UNHCR - Document Not Found

Ces engins utilisés pour refouler ressemblent fortement au #lifeboats utilisés par l’#Australie dans le même but :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/879396#message879399

#modèle_australien

https://i.imgur.com/FpnrseO.png

More images published by @ABoatReport
this morning: a floating deportation camp.

▻https://twitter.com/itamann/status/1265202422177320960?s=03

–---

Tents at Sea: How Greek Officials Use Rescue Equipment for Illegal Deportations

Back in 2013, Australia introduced strange new machinery in its campaign against unauthorized migration: a dozen bright-orange and windowless life vessels, shaped like missiles. These were equipped with navigational systems, air conditioning, and an engine. Each vessel, asylum seekers said, was given “just enough fuel” to reach Indonesia. When they washed ashore in February 2014, Indonesian locals were initially unsure what they were looking at. It was a piece of new deportation infrastructure, designed to launch migrants intercepted at sea back to where they had come from.

In the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, Greek authorities have put in place comparable deportation machinery. In at least 11 incidents since March 23, migrants have been found drifting in orange, tent-like inflatable life rafts without motors or propellants and that cannot be steered. Members of the Turkish Coast Guard reported these apparitions, but Greek authorities neither explained nor documented them. Images of these life rafts, fluorescent triangular structures afloat between black sea and dark sky, looked strange enough to seem superimposed. Relying on testimony and footage we obtained from multiple sources, including asylum seekers in the area, our investigation verifies this latest show of violence at the Greek-Turkish maritime border.

Far from Australia’s flashier orange vessels from five years back, these are more modest structures. Importantly, the Greek life rafts have appeared in a very different maritime environment: compared to the oceans surrounding Australia, the Aegean Sea is a relatively placid and narrow body of water. Yet like the Australian vessels, these too have been put in place by State authorities, in an organized way, violating fundamental rules of international law. The two sets of deportation craft share visible similarities and are each used in dangerous ways, shedding light on the legal and moral risks that states are now willing to take, just to keep out unwanted populations.

Maximum Deterrence

On Nov. 27, Greek Member of Parliament Kyriakos Velopoulos, leader of the right-wing Greek Solution party, appeared on a popular TV talk show on ERT, a Greek state-owned public broadcaster. He advanced a policy first adopted by the United States in Guantanamo Bay, where Haitian asylum-seekers were detained long before 9/11, and later expanded upon by Australia: open-air detention of asylum seekers on “uninhabited” islands. For those whose applications are rejected, Velopoulos suggested unilateral pushbacks to Turkey: Greek authorities should simply remove arriving migrants from the country and send them back to where they came from. Holding photos of the oblong orange vessels Australia had used, he explained: “This here … is a raft made by the Australian government … with food, actual food, and it never sinks.” An interviewer gasped: “There’s a humanitarian aspect to it!”

The relevant background to Velopoulos’s suggestions goes back to 1990, when the Dublin Convention introduced a system whereby asylum seekers must remain in the first European Union member State they access and have their requests processed there. This created an enormous and unjust burden on states at the “external borders” of the EU, such as Greece.

The latest version of this arrangement, the Dublin III Regulation, was adopted in 2013. In June 2015, the EU further exacerbated the disproportionate role given to Greece in “migration management”: with the announcement of the “hotspot” approach, several Aegean islands became locations for asylum-seeker screening, with departures to the mainland prohibited. By August, the flow of refugees from conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, particularly the Syrian civil war, began to surge, generating a crisis within the EU as Member States argued over how to handle the arrivals.

The influx of migrants generated a legal challenge to the Dublin rules, but the Court of Justice of the European Union upheld them in a 2017 ruling. In the meantime, in 2016, the EU and Turkey issued a joint statement saying Turkey would prevent unauthorized migrants from leaving its territory, in return for as much as 6 billion euros from the EU. Refugees and migrants thus became a bargaining chip that Ankara continuously used in its diplomatic wrangles with Brussels.

Earlier this year, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pressed for Western approval of his military operation against Syrian and Russian forces in northern Syria, he intensified his exploitative bargaining. On Feb. 29, he declared that the country would no longer prevent migrants from reaching Europe.

As thousands of migrants gathered at the Turkish-Greek border, seeking to enter, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned in a tweet, “Once more, do not attempt to enter Greece illegally – you will be turned back.” On March 1, the Greek government issued an emergency decree suspending asylum applications. According to Human Rights Watch, the Greek National Security Council announced that unauthorized migrants would be immediately returned, without registration, “where possible, to their countries of origin or transit,” such as Turkey. As in other countries in the Mediterranean basin, which also resorted to emergency measures, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has provided a convenient pretext for cracking down on migrants.

Adrift on the Aegean

According to a report from the Turkish Coast Guard, the first of at least 11 alleged pushback incidents involving life rafts occurred on March 23. One of the Turkish Coast Guard’s March 23 reports on “irregular migration” stated that the Guard had rescued 31 Syrian asylum seekers found floating in a life raft off the coast of Muğla’s Datça district in the Aegean Sea. The raft in question can clearly be seen in a press release photograph published by the Coast Guard about the incident.

https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/24mar20datca.jpg

The refugees contacted the Consolidated Rescue Group, a grassroots organization run by Arabic-speaking volunteers who operate an emergency hotline for migrants in distress. In a statement obtained by the group and forwarded to us, the asylum seekers rescued on March 23 said they landed on the Greek island of Symi on March 22, at approximately 6 am. At certain points, the island is less than 8 km (or 5 miles) from the Turkish shore. The next day, the Greek authorities forced them onto “a small raft that looked like a tent and was orange in color” and left them to drift.

“Up until then, we had no idea that this was what they are going to do,” one of those on board, a construction worker (name withheld for security reasons) from the southeastern outskirts of Damascus, told us in a follow-up interview over WhatsApp.

The Greek Coast Guard had brought them to the main port of Symi and boarded them onto a ship: “They told us they would take us for a Corona test, and then we would be given our belongings back and transferred to Athens,” he said. Instead, after two hours onboard the Greek Coast Guard vessel, the authorities forced them down into a small raft: “They put everyone in … children, women, elderly, and young people. They didn’t leave anyone in the ship,” he said, telling us that they were left to drift “for over three hours,” until they were eventually rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard.

He provided us with video footage that he recorded of the group’s arrival on the island of Symi, as well as footage recorded from inside the raft, while awaiting rescue (see below).

The Greek government’s daily public statistics of arrivals contains no record of their arrival on the Greek island or their deportation to Turkey.

https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Lesvos-Harbor-March-24.jpeg

A series of similar incidents were reported by the Turkish Coast Guard in the following days. On March 27, the Coast Guard reported rescuing 10 migrants (eight Palestinian, two Egyptian, consisting of 3 men, 2 women and 5 children) in a “life raft” off the coast of Muğla’s Datça district (the Turkish version is written as “Can Salı”). Again, photographs accompanying the Coast Guard’s official press release show people being rescued from a tent-like raft. According to the Turkish Coast Guard’s statements, the migrants had been “pushed back towards Turkish territorial waters by Greek Coast Guard.”

https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/27mar20datca-_2_.jpg

The next day, on March 28, nine Syrians (4 men, 2 women and 3 children) rescued were reported found in a “life boat” off the coast of Aydın’s Didim district, again with clear photographs of the distinctive tent-like raft accompanying the Guard’s report.

https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/30mar20tekagac-_2_.jpg

We interviewed a Kurdish couple from Hasaka, Syria, who were among the group. According to the couple, on the morning of March 27, “around 7 or 8 a.m.,” they arrived on the Greek island of Farmakonisi. Unlike the larger Aegean islands of Chios, Lesvos, Samos, and Kos, where refugees most commonly arrive, Farmakonisi is an uninhabited island and a military base. There are no camps or reception facilities for asylum seekers.

The couple told us they were held by the army in terrible conditions. They described being “treated like animals, … [t]he army took our phones, money, clothes, and documents then threw them into the sea. Around 3 a.m., they took us toward the sea border. Then they made us take a boat shaped like a square tent, 2 meters wide. Then we were rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard.”

Again, on March 29, the Turkish Coast Guard reported rescuing 18 migrants (7 men, 4 women and 7 children) at 11:40 p.m. The Coast Guard issued a press release, complete with clear photos of the migrants being rescued from a life raft.

https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/30mar20datca-_2_-e1590152779793.jpg

This is consistent with statements from migrants claiming to have been among those rescued. We interviewed a Syrian man who provided us with photographs of his arrival on Rhodes on March 27. The man told us he arrived with a group of 18 people: seven Palestinians, six Syrians and five Iranians, including children and a pregnant woman. After arriving on Rhodes, the man and the rest of the group were held by the Greek police on the roadside from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m.

“The weather was really cold and they did not let us light a fire to warm the women and children who were with us,” he said. The group was then transferred to the port by bus: “They gave us two tents, without anything in them. We were under full surveillance,” he added.

“They [Greek authorities] were suspicious that we had corona, so we wrote a sign that none of us has corona so that we could reassure them, hoping they would treat us in a humane way,” he said. “But this changed nothing.”

The group stayed in the makeshift camp for 2 1/2 days, until the night of March 29. He said that was when “a military van with army officers transferred us to the port and handed us over to the Greek Coast Guard.”

They were on board the Greek Coast Guard boat for about one hour: “Then they switched off the engine of the boat and made us go down, in the middle of the sea, in a rubber boat shaped like a tent.” They were left to drift for what he describes as approximately two hours, when they were intercepted by the Turkish Coast Guard:

When the Turkish Coast Guard found us and took us to the Turkish land, they registered our information and transferred us to the police station. They split us in half. One half was Syrians and Palestinians and the other half is the other nationalities. For us, we were detained for like 15 days and after that we were released without any rights as refugees, such as having a Kimlik [Temporary Protection Identification Document].

Without the proper registration, he explains, he is now hiding from the Turkish authorities as he fears being forcibly returned to Syria, where he fled.

Contravening International Rules

“Shaped like a tent,” as migrants repeatedly describe them, the life rafts the Greek Coast Guard appears to be employing to expel migrants are, in fact, designed for emergency evacuation in the case of shipwreck. They are manufactured not for transportation, but for rescue in case of a boat or ship sinking, to keep survivors afloat and alive until assistance arrives. They are not equipped with an engine or other propellant, cannot be steered, and provide minimal protection from the elements.

As Paul Crowley, a former captain for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in Ireland, explained to us, such life rafts are never to be deployed “for any other reason other than to preserve life if no other option is available. It would contravene any internationally recognized standard to take people from a non-life-threatening location, either land or vessel, and place them in a raft.”

As far as the law goes, these returns risk violating the international standard of non-refoulement. This principle is at the centerpiece of international refugee protection, and prohibits returns of asylum seekers to any place where they may suffer persecution, torture, or inhuman and degrading treatment. The returns also violate Greece’s obligations under human rights law, including the prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment, and the right to life (see Articles 3 and 2, respectively, of the European Convention on Human Rights). Inasmuch as these violations constitute a “widespread or systematic attack” directed against a “civilian population,” they may raise concerns under international criminal law. Evidence continues to surface that these days, when it comes to the treatment of migrants, the Greek authorities violate fundamental edicts of international law unabated.

While the use of rescue equipment for deportations appears to be a new development, pushbacks on the Aegean are not. On March 23, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants Felipe González Morales stated that he is “very concerned about the reported pushbacks of asylum seekers and migrants” by Greek authorities at both land and maritime borders. He also referenced recent violence committed by Greek authorities against those seeking to aid migrants in the Aegean Sea area. The Germany-based human-rights monitoring organization Mare Liberum (“The Free Sea”) told us that a more common tactic of the Greek Coast Guard is to remove the engines of migrants’ boats and leave them to drift. Likewise, reports of the Turkish Coast Guard resorting to violence have arisen since Turkey’s implementation of the 2016 deal with the EU. Examples reported to the authors by migrants and NGO workers include driving rings around boats and throwing stones to stop boats from leaving Turkish waters.

Clearly both countries have geostrategic motives for their treatment of migrants related to their fraught relationships with the EU – including aid money and various benefits for their own citizens. Often, it seems like the two countries are playing a violent game of ping-pong across the Aegean with migrant bodies.

An Iraqi refugee whom we interviewed over WhatsApp — we will refer to as “Hatim” for safety reasons — told us that he has been pushed back to Turkey by Greek authorities on three occasions since July 2019. Hatim and his family fled to Turkey in 2014, when ISIS took over their home city of Mosul. They were selected for resettlement in the United States, and had just finished their first interview when Trump’s January 2017 Executive Order interrupted the program. On the night of April 1, 2020, he and his family made four separate attempts to reach the Greek island of Chios. On the last attempt, their rubber dinghy, carrying approximately 40 people, entered Greek territorial waters and was intercepted by the Greek Coast Guard. The Coast Guard confiscated the fuel from their boat and returned them to Turkish waters, leaving them to drift.

The systemic nature of such violations by the Greek authorities was recently highlighted by whistleblowers working under Frontex, the European border enforcement agency. In early March, the crew of a Danish patrol boat participating in “Operation Poseidon,” an EU maritime border patrol mission coordinated by Frontex, revealed that the Hellenic Coast Guard has explicit orders to stop migrant boats from crossing the sea border between Turkey to Greece. The Danish unit had refused to obey a pushback order from Operation Poseidon headquarters. Since then, NGOs Alarmphone and Mare Liberum have documented a series of pushbacks by Greek authorities along the Greece-Turkey border, including in the Aegean, that have become increasingly visible and severe.

Most notably, Greek newspaper EFSYN reported an incident involving 26 migrants whose arrival on Mourtia Beach on the Greek island of Samos April 1 was documented by a resident. The arrival was not reported by the Greek authorities. In fact, government statistics recorded no new arrivals to Samos on that date.

However, photographs taken by the Samos resident (and reproduced in EFSYN’s reporting) show the deflated dinghy and newly arrived migrants heading away from the shore. One member of the group is distinguished by bright red trousers while another carries a red duffle bag. EFSYN published photographs obtained from the Turkish Coast Guard of the same group who had arrived on Mourtia Beach aboard a Turkish Coast Guard boat after their rescue later that day, noting the marked similarities in the appearance, clothing and baggage of the migrants in the two sets of photographs. On the same day, the Turkish Coast Guard reported rescuing 26 migrants (found with a life raft) on the shore near Kuşadası national park, in a location that cannot be reached by land. According to the Turkish Coast Guard, the migrants said they had landed on Samos, were rounded up by the Greek Coast Guard and left to drift in the raft.

https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/02Nisan2020kusadasi.jpg

On May 12, EFSYN published a video of a life raft like the ones pictured above (but without the cover) being dragged by a Greek Coast Guard boat off the southeast coast of Samos. The video was originally published by the Turkish Coast Guard on April 29, at which time it announced rescuing 22 people found drifting off the coast of Aydin province, bordering the Greek island of Samos. According to Bellingcat’s recent investigation into the incident, the group of 22 migrants rescued on April 29 (pictured in the video) had, in fact, arrived on Samos the previous day, on April 28.

Most recently, a video surfaced on YouTube appearing to show the Turkish Coast Guard rescuing a group of 30 migrants aboard two life rafts. According to Turkish records and reports, including photographs, the Coast Guard rescued 30 migrants in two life rafts on May 13, consisting of 13 Congolese, eight Syrians, five Bangladeshis and three Palestinian nationals, along with a Lebanese national. The rescue occurred off the coast of the district of Menderes in Turkey’s İzmir province.

https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/14Mayis2020ozdere-1.jpg

On May 15, yet another group of migrants were rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard after being found in these distinctive life rafts. This group of 25 migrants also reported having been repelled by Greek authorities, again with photographic evidence.

https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/15Mayis2020seferihisar.jpg https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/15Mayis2020seferihisar2.jpg

The Tent and the Missile

Australians eventually replaced their orange lifeboats with fishing boats, although the intention was the same – pushing migrants away from Australian shores. But there was something chillingly memorable about that episode. It embodied the often-hypocritical moral stance of liberal democracies regarding strangers in need: a willingness to engage in extreme measures, even violence, to enforce borders, coupled with an emphasis on efficiency and a pretense of safety.

While the Australian deportation vessels appear to have been custom-made and reportedly were purchased for $40,000 AUD each (about $25,000 USD), the Greek life raft “tents” are considerably more modest. They are the kind of equipment a yacht owner might purchase online for around $2,000. Under the 1974 Safety of Life as Sea Convention, maritime vessels are required to have such protective gear available. The Hellenic Coast Guard has now repurposed them for the opposite ends – putting people in danger.

The Greek orange rafts seen in pictures appear to be a model manufactured by a Greek company called LALIZAS, which specialize in rescue equipment. A November 2019 LALIZAS newsletter includes an article entitled “24 hours in a LALIZAS Liferaft: Mission accomplished!” It describes a training in which members of Greece’s Hellenic Rescue Team and Hellenic Air Force carried out a simulated “‘actual’ case of emergency” by relying on a LALIZAS life raft and its food and survival equipment for a full 24 hours (see the story on the LALIZAS website here, and official video of the simulation, here). The life raft in question, code named “MEDUSSA” for the simulation, appears identical to those in many of the images of the tent-like rafts migrants have been rescued from while adrift in the Aegean.

According to the Greek government’s procurement records available online, it purchased the life rafts for the Greek Navy in 2017. Several government ministries appear to have contracts with this company.

The Australian life raft most closely resembles a missile. Its very image conveys the omnipotence of a regional superpower. By using such a machine, Australia effectively said to those attempting unauthorized maritime entry, “We will shoot you away.” To be sure, this missile is not fired at the migrants. It’s as if they become part of its ammunition; shot back at Indonesia’s shores, they are expected to crawl out of the shell once the missile crashes on one of the country’s countless atolls.

Compared to the grandeur of the Australian missile-like object, and its mechanical cruelty, the Greek tent-like raft is a poignant symbol of inhumanity. Set adrift on the Aegean, its disquieting quality emerges from the fact that it becomes a kind of metaphor for the refugee’s condition. Asylum seekers describing it had often used the Arabic word ḵēma (خيمة), which is the tent one would use in a camp (and typically not a home, even if that too is a tent). It echoes the word mūẖym, which means refugee camp. No fuel is rationed to reach a destination, and the expectation appears to be that the life raft will simply drift across the relatively narrow waterway.

The act of putting migrants to sea in inflatable tents is in line with the broader EU contemporary response to the “refugee crisis” – rejection and abandonment. This is, at least, how asylum seekers protesting at Moria camp, on the Greek island of Lesvos, see it: “We have been abandoned here,” said one asylum seeker on April 22.

Like the Australian example, the tent too is an instrument of deterrence: “We will shoot you away” is replaced with a threat of an even more perilous exile on water. This aspect, however, does not make the Greek use of the life rafts any better than the Australian display of technological might. Both are utilized to perform what is almost an act of murder, but ultimately not quite there.

▻https://www.justsecurity.org/70309/tents-at-sea-how-greek-officials-use-rescue-equipment-for-illegal-depo

–-> #camps_flottants #camp_flottant

A terrifying video of a push-back in the Aegean sea; men, women –two of them pregnant- and children abandoned at sea on a liferaft by the greek coast-guards

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKsEHZKGsSE&feature=emb_title

–—

Le reportage complet du quotidien grec Efimerida tôn Syntaktôn:

Επαναπροώθηση με ελληνική σφραγίδα

Ένα ακόμα περιστατικό παράνομης επαναπροώθησης που σημειώθηκε στις 25 Μαΐου στο Αιγαίο, στη θαλάσσια περιοχή ανοιχτά της Λέσβου, έρχεται στη δημοσιότητα για να επιβεβαιώσει την σύνδεση της χρήσης σχεδιών τύπου liferafts, με τις ελληνικές λιμενικές αρχές.

Όπως είχε αποκαλύψει πρόσφατη έρευνα που δημοσιεύτηκε στον ιστότοπο justsecurity.org από τους δρ. Itamar Mann και Niamh Keady Tabal, και παραθέτει στοιχεία και για παράνομες επαναπροωθήσεις, το Ελληνικό Δημόσιο συνεργάζεται στενά με την ελληνική εταιρεία LALIZAS, σωστικές συσκευές της οποίας προμηθεύτηκε και το Πολεμικό Ναυτικό, σύμφωνα με αρχεία αναρτημένα στη Διαύγεια, το 2017.

Η έρευνα συζητήθηκε διεθνώς και ανάγκασε τον επικεφαλής της Frontex Φαμπρίς Λεγκέρι να παραδεχτεί τις ελληνικές παράνομες επιχειρήσεις επαναπροώθησης.

Το βίντεο που δημοσιοποιεί σήμερα η « Εφ.Συν. » εξετάστηκε από την ερευνητική ομάδα Disinfaux, η οποία συμμετείχε στην έρευνα του justsecurity.org. Στο βίντεο διακρίνεται καθαρά πάνω στη σχεδία η επιγραφή LALIZAS ISO-RAFT. Διακρίνεται επίσης ο σειριακός αριθμός και η ημερομηνία κατασκευής της σχεδίας, βάσει της διαθέσιμης ανάλυσης (ISO 96-50-1, LALIZAS ISO-RAFT, Date of Manufacture 10/2016 Serial Number 161012174). Το προϊόν με αυτά τα χαρακτηριστικά διαφημίζεται στην ιστοσελίδα της εταιρείας.

Σε άλλο απόσπασμα του βίντεο φαίνονται σε κοντινή απόσταση οι άλλες 3 παρόμοιες πλωτές σχεδίες, γεγονός που συνάδει με τα διαθέσιμα στοιχεία για το περιστατικό της 25ης Μαΐου, όπως είχε δημοσιευτεί το ίδιο πρωί, από τη Τουρκική Ακτοφυλακή.

Ελληνικές σχεδίες

https://www.efsyn.gr/sites/default/files/styles/default/public/2020-06/lalizas-1.JPG?itok=8OtOPx0F#.jpg https://www.efsyn.gr/sites/default/files/styles/default/public/2020-06/sxedies-1.JPG?itok=7IDFcmGe#.jpg

Ανήκε η συγκεκριμένη σχεδία στον επίσημο εξοπλισμό του Πολεμικού Ναυτικού ή άλλων ελληνικών δυνάμεων ; Πώς βρέθηκε καταμεσής του Αιγαίου ως μέσο επαναπροώθησης προς την Τουρκία προσφύγων που είχαν βρεθεί σε κίνδυνο ; Τι αναφέρουν τα πρωτόκολλα διάσωσης για όσους βρίσκονται σε κίνδυνο στη θάλασσα ;

https://www.efsyn.gr/sites/default/files/images/2020/06/lalizas-3-4.jpg

Τα βίντεο τραβήχτηκαν από πρόσφυγα πάνω στη σχεδία την ώρα της επαναπροώθησης. Σε ανάρτησή του στα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης περιγράφει τις δραματικές στιγμές που έζησε αυτός και άλλοι περίπου 70 πρόσφυγες στις 25 Μαΐου, από τη στιγμή που έπεσαν στα χέρια του Λιμενικού μέχρι που τους εγκατέλειψε, και βρέθηκαν να πλέουν αβοήθητοι πάνω σε τέσσερις σχεδίες στη μέση του Αιγαίου. Παρέμειναν εκεί, ανάμεσά τους πέντε παιδιά και δύο έγκυες. Ένας τους είχε καταφέρει να κρύψει το κινητό του τηλέφωνο και κατάφεραν να καλέσουν το τουρκικό Λιμενικό, το οποίο τους εντόπισε.

Η « Εφ.Συν. » επικοινώνησε με τον πρόσφυγα που ανάρτησε το βίντεο. Όπως αναφέρει, σκάφος της ελληνικής ακτοφυλακής έκανε μανούβρες γύρω από τη βάρκα στην οποία αρχικά επέβαιναν οι πρόσφυγες. « Όλοι οι φίλοι μου έκλαιγαν, ούρλιαζαν, ζητούσαν βοήθεια από το λιμενικό. Άντρες που φορούσαν στρατιωτικές στολές, και είχαν όπλα, πήραν τη μηχανή της βάρκας και μας είπαν : "Είμαστε εδώ για να σας βοηθήσουμε, θέλουμε να σας μεταφέρουμε στο καμπ της Μόριας" », λέει χαρακτηριστικά.

https://www.efsyn.gr/sites/default/files/images/2020/06/anartisi-prosfyga.jpg

Τους επιβίβασαν στο σκάφος του λιμενικού και αφού έλεγξαν τη θερμοκρασία τους με θερμόμετρα, τους χτύπησαν και τους αφαίρεσαν τα προσωπικά τους αντικείμενα. « Μας πήραν τα πάντα : χρήματα, τσάντες, τηλέφωνα », λέει. Αφαίρεσαν από το σκάφος του λιμενικού την ελληνική σημαία, τους οδήγησαν μεσοπέλαγα και τους επιβίβασαν σε τέσσερα liferaft. Τους ανάγκασαν να ανέβουν είκοσι άτομα σε κάθε σχεδία, ενώ η -βάσει προδιαγραφών- χωρητικότητά της είναι για 12 άτομα. Η εταιρεία LALIZAS δεν έχει στον κατάλογο της παρόμοιου τύπου liferaft με χωρητικότητα άνω των 12 ατόμων. Επισημαίνει επίσης πως οι τέσσερις τσάντες από τις οποίες έβγαλαν τα πλωτά ήταν χρώματος πορτοκαλί, όπως διαφημίζεται και το προϊόν στο site της LALIZAS.

« Δεν έδωσαν σωσίβια στους ανθρώπους που δεν είχαν, και όταν εγώ ζήτησα από έναν λιμενικό να μου δώσει το τηλέφωνό μου για να επικοινωνήσω τουλάχιστον με την τουρκική ακτοφυλακή μου απάντησε "έλα και πάρ’ το", δείχνοντάς μου τα γεννητικά του όργανα », αναφέρει ο πρόσφυγας, ο οποίος θέλει να κρατήσει την ανωνυμία του.

Τους περικύκλωσαν για 15 περίπου λεπτά και μετά τους εγκατέλειψαν. Ένας από τους επιβαίνοντες κατάφερε να κρύψει το κινητό του τηλέφωνο και έτσι κατάφεραν να καλέσουν την τουρκική ακτοφυλακή η οποία τους μετέφερε σώους στην Φότσα της Σμύρνης.

« Δημοσιοποιώ αυτό το βίντεο για να δείξω στην Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση, την Ύπατη Αρμοστεία και το Ευρωκοινοβούλιο, τα αποτελέσματα των αποφάσεων τους για το προσφυγικό », καταλήγει στην ανάρτησή του. Την ίδια στιγμή, ο Διεθνής Οργανισμός Μετανάστευσης (ΔΟΜ), η Ύπατη Αρμοστεία, και αρκετοί φορείς ζητούν απαντήσεις και τη διεξαγωγή έρευνας για τις καταγγελλόμενες επαναπροωθήσεις και μαζικές απελάσεις προσφύγων και μεταναστών στην Τουρκία.

►https://www.efsyn.gr/ellada/dikaiomata/247726_epanaproothisi-me-elliniki-sfragida

#Norvège

Greece Suspected of Abandoning Refugees at Sea

An investigation by DER SPIEGEL and partners has revealed that the Greek Coast Guard intercepts refugee boats, puts the migrants in life rafts, tows them toward Turkey and then abandons them to their fate. What do German troops in the area know about the practice?

https://cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de/images/4d7d073b-3668-4a3a-9428-1462d558fb52_w948_r1.77_fpx69.94_fpy49.98.jpg

Europe is just a few kilometers away, recalls Amjad Naim, when the men in masks show up. It’s the morning of May 13 and the Palestinian is sitting in an inflatable boat, having paid migrant smugglers in Turkey for the trip. Naim can already see the Greek coast, and with every second, he is getting closer and closer.

Naim wasn’t alone in the boat. They were a group of at least 26 people and they had almost reached the island of Samos. Naim remembers hearing a helicopter, and then all hell broke loose. For the next several hours, those on board would be afraid for their lives.

The men in the masks approached in a large vessel, says Naim, adding that he remembers seeing the Greek flag and several dinghies. And then, he says, the masked men went on the attack.

They fired shots into the water, he says, snagged the migrants’ inflatable raft with a grappling hook and destroyed the motor, thus stopping the boat. The men then took the migrants on board their vessel, Naim says, adding that he started crying and hid his mobile phone in his underwear.

There are videos that prove that Naim really was on his way to Samos. The images show a young man with closely cropped hair and a smooth-shaven face. The motor of the small inflatable boat hums in the background as Naim smiles into the camera. He is originally from the Gaza Strip in the Palestinian Territories, where he studied law and got married. His wife is waiting for him in the Netherlands. Naim blows a kiss into the camera.

The next images of Naim are shaky — a 55-second clip made by Naim that clearly documents a crime. The footage shows him and the other refugees on two inflatable life rafts. The Greek Coast Guard had put them off of the ship and onto the rafts. The square-shaped platforms are little more than wobbly rubber rafts.

In the video, a Greek Coast Guard ship, 18 meters (59 feet) long, is dragging the rafts back toward Turkey. An additional ship stands by. Water can be seen pouring into Naim’s raft.

Then, as can be seen in the video, the Greek Coast Guard unties the tow rope, leaving the refugees to their fate in the middle of the sea. Sitting in a rubber raft that has no ability to maneuver on its own.

It is possible that Naim’s experience could be an isolated incident. It is conceivable that the Greek sailors simply lost their patience or that that particular ship was crewed by an especially nasty group. But that is not the case. Naim is apparently just one victim among many. There is a system behind the tactics he was exposed to. In a joint investigation with Lighthouse Reports and Report Mainz, DER SPIEGEL has forensically analyzed dozens of videos and compared them with geodata in addition to speaking with numerous eyewitnesses.

▻https://cdnstatic.secure.spiegel.de/SP/2020/26/OPQWeKYm-32438806.mp4

The material shows beyond doubt: In the eastern Aegean, European values are being sacrificed in the name of protecting its external borders.

Masked men, almost certainly Greek border control officials, regularly attack refugee boats in the area. In one case on June 4, the inflatable boat belonging to the masked men can be clearly identified as a Greek patrol boat. It belongs to Greek Coast Guard ship ΛΣ-080.

After the refugee boats are intercepted, the Greeks, apparently, frequently put the migrants in inflatable life rafts, tow them toward Turkey and then leave them to their fates. In most cases, they are dragged ashore after several hours by the Turkish Coast Guard.

The actions taken by the Greeks are a clear breach. It has long been known that Greek Coast Guard personnel delay rescue attempts and perform aggressive maneuvers. Now, though, they are actively putting the lives of migrants at risk and they are using life-saving equipment to put people in danger.

Images of migrants on orange life rafts have been appearing for weeks on Facebook and Instagram. NGOs like Aegean Boat Report, Josoor and Alarm Phone have also spoken with refugees and reported their experiences - and since March 23, activists have documented a number of incidents. The Turkish Coast Guard has also published images of the orange life rafts. But Naim’s video is the first to document beyond doubt a Greek Coast Guard vessel towing life rafts toward Turkey and then abandoning the refugees on the open sea.

These so-called pushbacks represent both a violation of international law and of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. Asylum seekers have a right to have their cases heard on an individual basis and countries are not permitted to bring them back against their will to a place where their safety is not guaranteed.

Itamar Mann, a lawyer at the University of Haifa and member of the Global Legal Action Network, believes pushbacks could also have criminal consequences. From a legal perspective, such operations, he says, are a kind of torture, with refugees experiencing inhumane treatment and humiliation.

When contacted, the Greek Coast Guard denied the accusations and claimed that its personnel does not wear masks. They also said they obey all applicable laws. Delays in rescuing the refugees, they said, were due to the Turkish Coast Guard because they only accompany refugee boats if they are traveling in the direction of Greece. The Greek officials, they said, only locate the refugee boats and then inform the Turkish Coast Guard as quickly as possible.

They claimed that they cooperated with the Turkish Coast Guard in the May 13 incident. In their statement, the Greek Coast Guard did not specifically address the video showing the pushback.
Caught in the Middle

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been in office since last July, and since then, he has taken several steps to ensure that fewer refugees arrive in Greece. He had temporarily suspended the right to asylum and shortened the deadline for appeal in asylum cases. Furthermore, during his tenure, border guards on the Maritsa River between Turkey and Greece have apparently used live ammunition against refugees, likely killing at least one. His government has considered blocking refugee boats with barriers at sea.

His government refers to the practices as “active surveillance.” In fact, though, they are abandoning refugees on the high seas.

There is a reason for this new degree of brutality: Since the end of February, Turkish border guards are no longer stopping refugees on their way to Europe. Indeed, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has even arranged for refugees to be bused to the Greek border, where they were pushed back by Greek border guards. Erdogan’s intention is to ratchet up the pressure on the European Union, with Brussels and Ankara currently trying to hammer out a new refugee deal.

The cynical game seen on the banks of the Maritsa River is now being repeated in the Aegean. The Turkish and Greek Coast Guards are pushing refugee boats into the territorial waters of the other, with the migrants themselves getting caught in the middle. In such a situation, those wanting to cross the Aegean need quite a bit of luck.

Omar, a young man from Afghanistan, had lost almost all hope for such luck on the morning of June 4, floating in a boat between the Greek island of Lesbos and the Turkish coast. Omar, whose name has been changed for this story, wasn’t alone: A total of 31 men, women and children were on board.

Turkish and Greek vessels had repeatedly pushed the migrants back. In one video, a dinghy can be seen that doubtlessly belongs to the Greek Coast Guard. Masked men, says Omar, had pushed their motor into the water, which is why to refugees were hanging off the back of the refugee boat and kicking, doing all they can to propel the boat to European soil. The scene was captured on video.

Omar is desperate. He makes a final video, posting it to a refugee group on Facebook. In the video, he speaks into the camera for a good six minutes. “Please help us,” he pleads. “We have a right to live.”

Perhaps it was this video that saved Omar’s life. Activists shared it on Facebook and just a short time later, a Turkish liaison officer on the supply ship Berlin told German soldiers of the vessel in distress. The ship is part of a NATO mission and was located off Lesbos. Using a tender, the Germans took the refugees ashore.

A subsequent press release from the Bundeswehr, as the German military is called, noted that the refugees’ lives had been in danger, which is why the commander intervened. A small boat unable to maneuver on its own: It must have seemed rather strange to the soldiers. The press release made no mention of an attack on the refugee boat.
German Officials Pulled Into the Chaos

The episode shows, though, just how deeply German officials have been pulled into the chaos on the Aegean. It also raises the question as to whether the Germans know of the assaults and of the lifeboats - and whether they tolerate the pushbacks or are perhaps even involved.

Around 600 border guards are helping the Greeks monitor activity on the Aegean, all part of the Frontex operation Poseidon. And the mission hasn’t always been free of conflict. In March, a Danish Frontex crew refused to carry out an illegal pushback.

https://cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de/images/6157b701-7a17-40f3-8819-b9282c661034_w920_r1.3333333333333333_fpx38.25_fpy55.01.jpg

Behind closed doors, Frontex may already have admitted that it is aware of the brutal tactics involving the lifeboats. European Parliamentarian Dietmar Köster, a member of European Parliament from the German Social Democrats (SPD), says that Frontex head Fabrice Leggeri confirmed the incidents in a meeting with him. Though Köster is certain of his understanding of that meeting, Frontex says there was a misunderstanding, adding that Frontex headquarters has received no reports about pushbacks.

Luise Amtsberg, a Green Party spokesperson on migration policy, doesn’t believe it. The waters around Samos are not endless, she told Report Mainz and DER SPIEGEL. “Pushbacks cannot take place completely without the knowledge of the other units in the area.”

And there are indications that German officials might know of the pushbacks. In the port of Samos, the German Coast Guard ship Uckermark is anchored. On May 13, on the day that Amjad Naim was on his way to Samos, the Germans identified a refugee boat on their radar, according to information provided by the German Federal Police when contacted.

In all probability, it was Naim’s boat. There is no evidence that there were any other refugee boats heading for Samos on that day. The Greek Coast Guard also confirmed that a ship and a helicopter belonging to the Germans had spotted a boat that day. They say it was in Turkish waters when first seen.

The Germans alerted the Greek Coast Guard by radio, and the Greeks then took charge of the situation, according to a written statement. The statement notes that the Germans were “not involved” in any other measures related to the incident and insists that the Germans have no knowledge of the lifeboat episode.

The German Coast Guard has provided no comment as to why no refugees arrived on Samos that day or what happened to the refugee boat that was spotted. And they apparently aren’t particularly interested, either.

Even if Frontex was not actively involved in the operation, they bear some of the responsibility, says the lawyer Itamar Mann. Frontex, he believes, must draw a line and even withdraw from the mission if need be.

After the Germans apparently saw his boat and after the Greeks abandoned him to his fate on the high seas on May 13, Amjad Naim floated around for several hours. The sky was almost cloudless, and the sun was beating down, as can be seen in the videos. The refugees had nothing to eat or drink.

The lifeboat soon began to spin in circles, Naim says, with some of the passengers becoming nauseous and others fainting. Turkish and Greek ships, he says, simply ignored them. “It was awful,” Naim says.

https://cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de/images/e7d8b403-087c-4418-9d57-08a5d83329a1_w906_r1.776470588235294_fpx49.45_fpy50.jpg

It was only after several hours that a Turkish Coast Guard vessel arrived to collect them. Men in white protective equipment helped the refugees off the lifeboat and took their temperatures. Naim then had to remain in quarantine for more than two weeks - in a nasty camp full of filth and mosquitoes, he says.

Naim is now allowed to move freely in Turkey, but still feels trapped. He says: “I can’t go forward and I can’t go back.”

▻https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/videos-and-eyewitness-accounts-greece-apparently-abandoning-refugees-at-sea-

Greece: Investigate Pushbacks, Collective Expulsions
►https://seenthis.net/messages/868362

‘Catastrophe for human rights’ as Greece steps up refugee ‘pushbacks’

Human rights groups condemn practice as evidence reviewed by the Guardian reveals systemic denial of entry to asylum seekers.

At about 1am on 24 August, Ahmed (not his real name) climbed into a rubber dinghy with 29 others and left Turkey’s north-western Çanakkale province. After 30 minutes, he said, they reached Greek waters near Lesbos and a panther boat from the Hellenic coastguard approached.

Eight officers in blue shorts and shirts, some wearing black masks and armed with rifles, forced the group – more than half women and including several minors and six small children – to come aboard at gunpoint. They punctured the dinghy with knives and it sank. “They said they would take us to a camp,” said Ahmed. “The children were happy and started laughing, but I knew they were lying.”

Through the course of the night, Ahmed, a 17-year-old refugee from Eritrea, alleges that Greek officers detained the group, confiscating possessions and denying them access to toilets and drinking water. By morning, they were dispatched into a liferaft in Turkish waters. It was too small, and videos taken by Ahmed, who hid his phone, show some people were forced to swim. The Turkish coastguard confirmed it intercepted the raft at 1:20pm.

The event described by Ahmed, who fled conflict in Eritrea after his father died, was one of seven times that he says he has been pushed back by the Hellenic coastguard. The use of these “pushbacks” has surged since March according to an investigation by the Guardian, and experts say it has become an overt policy of Greece’s rightwing New Democracy government, which came to power last year.

Interviews with five victims of pushbacks, 10 NGOs working across the Aegean Sea including Human Rights Watch, Josoor and the Aegean Boat Report, and a tranche of videos reviewed by the Guardian reveal an organised and systemic practice of denying entry to asylum seekers.

Next week a coalition of charities including Human Rights Watch and the Border Violence Monitoring Network will publish an open letter condemning the practice of pushbacks and calling for the Greek government and the European Commission to take action against those involved. A draft of the letter seen by the Guardian calls for “disciplinary and criminal sanctions” to be brought against those “found to have engaged in such illegal acts”.

International law experts say these activities are in breach of international law including the convention relating to the status of refugees and the European convention on human rights. “What you are seeing is the illegal collective expulsion of refugees from Greek territory,” said Satvinder Juss, a professor of human rights and international refugee law at King’s College London. “It’s a catastrophe for human rights.”

Often pushbacks involve teams of unidentified men in black uniforms who intercept boats of refugees that have arrived in Greek waters and forcibly return them to Turkish waters, either leaving them to drift after engines have been destroyed or in separate liferafts. In some cases, victims have arrived on Greek land before being returned by authorities to the open seas, after actively threatening them with beatings, gunshots and by creating large waves with fast boats. In one case, refugees were left on a tiny island between Greece and Turkey for two days without food before being rescued.

AlarmPhone, an NGO that operates a telephone line and social media network for refugees in distress, said it observed a substantial increase in reports of pushbacks since the pandemic, recording 55 cases between March and August. The Greek Helsinki Monitor said it submitted a report to the supreme court, naval court and military appeals court of Greece claiming nearly 1,400 people were pushed back between March and July, though the true number is believed to be far higher.

Minos Mouzourakis, legal officer at Refugee Support Aegean, is currently working on landmark legal cases at the European court of human rights that date back to 2014, when eight Afghan children and three women died after their vessel sank near the island of Farmakonisi during a reported pushback. “This is a regrettable resurgence of those older tactics,” said Mouzourakis.

In December 2019, Greece said it was predicting up to 100,000 asylum seekers to arrive on its islands from Turkey in 2020. But as of 31 August, there have been 8,860 sea arrivals, according to UNHCR. Stella Nanou, the agency’s Greek representative, acknowledged the “credible accounts” of pushbacks and called on Greece to “guarantee and safeguard the rights of those seeking international protection”.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister, has taken several official steps to ensure fewer refugees arrive, temporarily suspending the right to asylum, shortening the deadline for appeal in asylum cases, extending fences along the land border with Turkey and is considering installing floating barriers at sea. But the government has described accusations of illegal pushbacks as “fake news” from unreliable sources.

“Pushbacks are inherently violent, not only physically but mentally,” said Amelia Cooper, advocacy and communications officer for Lesbos Legal Centre, which is documenting pushbacks and providing legal support to survivors. “Survivors are aware that these expulsions, and the abuses that they entail, are constitutive of both the European border and the EU’s political context with Turkey.”

When contacted, the ministry of maritime affairs and insular policy said its operations were in accordance with international law and that the agency has been subject to “systematic targeting by a portion of the mainstream media, NGOs and other social networking platforms, which tend to promote the relevant actions in a single dimensional and fragmentary way”.

But documents seen by the Guardian reveal a German navy supply vessel called the Berlin, which heads Nato’s Standing Maritime Group 2 in the Aegean region, observed a boat with refugees being forced into Turkish sea territory by Greek authorities on 19 June and 15 August. The findings came in response to parliamentary questions by Left party MP Andrej Hunko.

After being detained in Turkey, Ahmed was released and has since slept in a park in the city of İzmir. “I don’t care if I die,” he said. “I don’t have a choice to go back. But I am losing hope.”

▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/sep/27/catastrophe-for-human-rights-as-greece-steps-up-refugee-pushbacks

Migrants accuse Greece of pushing them back out to sea

https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/72e8217de5eb4d899e4acddf30d50f82/800.jpeg

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.

“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 violation of international law. It also accuses the European Union of turning a blind eye to what it says is a blatant abuse of human rights.

The Turkish coast guard says it rescued over 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 says Turkey’s coast guard frequently escorts migrant smuggling boats toward Greece, and has provided videos to back its claims. It says under a 2016 EU-Turkey deal to stem migration flows, Turkey has an obligation to stop people clandestinely entering Greece.

Greek coast guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nikolaos Kokkalas said 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 the AP.

The life rafts are standard safety equipment on recreational boats, designed to keep passengers safe if they must abandon ship. They 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 written response to an AP query.

Uneasy neighbors Greece and Turkey have been at loggerheads for decades over several territorial issues, and asylum-seekers have found themselves caught up in the geopolitical conflict.

Tension between the two countries rose dramatically this summer over eastern Mediterranean maritime boundaries, leading to fears of war.

Both sides deployed warships as Turkish survey ships prospected for gas in waters where Greece and Cyprus claim exclusive economic rights. EU leaders are to discuss imposing sanctions on Turkey for its actions, in an Oct. 1-2 summit. Turkey has repeated its threat to send migrants into the EU if sanctions are imposed.

The persistent allegations of pushbacks of migrants are the latest manifestations of these tensions.

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 U.N. refugee agency, have repeatedly called on Greece to investigate what they say are credible reports and testimony of such expulsions occurring.

“UNHCR is particularly concerned about the increasing reports, since March 2020, of alleged informal returns by sea of persons who, according to their own attestations or those of third persons, have disembarked on Greek shores and have thereafter been towed back to sea,” the agency said in August.

UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Gillian Triggs, reiterating the call for an investigation, said that “with our own eyes on Lesbos, it was quite clear no boats were coming through” recently.

Earlier this month, Greece’s Shipping Minister Giannis Plakiotakis said Greek authorities prevented more than 10,000 people from entering Greece by sea this year. He would not elaborate on how.

Former Migration Minister Ioannis Mouzalas pressed for details from the current minister, Notis Mitarachi, in parliament Sept. 21, saying this appeared to violate Greek and international law. He asked directly whether the government carries out pushbacks.

The four Afghans on the life rafts seen by AP said they reached Lesbos from Turkey’s western Canakkale province on the night of Sept. 11-12, and were caught by Greek law enforcement during daylight.

One of them, Nabizada, said 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,” said the 22-year-old. He said he left Kabul in 2017 and crossed to Turkey via Iran, aiming for Europe.

Zohra Alizada, 14, said police took their phones and money, put them in the rafts and left. She was traveling with her parents and two siblings after living in Kars, in eastern Turkey, for over four years. She said the migrants called the Turkish coast guard for help.

Her father, Mohammad Reza Alizada, said Greek authorities inflated the rafts “and they threw us like animals inside.”

The AP was not able to independently verify their accounts.

The Turkish coast guard, clad in protective equipment against COVID-19, took them aboard after checking them for fever. Another Turkish coast guard vessel was already in the area when the patrol boat carrying the AP crew arrived.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu raised the allegations against Greece in an August news conference with his German counterpart.

He said Turkey has shown through government and media reports that Greece is pushing back refugees at sea, adding that “there have been numerous articles published.”

“How do sinking boats in the middle of the Aegean Sea or sending them to Turkey by pushbacks fit international rights and universal values?” Cavusoglu said.

Greece denies sinking smuggling boats. Kokkalas noted the Greek coast guard had rescued 3,150 migrants in about 100 incidents this year.

An independent Norway-based watchdog says it has documented at least 50 cases since March of migrants being put into life rafts and left adrift.

“They are not going into these life rafts willingly. They are forced,” said Tommy Olsen of the Aegean Boat Report, which monitors arrivals and rights abuses in the Aegean.

He said his group had no information about the rafts the AP saw, but that it was consistent with similar reports.

“Usually you save people from life rafts,” Olsen said. “You don’t put them on life rafts and leave them.”

▻https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-turkey-aegean-sea-greece-europe-61c54ec57c121026f4891d567f31b

Les vrais crimes, ce sont les refoulements et les violations des droits humains par le gouvernement grec

Lundi, la police grecque a publié un communiqué de presse concernant l’enquête criminelle menée à l’encontre de 33 personnes appartenant à quatre ONG différentes et deux “ressortissants de pays tiers”. A la suite de cette enquête, une procédure pénale a été engagée pour délit de constitution et participation à une organisation criminelle, espionnage, violation des secrets d’Etat et facilitation de l’entrée sur le
territoire (1). Bien que le communiqué de presse ne nomme pas les ONG ou les individus, plusieurs médias ont déclaré qu’Alarm Phone faisait partie des groupes visés (2). Pour l’instant, nous nous abstenons de commenter publiquement l’enquête en cours. Nous voulons plutôt mettre en évidence les véritables crimes qui ont lieu en ce moment-même !

Les refoulements, les violences graves comme les coups, les vols et les coups de feu, la non-assistance, le fait de forcer les réfugié.e.s à monter dans des radeaux de sauvetage et de les laisser dériver en pleine mer. Ces crimes sont perpétrés par des corps qui appartiennent de manière manifeste à l’État grec. Nous ne sommes pas les seul.e.s témoins de cette évolution alarmante. Plusieurs acteurs ont publiquement fait état de ces actions illégales menées par les garde-côtes grecs en mer et les gardes-frontières sur terre : le HCR, le Conseil grec pour les réfugiés, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch et d’autres organisations de défense des droits humains, des ONG et des médias. (3)

Il en va de même pour la situation à Moria, qui est également mentionnée comme étant l’un des secrets d’État dans le communiqué de presse de la police grecque. Ce n’est pas un secret mais un fait public que, avec les fonds et le soutien européens, Moria est devenu le symbole de la politique migratoire de l’UE dont le but est la dissuasion, foulant aux pieds la dignité et les droits humains.

Les violations des droits humains ont atteint un niveau inédit en mer Égée depuis le début du mois de mars. Cette escalade en termes de violations s’est accompagnée d’actes de répression contre les ONG et
toutes sortes de structures de solidarité pour les réfugié.e.s et les migrant.e.s. Il est évident que l’État grec veut éliminer les témoins des crimes contre l’humanité qu’il commet quotidiennement. Il est évident qu’il est gêné par notre activité : rien que cette année, Alarm Phone a été témoin et a documenté de nombreux cas de refoulements et de graves violations des droits humains. (4)

Il faut noter que depuis la création d’Alarm Phone il y a six ans, notre relation avec les garde-côtes helléniques n’a jamais été aussi compliquée qu’elle ne l’est aujourd’hui. Depuis octobre 2014, nous avons
transmis environ 1 975 cas de personnes en détresse aux garde-côtes grecs et à d’autres autorités grecques. À plusieurs reprises, nous avions constaté que les garde-côtes faisaient de leur mieux pour porter secours le plus rapidement possible. Nous avions établi une communication rapide et efficace qui avait conduit à des opérations de sauvetage, ce qui était crucial à une époque où nous recevions jusqu’à
23 appels par jour de bateaux en détresse dans la mer Égée, et ce qui est toujours aussi crucial aujourd’hui.

Au tout début de notre projet, nous nous étions ouvertement adressé.e.s à tous les garde-côtes, leur expliquant le rôle et l’objectif d’Alarm Phone. Dans cette lettre d’octobre 2014, nous avions déclaré “Nous espérons que grâce à notre travail, nous pourrons vous soutenir dans votre tâche quotidienne qui consiste à sauver la vie des migrant.e.s. Dans le même temps, nous dénoncerons vigoureusement tout échec à mener à bien cette mission. Nous espérons que vos institutions accepteront à la fois notre contribution et la responsabilité que nous exigeons, qui est demandée à toutes les institutions publiques”. C’est ce que nous avons fait et continuerons à faire avec détermination.

L’augmentation des violations des humains et des refoulements n’est pas un phénomène isolé, concernant uniquement la route entre la Grèce et la Turquie. A Alarm Phone, nous constatons également une tendance à la multiplication des refoulements illégaux de Malte et de l’Italie vers la Libye et la Tunisie en Méditerranée centrale, ainsi que de l’Espagne vers le Maroc en Méditerranée occidentale.

Nous appelons celles et ceux qui sont solidaires avec les personnes en migration à sensibiliser et à protester contre les crimes contre l’humanité qui sont perpétrés quotidiennement en mer Égée. Chaque
réfugié.e qui est repoussé.e, chaque personne qui est laissée dans un bateau en mauvais état, chaque enfant qui n’est pas secouru dans une situation de détresse est une raison suffisante pour se lever et élever la voix. Nous ne nous laisserons pas réduire au silence !

(1)▻http://www.astynomia.gr/index.php?option=ozo_content&lang=%27..%27&perform=view&id=97610&Itemid=25

(2) par exemple
▻https://vimapress.gr/telos-sti-drasi-evropaikon-mko-pou-diefkolynan-tin-diakinisi-metanaston-ap

(3) Rapport sur les refoulements :
UNHCR :
▻https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2020/6/5ee33a6f4/unhcr-calls-greece-investigate-pushbacks-sea-land-borders-turkey.html

Greek Council of Refugees :
►https://www.gcr.gr/en/news/press-releases-announcements/item/1028-the-new-normality-continuous-push-backs-of-third-country-nationals-on-the-e

Amnesty International :
▻https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur01/2077/2020/en

Human Rights Watch :
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/21/greece-still-denying-migrant-pushbacks

New York Times :
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/world/europe/greece-migrants-abandoning-sea.html

The Guardian :
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/sep/27/catastrophe-for-human-rights-as-greece-steps-up-refugee-pushbacks

CNN :
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/17/europe/greece-migrants-turkey-intl/index.html

(4) Alarm Phone sur les refoulements en mer Egée en 2020 :
https://alarmphone.org/en/2020/03/04/escalating-violence-in-the-aegean-sea/?post_type_release_type=post

https://alarmphone.org/en/2020/05/14/push-backs-the-new-old-routine-in-the-aegean-sea/?post_type_release_type=post

https://alarmphone.org/fr/2020/10/01/les-vrais-crimes-ce-sont-les-refoulements-et-les-violations-des-droits-h

Migrants : Athènes lance une guerre en eaux troubles contre les ONG

Après une enquête policière grecque menée avec de faux exilés infiltrés, des humanitaires opérant à Lesbos sont menacés de graves poursuites pénales. A l’aide d’accusations les assimilant à des passeurs, les autorités tentent de contrer la dénonciation des refoulements secrets de réfugiés vers les côtes turques.

« Ne vous méprenez pas, ils veulent juste nous faire peur, pour nous forcer à nous taire », martèle Aegean Boat Report dans un long post publié en tête de sa page Facebook. Spécialisée dans les sauvetages en mer, l’ONG norvégienne n’a pas tardé à réagir aux accusations formulées la semaine dernière par la police grecque et confirmées ce week-end. Au moins 33 humanitaires (parmi lesquels figurerait une Française), tous membres de quatre ONG internationales opérant sur l’île de Lesbos, seraient menacés de poursuites pénales après une enquête menée pendant trois mois, non seulement par la police, mais aussi par les services de renseignement et le contre-terrorisme grec.Les noms des organisations et des humanitaires concernés n’ont pas été divulgués pour l’instant. Mais de nombreux indices, notamment une perquisition réalisée début septembre sur un bateau amarré à Lesbos, indiquent que les quatre ONG concernées ont toutes en commun de se consacrer au sauvetage en mer des migrants ou réfugiés qui tentent la traversée depuis les côtes turques.
Mère d’Hercule

Ce n’est pas la première fois que le gouvernement grec s’attaque à ceux qui tentent de secourir les naufragés, en les assimilant à des passeurs. Mais cette fois-ci les accusations sont particulièrement graves : les humanitaires ciblés sont non seulement accusés de « violation du code de l’immigration », mais également de « constitution d’organisation criminelle », d’« espionnage » et de « violation de secrets d’Etat ».

Bien plus, ils auraient été piégés, selon les révélations du ministre grec des Migrations, Notis Mitarakis, dimanche, sur la chaîne de télévision Skai. Les charges contre eux auraient ainsi été recueillies lors d’une opération secrète baptisée « Alcmène » (du nom de la mère du héros antique Hercule), qui aurait notamment permis aux services grecs d’envoyer deux faux migrants à Izmir en Turquie puis sur une plage d’où ils auraient contacté par la suite les lanceurs d’alerte des ONG vouées au sauvetage des embarcations en détresse.

En l’absence d’autres éléments concrets, l’ampleur de l’opération qui a monopolisé tant de services, passant même par une infiltration en Turquie alors que les relations entre les deux pays sont actuellement très tendues, révèle surtout combien les autorités grecques sont déterminées à faire la guerre aux humanitaires déployés sur les îles.

A la télévision, le ministre grec l’a d’ailleurs confirmé, accusant le gouvernement précédent d’avoir laissé « les lieux d’accueil des réfugiés sous le contrôle des ONG », alors que la droite conservatrice revenue au pouvoir en juillet 2019, s’est, elle, aussitôt employée à « surveiller le rôle des ONG dans les flux d’immigration clandestine ».

Depuis son élection, le gouvernement du Premier ministre, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, n’a eu de cesse de stigmatiser les ONG régulièrement accusées de profiter de la situation explosive créée sur les îles grecques où les flux de réfugiés venus des côtes turques n’ont jamais réellement cessé, malgré le deal conclu entre l’Europe et la Turquie en mars 2016. Seule différence notable : les candidats à l’asile sont désormais contraints d’attendre sur place l’examen de leurs dossiers, créant un goulot d’étranglement dans des camps insalubres et surpeuplés. Sans les ONG qui remédient aux carences de l’Etat grec et à l’indifférence de l’Europe, la situation serait bien pire. Mais elles sont une cible facile sur laquelle se défoulent mécontents et aigris, alimentés par un discours populiste. Il fait mouche auprès des populations locales des îles de plus en plus exaspérées par ces abcès de misère qui sont venus se greffer durablement dans leur voisinage.
Acteurs dubitatifs

A Lesbos, depuis un an, les humanitaires ont ainsi vu régulièrement leurs voitures vandalisées, des inscriptions hostiles peintes en rouge sur les murs des maisons où ils résident. Les révélations sur « l’opération Alcmène » n’ont fait qu’attiser ce climat d’hostilité notamment sur les réseaux sociaux. Mais à Lesbos, les humanitaires ont également entendu un autre message : la police n’a-t-elle pas affirmé avoir, dans le cadre de son enquête, piraté des conversations sur les applis régulièrement utilisées par les ONG ?

Il n’en fallait pas plus pour déclencher une certaine méfiance, le sentiment d’être surveillé en permanence. Sous couvert d’anonymat, nombreux sont pourtant les acteurs locaux qui restent dubitatifs face aux accusations de l’enquête policière. « On ne peut jamais exclure qu’un humanitaire ait fait une bêtise, en marge de la légalité mais toutes ces révélations ne tombent pas par hasard », estime ainsi l’un d’eux, pointant la coïncidence entre la divulgation de ces accusations et celles qui se multiplient contre le gouvernement lui-même. Et dont les humanitaires impliqués dans le sauvetage en mer seraient devenus les témoins gênants.

Depuis plusieurs mois, Athènes se contente en effet de qualifier de « fake news » l’inquiétante multiplication des refoulements (« push back ») observés notamment par les ONG qui scrutent les eaux séparant la Grèce et la Turquie et dénoncent régulièrement ces refoulements forcés, et secrets, vers les côtes turques. Des pratiques totalement illégales puisqu’elles concernent des candidats à l’asile repérés alors qu’ils se trouvent déjà dans les eaux grecques, voire après avoir accosté sur les îles.
Bateau perquisitionné

« Depuis mars, 7 300 réfugiés ont été victimes de push back orchestrés par les autorités grecques en mer Egée », tweetait jeudi le compte du navire Mare Liberum. Dédié aux sauvetages en mer et affrété par l’ONG allemande Sea-Watch, le Mare Liberum est justement ce bateau perquisitionné le 5 septembre par la police grecque. Laquelle affirme y avoir notamment trouvé des cartes avec des indications topographiques précises et des data concernant le profil et l’origine des candidats à l’exil. A priori, rien de très choquant s’agissant d’une ONG qui se donne pour mission de secourir des naufragés. Mais ces « preuves » seraient venues conforter les accusations selon lesquelles les humanitaires concernés auraient « au moins depuis début juin » contribué à faire passer « près de 3 000 personnes » en Grèce avec la complicité de « réseaux d’immigration clandestine ».

Pourtant, la plupart des ONG impliquées estiment n’avoir rien à se reprocher et refusent de se laisser intimider. « Nous ne resterons pas silencieux », souligne ainsi Alarm Phone dans un communiqué publié jeudi sur son site. L’ONG, qui serait elle aussi visée par l’enquête policière, rappelle également que depuis six ans, son central d’appels a toujours cherché à collaborer avec les gardes-côtes en leur indiquant la position des embarcations à la dérive. Mais ces derniers mois, cette collaboration est devenue « plus compliquée », constate également Alarm Phone qui s’inquiète de la « recrudescence des violations des droits de l’homme en mer Egée ». Face à ces dérives, l’Europe a pour l’instant réagi plutôt mollement. « La présidente de la Commission européenne, Ursula von der Leyen, affirme qu’elle n’a pas les moyens d’enquêter. Pourtant, l’équipage d’un navire allemand qui fait partie des forces de l’Otan a admis avoir assisté à trois push back en mer Egée », observe-t-on au Legal Center de Lesbos, une association qui apporte un appui juridique aux réfugiés, et a également publié en juillet un rapport sur ces refoulements forcés.

Dans l’immédiat, le silence de Bruxelles semble encourager Athènes à renforcer sur tous les fronts son offensive contre les humanitaires. La semaine dernière, les autorités locales annonçaient ainsi la fermeture du centre d’accueil de Pikpa, l’un des rares lieux décents pour les réfugiés à Lesbos, géré depuis 2012 par des bénévoles.
Ancien camp militaire

Sur les réseaux sociaux, un mouvement de solidarité s’est aussitôt créé autour du hashtag #SavePikpa. Mais si les autorités persistent, que deviendront la centaine de réfugiés accueillis à Pikpa, souvent des familles considérées comme vulnérables ? Iront-elles rejoindre les sinistrés du camp de Moria, entièrement réduit en cendres dans la nuit du 8 au 9 septembre, et qui tentent désormais de survivre dans un ancien camp militaire, où quelques milliers de tentes ont été installées à la va-vite ? « Trois semaines après l’ouverture de ce nouveau site, il n’y a toujours pas de douche », s’insurge un humanitaire, conscient qu’il faudra de plus en plus d’énergie pour résister à l’hostilité des autorités.

Les tentatives de blocage ne se limitent pas hélas à la Grèce. En mars, le navire Mare Liberum s’était vu privé de son pavillon de navigation par le ministère allemand de la Marine. Une façon un peu radicale de limiter ses opérations de sauvetage. Mais vendredi, l’équipage exultait sur Twitter : la justice allemande venait de lui donner raison contre le ministère, considérant que le retrait du pavillon « était contraire à la réglementation européenne ». Une première victoire, en attendant d’autres batailles.

▻https://www.liberation.fr/planete/2020/10/07/migrants-athenes-lance-une-guerre-en-eaux-troubles-contre-les-ong_1801701

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS DEMAND THAT GREECE INVESTIGATE PUSHBACKS AND VIOLENCE AT ITS BORDERS

Members of Greece’s parliament should urgently establish an inquiry into all allegations of unlawful returns of migrants to Turkey by law enforcement officers and others, 29 human rights and humanitarian aid organizations said in an open letter released today. These returns are carried out mainly through pushbacks and collective expulsions and are often accompanied by violence.

Parliament should exercise its oversight authority to investigate the allegations of these illegal acts by state agents and proxies on Greece’s sea and land borders with Turkey. The parliament’s inquiry should examine whether any illegal acts identified are part of a de facto government policy at odds with international, European, and Greek law.

Over the years, nongovernmental groups and media outlets have consistently reported the unlawful return, including through pushbacks, of groups and individuals from Greece to Turkey by Greek law enforcement officers or unidentified masked men, who appear to be working in tandem with border enforcement officials.

Reports from 2020 recorded multiple incidents in which Greek Coast Guard personnel, sometimes accompanied by armed masked men in dark clothing, unlawfully abandoned migrants – including those who had reached Greek territory. They abandoned the migrants at sea, on inflatable vessels without motors; towed migrant boats to Turkish waters; or intercepted, attacked, and disabled boats carrying migrants.

Nongovernmental organizations and the media have also reported persistent allegations that Greek border guards have engaged in collective expulsions and pushbacks of asylum seekers through the Evros land border with Turkey.

On June 10, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it was “closely monitoring” the situation at the Greek border and reported receiving “persistent reports” of migrants being arbitrarily arrested in Greece and pushed back to Turkey. The IOM said that Greece should investigate.

On August 21, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was “deeply concerned by an increasing number of credible reports indicating that men, women, and children may have been informally returned to Turkey immediately after reaching Greek soil or territorial waters in recent months,” and urged Greece to refrain from such practices and to seriously investigate these reports. The agency had released a statement making similar calls on June 12.

On July 6, during a debate at the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) on fundamental rights at the Greek border, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, said those incidents should be investigated. In its new Pact on Migration and Asylum, presented on September 23, the European Commission recommended to member states to set up an independent monitoring mechanism, amid increased allegations of abuse at the EU’s external borders. But no such system has been instituted.

Confronted during a CNN interview with an August 14 New York Times article documenting pushbacks, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said: “It has not happened. We’ve been the victims of a significant misinformation campaign,” suggesting instead that Turkey was responsible.

Greek lawmakers should conduct a prompt, effective, transparent, and impartial investigation into allegations that Greek Coast Guard, Greek police, and Greek army personnel, sometimes in close coordination with uniformed masked men, have been involved in acts that not only violate the law but put the lives and safety of displaced people at risk.

Any officer found to have engaged in such illegal acts, as well as their commanding officers and officials who have command responsibility over such forces, should be subject to disciplinary and criminal sanctions, as applicable. The investigation should seek to establish the identity and relationship of the masked men and other unidentified officers to law enforcement and take steps to hold them to account. The investigation should cover events surfaced in 2019 and 2020, the groups said.

The following quotes may be attributed to members of the groups involved:

“Despite government denials, over the years many witnesses and victims have told us about pushbacks from land and sea that put migrants’ lives at risk,” said Eva Cossé, Greece researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Parliament should step up now and do all it can to put an end to this life-threatening practice.”

“The continued failure to address the serious allegations of pushbacks and violence against people on the move at Greece’s borders can no longer be tolerated,” said Adriana Tidona, migration researcher at Amnesty International. “We call on the Greek parliament to exercise its powers in the interest of all those who have been harmed by these actions and to ensure that there is no repetition.”

“Over the years, we have filed a score of complaints about or related to pushbacks at Greece’s borders, including deaths, that Greek prosecutors seem to ignore,” said Panayote Dimitras, spokesperson for the Greek Helsinki Monitor. “Greece needs to act quickly to set up an independent border monitoring mechanism to investigate violations, as proposed by the European Commission, and end these abuses once and for all.”

“The right to seek asylum must be upheld at all times,” said Josie Naughton, chief executive officer of Help Refugees. “The Greek parliament should urgently conduct an inquiry to examine the well-documented and illegal practices of pushbacks and mass expulsion, which endanger the lives of men, women, and children seeking asylum in Greece.”

“We have documented the pushback of more than 1,150 asylum seekers from Greek territory in the past three months alone,” said Natalie Gruber, spokesperson for Josoor. “These are not isolated incidents but systematic violations of national, EU, and international law that the parliament cannot shrug off as fake news anymore.”

“Greek authorities are systematically expelling migrants, including those who have reached Greek territory, and abandoning them in open water,” said Amelia Cooper from Legal Centre Lesvos. “The Greek parliament should not only open an investigation of these events, but must also decree and enforce – immediately – the cessation of illegal collective expulsions at all Greek borders.”

“In order to break with the current failures to hold member states like Greece accountable for their pushbacks and rights violations at borders, the European Commission must step up its efforts and quickly put in place an appropriate monitoring mechanism,” said Marta Welander, executive director at Refugee Rights Europe. “Such efforts must also involve civil society, NGOs, and national human rights institutions to ensure that available evidence is taken seriously and leads to timely investigation and redress.”

“The protection of the borders, of vital importance in itself, can be in compliance with international law and human rights standards,” said Antigone Lyberaki, SolidarityNow’s general manager. “The Greek parliament has both the means and a constitutional obligation to oversee and investigate the alleged infringement of international human rights obligations by the Greek state.”

“As a child protection organization, Tdh Hellas is particularly worried about the fact that among those reported to have been violently expelled across EU borders are children, including babies,” said Melina Spathari of Terre des hommes Hellas. “The Greek government should stop such acts and try instead to address the chronic gaps in the reception and protection system for families and unaccompanied children.”

▻https://legalcentrelesvos.org/2020/10/06/human-rights-groups-demand-that-greece-investigate-pushbacks-and-

On reparle des life rats dans cet article du Monde :
Refoulements en mer Egée : les recensements erronés ou mensongers de #Frontex

En croisant les données de JORA avec des rapports d’associations ou encore des comptes rendus des gardes-côtes turcs, il apparaît que, dans 22 cas au moins, qui représentent 957 migrants, ceux-ci ont été retrouvés dérivant en mer dans des canots de survie gonflables, sans moteur. D’après des photos que Le Monde et ses partenaires ont pu authentifier, ces canots, de couleur orange, correspondraient à des modèles achetés par le ministère de la marine grec, via un financement de la Commission européenne. Ce qui tendrait à prouver que les migrants ont accédé aux eaux grecques avant d’être refoulés illégalement.

▻https://seenthis.net/messages/958454

A Family With Several Small Children Left Drifting in a Life Raft Outside Lesvos

https://aegeanboatreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2xfgnxdrfthj-1536x1152.jpg

Friday night, November 4, a boat carrying approximately 25 people arrived close to #Kalo_Limani, #Lesvos north west.

After arriving people fled to the Woodson in several groups in the surrounding area to hide from Greek authorities, fearing that if they were found they would be illegally returned to Turkey.

Saturday morning at 07.00 Aegean Boat Report was contacted by several groups hiding in the hills around Kalo Limani, they all asked for assistance so that they could be taken to camp and be able to apply for asylum.

They provided documentation on their presence on the island, pictures, videos and location data left no doubt that the groups was on Lesvos.

We tried to provide them with the necessary means, so that they themselves could act, this to try to prevent them from being pushed back. The groups explained that they were part of a bigger group, but the total number of people in the boat they arrived with seemed unclear. From pictures and videos provided we were able to identify approximately 25 people.

Due to the fact that it’s weekend, the newly arrived refugees had problems finding an organization who responded on the phone, even do they were given numbers who usually works, but then mostly only on weekdays.

After 10 hours one of the groups was able to get response, and late on Saturday night, 7 people was located, 3 woman (2 pragment) 3 men and 1 child was eventually found and taken to the quarantine camp in Megala Thermi, Lesvos north.

During the time organizations was not responding, several cars without license plates was observed in the area, and later driving from the area, if there were refugees inside these cars is unknown, but after now knowing that over half the group is missing, it’s highly likely.

Sunday morning, November 6, 3 more people from this group made contact, and was in the afternoon taken to camp in Megala Thermi. A total of 10 people had been found, but as many as 15 more people seemed to be missing from this group.

On Saturday night, November 5, a life raft was found drifting outside Dikili, Turkey carrying 9 people.

From pictures and videos that they had sent while still on Lesvos the previous day, there is no doubt, these 9 people was from the group that arrived the previous day in Kalo Limani, Lesvos north west.

So the question is how did they end up drifting in a Greek manufactured life rafts outside Dikili, Turkey?

By now everyone knows the answer to this, but still Greek authorities continues to deny any involvement, as if these people suddenly had decided to go back, found a life raft and paddled back to Turkey. Not a very plausible explanation but this is what the Greek authorities wants you to believe.

Since March 2020, we have registered 1.807 pushback cases in the Aegean Sea, performed by the Hellenic coast guard, involving 48.083 men, women and children: 636 of these cases was performed by using rescue equipment/life rafts, 16,620 people have so far been left drifting in 986 life rafts in the Aegean Sea

https://i0.wp.com/aegeanboatreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2vcgkm-1024x768.jpg

We understand that organizations working on the islands is working under extremely difficult conditions, and that they are doing their best, in a very difficult situation to try to prevent people from being pushed back after they arrive on the island.

When that is said, we can’t help stressing the fact that to have phones only operational on weekdays within office hours, puts vulnerable people, who usually arrives after dark, also on weekends, in an extremely dangerous situation.

When people arrive it’s usually only a matter of time before they are located by authorities, so time is of the essence. When these vulnerable people are trying to make contact with organizations on the ground for over 10 hours, without getting any response, anyone understand that there is a huge potential for improvements.

When these organizations do not want to cooperate with organizations not working locally on these issues, we must urge them to at least give vulnerable people arriving, who are in grave danger of being beaten, robbed and illegally deported, a way on reaching them, and not only on weekdays within working hours.

We must also add that people on the move are extremely grateful for the assistance these individuals and organizations have provided, and we know that things are more difficult and complicated than it might seem standing on the outside looking in. We try to fend for those who contact us as a last cry for help, when something seems to be not working properly, or at times not at all, it’s our responsibility to point this out. We can’t tell desperate people who contact us that we can’t help them, because we can, and we will.

▻https://aegeanboatreport.com/2022/11/16/a-family-with-several-small-children-left-drifting-in-a-life-raft-
#Lesbos

Another Magic Trick, This Time 104 People “Disappeard”

https://aegeanboatreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG-20221101-WA0008-1536x1152.jpg https://aegeanboatreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Skjermbilde-2022-11-04-093451.png

After hours drifting due to lack of fuel and engine failure, they were finally rescued by a vessel from the Greek coast guard. The Greek coast guard vessel, a Lambro Halmatic 60, started to tow the boat toward Kalamata, over 800 nautical miles away. This is well documented by videos and pictures taken by the refugees while being towed.

https://videos.files.wordpress.com/dSxmzXLa/foinikounta-1_mp4_hd.original.jpg

At this point, in any normal situation, one should assume that the people onboard were safe, and that they would be taken to the nearest port of safety in accordance to international laws and the law of the sea, but the situation in Greece these days is nothing but normal. After being towed for more than 20 hours, they closed in on the port in Foinikounta.

At this point this large vessel carrying 104 people (not 110 as we initially reported), a broken engine and without fuel, magically disappeared.

According to a statement from the Hellenic coast guard’s press office, people onboard cut the rope and ‘eloped’, ‘probably heading for Italy’. This was, of course, not their initial response when asked about this “rescue operation”. At that point, they said there was no incident in this area, a strange answer when asked about a rescue operation that had been going on for more than 20 hours, involving more than 100 people.

The following day, when we reported on this case, and it was obvious to everyone that it had in fact had been a rescue operation, their story changed.

When a journalist from Efsyn contacted them asking questions they cooked up an alternative explanation: the people had run away. This was not the brightest explanation but for some reason – maybe desperation or stupidity – the coast guard seemed to believe it was plausible.

I don’t know what is worse, that they were stupid enough to put out such ridiculous explanations, or that they thought people were so stupid that they would believe them.

Let us just say one more time: the boat had no more fuel. Its engine was broken. And the captain – the only one who knew how to drive the boat – had taken off the previous night.

They had willingly been towed for more than 20 hours, almost 70 nautical miles, but when they were nine km from safety of the port in Foinikounta, they magically fixed the engine, produced fuel from sea water, trained a new captain, and ran for Italy…

This is what we wrote on Monday 31 October:

“A boat carrying approximately 104 people, mostly Afghan families, on its way from Turkey to Italy, ended up in disaster in Ionian Sea, inside Greek waters, 80 nautical miles from Kalamata.

The group contacted the Italian coast guard, after giving them their location the group was told to contact Greek coast guard, since they were in Greek waters.

Saturday afternoon, 29 October at 18.00, they connected with Greek rescue services, and around midnight a vessel from the Greek coast guard, a Lambro Halmatic 60 N/Γ SAR-516 arrived at their location.

Shortly after the vessel from the Hellenic coast guard started towing the boat with all passengers onboard, towards Greek mainland, no food or water was provided, even though they asked since they had run out the previous day, and there were many small children onboard.

https://i2.wp.com/aegeanboatreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/WhatsApp-Image-2022-11-03-at-11.24.04-1-547x1024.jpeg?strip=info&w=828&ssl=1

The boat was towed for more than 20 hours, people onboard was hungry and thirsty, nothing was provided from the coast guard, no food, no water and no information.

People onboard was very concerned on where the coast guard was towing them, scared that they would be pushed back to Turkey. No information was provided, but from locations received we reassured them that they were being towed towards mainland Greece.

At 20.00 the boat was closing in on the port of Foinikounta, and they told us that the rope had been cut, and that three boats were approaching. Through live location we could follow movement towards land, moving up from the port to the main road and moving west at the roundabout, after 550 metres, the movement stopped.

After this point all connection was lost with the group, from Google Maps we can see a building above the road, what structure this is we do not know. Last location received from the phone was from a small shed down from the road, a place that under no circumstances could house more than 100 people.

People rescued in this area are usually taken to Kalamata, why this group was not taken there and instead taken to port in Foinikounta, we don’t know.

We usually get a bit suspicious when all of a sudden connection is lost, and when we try to get information from the Hellenic Coast Guard, they say they have no information. This could of course only be a coincidence, lack of information sharing within HCG, we will try to follow up on this in the coming days.

Information received from the boat carrying more than 100 people can’t be mistaken. We can clearly see the vessel from HCG towing the boat, new locations received every 30 minutes from the boat shows without any doubt that they were in Greek waters, and they were taken to Foinikounta.

So far HCG haven’t confirmed any rescue operation in this area, and there is no information in Greek press, even do this rescue operation has been ongoing for over 20 hours.”

This was all we knew at this point, and yes we were worried. Several things didn’t add up, so what really happened to this large group of people, men, women and children, who had by all accounts been rescued by the Greek coast guard?

On Tuesday 1 November, the Greek newspaper Efsyn published an article about the disappearance of this boat. In their article they cover many questions related to this case.

https://aegeanboatreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Skjermbilde-2022-11-04-095310.png

One of the stranger things in this case is the movement of the mobile phone sending out live location on WhatsApp to Aegean Boat Report.

This phone sent out location data over one hour after last communication with its owner, and the last thing he said was ‘three boats are here, they cut the rope that connected with our boat’. The time was 20.05(EET) and there have been no more messages sent from this phone since then.

According to the press office of the Hellenic coast guard there was no contact between the coast guard and the people onboard before they allegedly cut the rope and drove off.

So how can we explain that the location signal, sending out relatively accurate location data, moved towards land? We follow the movement over approximately 30 minutes, while the phone moved 9km towards land, someone had to have taken this phone to the port, but who, if not the owner himself?

Let’s just pretend, for argument’s sake, that the geolocation signal sent from the phone was corrupted somehow, bad reception or disturbance of some kind sending out wrong location data. it’s then strange that this corrupted location signal would move through the streets of Foinikounta like it was driving a car, not jumping all over the place but only exactly where the streets were, and ending up in an old shed close to the main road.

We could suggest that someone, not the owner himself, took the phone from the owner, 10km from land, transported the phone to land and hid it in this old shed, but why? Why would anyone do such a thing?

What really happened is actually quite obvious, especially when we have proof that without a doubt shows that the Hellenic coast guard press office deliberately lied to a member of the Greek press, in an futile attempt to cover up crimes committed by the coast guard, on direct orders from the Greek authorities.

The Greek coast guard vessel, a Lambro Halmatic 60, N/Γ SAR-516, which had towed the rescued boat carrying 104 people for more than 20 hours, 70 nautical miles, stopped towing 9km from port in Foinikounta, between the islands of Sapientza and Schiza, at 19.49 on Sunday 31 October.

This location was not an accident. It’s a perfect location, protected by the elements between the islands, hidden from the eyes of the public behind the island of Ag.Marina. From land, people couldn’t see anything, even lights.

This operation was well planned, they had more than 20 hours to set everything in motion, a large coast guard vessel was sent to the area to execute orders from the authorities: remove everyone by all means possible.

From information provided by the refugees, we know that three boats approached them after they had stopped 9km from port in Foinikounta, from pictures taken by the refugees onboard, we can see headlights from the boats approaching in the dark.

At this point masked men entered the boat, people onboard were told they would be transported to port by smaller vessels in groups. The refugees understood what was going to happen, some of the men resisted, and were severely beaten. At this point all hell broke loose. The masked men were screaming and shouting, children were crying out of fear, seeing their parents being beaten by commandos in front of them, threatened at gunpoint. No-one was spared, even elderly women were beaten.

Everyone was forced to give up all their belongings, also money and phones, before they were forced onto the smaller boats, the only thing they had left in life were the clothes on their backs.

Their belongings were taken to port by a boat from the local coast guard, and this is why the phones geolocation data showed the phone moving towards port: the phones were not turned off. The phone we received data from continued to send out information until it was turned off, or destroyed, in a small shed on land.

The group of 104 people, families, men, women and children, was forced onto a larger coast guard vessel, placed outside in the cold in the dark. They were told to shut up and look down, anyone disobeying was immediately beaten with batons.

Close to midnight, the large vessel from the Greek coast guard headed back out to sea, toward Turkey, there was no doubt about what was going to happen. For the next 24 hours these people were held captive on a Greek coast guard vessel, against their will, while they were transported almost 600km towards Turkey.

The vessel stopped several times out at sea during the day, as if waiting for something. They waited so they could carry out their crimes under cover of darkness. Close to midnight, the vessel slowed down and eventually stopped

There had been little activity on the lower deck during the day, but now officers started to inflate life rafts on the side of the boat. They inflated the rafts and removed the orange cover that usually protects people inside them from the elements in the open sea.

Why this was done might have something to do with the fact that the manufacturers name is printed on the outside of the cover, and the manufacturer doesn’t see this as good advertisement.

Lalizas, which manufactures these rafts, is a Greek company from Piraeus, and has a contract to provide the Greek coast guard with rescue equipment.

This could explain why people are left in these rafts without the usual protection from the elements: to protect the reputation of their Greek supplier, not the people whom these rafts was made to protect.

Since March 2020, we have registered 1,742 pushback cases in the Aegean Sea, performed by the Hellenic coast guard, involving 46,443 men, women and children: 615 of these cases was performed by using rescue equipment/life rafts, 16,092 people have so far been left drifting in 952 life rafts in the Aegean Sea, and most of these rafts are found without the protective cover.

In the dark, people were forced to climb down and into these rafts. Those who refused, or were scared, were beaten until they complied, thrown down into the raft, or both.

People were terrified, children screaming, but there was no mercy. Eventually everyone had been forced into the rafts, five in total, and the Greek coast guard vessel left and headed back toward Greek waters. 104 people, families, men, woman and small children, were left helplessly drifting in the dark in five life rafts outside Datça, Turkey.

They had no means to call for help, all their phones had been taken by the Greek coast guard. After several hours, at 04.10, the Turkish coast guard found and rescued 104 people from five life rafts drifting outside Datça, Turkey.

From pictures and videos received while onboard the boat towed towards Greece by the Greek coast guard, compared to pictures and videos from the time they were rescued by Turkish coast guard outside Datça, there is absolutely no doubt: it is the same group.

We later received pictures allegedly showing bruises after people had been beaten by Greek officers onboard the coast guard vessel, or after being thrown down in the rafts.

In most countries in Europe an incident like this would have made a national and international outcry. A huge investigation would have been carried out. Not in Greece.

There is no longer any rule of law in Greece, any investigations into similar incidents, even obvious cases like this, would always have the same outcome: no proof of any wrongdoing whatsoever.

So why has this madness been allowed to continue for years in Greece? Why have Europe and the EU looked the other way, while a European country, an EU member, has systematically, in an industrial scale, violated international law, European law and international human rights?

The Greek government refers to what it is doing as ‘border management’, to protect the European border from ‘invaders’. But invasions are carried out by people with weapons, not by families, men, women and children seeking protection from war and persecution.

The Greek authorities assure everyone that they follow international laws, and are not pushing back refugees in the Aegean Sea, when it’s obvious for anyone to see that they are.

But still, the EU is sitting on its hands, letting this continue, even supporting the Greek government in its crimes.

European values and human rights seem only to apply to European, white Christian people. Must we conclude that the EU feels that the rest are expendable, and have no human value?

Push-backs are happening every single day in the Aegean Sea, and the Greek government will continue this inhuman practice, systematically violating people’s human rights, until Europe once again decides to put human rights on the agenda.

If the EU were serious about the values for which it claims to stand, it would immediately launch infringement proceedings against Greece. The fact that they have done nothing at all, makes it appear that those values mean nothing, and that the laws and rights it claims to promote and protect are only for the white: the rest can be cast to the waves.

And people wonder why refugees takes these extremely dangerous journeys from Turkey to Italy in overcrowded boats, in stead of going to Greece. The result of the Greek war on refugees, blessed and financed by EU, are drowning people, not because they are drowning on their way to Greece, but because they are trying to avoid Greece.

▻https://aegeanboatreport.com/2022/11/04/another-magic-trick-this-time-104-people-magically-disappeard

Ajouté à la métaliste : ►https://seenthis.net/messages/804316

Tragiche notizie da #moria a #Lesbo. Una mamma e un bambino sono morti a causa di un incendio divampato nel campo. Nessuno può definire queste morti un incidente. È il risultato diretto di una politica brutale che intrappola 13.000 persone in un campo che dovrebbe ospitarne 3.000

▻https://twitter.com/MSF_ITALIA/status/1178383694983303173

Μία γυναίκα νεκρή και ένα μωρό από τις αναθυμιάσεις στη Μόρια

https://cdn.stonisi.gr/repository/2019/moriafotia2.jpg

Φωτιά ξέσπασε το απόγευμα σε κοντέινερ στο ΚΥΤ Μόριας, με τις μέχρι τώρα πληροφορίες μια γυναίκα είναι νεκρή και ένα μωρό.

Μετά τη φωτιά στο κοντέινερ, ξέσπασε εξέγερση. Η πυροσβεστική μπήκε να σβήσει τη φωτιά, ενώ αρχικά εμποδίστηκε από τα επεισόδια η αστυνομία αυτή τη στιγμή προσπαθεί να παρέμβει.

Νεότερα εντός ολίγου.

https://cdn.stonisi.gr/repository/2019/moriafotia1.jpg

▻https://www.stonisi.gr/post/4319/mia-gynaika-nekrh-kai-ena-mwro-apo-tis-anathymiaseis-sth-moria-updated

Fire, clashes, one dead at crowded Greek migrant camp on Lesbos

A fire broke out on Sunday at a container inside a crowded refugee camp on the eastern Greek island of Lesbos close to Turkey and one person was killed, emergency services said.

Refugees clashed with police as thick smoke rose over the Moria camp, which currently houses about 12,000 people in overcrowded conditions and firefighters fought to extinguish the blaze.

Police said one burned body was taken to hospital in the island’s capital Mytilini for identification by the coroner. Police sent reinforcements to the island along with the chief of police to help restore order.

Police could not immediately reach an area of containers, where there were unconfirmed reports of another burned body.

Greece has been dealing with a resurgence in refugee and migrant flows in recent weeks from neighboring Turkey. Nearly a million refugees fleeing war in Syria and migrants crossed from Turkey to Greece’s islands in 2015.

More than 9,000 people arrived in August, the highest number in the three years since the European Union and Ankara implemented a deal to shut off the Aegean migrant route. More than 8,000 people have arrived so far in September.

Turks have also attempted to cross to Greece in recent years following a failed coup attempt against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.

On Friday seven Turkish nationals, two women and five children, drowned when a boat carrying them capsized near Greece’s Chios island.

▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-greece-lesbos-moria/fire-clashes-at-crowded-migrant-camp-on-greek-island-lesbos-idUSKBN1WE0NJ

Incendio nel campo rifugiati di Moria. Amnesty: “Abbietto fallimento delle politiche di protezione del governo greco e dell’Ue”

Incendio nel campo rifugiati di Moria. Amnesty International denuncia: “Abbietto fallimento delle politiche di protezione del governo greco e dell’Ue”

“L’incendio di Moria ha evidenziato l’abietto fallimento del governo greco e dell’Unione europea, incapaci di gestire la deplorevole situazione dei rifugiati in Grecia“.

Così Massimo Moratti, direttore delle ricerche sull’Europa di Amnesty International, ha commentato la notizia dell’incendio di domenica 29 settembre nel campo rifugiati di Moria, sull’isola greca di Lesbo, nel quale è morta una donna.

“Con 12.503 persone presenti in un campo che potrebbe ospitarne 3000 e dati gli incendi già scoppiati nel campo, le autorità greche non possono sostenere che questa tragedia fosse inevitabile. Solo un mese fa erano morte altre tre persone“, ha aggiunto Moratti.

“L’accordo tra Unione europea e Turchia ha solo peggiorato le cose, negando dignità a migliaia di persone intrappolate sulle isole dell’Egeo e violando i loro diritti“, ha sottolineato Moratti.

“Il campo di Moria è sovraffollato e insicuro. Le autorità greche devono immediatamente evacuarlo, assistere, anche fornendo le cure mediche necessarie, le persone che hanno subito le conseguenze dell’incendio e accelerare il trasferimento dei richiedenti asilo e dei rifugiati in strutture adeguate in terraferma. Gli altri stati membri dell’Unione europea devono collaborare accettando urgentemente i programmi di ricollocazione che potrebbero ridurre la pressione sulla Grecia“, ha concluso Moratti.

Ulteriori informazioni

Nelle ultime settimane, Amnesty International ha riscontrato un drammatico peggioramento delle condizioni dei rifugiati sulle isole dell’Egeo, nelle quali si trovano ormai oltre 30.000 persone.

Il sovraffollamento ha raggiunto il livello peggiore dal 2016. Le isole di Lesbo e Samo ospitano un numero di persone superiore rispettivamente di quattro e otto volte i posti a disposizione.

La situazione dei minori è, a sua volta, drasticamente peggiorata. La morte di un afgano di 15 anni nella cosiddetta “zona sicura” del campo di Moria testimonia la fondamentale mancanza di sicurezza per le migliaia di minori costretti a vivere in quel centro.

All’inizio di settembre il governo greco ha annunciato l’inizio dei trasferimenti dei richiedenti asilo e dei rifugiati sulla terraferma. Questi trasferimenti, effettuati in cooperazione con l’Organizzazione internazionale delle migrazioni, si sono rivelati finora una serie di iniziative frammentarie.

All’indomani dell’incendio di Moria le autorità di Atene hanno espresso l’intenzione di arrivare a 3000 trasferimenti entro la fine di ottobre: un numero insufficiente a fare fronte all’aumento degli approdi da luglio, considerando che solo la settimana scorsa sono arrivate altre 3000 persone.

La politica di trattenimento dei nuovi arrivati sulle isole dell’Egeo resta dunque immutata, poiché le misure adottate sono clamorosamente insufficienti a risolvere i problemi dell’insicurezza e delle condizioni indegne cui i richiedenti asilo e i rifugiati sono stati condannati a convivere a partire dall’attuazione dell’accordo tra Unione europea e Turchia.

▻https://www.amnesty.it/incendio-campo-rifugiati-moria-grecia

This was not an accident!

They died because of Europe’s cruel deterrence and detention regime!

http://lesvos.w2eu.net/files/2019/09/this-was-not-an-accident-1-768x432.jpg

Yesterday, on Sunday 29 September 2019, a fire broke out in the so-called hotspot of Moria on Lesvos Island in Greece. A woman and probably also a child lost their lives in the fire and it remains unclear how many others were injured. Many people lost all their small belongings, including identity documents, in the fire. The people imprisoned on Lesvos have fled wars and conflicts and now experience violence within Europe. Many were re-traumatised by these tragic events and some escaped and spent the night in the forest, scared to death.

Over the past weeks, we had to witness two more deaths in the hotspot of Moria: In August a 15-year-old Afghan minor was killed during a violent fight among minors inside the so-called “safe space” of the camp. On September 24, a 5-year-old boy lost his life when he was run-over by a truck in front of the gate.

The fire yesterday was no surprise and no accident. It is not the first, and it will not be the last. The hotspot burned already several times, most tragically in November 2016 when large parts burned down. Europe’s cruel regime of deterrence and detention has now killed again.

In the meantime, in the media, a story was immediately invented, saying that the refugees themselves set the camp on fire. It was also stated that they blocked the fire brigade from entering. We have spoken to many people who witnessed the events directly. They tell us a very different story: In fact, the fire broke out most probably due to an electricity short circuit. The fire brigade arrived very late, which is no surprise given the overcrowdedness of this monstrous hotspot. Despite its official capacity for 3,000 people, it now detains at least 12,500 people who suffer there in horrible living conditions. On mobile phone videos taken by the prisoners of the camp, one can see how in this chaos, inhabitants and the fire brigade tried their best together to at least prevent an even bigger catastrophe.

There simply cannot be a functioning emergency plan in a camp that has exceeded its capacity four times. When several containers burned in a huge fire that generated a lot of smoke, the imprisoned who were locked in the closed sector of the camp started in panic to try to break the doors. The only response the authorities had, was to immediately bring police to shoot tear-gas at them, which created an even more toxic smoke.

Anger and grief about all these senseless deaths and injuries added to the already explosive atmosphere in Moria where thousands have suffered while waiting too long for any change in their lives. Those who criminalise and condemn this outcry in form of a riot of the people of Moria cannot even imagine the sheer inhumanity they experience daily. The real violence is the camp itself, conditions that are the result of the EU border regime’s desire for deterrence.

We raise our voices in solidarity with the people of Moria and demand once again: The only possibility to end this suffering and dying is to open the islands and to have freedom of movement for everybody. Those who arrive on the islands have to continue their journeys to hopefully find a place of safety and dignity elsewhere. We demand ferries to transfer the exhausted and re-traumatised people immediately to the Greek mainland. We need ferries not Frontex. We need open borders, so that everyone can continue to move on, even beyond Greece. Those who escape the islands should not be imprisoned once more in camps in mainland Greece, with conditions that are the same as the ones here on the islands.

Close down Moria!

Open the islands!

Freedom of Movement for everyone!

▻http://lesvos.w2eu.net/2019/09/30/this-was-not-an-accident

Grèce : quand s’embrase le plus grand camp de réfugiés d’Europe

Sur l’île de Lesbos, le camp de Moria accueille 13 000 personnes dans des installations prévues pour 3000. Un incendie y a fait au moins deux morts et a déclenché un début d’"émeutes dimanche. En Autriche, les Verts créent la sensation aux législatives alors que l’extrême-droite perd 10 points.

▻https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/revue-de-presse-internationale/la-revue-de-presse-internationale-emission-du-lundi-30-septembre-2019

Riots at Greek refugee camp on Lesbos after fatal fire

Government says it will step up transfers to the mainland after unrest at overcrowded camp.
Greek authorities are scrambling to deal with unrest at a heavily overcrowded migrant camp on Lesbos after a fire there left at least one person dead.

Officials said they had found the charred remains of an Afghan woman after the blaze erupted inside a container used to house refugees at the Moria reception centre on Sunday. The fire was eventually extinguished by plane.

More than 13,000 people are now crammed into tents and shipping containers with facilities for just 3,000 at Moria, a disused military barracks outside Mytilene, the island’s capital, where tensions are rising.

“A charred body was found, causing foreign [migrants] to rebel,” said Lefteris Economou, Greece’s deputy minister for citizen protection. “Stones and other objects were hurled, damaging three fire engines and slightly injuring four policemen and a fireman.”

The health ministry said 19 people including four children were injured, most of them in the clashes. There were separate claims that a child died with the Afghan woman.

Greece’s centre-right government said it would immediately step up transfers to the mainland. The camp is four times over capacity. “By the end of Monday 250 people will have been moved,” Economou said.

Like other Aegean isles near the Turkish coast, Lesbos has witnessed a sharp rise in arrivals of asylum seekers desperate to reach Europe in recent months.

“The situation was totally out of control,” said the local police chief, Vasillis Rodopoulos, describing the melee sparked by the fire. “Their behaviour was very aggressive, they wouldn’t let the fire engines pass to put out the blaze, and for the first time they were shouting: kill police.”

▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ed39991b42492c24aba4f85e701b66e48521375c/0_178_3500_2101/master/3500.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=356be51355ebcb04a111f2

But NGO workers on Lesbos said the chaos reflected growing frustration among the camp’s occupants. There have been several fires at the facility since the EU struck a deal with Turkey in 2016 to stem the flow of migrants. A woman and child died in a similar blaze three years ago.

“No one can call the fire and these deaths an accident,” said Marco Sandrone, a field officer with Médecins Sans Frontières. “This tragedy is the direct result of a brutal policy that is trapping 13,000 people in a camp made for 3,000.

“European and Greek authorities who continue to contain these people in these conditions have a responsibility in the repetition of these dramatic episodes. It is high time to stop the EU-Turkey deal and this inhumane policy of containment. People must be urgently evacuated out of the hell that Moria has become.”

Greece currently hosts around 85,000 refugees, mostly from Syria although recent arrivals have also been from Afghanistan and Africa. Close to 35,000 have arrived this year, outstripping the numbers in Italy and Spain.

It is a critical issue for the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who won office two months ago promising to crack down on migration.
Aid workers warn of catastrophe in Greek refugee camps
Read more

Mitsotakis raised the matter with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York last week, and Greece’s migration minister and the head of the coastguard will fly to Turkey for talks this week.

Ministers admit the island camps can no longer deal with the rise in numbers.

Government spokesman Stelios Petsas announced that a cabinet meeting called to debate emergency measures had on Monday decided to radically increase the number of deportations of asylum seekers whose requests are rejected.

“There will be an increase in returns [to Turkey],” he said. “From 1,806 returned in 4.5 years under the previous Syriza government, 10,000 will be returned by the end of 2020.”

Closed detention centres would also be established for those who had illegally entered the EU member state and did not qualify for asylum, he added.

However, Spyros Galinos, until recently the mayor of Lesbos, who held the post when close to a million Syrian refugees landed on the island, told the Guardian: “This is a bomb that will explode. Decongestion efforts aren’t enough. You move more to the mainland and others come. It’s a cycle that will continue repeating itself with devastating effect until the big explosion comes.”

▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/30/riots-at-greek-refugee-camp-on-lesbos-after-fatal-fire

Grèce : incendie meurtrier à Moria suivi d’émeutes

Au moins une personne a péri dans un incendie survenu dimanche dans le camp surpeuplé de Moria, sur l’île grecque de Lesbos. Ce drame a été suivi d’émeutes provoquées par la colère des habitants du camp, excédés par leurs conditions de vie indignes.

Un incendie survenu, dimanche 29 septembre, au sein du camp de Moria sur l’île de Lesbos en Grèce a fait au moins un mort parmi les habitants. "Nous n’avons qu’une personne morte confirmée pour l’instant", a déclaré le ministre adjoint à la protection civile Lefteris Oikonomou, lundi. La veille, plusieurs sources ont indiqué que la victime était décédée avec son enfant portant le nombre de décès à au moins deux.

Selon les médias grecs, une couverture brûlée retrouvée à côté de la femme morte, contiendrait des résidus de peau qui pourraient appartenir à l’enfant de la défunte, un nouveau-né. Des examens médico-légaux sont en cours.

Selon l’Agence de presse grecque ANA, citant des sources policières, la femme a été transportée à l’hôpital de Lesbos, tandis que l’enfant a été remis aux autorités par les migrants qui l’avait recouvert d’une couverture. Un correspondant de l’AFP a confirmé avoir vu deux corps, l’un transporté au bureau de l’ONG Médecins sans frontières (MSF), l’autre devant lequel “sanglotaient des proches”.

https://scd.infomigrants.net/media/resize/my_image_big/06012debc02e8560be8b3682efa23e4d21a0a9c0.jpeg

Il a fallu, d’après un témoin cité par l’AFP, plus de 30 minutes pour éteindre l’incendie et les pompier ont tardé à arriver. C’est un avion bombardier d’eau qui a permis de stopper le brasier qui aurait démarré dans un petit commerce ambulant avant de s’étendre aux conteneurs d’habitation voisins.

Dans un communiqué, la police fait état de deux incendies, le premier à l’extérieur du camp, puis un autre à l’intérieur, à 20 minutes d’intervalle. Les émeutes ont débuté juste après que le second feu s’est déclaré.
"Six ou sept conteneurs [hébergeant des migrants] étaient en flammes. On a appelé les pompiers qui sont arrivés après 20 minutes. On s’est mis en colère", a déclaré Fedouz, 15 ans, interrogé par l’AFP. Le jeune Afghan affirme avoir trouvé deux enfants “complètement carbonisés et une femme morte” en voulant essayer, avec ses proches, d’aider les personnes qui se trouvaient dans les conteneurs.

Afin de reprendre le contrôle sur la foule en colère à cause de la lenteur des secours, la police a tiré des gaz lacrymogènes. Peu après 23h locales (20h GMT), le camp avait retrouvé son calme, selon des sources policières.

Plus de 20 blessés dans les émeutes soignés par MSF

“Nous sommes outrés”, a réagi Marco Sandrone, le coordinateur de Médecins sans frontières (MSF) en Grèce. “L’équipe médicale de notre clinique située juste à l’extérieur du camp a porté secours à au moins 15 personnes blessées à la suite des émeutes entre les migrants et la police, juste après l’incendie.” L’ONG a ensuite revu le nombre de patients à la hausse indiquant que 21 personnes avaient été prises en charge dans leur clinique.

Pour Marco Sandrone cet incendie et ces émeutes n’ont rien d’un banal incident. “Cette tragédie est le résultat d’une politique brutale qui piègent 13 000 migrants dans un camp qui ne peut en accueillir que 3 000. Les autorités européennes et grecques qui maintiennent ces personnes dans ces conditions de vie ont une part de responsabilité dans ce genre d’épisode”, a-t-il déclaré.

Moria est le plus grand camp de migrants en Europe. La Grèce compte actuellement 70 000 migrants, principalement des réfugiés syriens, qui ont fui leur pays depuis 2015 et risqué la traversée depuis les côtes turques voisines.

Le gouvernement grec doit se pencher, à compter de lundi, sur une modernisation de la procédure d’asile afin d’essayer de désengorger ses camps de migrants. En vertu d’un accord conclu au printemps 2016 entre la Turquie et l’Union européenne, la Turquie avait mis un frein aux flux des départs de migrants vers les cinq îles grecques les plus proches de son rivage, en échange d’une aide de six milliards de dollars. Mais le nombre des arrivées en grèce est reparti à la hausse ces derniers mois.

Quelque 3 000 migrants arrivés dans les îles grecques cette semaine

Ainsi, en seulement 24 heures, entre samedi matin et dimanche matin, près de 400 migrants au total sont arrivés en Grèce, selon les autorités. En outre, le Premier ministre grec Kyriakos Mitsotakis a déclaré plus tôt cette semaine qu’environ 3 000 personnes étaient arrivées depuis la Turquie ces dernier jours, ce qui ajoute à la pression sur des installations d’accueil déjà surpeuplées.

https://scd.infomigrants.net/media/resize/my_image_big/39217e5316b276cbc777675b95635be4c93ec79a.jpeg

Début septembre, le président turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dont le pays accueille près de quatre millions de réfugiés, a menacé "d’ouvrir les portes" aux migrants vers l’Union européenne s’il n’obtient pas davantage d’aide internationale.

“Il est grand temps d’arrêter cet accord entre la Grèce et la Turquie ainsi que cette politique de rétention des migrants dans les camps. Il faut évacuer d’urgence les personnes de cet enfer qu’est devenu Moria”, a commenté Marco Sandrone de MSF.

Le gouvernement grec, pour sa part, a réitéré la nécessité de continuer à transférer vers le continent les migrants hébergés dans les centres d’enregistrement et d’identification sur les îles du nord de la mer Égée.

▻https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/19850/grece-incendie-meurtrier-a-moria-suivi-d-emeutes

“Il y a au moins 500 manifestants en ce moment dans le camp de Moria, la police anti-émeute est sur place”

InfoMigrants a recueilli le témoignage d’un habitant du camp de Moria sur l’île de Lesbos en Grèce au lendemain d’un incendie meurtrier et d’émeutes survenus dimanche 30 septembre. Les manifestations ont repris mardi et la situation semble se tendre d’heure en heure.

Je m’appelle Lionel*, je viens d’Afrique de l’Ouest* et je vis dans le camp de Moria depuis le mois de mai. Depuis un mois, des vagues de nouvelles personnes se succèdent, la situation se dégrade de jour en jour. Ce sont surtout des gens qui arrivent depuis la Turquie. Il paraît que le gouvernement turc laisse de nouveau passer des gens à la frontière malgré l’accord [qui a été signé avec l’Union européenne au printemps 2016].

Il y a eu un grave incendie suivi d’émeutes dimanche. J’habite juste en face de là où le feu a démarré. Les autorités disent qu’il y a eu un mort mais nous on en a vu plus.

https://scd.infomigrants.net/media/resize/my_image_big/94e48ae0786f827d6a6be4ddc2984d8c07b7a129.jpeg

Hier soir [lundi], des personnes ont organisé une veillée musulmane sur les lieux de l’incendie en hommage aux victimes. Il y avait des bougies, c’était plutôt calme.

Depuis ce matin, les Afghans, Irakiens et Syriens se sont mis à manifester en face de l’entrée principale du camp. Ils protestent contre les conditions de vie qui sont horribles ici. Ils veulent également transporter, eux-mêmes, le corps d’une autre victime de l’incendie jusqu’à Mytilène pour montrer à la population et aux dirigeants ce qu’il se passe ici.

Il doit y avoir au moins 500 personnes rassemblées. La police anti-émeute est sur place et empêche les manifestants de sortir du camp pour porter le corps jusqu’à Mytilène. Un autre bus de policiers est arrivé ce matin mais en revanche, personne ne se soucie de comment on va.

Moi j’ai trop peur que ça dégénère encore plus alors j’ai quitté le camp. Je fais les cent pas à l’écart pour rester en dehors des problèmes et pour me protéger. On ne sait pas ce qui va arriver, j’ai peur et cette situation est très frustrante.

« Le matin, on part se cacher dans les oliviers pour rester à l’écart de la foule »

Tous les matins, on doit se lever à 5h pour aller faire la queue et espérer avoir quelque chose à boire ou à manger. Après le petit-déjeuner, on part se cacher et s’abriter dans les oliviers pour rester à l’écart de la foule. Il y a tellement de gens que l’air est devenu irrespirable dans le camp.

Je retourne dans ma tente en fin d’après-midi et j’essaie de dormir pour pouvoir me lever le plus tôt possible le matin, sinon je n’aurai pas à manger.

On ne nous dit rien, la situation est désastreuse, je dirais même que je n’ai pas connu pire depuis mon arrivée à Moria il y a près de cinq mois. J’ai fait une demande d’asile mais je me sens totalement piégé ici et je ne vois pas comment je vais m’en sortir à moins d’un miracle.

Au final, la situation est presque semblable à celle de mon pays d’origine. La seule différence, c’est qu’il n’y a pas les coups de feu. Ils sont remplacés par les tirs de gaz lacrymogènes de la police grecque. Cela me déclenche des flashback, c’est traumatisant.

* Le prénom et le pays d’origine ont été changés à la demande du témoin, par souci de sécurité.

▻https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/19879/il-y-a-au-moins-500-manifestants-en-ce-moment-dans-le-camp-de-moria-la

Greece must act to end dangerous overcrowding in island reception centres, EU support crucial

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Liz Throssell – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today’s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

https://www.unhcr.org/thumb1/5d931fa24.jpg

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is today calling on Greece to urgently move thousands of asylum-seekers out of dangerously overcrowded reception centres on the Greek Aegean islands. Sea arrivals in September, mostly of Afghan and Syrian families, increased to 10,258 - the highest monthly level since 2016 – worsening conditions on the islands which now host 30,000 asylum-seekers.

The situation on Lesvos, Samos and Kos is critical. The Moria centre on Lesvos is already at five times its capacity with 12,600 people. At a nearby informal settlement, 100 people share a single toilet. Tensions remain high at Moria where a fire on Sunday in a container used to house people killed one woman. An ensuing riot by frustrated asylum-seekers led to clashes with police.

On Samos, the Vathy reception centre houses 5,500 people – eight times its capacity. Most sleep in tents with little access to latrines, clean water, or medical care. Conditions have also deteriorated sharply on Kos, where 3,000 people are staying in a space for 700.

Keeping people on the islands in these inadequate and insecure conditions is inhumane and must come to an end.

The Greek Government has said that alleviating pressure on the islands and protecting unaccompanied children are priorities, which we welcome. We also take note of government measures to speed up and tighten asylum procedures and manage flows to Greece announced at an exceptional cabinet meeting on Monday. We look forward to receiving details in writing to which we can provide comments.

But urgent steps are needed and we urge the Greek authorities to fast-track plans to transfer over 5,000 asylum-seekers already authorized to continue their asylum procedure on the mainland. In parallel, new accommodation places must be provided to prevent pressure from the islands spilling over into mainland Greece, where most sites are operating at capacity. UNHCR will continue to support transfers to the mainland in October at the request of the government.

Longer-term solutions are also needed, including supporting refugees to become self-reliant and integrate in Greece.

The plight of unaccompanied children, who overall number more than 4,400, is particularly worrying, with only one in four in a shelter appropriate for their age.

Some 500 children are housed with unrelated adults in a large warehouse tent in Moria. On Samos, more than a dozen unaccompanied girls take turns to sleep in a small container, while other children are forced to sleep on container roofs. Given the extremely risky and potentially abusive conditions faced by unaccompanied children, UNHCR appeals to European States to open up places for their relocation as a matter of priority and speed up transfers for children eligible to join family members.

UNHCR continues to work with the Greek authorities to build the capacity needed to meet the challenges. We manage over 25,000 apartment places for some of the most vulnerable asylum-seekers and refugees, under the EU-funded ESTIA scheme. Some 75,000 people receive monthly cash assistance under the same programme. UNHCR is prepared, with the continuous support of the EU and other donors, to expand its support through a cash for shelter scheme which would allow authorized asylum-seekers to move from the islands and establish themselves on the mainland.

Greece has received the majority of arrivals across the Mediterranean region this year, some 45,600 of 77,400 – more than Spain, Italy, Malta, and Cyprus combined.

▻https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2019/10/5d930c194/greece-must-act-end-dangerous-overcrowding-island-reception-centres-eu.html

Migration : Lesbos, un #échec européen

Plus de 45 000 personnes ont débarqué en Grèce, en 2019. Au centre de la crise migratoire européenne depuis 2015, l’île de Lesbos est au bord de la rupture.
Le terrain, un ancien centre militaire, est accidenté de toutes parts. Entre ses terrassements qu’ont recouverts des rangées de tentes et de conteneurs, des dénivelés abrupts. Sur les quelques pentes goudronnées, des grappes d’enfants dévalent en glissant sur des bouteilles de plastique aplaties. Leurs visages sont salis par la poussière que soulèvent des bourrasques de vent dans les oliveraies alentours. Ils courent partout, se faufilent à travers des grilles métalliques éventrées ici et là, et disparaissent en un mouvement. On les croirait seuls.

Vue du camp de Moria sur l’île grecque de Lesbos, le 19 septembre. Samuel Gratacap pour Le Monde
Ici, l’un s’est accroupi pour uriner, à la vue de tous. Un autre joue à plonger ses mains dans la boue formée au sol par un mélange d’eau sale et de terre. D’autres se jettent des cailloux. Alors que le jour est tombé, une gamine erre au hasard des allées étroites, dessinées par l’implantation anarchique de cabanes de fortune. Les flammes des fours à pain, faits de pierres et de terre séchée, éclairent par endroits la nuit qui a enveloppé Moria, sur l’île grecque de Lesbos.

Article réservé à nos abonnés Lire aussi
Migrants : A Bruxelles, un débat miné par l’égoïsme des Etats
Un moment, à jauger le plus grand camp d’Europe, à détailler ses barbelés, sa crasse et le dénuement de ses 13 000 habitants – dont 40 % d’enfants –, on se croirait projetés quatre-vingts ans en arrière, dans les camps d’internement des réfugiés espagnols lors de la Retirada [l’exode de milliers de républicains espagnols durant la guerre civile, de 1936 à 1939]. Ici, les gens balayent les pierres devant leur tente pour sauvegarder ce qui leur reste d’hygiène, d’intimité. Depuis cet été, ils arrivent par centaines tous les jours, après avoir traversé en rafiot lesquelques kilomètres de mer Egée qui séparent Lesbos de la Turquie. Ce sont des familles afghanes, en majorité, qui demandent l’asile en Europe. Mais viennent aussi des Syriens, des Congolais, des Irakiens, des Palestiniens…

« Ceci n’est pas une crise »

Au fur et à mesure que les heures passent, les nouveaux venus apprennent qu’ils devront se contenter d’une toile de tente et d’un sol dur pour abri, qu’il n’y a pas assez de couvertures pour tous, qu’il faut faire la queue deux heures pour obtenir une ration alimentaire et que plusieurs centaines d’entre elles viennent à manquer tous les jours… Très vite, à parler avec les anciens, ils réalisent que beaucoup endurent cette situation depuis plus d’un an, en attendant de voir leur demande d’asile enfin examinée et d’être peut-être autorisés à rejoindre le continent grec.

Lire aussi
En Grèce, dans l’enfer du camp de réfugiés de Moria, en BD
Plus de 45 000 personnes ont afflué en Grèce, en 2019, dont plus de la moitié entre juillet et septembre. « Ceci n’est pas une crise », répète Frontex, l’agence européenne de gardes frontières et de gardes-côtes, présente dans cette porte d’entrée en Europe. Les chiffres ne sont en effet guère comparables avec 2015, quand plus de 860 000 personnes sont arrivées sur les rivages grecs, provoquant une crise majeure dans toute l’Europe.

C’est fin 2015 que le « hot spot » de Moria, nom donné à ces centres d’accueil contrôlés pour demandeurs d’asile, a été créé. D’autres centres de transit sont apparus sur les îles grecques de Chios, Samos, Leros, Kos ainsi qu’en Italie. Face à la « crise », l’Europe cherchait à s’armer. Dans les « hot spots », les personnes migrantes sont identifiées, enregistrées, et leur situation examinée. Aux réfugiés, l’asile. Aux autres, le retour vers des territoires hors de l’Union européenne (UE).

L’accord UE-Turquie

Pour soulager les pays d’entrée, un programme temporaire de relocalisations a été mis en place pour permettre de transférer une partie des réfugiés vers d’autres Etats membres. Une façon de mettre en musique une solidarité européenne de circonstance, sans toucher au sacro-saint règlement de Dublin qui fait de l’Etat d’entrée en Europe le seul responsable de l’examen de la demande d’asile d’un réfugié.

Dans la foulée, en mars 2016, l’accord UE-Turquie prévoyait qu’Ankara renforce le contrôle de ses frontières et accepte le renvoi rapide de demandeurs d’asile arrivés sur les îles grecques, en contrepartie, notamment, d’un versement de 6 milliards d’euros et d’une relance du processus d’adhésion à l’UE.

Quatre années se sont écoulées depuis le pic de la crise migratoire et ses cortèges de migrants traversant l’Europe à pied, le long de la route des Balkans, jusqu’à l’eldorado allemand. Si les flux d’arrivées en Europe ont considérablement chuté, Lesbos incarne plus que jamais l’échec du continent face aux phénomènes migratoires.

Le mécanisme de relocalisation, une lointaine chimère

Sur les 100 000 relocalisations programmées depuis l’Italie et la Grèce, à peine 34 000 ont eu lieu. « Les Etats n’ont pas joué le jeu », analyse Yves Pascouau, fondateur du site European Migration Law. Plusieurs pays (Hongrie, Pologne, République tchèque, Slovaquie, Autriche, Bulgarie) n’ont pas du tout participé à l’effort. Seuls Malte, le Luxembourg et la Finlande ont atteint leur quota. « Il y a aussi eu des difficultés techniques et organisationnelles liées à un processus nouveau », reconnaît M. Pascouau.

L’ONG Lighthouse Relief accueille un groupe de réfugiés qui vient d’être intercepté en mer par Frontex puis transféré à terre par l’ONG Refugee Rescue, entre Skala Sikamineas et Molivos, sur l’île de Lesbos, le 19 septembre. Samuel Gratacap pour Le Monde

Le 19 septembre au petit matin, 37 personnes, des familles et des mineurs tous originaires d’Afghanistan viennent de débarquer entre Skala Sikamineas et Molivos, sur l’île de Lesbos. Ils sont pris en charge et dirigés vers le camp de transit Stage 2 géré par l’UNHCR et administré par les autorités grecques. À l’horizon, la côte turque. Samuel Gratacap pour Le Monde
Le mécanisme de relocalisation n’est plus aujourd’hui qu’une lointaine chimère, comme l’ont été les « hot spots » italiens, Rome choisissant de laisser ses centres ouverts et ses occupants se disperser en Europe. « On a été dans une double impasse côté italien, analyse l’ancien directeur de l’Office français de protection des réfugiés et apatrides (Ofpra), Pascal Brice. Les Italiens se sont satisfaits d’une situation où les migrants ne faisaient que passer, car ils ne voulaient pas s’installer dans le pays. Et les autres Etats, en particulier les Français et les Allemands, se sont accrochés à Dublin. C’est ce qui a provoqué cette dérive italienne jusqu’à Salvini et la fermeture des ports. »

Le système est à l’agonie, les personnes qui arrivent aujourd’hui se voient donner des rendez-vous pour leur entretien d’asile… en 2021
Seule la Grèce a continué de jouer le jeu des « hot spots » insulaires. Résultat : plus de 30 000 personnes s’entassent désormais dans des dispositifs prévus pour 5 400 personnes. « Nous n’avons pas vu autant de monde depuis la fermeture de la frontière nord de la Grèce et l’accord UE-Turquie, souligne Philippe Leclerc, représentant du Haut-Commissariat pour les réfugiés des Nations unies (HCR) en Grèce. Plus de 7 500 personnes devraient être transférées des îles vers le continent et ne le sont pas, faute de capacités d’accueil. On arrive à saturation. » Le système est à l’agonie, les personnes qui arrivent aujourd’hui se voient donner des rendez-vous pour leur entretien d’asile… en 2021.

A Lesbos, 13 000 personnes s’agglutinent à l’intérieur et autour du camp de Moria, pour une capacité d’accueil officielle de 3 100 personnes. Les deux tiers de cette population sont sous tente. Et leur nombre enfle chaque jour. Cette promiscuité est mortifère. Dimanche 29 septembre, un incendie a ravagé plusieurs conteneurs hébergeant des demandeurs d’asile et tué au moins une femme. « Tous les dirigeants européens sont responsables de la situation inhumaine dans les îles grecques et ont la responsabilité d’empêcher toute nouvelle mort et souffrance », a réagi le jour même Médecins sans frontières (MSF). La même semaine, un enfant de 5 ans qui jouait dans un carton sur le bord d’une route a été accidentellement écrasé par un camion. Fin août, déjà, un adolescent afghan de 15 ans avait succombé à un coup de couteau dans une bagarre.

Un bateau vient de débarquer entre Skala Sikamineas et Molivos, avec à son bord 37 personnes originaires d’Afghanistan. Samuel Gratacap pour Le Monde
« Personne ne fait rien pour nous », lâche Mahdi Mohammadi, un Afghan de 27 ans arrivé il y a neuf mois. Il doit passer son entretien de demande d’asile en juin 2020. En attendant, il dort dans une étroite cabane, recouverte de bâches blanches estampillées Union européenne, avec trois autres compatriotes. A côté, une femme de plus de 60 ans dort sous une toile de tente avec son fils et sa nièce adolescente.

« Nous n’avons aucun contrôle sur la situation »

« Des années ont passé depuis la crise et on est incapables de gérer, se désespère une humanitaire de Lesbos. Les autorités sont dépassées. C’est de plus en plus tendu. » Un fonctionnaire européen est plus alarmiste encore : « Nous n’avons aucun contrôle sur la situation », confie-t-il.

En Grèce, le sort des mineurs non accompagnés est particulièrement préoccupant. Ils sont 4 400 dans le pays (sur près de 90 000 réfugiés et demandeurs d’asile), dont près d’un millier rien qu’à Lesbos. La moitié dort en présence d’adultes dans une sorte de grand barnum. Sur l’île de Samos, des enfants sont obligés de dormir sur le toit des conteneurs.

Le 19 septembre, dans la partie extérieure du camp de Moria appelée « Jungle », une famille Syrienne de 7 personnes originaire de la ville de Deir Ez Zor, en Syrie. Ils sont arrivés à Moria il y a deux jours. La jeune femme dans la tente attend un enfant. Samuel Gratacap pour Le Monde

Dans la clinique pédiatrique de MSF, qui jouxte le camp de Moria, le personnel soignant mesure les effets d’un tel abandon. « Sur les deux derniers mois, un quart de nos patients enfants nous ont été envoyés pour des comportements d’automutilation, déclare Katrin Brubakk, pédopsychologue. Ça va d’adolescents qui se scarifient à des enfants de deux ans qui se tapent la tête contre les murs jusqu’à saigner, qui se mordent ou qui s’arrachent les cheveux. » « A long terme, cela va affecter leur vie sociale, leurs apprentissages et, in fine, leur santé mentale », prévient-elle. Présidente de l’ONG grecque d’aide aux mineursMETAdrasi, Lora Pappa s’emporte : « Ça fait des années qu’on dit que plus d’un tiers des mineurs non accompagnés ont un membre de leur famille en Allemagne ou ailleurs. Mais chaque enfant, c’est trente pages de procédure et, si tout se passe bien, ça prend dix mois pour obtenir une réunification familiale. Le service d’asile grec est saturé, et les Etats membres imposent des conditions de plus en plus insensées. »

Dans le petit port de plaisance de Panayouda, à quelques kilomètres de Moria, des adolescents jouent à appâter des petits poissons argentés avec des boules de mie de pain. Samir, un Afghan de 21 ans, les regarde en riant. A Moria, il connaît des jeunes qui désespèrent de rejoindre leur famille en Suède. « Leur demande a déjà été rejetée trois fois », assure-t-il. Samir a passé deux ans sur l’île, avant d’être autorisé à gagner le continent. Il est finalement revenu à Lesbos il y a une semaine pour retrouver son frère de 14 ans. « Ça faisait cinq ans qu’on s’était perdus de vue, explique-t-il. Notre famille a été séparée en Turquie et, depuis, je les cherche. Je ne quitterai pas Athènes tant que je n’aurai pas retrouvé mes parents. »

« Les “hot spots” sont la preuve de l’absurdité et de l’échec de Dublin »

« Il faudrait repenser à des mécanismes de répartition, affirme Philippe Leclerc, du HCR. C’est l’une des urgences de solidarité, mais il n’y a pas de discussion formelle à ce sujet au niveau de l’UE. » « La relocalisation, ça n’a jamais marché parce que ça repose sur le volontariat des Etats, tranche Claire Rodier, directrice du Gisti (Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigrés). Les “hot spots” sont la preuve de l’absurdité et de l’échec de Dublin, qui fait peser tout le poids des arrivées sur les pays des berges de l’Europe. » Yves Pascouau appuie : « Les Etats ont eu le tort de penser qu’on pouvait jouir d’un espace de libre circulation sans avoir une politique d’asile et d’immigration commune. Ce qui se passe à Lesbos doit nous interroger sur toutes les idées qu’on peut avoir de créer des zones de débarquement et de traitement des demandes d’asile. » Marco Sandrone, coordinateur de MSF à Lesbos, va plus loin : « Il est grand temps d’arrêter cet accord UE-Turquie et sa politique inhumaine de confinement et d’évacuer de toute urgence des personnes en dehors de cet enfer qu’est devenu Moria. »

Des policiers portugais de Frontex, l’agence européenne de garde-frontières et de garde-côtes surveillent la mer au large de la côte Nord de l’île, dans la nuit du 18 au 19 septembre. Samuel Gratacap pour Le Monde

A Skala Sikamineas, les équipes de FRONTEX procèdent à la destruction sommaire d’un bateau clandestin. Samuel Gratacap pour Le Monde
Dans les faits, l’accord UE-Turquie est soumis à « forte pression », a reconnu récemment le nouveau premier ministre grec, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Jusqu’ici, en vertu de cet accord, Athènes a renvoyé moins de 2 000 migrants vers la Turquie, en majorité des ressortissants pakistanais (38 %), syriens (18 %), algériens (11 %), afghans (6 %) et d’autres. Mais le nouveau gouvernement conservateur, arrivé au pouvoir en juillet, envisage d’augmenter les renvois. Lundi 30 septembre, il a annoncé un objectif de 10 000 migrants d’ici à la fin 2020, en plus de mesures visant à accélérer la procédure d’asile, à augmenter les transferts vers le continent ou encore à construire des centres fermés pour les migrants ne relevant pas de l’asile.

Dans le même temps, le président turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan n’a eu de cesse, ces derniers mois, de menacer d’« ouvrir les portes » de son pays aux migrants afin de les laisser rejoindre l’Europe. « Si nous ne recevons pas le soutien nécessaire pour partager le fardeau des réfugiés, avec l’UE et le reste du monde, nous allons ouvrir nos frontières », a-t-il averti.

« Entre Erdogan qui montre les dents et le nouveau gouvernement grec qui est beaucoup plus dur, ça ne m’étonnerait pas que l’accord se casse la figure », redoute le fonctionnaire européen. Le thème migratoire est devenu tellement brûlant qu’il a servi de prétexte à la première rencontre, en marge de l’Assemblée générale des Nations unies à New York, entre le président turc et le premier ministre grec, le 26 septembre. A l’issue, M. Mitsotakis a dit souhaiter la signature d’« un nouvel accord », assorti d’un soutien financier supplémentaire de l’UE à la Turquie.

La Turquie héberge officiellement 3,6 millions de réfugiés syriens, soit quatre fois plus que l’ensemble des Etats de l’UE. L’absence de perspectives pour un règlement politique en Syrie, le caractère improbable de la reconstruction, l’hostilité manifestée par Damas envers les éventuels candidats au retour, menacés d’expropriation selon le décret-loi 63 du gouvernement de Bachar Al-Assad, ont réduit à néant l’espoir de voir les réfugiés syriens rentrer chez eux. Le pays ne pourra assumer seul un nouvel afflux de déplacés en provenance d’Idlib, le dernier bastion de la rébellion syrienne actuellement sous le feu d’une offensive militaire menée par le régime et son allié russe.

Un « ferrailleur de la mer » sur la côte entre Skala Sikamineas et Molivos, le 19 septembre. Après l’évacuation d’une embarcation de 37 réfugiés d’origine Afghane, un homme vient récupérer des morceaux du bateau. A l’horizon la côte turque, toute proche. Samuel Gratacap pour Le Monde
Le président turc presse les Etats-Unis de lui accorder une « zone de sécurité » au nord-est de la Syrie, où il envisage d’installer jusqu’à 3 millions de Syriens. « Nous voulons créer un corridor de paix pour y loger 2 millions de Syriens. (…) Si nous pouvions étendre cette zone jusqu’à Deir ez-Zor et Raqqa, nous installerions jusqu’à 3 millions d’entre eux, dont certains venus d’Europe », a-t-il déclaré depuis la tribune des Nations unies à New-York.

Climat de peur

La population turque s’est jusqu’ici montrée accueillante envers les « invités » syriens, ainsi qu’on désigne les réfugiés en Turquie, dont le statut se limite à une « protection temporaire ». Mais récemment, les réflexes de rejet se sont accrus. Touchée de plein fouet par l’inflation, la perte de leur pouvoir d’achat, la montée du chômage, la population s’est mise à désapprouver la politique d’accueil imposée à partir de 2012 par M. Erdogan. D’après une enquête publiée en juillet par le centre d’étude de l’opinion PIAR, 82,3 % des répondants se disent favorables au renvoi « de tous les réfugiés syriens ».

A la mi-juillet, la préfecture d’Istanbul a lancé une campagne d’arrestations et d’expulsions à l’encontre de dizaines de milliers de réfugiés, syriens et aussi afghans. Le climat de peur suscité par ces coups de filet n’est peut être pas étranger à l’augmentation des arrivées de réfugiés en Grèce ces derniers mois.

« La plupart des gens à qui on porte secours ces derniers temps disent qu’ils ont passé un mois seulement en Turquie, alors qu’avant ils avaient pu y vivre un an, observe Roman Kutzowitz, de l’ONG Refugee Rescue, qui dispose de la seule embarcation humanitaire en Méditerranée orientale, à quai dans le petit port de Skala Sikamineas, distant d’une dizaine de kilomètres de la rive turque. Ils savent que le pays n’est plus un lieu d’accueil. »

La décharge de l’île de Lesbos, située à côté de la ville de Molivos. Ici s’amassent des gilets de sauvetages, des bouées et des restes d’embarcations qui ont servi aux réfugiés pour effectuer la traversée depuis la Turquie. Samuel Gratacap pour "Le Monde"
Au large de Lesbos, dans le mouchoir de poche qui sépare la Grèce et la Turquie, les gardes-côtes des deux pays et les équipes de Frontex tentent d’intercepter les migrants. Cette nuit-là, un bateau de la police maritime portugaise – mobilisé par Frontex – patrouille le long de la ligne de démarcation des eaux. « Les Turcs sont présents aussi, c’est sûr, mais on ne les voit pas forcément », explique Joao Pacheco Antunes, à la tête de l’équipe portugaise.

Dix jours « sans nourriture, par terre »

Sur les hauteurs de l’île, des collègues balayent la mer à l’aide d’une caméra thermique de longue portée, à la recherche d’un point noir suspect qui pourrait indiquer une embarcation. « S’ils voient un bateau dans les eaux turques, le centre maritime de coordination des secours grec est prévenu et appelle Ankara », nous explique Joao Pacheco Antunes. Plusieurs canots seront interceptés avant d’avoir atteint les eaux grecques.

Sur une plage de galets, à l’aube, un groupe de trente-sept personnes a accosté. Il y a treize enfants parmi eux, qui toussent, grelottent. Un Afghan de 28 ans, originaire de la province de Ghazi, explique avoir passé dix jours « sans nourriture, par terre », caché dans les champs d’oliviers turcs avant de pouvoir traverser. « J’ai perdu dix kilos », nous assure-t-il, en désignant ses jambes et son buste amaigris. Un peu plus tard, une autre embarcation est convoyée jusqu’au port de Skala Sikamineas par des gardes-côtes italiens, en mission pour Frontex. « Il y a trois femmes enceintes parmi nous », prévient un Afghan de 27 ans, qui a fui Daech [acronyme arabe de l’organisation Etat islamique] et les talibans. Arrive presque aussitôt un troisième canot, intercepté par les gardes-côtes portugais de Frontex. Tous iront rejoindre le camp de Moria.

▻https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2019/10/04/migration-lesbos-un-echec-europeen_6014219_3210.html

Grèce : une politique anti-réfugiés « aux relents d’extrême-droite »

Suite à l’incendie mortel qui s’est déclenché dimanche dans le camp de Moria à Lesbos, le gouvernement grec a convoqué en urgence un conseil des ministres et annoncé des mesures pour faire face à la crise. Parmi elles, distinguer les réfugiés des migrants économiques. Revue de presse.
Suite à l’incendie qui s’est déclenché dimanche dans le camp

surpeuplé de Moria, sur l’île de Lesbos, et qui a fait une morte – une

réfugiée afghane mère d’un nourrisson – le gouvernement s’est réuni en

urgence lundi et a présenté un plan d’actions. Athènes veut notamment

renvoyer 10 000 réfugiés et migrants d’ici à 2020 dans leur pays

d’origine ou en Turquie, renforcer les patrouilles en mer, créer des

camps fermés pour les immigrés illégaux et continuer à transférer les

réfugiés des îles vers le continent grec pour désengorger les camps sur

les îles de la mer Egée. D’après Efimerida Ton Syntakton, le

Parlement doit voter dans les jours à venir un texte réformant les

procédures de demande d’asile, en les rendant plus rapides.

« L’immigration constitue une bombe pour le pays », estime le site

iefimerida.gr. « Le gouvernement sait que c’est Erdoğan qui détient la

solution au problème. Si le sultan n’impose pas plus de contrôles et ne

veut pas diminuer les flux, alors les mesures prises n’auront pas plus

d’effet qu’une aspirine. » Le quotidien de centre droit Kathimerini

rappelle que la Grèce est « première en arrivées de migrants » en

Europe. « La Grèce a accueilli cette année 45 600 migrants sur les

77 400 arrivés en Méditerranée, devant l’Espagne et l’Italie », tandis

qu’en septembre 10 258 arrivées ont été enregistrés par le

Haut-commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés.

Comme à la loterie

Dans l’édition du 1er octobre,

une caricature d’Andreas Petroulakis montre un officiel tenant un

papier près d’un boulier pour le tirage du loto. « Nous allons enfin

différencier les réfugiés des immigrés ! Les réfugiés seront ceux qui

ont les numéro 12, 31, 11... » Le dessin se moque des annonces du

gouvernement qui a affirmé vouloir accepter les réfugiés en Grèce, mais

renvoyer chez eux les migrants économiques, et selon qui la Grèce n’est

plus confrontée à une crise des réfugiés mais des migrants. « De la

désinformation de la part du gouvernement », estime Efimerida Ton Syntakton,

car « les statistiques montrent bien que la majorité des personnes

actuellement sur les îles sont originaires d’Afghanistan, de Syrie,

d’Irak, du Congo, de pays en guerre ou en situation de guerre civile ».

« Le nouveau dogme du gouvernement est que les réfugiés et les immigrés sont deux catégories différentes », souligne la chaîne de télévision Star.

Le gouvernement veut « être plus sévère avec les immigrés, mais

intégrer les réfugiés », précise le journal télévisé de mardi. Le

journal de centre-gauche Ta Nea indique que « huit réfugiés sur

dix seront transférés des îles vers des hôtels ou des appartements », le

gouvernement souhaitant décongestionner au plus vite les îles de la mer

Égée comme Lesbos.

Pour le magazine LIFO, « la grande pression exercée sur le

gouvernement Mitsotakis concernant l’immigration vient de ses

électeurs ». « Les annonces selon lesquelles les demandes d’asile seront

examinées immédiatement, tandis que ceux qui ne remplissent pas les

critères seront renvoyés dans les trois jours, sont irréalistes car il y

a des standards européens à respecter. Ces annonces sont faites

uniquement pour soulager quelques électeurs. » Enfin, pour le site

News247, « depuis longtemps à Moria un crime se déroule sous nos yeux,

les responsables sont les décideurs à Bruxelles et les gouvernements en

Grèce. Des mesures respectant les êtres humains doivent être prises ou

bien l’avenir risque de nous réserver d’autres tragédies ».

▻https://www.courrierdesbalkans.fr/Grece-le-gouvernement-grec-face-a-une-nouvelle-augmentation-des-f