Shortly after reaching the Greek island of Lesbos, a group of Afghan migrants say, their hopes for a new life in Europe were cut short when Greek authorities rounded them up, mistreated them, shoved them into life rafts and abandoned them at sea.
Associated Press journalists on a Turkish government-organized coast guard ride-along were aboard the patrol boat that picked up the 37 migrants, including 18 children, from two orange life rafts in the Aegean Sea on Sept. 12.
Two other media organizations on similar government-organized trips in the same week witnessed similar scenes.
Photo: AP
“They took our phones and said a bus will come and take you to the camp,” Omid Hussain Nabizada said in Turkish. “But they took us and put us on a ship. They left us on the water in a very bad way on these boats.”
Turkey, which hosts about 4 million refugees, accuses Greece of large-scale pushbacks — summary deportations without access to asylum procedures, in breach of international law.
It also accuses the EU of turning a blind eye to what it says is a blatant abuse of human rights.
The Turkish coast guard said it rescued more than 300 migrants “pushed back by Greek elements to Turkish waters” this month alone.
Citing what they say are credible reports, international rights groups have called repeatedly for investigations.
Greece, which lies on the EU’s southeastern border and has borne the brunt of migration flows from Turkey, denies the allegations and in turn accuses Ankara of weaponizing migrants.
In March, Turkey made good on threats to send migrants to Europe, declaring its borders with the EU open.
In what appeared to be a government-organized campaign, thousands headed to the Greek border, leading to scenes of chaos and violence.
Turkey’s border with EU member Bulgaria was largely unaffected. Greece shut its frontier and controversially suspended asylum applications for a month.
Greece’s coast guard said that Turkey’s coast guard frequently escorts migrant smuggling boats toward Greece, and has provided videos to back its claims.
It said that under a 2016 EU-Turkey deal to stem migration flows, Turkey has an obligation to stop people clandestinely entering Greece.
Greek coast guard spokesman Lieutenant Commander Nikolaos Kokkalas said that its patrols regularly detect boats and dinghies carrying migrants trying to enter Greece illegally, and “among them many times there are also inflatable rafts such as those described” by reporters.
The life rafts are standard safety equipment on recreational boats, designed to keep passengers safe if they must abandon ship.
The rafts generally have no means of propulsion or steering.
“It must be underlined that in most of the cases, the presence of the Turkish coast guard has been observed-ascertained near the dinghies incoming from the Turkish coast, but without it intervening, while in some cases the dinghies are clearly being accompanied by [Turkish coast guard] vessels,” Kokkalas said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch has accused Greece of summarily returning migrants across land and sea borders with Turkey, citing interviews with asylum-seekers.
Other rights groups and refugee organizations, including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), have repeatedly called on Greece to investigate what they say are credible reports and testimony of such expulsions occurring.
UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Gillian Triggs said that “with our own eyes on Lesbos, it was quite clear no boats were coming through.”
Earlier this month, Greek Minister for Shipping and Island Policy Giannis Plakiotakis said that Greek authorities prevented more than 10,000 people from entering Greece by sea this year. He would not elaborate on how.
The four Afghans on the life rafts seen by reporters said that they reached Lesbos from Turkey’s western Canakkale Province on the night of Sept. 11, and were caught by Greek law enforcement during daylight.
Nabizada said that police hit him while forcing him into the raft.
“They didn’t say: ‘there are children, there are families, there are women.’ People don’t do this to animals. The Greek police did it to us,” the 22-year-old said.
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