NEW YORK: Greece is breaking the law by continuing to allow its authorities to illegally push back migrants to Türkiye, while the European Union “supports it,” a representative from a global human rights watchdog said Monday.
Sharing on Twitter a leaked report from the European anti-fraud office, OLAF, the European media director of Human Rights Watch, Andrew Stroehlein, said: “The EU’s border agency, Frontex, acquiesces to Greece’s illegal, and often violent, pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers” from Greece to Türkiye.
Stroehlein stated that “EU leadership might tell you this is old news,” however, the OLAF report was circulated internally earlier this year and “its documentation of past crimes has already led to the resignation of (the) head of Frontex.”
“The same crimes are still happening today,” he emphasized.
“Greek authorities are still illegally pushing people back to Türkiye, and Frontex continues to operate in Greece the same as before,” he added.
Stroehlein stressed that Greek “authorities (and their proxies) are assaulting, robbing, and stripping asylum seekers and migrants, including children, before summarily pushing them back to Türkiye.” –Agencies
