The non-governmental organization Legal Center Lesvos has brought a lawsuit against Greece before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). It accuses Athens of violent operations against refugees to prevent their arrival in Greece. This is part of an – according to international law – illegal pushback strategy, reported the „Guardian“. According to Greek law, these collective deportations are not illegal.
The focus of the lawsuit is an incident in October last year. A fishing boat with about 200 people on board, about a fifth of them children, got into distress on the way from Turkey to Italy off the Greek island of Crete.
Hours of ordeal
According to the NGO’s allegations, after the emergency call, a Greek search and rescue ship and two smaller patrol boats detained the fishing boat with its passengers for several hours until speedboats with masked commands arrived. Some passengers are also said to have been beaten. Personal items were apparently confiscated.
According to the report, the refugees were dragged into Turkish waters and abandoned at sea or forced onto small life rafts – without food, water and life jackets. The Turkish coast guard took over 24 hours to find the people, the report said. In the lawsuit, the NGO accuses Greece that the pushbacks have become part of the Greek coast guard’s strategy since March 2020.
There are no exact figures on these incidents, but journalists and NGOs registered hundreds of them last year. The EU border protection agency Frontex was also accused in at least one case of covering up evidence of a pushback action by Greece.
