Several recent investigations show how the Hellenic Coast Guard is driving refugees to their deaths. The Fundamental Rights Officer at Frontex considers the claims to be credible.
International media have been documenting for years that the Greek coast guard refuses to allow refugees to apply for asylum and deports them back to Turkey in violation of international law. In some cases, rubber dinghies were deliberately caused to sink, while in hundreds of other cases people were placed in life rafts that then drifted towards Turkey. The Turkish coast guard has been documenting these incidents since 2020.coast guardInternational media have been documenting for years that the Greek coast guard refuses to allow refugees to apply for asylum and deports them back to Turkey in violation of international law. In some cases, rubber dinghies were deliberately caused to sink, while in hundreds of other cases people were placed in life rafts that then drifted towards Turkey. The Turkish coast guard has been documenting these incidents since 2020.
On Wednesday, the Greek authorities carried out another such pushback, reports Aegean Boat Report. According to the aid organisation, 14 children were also thrown into life rafts and abandoned in the Aegean Sea. A total of ten life rafts with 180 people, including 60 small children, have drifted off the Turkish coast in recent days, Aegean Boat Report said. Instead of prosecuting those responsible, Greek authorities recently issued an arrest warrant for the organisation’s founder, Tommy Olsen.
A television report by the British BBC last week showed that at least 43 people have drowned in such pushbacks within three years. Frontex is also partially involved. In the “Poseidon” mission at sea and the “Terra” mission on land, several hundred officials from EU member states and Frontex are deployed in Greece, including ships that hand over refugees to Greek units, which then release them at sea.
Last week, the German ARD magazine “STRG F” also reported on such cooperation from January 2024 and interviewed the new head of Frontex, Hans Leijtens, about it. He reportedly asked Greek officials to stop the refoulements, Leijtens explained, but he can’t stop it as the command and control lies with the host state.
Leijtens does not rule out stopping operations with Greece. This is made possible by Article 46 of the Frontex Regulation, which has so far only been applied in Hungary.
In addition to the BBC and ARD, the internet magazine “euObserver” and the British civil rights organisation Statewatch have also recently proven human rights violations by the Greek coast guard. At least four people drowned in two incidents in 2022, according to Lars Grimheden, Fundamental Rights Officer at Frontex. His Serious Incident Reports (SIRs) are based on statements from survivors and are sent to the agency’s Management Board. Each EU member state sends two representatives to this board.
According to the SIRs for incidents in August and September 2022, masked men working with the Greek coast guard abducted migrants from Chios and Samos and threw them into the sea without life jackets – some handcuffed, survivors report. According to the SIRs for incidents in August and September 2022, masked men working with the coast guard abducted migrants from Chios and Samos and threw them into the sea without life jackets – some handcuffed, survivors report.
A year ago, the New York Times published a video of a pushback that took place on Lesbos in April 2023. The victims had been tied up and blindfolded and thrown into a van. As in other cases that have come to light, Greek authorities promised to investigate the matter – probably also because Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke of an “unacceptable practice”. According to the magazine “Kathimerini”, this disciplinary investigation was concluded months ago without any results.
The complicity or even involvement of Frontex in illegal pushbacks led to the resignation of Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri last year, who is now a member of the EU Parliament for the far-right Rassemblement National party. Leggeri now told ARD that he had already voted for Marine Le Pen’s party in 2022 and that he “of course could not say this at the time”.
Under Frontex chief Leijtens, there have also been refoulements in violation of international law, for example to Libya – now, for the first time, there are indications of the agency’s direct involvement. In the past, Frontex has claimed that it only informed a newly established Libyan control centre of boat sightings in maritime emergencies, which is an international requirement. This MRCC at the coast guard was set up with EU funds and is intended to bring refugees who want to reach Europe on boats back to Libya.
A recently published report by the Swedish TV magazine “Mission Investigate” refutes Frontex’s denial through an interview with a Swedish coast guard who worked in a situation centre at Frontex headquarters in Warsaw for four months in 2023. “For example, as soon as we see a migrant boat leaving Libya, we call them [the Libyan coast guard] and try to get them to take it back. And we usually succeed,” he told the magazine. Another official from the situation centre is quoted by “Mission Investigate” as saying: “They [the Libyan coast guard] go out and take these refugees back quite often.”
This week, the Commissioner Grimheden will publish his annual report for 2023 on the implementation of fundamental rights by Frontex. He has already shared some details with our newspaper. For example, it is still difficult to influence the actions of national border officials who are not under the command of Frontex. In addition, reports of violations of fundamental rights by the authorities of a host state are often ignored or perceived as interference. “The more concerns we see about serious incidents and complaints in a country, the more resistance there is,” Grimheden told “nd”.
The SIR reports from Frontex document a “general rejection of the allegations by the Greek authorities” and their refusal to co-operate with investigations, Grimheden wrote. This refusal can also be seen in the Fundamental Rights Officer’s annual report for 2022, which states that Greece had by far the most SIRs written, with 23 in total.
No member of the Greek coast guard or police force has yet been prosecuted for the human rights violations. Nevertheless, the Frontex Fundamental Rights Officer does not recommend suspending the missions in Greece.
“The bare minimum Frontex can do is respect the law and suspend operations”, says Hanaa Hakiki from the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin to “nd”. The agency cannot ignore its bad reputation. “If Frontex does not want to be associated with the racist far-right anymore, it needs to take drastic measures”, said the senior legal advisor in ECCHR’s Border Justice Programme.
Grimheden recently announced his candidacy for the post of the next European Ombudsman. The post, currently held by Emily O’Reilly from Ireland, is intended to investigate maladministration in EU institutions, bodies and agencies. Frontex would therefore also remain on Grimheden’s radar.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Most recently, the Turkish coast guard documented a pushback at sea on Wednesday; there are likely to be hundreds in total (Aegean Boat Report/ Turkish coast guard).
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