It has now become “normal” for immigrants to be sent back by sea in Europe. Doctors Without Borders has a complaint that this illegal practice is carried out almost every day in Greece, one of the ports of entry of the European Union. “MSF teams witnessed the extent to which pushback had become the norm and the clear lack of protection for people seeking safety in Greece,” the charity wrote in a report published today. “Despite abundant and convincing evidence, the Greek authorities did not find it necessary for the EU and its member states to hold to account those responsible for these actions,” MSF added. In recent years, tens of thousands of immigrants, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have entered Greece through Turkey’s sea and land borders.
Authorities in Athens have been repeatedly accused by the media and human rights NGOs of illegally pushing migrants back into Turkish territorial waters to limit the number of arrivals on Greek soil, despite this being a violation of international law. On June 14, at least 82 people drowned and hundreds went missing when a fishing boat heading from Libya to Italy sank 47 nautical miles off the island of Pylos. More than 600 people died in this tragedy. The shipwreck raised many questions about the responsibilities of Greek authorities. According to MSF, most of the nearly 8,000 migrants, including 1,500 children, who received medical assistance from the NGO in the past two years said they had been rejected multiple times and many were “trapped in a cycle of violence upon arrival”. .
The organization said it had received reports of “violence, physical assaults, strip searches and warrantless body searches,” including against children, by “uniformed officers and unidentified masked individuals.” MSF also addressed reports that migrants were forced onto lifeboats and left adrift in Turkish waters. The NGO also regretted that its teams’ efforts to provide emergency aid to people in distress on the Greek islands were delayed by law enforcement checks. According to official data, more than 29,700 immigrants and refugees arrived in Greece in the first nine months of 2023; This number is more than double the 11,000 recorded in the same period last year. However, problems of violation of international and humanitarian law are not limited to Greece.
“The individual accounts presented in this report are not isolated incidents. They reflect a dangerous lack of respect for the health and safety of people seeking protection at other EU borders, including Italy, France, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Serbia, and the medical treatment of violent border management by MSF teams.” and Bulgaria, where it treats its humanitarian consequences,” the organization wrote in its report.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
