The U.N. refugee company has voiced alarm at rising reviews of “horrific incidents” the place migrants attempting to slide into Greece and different European nations are allegedly being pressured again
ATHENS, Greece — The U.N. refugee company on Monday voiced alarm at rising reviews of “horrific incidents” the place asylum-seekers and migrants attempting to slide into Greece and different European nations are allegedly being pressured again.
Athens denied the claims, and mentioned the UNHCR appeared to have fallen for propaganda from neighboring Turkey, from which hundreds of asylum-seekers from different nations enter Greece yearly. Relations between the historic regional rivals are frosty attributable to a sequence of disputes, together with over migration.
U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi decried “the rising variety of incidents of violence and severe human rights violations in opposition to refugees and migrants at varied European borders,” with a number of leading to lack of life. Greece was the one nation he talked about by identify.
“We’re alarmed by recurrent and constant reviews coming from Greece’s land and sea borders with Turkey, the place UNHCR has recorded virtually 540 reported incidents of casual returns by Greece because the starting of 2020,” Grandi mentioned.
He added that three folks have reportedly died since September 2021 within the Aegean Sea after being allegedly pressured again from Greek waters. In some circumstances, Grandi mentioned, migrants had been reportedly “left adrift in life rafts or typically even pressured instantly into the water, exhibiting a callous lack of regard for human life.”
“Equally horrific practices are ceaselessly reported at land borders, with constant testimonies of individuals being stripped and brutally pushed again in harsh climate situations,” he added.
About one million folks entered Greece by Turkey in 2015, on their strategy to search a greater life in Europe’s affluent heartland. Greek authorities, assisted by EU companions, subsequently tightened border controls and constructed a fence alongside the land frontier with Turkey, drastically limiting arrivals. However allegations of unlawful returns of migrants by Greece to Turkey — by land and sea — have elevated.
On Feb. 3, Turkey mentioned 19 migrants had been discovered frozen to loss of life on its land border with Greece, and accused Greek authorities of taking away their garments and footwear and forcing them again into Turkey.
Athens has rejected the Turkish claims — in addition to others of pushbacks at sea — as unfaithful. In flip, it accuses Turkey’s coast guard of escorting boats stuffed with asylum-seekers to Greek waters and harassing Greek coast guard vessels.
Issues reached a head two years in the past, when Turkey declared its land borders with Greece open to migrants. Days of clashes ensued between Greek border forces and hundreds of folks attempting to push into Greece.
On Monday, Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi mentioned he was “shocked” at Grandi’s assertion.
“Greece protects the exterior borders of the European Union, in complete compliance with worldwide legislation and in full respect of the constitution of elementary rights,” he mentioned. “It’s deeply troubling that Turkish-driven propaganda and faux information about unlawful migration is so usually mistakenly taken as reality.”
Mitarachi additionally accused Ankara of ignoring a 2016 cope with the EU designed to gradual unlawful migration from Turkey to Greece.
“Within the final seven years alone, Greece has supplied secure harbor for over 1 million folks,” he mentioned.
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