The longtime foes, which each face common accusations of refugee mistreatment, argue publicly over the disturbing discovery of bare refugee males.
Athens, Greece – After 92 asylum seekers had been discovered stripped bare on the Greek facet of the Evros River on Friday, Athens and Ankara are once more buying and selling accusations of ill-treatment of refugees, taking their battle public on Twitter.
The river varieties a part of the border between the 2 international locations, and the asylum seekers, all males, are largely from Afghanistan and Syria. Some have roots in Iran, Morocco, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Greek police and European border guards from the EU border company Frontex discovered them on the river financial institution on the morning of October 14, “deserted, utterly bare, and utterly unequipped”, mentioned a Greek police assertion.
The boys had been held on the police precinct of Feres, 5 kilometres (three miles) from the border, for 3 nights earlier than being taken to the First Reception Centre of Fylakio for registration and asylum processing.
Greek police say the boys informed them Turkish authorities drove them to the border in official autos, earlier than boarding them onto rubber dinghies and telling them to cross.
“They informed us it took the Turkish army police 24 hours to assemble everybody on the river’s edge, which apparently was an ordeal as a result of the individuals had no meals or water at the moment, after which after stripping them they pressed them to cross,” Manos Logothetis, head of Greece’s First Reception Service, informed Al Jazeera.
Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi tweeted, “I've requested & will see the president of the UN Normal Meeting in New York, I've knowledgeable the Fee & will present images & movies.
Για το ντροπιαστικό συμβάν με τους 92 μετανάστες στον Έβρο η Τουρκία είναι σε δύσκολη θέση. Δυστυχώς έγιναν αντικείμενο εξευτελιστικής συμπεριφοράς. Ζήτησα & θα δω στη Νέα Υόρκη τον πρόεδρο της Γενικής Συνέλευσης του ΟΗΕ, έχω ενημερώσει Κομισιόν & θα δείξω φωτογραφίες & βίντεο. pic.twitter.com/68KxZzafuC
— Νότης Μηταράκης – Notis Mitarachi (@nmitarakis) October 17, 2022
“[Turkey’s] behaviour in direction of 92 migrants whom we rescued on the borders as we speak is a disgrace for civilisation,” he mentioned. “We anticipate Ankara to research the incident and defend ultimately its borders with the EU.”
Turkey has a 2016 settlement with the EU to carry again refugees making an attempt to cross into Europe.
Turkey’s presidential workplace mentioned Mitarakis “is as soon as once more conducting notion administration ways through the use of the images of stripped bare migrants for which there isn't a location, nor any date offered”.
Η μηχανή των ελληνικών ψευδών ειδήσεων είναι και πάλι σε λειτουργία… Μπερδεύοντας την Ελλάδα με την Τουρκία, ο Υπουργός Μετανάστευσης και Ασύλου με τις αναρτήσεις ψευδών, λανθασμένων περιεχομένων προσπάθησε να καταδείξει τη χώρα μας ύποπτη.
— Fahrettin Altun (@fahrettinaltun) October 16, 2022
Posting within the Greek language, Turkish authorities spokesman Fahrettin Altun wrote on Twitter, “We warn Greece to desert its harsh therapy of refugees as quickly as doable, to stop its baseless and false fees towards [Turkey], and to ship the dignity of presidency.”
Turkey additionally posted a prolonged assertion on its official web site accusing Greece of commonly abusing refugees, posting images it alleged had been proof.
The Greek migration ministry informed Al Jazeera that proof of the latest occasion can't be made public as a result of it's a part of a authorized file on the Residents’ Safety Ministry.
The UN issued an announcement saying it was “deeply distressed … by such merciless and degrading therapy”, and known as for an investigation.
A troubled border
Greece and Turkey have been in a full-blown info struggle about who's mistreating refugees since March 2020.
That's when Turkey mentioned it was unilaterally abandoning its 2016 treaty obligation to carry again or readmit asylum seekers, accusing the EU of failing to stay as much as its personal obligations beneath the treaty.
Turkey inspired asylum seekers to storm the Greek border, ferrying many to Japanese Thrace at state expense. Greece has since constructed a metal palisade alongside 12km (7.4 miles) of its land border with Turkey, and introduced it'll lengthen it alongside the complete 140km (87 miles) size.
The EU has additionally spent hundreds of thousands of euros putting in experimental surveillance programs alongside that border.
It's unclear why, if the 92 males had been being assembled over a 24-hour interval, the incident got here as a shock to the Greek authorities.
Turkey routinely accuses Greece of pushing refugees again with out processing their asylum claims, which is illegitimate beneath the Geneva Conference of 1951. And Greece routinely accuses Turkey of pushing refugees ahead to blackmail Europe for more cash to take care of them.
Apostolos Veizis, head of Intersos Hellas, an NGO caring for refugee kids, factors out that the 92 males landed in Greece on a very humiliating day for Greece and the EU.
On October 14, OLAF, the European anti-fraud authority, revealed a report wherein it discovered people at Frontex, the European border and coast guard, complicit in Greek pushbacks.
Frontex replied it had taken remedial motion, however didn't rebut the accusations.
Stripping refugees or demanding they take away some garments have been used earlier than as intimidation ways.
Al Jazeera this 12 months reported the story of Parvin, an Iranian psychologist who tried to enter Greece six occasions. She testified that police within the Evros space took her jacket away, and the boys pushed again to Turkey together with her had been left with T-shirts in near-freezing climate.
The NGO Human Rights Watch says Bulgarian officers have stripped asylum seekers earlier than sending them again to Turkey.
Stripping has additionally been used as a type of nationwide disparagement.
Final February, Greece rejected Turkish accusations that its border guards stripped and summarily expelled 12 asylum seekers who later died of publicity in Turkey, close to Greek borders. Turkey has additionally accused Bulgaria of comparable ways.
Greek officers declare Turkey fastidiously deliberate the most recent incident.
“Nothing leaves Turkish soil with out the authorities’ information,” deputy training minister Angelos Syrigos mentioned.
Lieutenant Normal Andreas Iliopoulos, who. in 2015, led the Supreme Navy Command for the Inside and Islands (ASDEN), which is in command of the Nationwide Guard within the Aegean, mentioned the “instrumentalisation of refugees” is constant, pinning blame on Turkey.
“Psychological operations are a part of this and their final recipients are the EU, UN and NATO,” Iliopoulos informed Al Jazeera.
“The message is that no matter we do, Turkey will all the time be one step forward … Greece and the EU can't forestall these strikes. Not even the [border] fence can, as a result of when individuals land on this facet of the Evros they're nonetheless on Greek soil, and Greece and the EU are chargeable for no matter occurs to them,” he mentioned.
Veizis believes the most recent incident is a part of a publicity marketing campaign to slur Greece, however that few individuals care.
“As soon as the EU handed over to Greece the job of being a European protect, and we accepted, they washed their arms of it,” Veizis mentioned. “It’s grow to be extra of a Greek-Turkish ping-pong.”
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