Greece likely to start deporting refugees to Turkey from Monday
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GREECE is pressing ahead with plans to start deporting migrants and refugees back to Turkey next week, despite mounting concern from the United Nations and human rights organizations that Syrians could be denied proper protection while some are allegedly even being forced back into their war-torn country.
Lawmakers in Athens are ready to back draft legislation, fast-tracked through parliament, to allow the returns to start as soon as Monday.
The operation would see migrants and refugees who arrived on Greek islands after March 20 put on boats and sent back to Turkey.
Several Greek officials with knowledge of the planning said that deportations are likely to start from the island of Lesbos, with migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries whose asylum claims are considered inadmissible.
The transport, the officials said, will be carried out under heavy security escort — with one police minder for every migrant — using buses that will travel from island detention camps and are likely to board straight onto chartered vessels.
The officials asked not to be identified because plans for the forced returns have not been formally announced.
The imminent deportations are backed by the European Union following its agreement with Turkey, and triggered violence at detention camps in Greece.
Authorities on the Greek island of Chios said that after overnight clashes between Syrian and Afghan detainees that left five people injured several hundred people broke out of an overcrowded camp and headed to the main town.
The clashes early yesterday were the latest in a series of violent incidents at shelters and gathering points across Greece, where more than 52,000 migrants and refugees are stranded following EU-supported Balkan border closures.
More than 11,000 of those stranded remain camped out at the Greek-Macedonian border, ignoring calls by the government to move voluntarily to organized shelters.
Many said they have heard conditions in other camps are worse, and fear what they might find if they move.
Karzan Kmaran, a 28-year-old Iraqi from near the city of Mosul, said he still hopes the borders will open.
“The place is sad and we don’t know what to do,” he said, standing by people lining up for food and baby milk.
“The people, they don’t want to stay in Greece, because Greece now is in crisis, the economy is so bad.”
Mohammed Ali, a 45-year-old pharmacologist from the embattled town of Deir el-Zour, fled Syria with his 19-year-old son, fearing that the young man would be forcibly recruited by the Syrian army or killed by the Islamic State group. They have been in the camp for a month.
“Look at these people,” he said, sweeping his arm across the camp.
“You know Victor Hugo ... he wrote ‘Les Miserables. In the 21st century, we stand in the land of Hugo.”
In Switzerland, the United Nations refugee agency urged Greece and Turkey to provide further safeguards for asylum seekers before the returns begin, noting that conditions were worsening by the day for more than 4,000 people being held in detention on Greek islands.
Amnesty International said in a report yesterday that Turkey has been expelling about 100 men, women and children nearly daily since mid-January.
“EU leaders have willfully ignored the simplest of facts: Turkey is not a safe country for Syrian refugees,” said Amnesty’s Europe and Central Asia Director John Dalhuisen.
Greek officials did not respond to the criticism directly, but said asylum seekers rights’ were being protected.
“I assure you that we will strictly observe human rights procedures,” Migration Affairs Minister Ioannis Mouzalas told parliament.
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