Croatia, Greece and Romania repel refugees illegally: Report

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Croatia, Greece and Romania have carried out hundreds of refoulement operations of illegal refugees at the European Union’s external borders since early 2020 as part of a “violent campaign” to deny access to asylum , according to a new report.

The findings, released on Wednesday by the Amsterdam-based investigative news organization Lighthouse Reports, reveal that masked security forces and police units across the three EU member states have repeatedly taken coordinated action and clandestine to prevent asylum seekers from crossing their borders.

The allegations add to the concerns of rights groups, which have documented an intensified use of push-backs and criticized the EU’s alleged complicity.

Under international and European human rights law, it is illegal for states to automatically expel people without assessing their situation. EU law also guarantees the right to seek asylum.

EU governments deny the existence of a violent campaign by masked men to turn back asylum seekers at EU borders. A survey of several months by @LHReports & the mainstream media unmasks these groups, reveals who commands them and finances them pic.twitter.com/nGNFs5Epsi

– Lighthouse reports (@LHreports) October 6, 2021

The Lighthouse Reports survey took place over eight months, in collaboration with European media partners including the German news magazine Der Spiegel and the French newspaper Liberation.

With video footage, satellite imagery, testimonies and interviews with more than a dozen serving and former police and coastguard officers, they determined that at least 189 people had been illegally denied. access to the European asylum system, which they said was “a small sample of refoulements”.

“Banal” push-backs at the EU’s borders

Lighthouse Reports documented 11 push-backs in Croatia, the EU’s newest member state, between May and September this year at four locations along the country’s border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Croatian riot police carried out the pushbacks as part of a national strategy called “Koridor”, which is partly funded by the EU, police whistleblowers told the media outlet.

In an incident in June, a group of Afghans and Pakistanis sought asylum when they encountered Croatian police, but were forced to cross the Korana River back to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

During the refoulement, the police reportedly beat the refugees with batons, leaving them with bruises.

Al Jazeera has not been able to independently verify these claims, but undated video footage shared by Lighthouse Reports appears to show several people crossing a river while being beaten by at least two fully dressed armed individuals wearing all black and wearing balaclavas.

Jelena Sesar, Amnesty International’s researcher in the Balkans, said it was “clear” that the masked men were Croatian riot police, as their uniforms, weapons and equipment were identical to those distributed to members of the unity.

“This is the latest proof that illegal refoulements and violence against asylum seekers and migrants are rife at the EU’s external borders,” Sesar said.

“In many countries… people seeking safety and protection come up against barbed wire and armed border guards,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that the EU’s migration policy had ” for years, frontier security has been given priority over human rights and fundamental values ”.

“Frequent infringements”

In Greece, Lighthouse Reports has collected publicly available video footage of 635 suspected push-backs since March 2020.

Masked individuals were involved in 15 incidents, the outlet said, including one that saw 25 asylum seekers on a rubber dinghy that was allegedly prevented from reaching the shore of the Aegean island of Kos. They were told to “get a passport if they want to travel”. The Turkish Coast Guard reportedly picked up the group later.

Current and former Greek Coast Guard officers who saw footage of this incident identified the masked individuals as members of elite Coast Guard units.

Whistleblowers described how orders to repel refugees were “always” given orally, due to their illegality.

In Romania, Lighthouse Reports used motion-activated remote cameras to film uniformed border guards forcing men and women into neighboring Serbia in three separate incidents.

Tracked down by the investigation team, some claimed to have been physically attacked during the refoulement.

Two border guards speaking anonymously to Lighthouse Reports said Romanian police regularly carry out push-backs to Serbia.

Catherine Woollard, director of the European Council for Refugees and Exiles, an alliance of more than 100 NGOs in 39 European countries, said the findings came on top of “emerging evidence that refoulements are systematically taking place” at the borders of the country. ‘EU with the “complicity” of the bloc.

She told Al Jazeera that some member states act with “impunity” and called on the EU to act to protect human rights laws.

“We currently have a situation where there is tolerance or even normalization of some of these violations, up to and including the use of extreme violence against those seeking protection,” Woolard said.

“There is a reluctance on the part of the EU to act, because the general strategy in Europe is based on preventing the arrival of people seeking protection, whatever the costs and consequences.

“There is therefore either a lack of action, which means that states can continue to carry out these refoulements with impunity, or in the worst case, support for member states. “

Brussels closes its eyes

Sesar from Amnesty said it was “alarming” that the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, continues to turn a blind eye to the astonishing violation of EU law and even continues to fund operations. police and border operations in some of these countries.

“These pushbacks and the funding that facilitates them must stop now. “

In response to the latest findings, the European Commission said it “strongly opposes any practice of refoulement and has repeatedly stressed that such practices are illegal”.

“National authorities have a responsibility to investigate any allegation, with a view to establishing the facts and following up on any wrongdoing,” said a spokesperson.

Croatia said it investigate the allegations.

At the time of publication, Greece’s Migration and Asylum Ministry and Romania’s Foreign Ministry had not responded to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment.

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