Magda Panoutsopoulou
16 March 2020•Update: 16 March 2020
ATHENS
Greece cannot deny people the right to seek asylum, arbitrarily detain them, and summarily send them to Turkey or any other place, said Human Rights Watch on Monday, alleging that Greek authorities have been doing just that.
Greek authorities on Friday gave asylum seekers on board a naval vessel a form to sign for their “immediate readmission to Turkey,” said a statement by Bill Frelick, the head of the group's refugee program.
Frelick, who monitors, investigates, and documents human rights abuses against refugees and asylum seekers, said the form was in Greek, according to a Syrian contact he has been in touch with.
The form showed the intention to deport these people to Turkey, Frelick said.
The detainees were transported to a closed camp in Malakassa, north of Athens, he added, after a March 1 trip from the Turkish coast in an overcrowded rubber inflatable boat.
The boat was attacked by a Greek Coast Guard vessel that tried to capsize it. Later, another speedboat carrying unidentified men attacked their boat and disabled their motor. The people on board were attacked by locals from the Greek island of Lesbos throwing rocks at them, the statement said.
They were never taken to Moria camp on Lesbos, where new arrivals usually go in order to claim asylum, but instead were docked in the island's Mytilene harbor, in abysmal conditions, he said.
His Syrian contact told him while there where only three toilets for 450 people, though another five were later added.
No one was allowed to shower and no soap was provided, Frelick said in the statement.
“The EU and wider international community need to provide speedy support to Greece; but however unfairly burdened the Greek government and its people are feeling, they still have fundamental responsibilities that cannot be shirked,” said the statement.
“Greece cannot deny people the right to seek asylum, arbitrarily detain them, and summarily send them to Turkey or any other place where they would not be protected from return to their countries of origin, where they fear for their lives,” it added.
The Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greek islands has been a main route for asylum seekers and refugees to try to reach Europe, and Turkey has rescued thousands of them when their boats foundered.
