The "Refugee Killer" knows the violations that are being pursued by the European "Frontex"

New press investigations by European media revealed that the European Agency for Border Protection "Frutenex" implicated the grave violations committed by the Greek border guards against asylum seekers, which caused the deaths of dozens of them.

New investigations by European media revealed that the European Agency for Border Protection “Frontex” implicated the forced deportations of refugees and the illegal confiscation of their boats in the Aegean Sea, in actions led by the Greek border guards, which caused the deaths of dozens of asylum seekers and irregular migrants.

The recent investigations are not the first press investigations that expose the bloody activities of Frontex and the Greek Coast Guard, but were preceded by many, and this previously led to the resignation of the agency's executive director and a number of its officials.

Does Frontex fund the killing of refugees?

A new investigation by the German magazine "Der Spiegel" reported Thursday that the former administration of the Frontex border control agency was aware of illegal deportations of migrants coming to Greece, and participated in the financing of these operations.

According to excerpts from a confidential report prepared by the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF), Frontex was found to have known very early on that asylum seekers were being deported, illegally, and at times brutally, to Turkey.

The investigation reveals that on August 5, 2020, the Greek Coast Guard pulled a rubber boat with thirty migrants on board towards Turkey, not Greece. A Frontex plane filmed the scene, while carrying out a patrol in the place, and instead of addressing the Greek authorities in this regard, "Frontex" stopped patrolling the planes over the Aegean Sea, justifying the need for them elsewhere.

Investigators cite the testimonies of Frontex collaborators indicating that these illegal acts were condoned. They also found a written note indicating the withdrawal of the reconnaissance planes "so as not to be witnesses."

Not the first scandal

On April 27, European media published a report on Frontex's involvement in humanitarian violations against refugees in the Aegean Sea. The report revealed that the European Agency participated in 222 forced deportations of refugee boats near the Greek islands, between March 2020 and September 2021, as part of Operation Poseidon, which it leads in cooperation with the Greek border guards.

22 of the operations carried out by Frontex elements included a total of 957 asylum seekers, and the French newspaper "Le Monde" (which participated in drafting the report) observed, by analyzing the agency's data, that the boats the asylum seekers were traveling in were identical to the rubber boats that the Greek border guards had previously purchased. , which proves that they reached Greek lands and were sent back to the sea instead of being rescued.

Operation Poseidon includes two types of forcible return procedures, the first of which is to stop boats carrying asylum seekers in the Aegean waters, and surround them to prevent them from advancing or docking on Greek territory, while the second type takes place by providing refugees with rubber boats after their arrival, without any food aid. or other medical, and forcing them to return to the sea.

The European Convention on Human Rights defines such forcible returns as “a set of state procedures by which asylum-seekers and migrants are forced to return across borders without regard to their individual circumstances and without any possibility of applying for asylum or presenting arguments against the measures taken”, and considers them a flagrant violation of the law The “prohibition of collective expulsion” stipulated in the Convention.

According to Dana Shalms, an expert in international law at the Max Planck Foundation, the European Agency “even if it does not participate in practice in the implementation of forced deportations, or if its boats only contributed to causing waves to push the boats of asylum seekers away, leaving the Greek authorities room to carry out dirty work.” It is implicated in all the violations.

A Syrian refugee named Ahmed recounts what he lived through during the forced deportation he went through on his journey to Europe in 2021, when he was on a boat with about 200 people, including 40 children. After the boats of the Greek Coast Guard surrounded them, between 10 and 15 armed men disembarked and beat and insulted them.

Ahmed says, "They were all carrying guns and knives and were wearing black clothes and masks, and they started hitting people with batons in search of the captain.. They punched me in the face and broke my glasses." This is before they force them to board inflatable boats and head back out to sea.

European media reports , human rights organizations, and refugee testimonies agree that the Turkish coast guard is the only one that comes to the aid of the refugees after the Greek authorities expelled them in this way.