In the past month, Greece has been accused of illegally deporting asylum seekers and refugees by sending them adrift in small rafts. The accusation stems from a report by Just Security, an online legal forum connected to New York University’s law school; this report has documented at least 11 incidents since March 23.

The 11 incidents detailed in the report all describe asylum seekers being found in “orange, tent-like inflatable life rafts without motors or propellants and that cannot be steered” by the Turkish Coast Guard.

Sadly, these accusations have a very similar precedent. Several advocacy and rights groups have recorded events in which the Greek Coast Guard intercepts boats filled with asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants, and actually pushes them back to Turkish waters. However, these particular assertions are apparently different.

Just Security and a German news organization named Deutsche Welle have collected testimonies that state that these incidents involve refugees arriving by boat to Greece. Once on the Greek islands, these people spent multiple hours with authorities and were then taken to port, placed in inflatable life rafts, and sent back out to sea.

This report follows others that have recorded growth in forced deportations and aggressive pushbacks carried out by Greek authorities in the first few months of the year. These events have taken place along Greece’s land border with Turkey.

Earlier this year in March, in an effort to pressure the European Union, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly stated that he would no longer stop refugees from leaving the country. In response to this, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged to turn asylum seekers back from Greek borders.

In the past, Ankara accused Greek forces of having shot dead at least four migrants, an accusation that Athens rejects. Athens also accuses Turkish forces of helping migrants cross the border into Greece. These accusations came in late February to early March, and on March 4, both forces employed tear gas at the Kastanies border post.

By deporting these asylum seekers without providing access to proper asylum procedures, Greece is in direct violation of both EU and international law.

Again responding to Turkey, Greece decided to cease the processing of new asylum applications for a full month, meaning that this suspension was meant to end in early April. However, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the situation prolonged itself two and a half months and is yet to come to an end.

The suspension of the processing of these applications has provoked lots of backlash and criticism from human rights agencies. The U.N migration agency also asked that all countries respect the human rights of these migrants.

“It’s very sad that we have seen again human beings treated as political weapons…This is unacceptable.”

Francesco Rocca, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Via Reuters)

The right-wing government currently in office in Greece has been extremely harsh on asylum and migration ever since last July. It has thoroughly regulated Greek asylum laws and has been regularly exercising their power over humanitarian aid organizations designed to help refugees.

Turkey’s interior minister Suleyman Soylu visited a province bordering Greece named Edirne in early March. Soylu announced that Turkey would be deploying 1,000 special police forces with the purpose of stopping the pushback of migrants into its territory.

During the same time, Soylu publicly stated that Turkey was in fact preparing a case at the European Court of Human Rights regarding Greece’s treatment of refugees and migrants. In the case, Turkey accuses Greek forces of wounding over 160 people and of pushing back almost 5,000 others into Turkey.

Between 2015 and the beginning of 2016, over one million people crossed from Turkey to Greece through the Aegean Sea. Although the numbers dropped after the signing of the EU-Turkey deal in March of 2016, there were still tens of thousands of people cramped in overcrowded refugee camps, where a humanitarian crisis has persisted since 2016.

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