Greece: Attacks on Boats Risk Migrant Lives | WPN World People News

Armed masked men have been disabling boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers in the Aegean Sea and pushing them back to Turkish waters, Human Rights Watch said on October 22.

Asylum seekers and migrants arrive at the Greek island of Lesbos after being rescued by volunteer Spanish lifeguards when their lives were put at risk by masked men in black uniforms in speedboats who rammed into their rubber raft and removed and threw the engine into the sea. Oct 9, 2015.

Human Rights Watch spoke to nine witnesses who described eight incidents in which masked assailants – often armed – intercepted and disabled the boats carrying asylum seekers and migrants from Turkey toward the Greek islands, most recently on October 7 and 9, 2015. The witnesses said that the assailants deliberately disabled their boats by damaging or removing the engines or their fuel, or puncturing the hulls of inflatable boats. In some cases, the boats were towed to Turkish waters.

“Disabling boats in the Aegean makes an already dangerous journey even more likely to result in death,” said Eva Cossé, Greece specialist at Human Rights Watch. “These criminal actions require an urgent response from the Greek authorities.”

Human Rights Watch also found new cases in which Greek border guards summarily returned migrants and asylum seekers to Turkey across the land border at Evros.

On October 9, Human Rights Watch staff witnessed an overloaded inflatable rubber boat adrift in the waters between Turkey and the Greek island of Lesbos for more than an hour, until a group of Spanish lifeguard volunteers set off on their own boat to rescue them. Right after the rescue, 17-year-old Ali from Afghanistan told Human Rights Watch that their boat had taken off eight hours earlier for Lesbos from the Turkish shore at Assos, packed with men, women, and children. But 30 minutes into their journey, a speedboat suddenly rammed their rubber dinghy. On board were five men dressed in black, their faces covered with balaclavas, armed with handguns.

“At first when they approached, we thought they had come to help us,” Ali told Human Rights Watch. “But by the way they acted, we realized they hadn’t come to help. They were so aggressive. They didn’t come on board our boat, but they took our boat’s engine and then sped away.”

The masked men attacked three other boats in quick succession before speeding off toward the Greek coast, Ali said. The boats were packed with asylum seekers mostly from Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. The men wore no insignia on their black clothing. “They spoke a language we didn’t know, but it definitely was not Turkish, as we Afghans can understand a bit of Turkish,” Ali said.

Ali said a Turkish coast guard boat approached and took the three women and six children from the rubber dinghy, promising to return for the men on board. But the Turkish coast guard did not return. Human Rights Watch staff also watched a Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG) boat approach Ali’s rubber boat and circle around before speeding away. People on a second boat with Afghans that arrived in Lesbos the next day confirmed to Human Rights Watch that they were on one of the other three other boats attacked on the previous day.

Three of the incidents described to Human Rights Watch involved more than one witness. The accounts bore many similarities. In two instances, people described seeing the boat with the masked men being lowered from a bigger ship. In three of the cases Human Rights Watch documented, the people interviewed said they had seen the Greek flag on the boat carrying the masked men. In six cases, witnesses said the masked men disabled or removed the engine or its fuel. In two cases, the masked men punctured the boat. In three, they towed the migrants and asylum seekers back toward the Turkish coast. In all the cases, the stricken boats were abandoned without any certainty that the occupants were safe. In four cases, migrants and asylum seekers were beaten or otherwise subjected to violence.

Footage broadcasted by CBS on September 8 shows what appears to be an attack on a boat by unidentified masked men. In the video, a CBS reporter says they witnessed attacks on six boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers that day.

In an October 9 letter to Human Rights Watch, HCG said that it received similar allegations, noting that they, “refer to men with law enforcement officer uniforms resembling the uniforms of the Special Units of the HCG.” The letter says that the coast guard had “repeatedly initiated investigations involving Greek private nationals pretending to be law enforcement authorities and exploiting migrant populations with the aim to illegally acquire their vessels and equipment.”

The coast guard said that on July 30, three masked Greek nationals wearing uniforms resembling those of a law enforcement body were arrested and “brought to justice,” and it was determined that they were not coast guard members. The letter does not clarify on what, if any, charges those arrested were prosecuted or whether they were convicted.

“Putting a stop to these dangerous incidents should be a priority for the Hellenic Coast Guard and other law enforcement bodies,” Cossé said. “Any credible investigation must examine the possibility that coast guard officers may also be involved in these incidents.”

Human Rights Watch and other nongovernmental organizations have documented earlier allegations that Greek border guards engage in collective expulsions and pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers at the borders with Turkey. Despite the Greek government’s condemnation of the practice, there is evidence that it is continuing at the Greek-Turkish land border in Evros.

Human Rights Watch also documented four incidents of collective expulsions allegedly carried out by Greek police border guards at the Evros region between May and October, most recently on October 7. In one of the incidents, Mahmoud, a 21-year-old man from Syria, said that on May 13, he was detained at the Greek border police station of Didimoticho along with nine other Syrians and 25 Afghans from approximately 11:30 p.m. until 8 p.m. the next day, then transferred by bus to the Evros river, put on a boat, and pushed back to Turkey. Amnesty International and Greek media have reported similar allegations.

In a letter on September 25 responding to a Human Rights Watch inquiry, the Greek Police said they investigated an incident reported by the Greek Ombudsman in August concerning the alleged pushback of 30 Syrians, including women and children, to Turkey. The letter said that “[s]ubsequent investigations by Police Directorate of Orestiada did not reveal any procedural wrong-doing.”

Greek police confirmed by telephone on October 16 that they are investigating 20 allegations by human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, that Greek police robbed and forced back Syrian asylum seekers who entered the country by land from Turkey.

Greek authorities should promptly investigate in a transparent, thorough, and impartial manner repeated allegations that Greek border guards are involved in collective expulsions at the Evros region, Human Rights Watch said. Any officer engaged in such illegal acts, as well as their commanding officers, should be subject to disciplinary sanction and, as appropriate, criminal prosecution.

Human Rights Watch called in January 2014 for a parliamentary inquiry into the activities of the HCG after earlier allegations that a coast guard vessel carried out a pushback at sea. There continues to be a need for such an inquiry, Human Rights Watch said.

Source: Human Rights Watch