apprehensions of refugees at sea, it was discovered at 2:30 p.m. on April 11, 2023, in the sea between Lesbos, Greece, and the Turkish coast near Izmir.
Deadly abandonments on the high seas
On Lesbos, the refugees would be brought to shore in box vans without license plates and then transported on Greek Coast Guard vessels to the Turkish maritime border, Mulla described. There, they are set adrift on inflatable life rafts - so-called life boats.
The Turkish coast guard usually finds the life rafts. The people are then brought back to Turkey.
In some cases, however, the abandonments would prove fatal. For example, according to an official report from the Interior Ministry in Ankara, on Sept. 13, 2022, Turkish forces retrieved the bodies of four children and a woman from the water not far from a half-flooded life raft that still contained seven people. The Greek coast guard had put them in the companions, they recounted.
Extensive "New York Times" report.
On Wednesday, a comprehensive, interactive "New York Times" report on what happened on Lesbos went online. No comment was received from the Greek government in response to requests from the paper.
The EU Commission said it would contact the Greek government about the allegations. The EU supports the Greek refugee system with millions of euros, for example through the EU Asylum Agency (EUAA).
Several hundred kidnappings since 2020
Mulla, who is also the chairman of the left-wing Austrian party "Der Wandel," described to the STANDARD how he got on the trail of the kidnappings. He had heard rumors about it since his arrival on Lesbos in September 2020.
"The deportations started with the beginning of the Corona pandemic. So from the moment after which there were no more legal returns from Greece to Turkey," he says.
Informants, he says, told him about sea bays where people were forced onto boats. He also received tips about where on the island the masked search parties were on the move: "This enabled me to observe two such actions. According to the Turkish coast guard's arrest lists, there must have been several hundred of them in total, with thousands of people affected," Mulla estimates.
Found with thermal imaging cameras
According to the Austrian, it is unclear who exactly the hooded men are who are picking up asylum seekers on the islands. They do not have uniforms or other insignia that identify them as police officers. Their approach, however, is characterized by trained efficiency and harshness. The hands of men who are picked up are tied with cable ties, and anyone who resists is beaten.
The close cooperation of the search teams with the Greek coast guard also points to police officers. The refugees are found in the bushes of the island with the help of thermal imaging cameras of the coast guard. Chinese drones with such cameras are also in use.
In many cases, there is a kind of race to determine the fate of the asylum seekers, he said. "If they are found by NGOs or official representatives of the authorities, by the so-called 'good guys,' they come to the camp and can apply for asylum. If the hooded special forces, the so-called 'bad guys,' are faster, they are taken back to the sea."
Mulla: "What was documented here are crimes".
This March, Mulla says, he received a tip that a special forces operation was underway on the island: "I joined them as the refugees were being taken away toward the coast." By car, he said, he followed the convoy of box trucks: "The cars with the refugees in the back were speeding along the bumpy gravel roads at up to 100 kilometers per hour."
With the cell phone and a Dash cam he made photographs of the journey, they are available to the STANDARD. At the end of the journey, a speedboat had already been waiting in the bay to take the asylum seekers to a Greek coast guard ship and out to sea with it. The bay was easily visible, so he set up a camera trap there. It soon snapped shut: "So I was able to precisely film the transport on April 11 all the way out to sea."
"What was documented here are crimes," Mulla says. The revelations would have to have consequences. In Greece, he says, the question is who gave the order for the kidnappings and financed them. The EU must rethink its support for Greek asylum policy, he said. In this regard, he planned a series of factual presentations. (Irene Brickner, 5/19/2023)
Source (derstandard.at)
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