AYS Daily Digest 16/07/2020: Eritrean asylum claims systematically rejected in Slovenia
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Europe, Refugees, Slovenia, Digest, Greece

GREECE

Events in Greece are constantly one of the main issues in this digest. In the last year, since the conservative-right party Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy) came into power in July 2019, we saw a dramatic shift in practices directed against people on the move, support networks, and leftist communities. New Democracy’s policies quickly shifted towards more restrictions for refugees, illegal push-backs at the borders, evictions of squats in Athens, and the violent targeting of anarchistic structures.

In the following section, we want to recall some of these events and offer you some interesting further readings.

Push backs in the Evros river region

In September 2019, Forensic Architecture published its first report on investigations into alleged push backs in the Evros border region between Greece and Turkey. In November, Mobile Info Team also published a report presenting testimonies of people who were pushed back. The group had begun collecting these testimonies in August 2018. In March 2020, Respond published an article about a detention facility in the region that was operated officially at one time, but then disappeared from official records. As it is still operating in 2020, it is very likely that it is being used to perform illegal pushbacks.

Escalation in the Evros border region in March 2020

In March 2020, Erdoğan declared the EU-Turkey deal a failure. As for Turkey, he said, the country would no longer take any measures to stop people from trying to make it into Greece. Subsequently, thousands of people came to the northern border crossing in the hope of being able to make it into Europe. The situation quickly escalated when Greek Border authorities used tear gas in order to keep people away from the border.

Fascist groups from all over Europe declared their sympathy with the Greek Border authorities and in some cases actually travelled to the border in order to support them. At the end of the standoff, two men, Muhammad Al-Arab and Muhammad Gulzar, died after being shot at, and four more were injured. Forensic Architecture investigated these incidents together with European magazines and eventually determined that live rounds were being fired from the Greek side of the border. Although it may not have happened on purpose, it is very likely that the shots that killed Muhammad Al-Arab and Muhammad Gulzar were fired from Greek officials.

European Commissions President Ursula von der Leyen, who observed the situation in a helicopter fly-over, thanked Greece for being “the shield of Europe”.

Push backs from Greek mainland

An unprecedented (or at least undocumented) further breach of law happened in March and April, when in different incidents at least 194 people were pushed back from the camp in Diavata and the Drama Paranesti pre-removal centre. While, as we have seen above, push backs in border regions have occurred on a regular base, this has been the first-well documented case in which people were removed from city camps in mainland Greece. The Border Violence Monitoring Network, which documented the cases, stated that the respondents received the false information by the police that they would be issued a document to temporarily regularize their stay. Instead, they were captured, beaten, robbed, detained, and driven to the border area, where they were placed on boats and taken across the Evros River into Turkey.

Maritime push backs

The sea border between Greece and Turkey also saw an increase in illegal push backs. In some cases, people on a boat trying to reach Greece would be hit by Greek Coast Guards with sticks, destroying their boat’s engines, and then pushed back into Turkish waters. In other cases, they would be placed on tent-like inflatable life rafts that do not have motors and cannot be steered properly. They would be left adrift in the Aegean until they reached Turkey or were collected by the Turkish Coast Guards. Some cases were recorded in which groups of people who most likely reached Lesvos were pushed back again after disembarkation.

Situation in the island camps

The situation in the island camps is a constant matter of outrage. Until recently, people were at least free to leave the camp during the days to escape the overcrowdedness, sounds, and smells. But since March 23rd, the camps have been in lockdown. In order to leave the camp, residents need a special allowance. While tourists arrive back on the islands and the risk of a new outbreak of Corona rises, people on the move are restricted from even having a short break from a place that can best be described as hell.

Evictions of camps

At the beginning of June, many people from Moria were granted asylum and freedom of movement as their asylum procedure was closed. While this was a good thing in the first place, no provision had been taken for what should happen to them from now on. They had to leave the camp and were without housing and financial support. With nowhere else to go, many people gathered in Victoria Square in Athens. The police became repressive around the middle of June, trying to force people into other camp structures.

At the same time, NGOs that support migrant communities have been asked to register with the state. This has been seen as an act of repression against the support networks, as Greek bureaucracy can make it extremely difficult for the many small organizations that stand in solidarity with refugees in Greece to gain official status.

New law of Assembly and the death of Vassilis Maggos

On 13th of July, Vassilis Maggos died.

Vassilis took part in a demonstration on June 13th; from video footage, it seems that he has been targeted by the police deliberately. After the protest, he young anarchist was beaten and potentially tortured by police without ever being officially detained. After the beating, the police threw him out into the street instead of bringing him to a hospital. He was later found and taken to the hospital, where he spent four days. He died one month after the attack.

A new law against freedom of assembly was passed on July 9th. It indicated that assemblies and demonstrations have to be preregistered and one person has to be responsible for all potentially occurring damage. Large protest were held in opposition to this new law.

This was only a short run through the events of the last year. We highly recommend reading the following links for more information.

All of the reports mentioned above can be found in this thread: