»Unhaltbare Zustände für Flüchtlinge an der griechisch-türkischen Grenze«

Every year, thousands of refugees and migrants arrive at the Greek-Turkish border hoping to cross the frontier and enter the European Union (EU). For some, this is the last leg of a long and dangerous journey to escape grinding poverty and make a better life for themselves and their families. For others, the EU offers the hope of refuge from violence and persecution in countries ravaged by conflict, such as Afghanistan and Syria.

The reasons for seeking entry to the EU are complex and vary from person to person. However, for many, the hopes they carry with them have turned to tragedy because of the unlawful and abusive actions of Greek police and coastguards.

Amnesty International has repeatedly sounded the alarm at reports of grave human rights violations against migrants and refugees at the Greece-Turkey border. In July 2013, it published a report Frontier Europe: Human rights abuses on Greece’s border with Turkey, examining a range of abusive border-control practices, foremost amongst them being the unlawful and often dangerous practice of summarily pushing intercepted migrants and refugees back across the border to Turkey.

The response of the Greek authorities to such allegations by Amnesty International and others has ranged from outright denial to the qualified admission that they may occur on an isolated an infrequent basis. Even this latter claim rings hollow. The fresh research published in this briefing is not, perhaps, sufficient to assert with confidence that push- backs are systematic – in the sense of constituting a deliberate policy. However, the sheer volume of credible allegations of push-backs that Amnesty International has been able to document in the last nine months, very much suggests that they are routine: of the 67 people interviewed by Amnesty International over half provided convincing allegations of being push- backed at least once. The failure of the Greek authorities to acknowledge and eradicate this practice renders them no less culpable.

The responsibility for monitoring and curbing the abuses of Greek policemen and coast guards is not limited to Greek authorities, however. Greek migration and asylum policies are intimately tied to processes and policies decided in Brussels. In the last few years the EU has Migrants and Refugees pushed back at Europe’s border set about constructing an increasingly impenetrable wall around its external borders – both physically, through fences and heightened border surveillance, and legislatively, through migration policies that render legal entry into the EU increasingly difficult for economic migrants and refugees alike. The sealing of the Greece-Turkey border is central to the construction of this new Fortress Europe and its strict policing is very much expected and encouraged by the northern EU member states that are typically the destination of choice for those crossing this border irregularly.

To this end, the EU has spent hundreds of millions of Euros assisting Greece in its border control operations and reception system. Frontex, the EU agency responsible for external border management, spent about 37 million Euros in 2011 and 2012 for Joint Operations Poseidon Land and Sea hosted by Greece and Bulgaria and has operatives working with Greek border control agencies.2 EU investment and engagement on this scale brings with it additional responsibilities, that cannot easily be shrugged off. Amnesty International believes that the time has come for Frontex to suspend its border control cooperation with Greece’s border control agencies until such time as they demonstrate they are seriously tackling the widespread practice of push-backs along the Greece-Turkey border.

The powers of the EU are not limited to granting and withholding funding. It is also the guardian of the legislation and standards that it has developed in relation to member states’ migration and asylum policies. While this legislation has been conceived to restrict and discourage the unlawful entry into the EU, it does contain multiple safeguards intended to ensure the access of refugees to asylum determination processes and prohibiting push-backs. The EU Commission has a responsibility to ensure that this prohibition is enforced and that infringement proceedings are brought against Greece for violations it is responsible for, but which shame Europe as a whole.

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