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Forensic Architecture model of the Turkish-Greek border, based on the memories of a refugee
Photo: Forensic Architecture
Fady thought he was there.
He had escaped the war in his homeland, Syria.
He had made his way through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans to Germany.
Well, in late autumn 2015, a new life should begin for him.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) had granted him asylum.
He wanted to get a job, an apartment.
But then Fady found out that his younger brother, who was just eleven at the time, was missing in the Turkish-Greek border region while fleeing to Europe.
Fady decided to fly to Greece to look for him.
The trip, he thought, shouldn't be a problem, after all, he had a residence permit in Germany.
50 migrants in one cell
But despite valid travel documents, he was arrested in Greece.
The police, he says, arrested him when he was asking people about his brother at a bus stop in the border town of Didymoteicho.
He told them that he was recognized as a refugee in Germany and showed them his documents, but the officers only said "Shut up!"
screamed.
Fady was locked in a cell with around 50 other migrants, including women and children;
the police took his papers from him, even the key to his apartment in Germany, before deporting him to Turkey.
It took Fady more than three years to get it back to Germany.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is betting on unprecedented severity in migration policy.
His government is currently building a wall on the border with Turkey, five meters high and 27 kilometers long.
Greek security authorities have repeatedly been accused of illegally bringing refugees to Turkey, which they deny themselves.
SPIEGEL has documented several of these illegal pushback operations.
The Fady case is particularly blatant evidence of the lawlessness that now reigns on Europe's external borders.
The research collective Forensic Architecture, together with the human rights organization HumanRights360, has reconstructed this and other pushback cases on the Turkish border.
With the help of computer models, the researchers were able to trace more precisely than ever before how these illegal actions take place.
Fady himself described to HumanRights360 how Greek security forces dragged him back to Turkey: "They carted us to the river. They made us kneel with our faces to the ground. Then they dragged us into a rubber dinghy that brought us to Turkey . They hit us and shouted: 'Go! Go!' "
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Planned wall on the border with Turkey: The prime minister relies on hardship in migration policy
Photo: DIMITRIS PAPAMITSOS / Greek Prime Minister's Office / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Fady and the other asylum seekers wandered through a forest in Turkey until they were caught by Turkish soldiers.
Fady tried in vain to organize his return to Germany through the German consulate in Istanbul.
In the end he had no choice but to cross the border irregularly to Greece, where he was arrested again.
After his release, Fady applied for another visa for Germany.
But it took a long time for the German embassy to process his request.
Over and over again, he reports, the officers asked for the same documents.
Fady received almost no support during that time and had to live on the street.
Fady was forced to live on the streets in Greece
Only when lawyers wrote a letter directly to the German ambassador did the case move.
It took more months until Fady was issued a passport and was able to fly back to Germany in November 2019.
The Foreign Office did not want to comment on the matter with reference to personal rights.
HumanRights360 says the authorities' dealings with Fady are an example of how people seeking protection are systematically disenfranchised at Europe's external borders.
The organization, together with the Global Legal Action Network and Fady himself, will refer the case to the UN Human Rights Committee.
Fady wants justice - also for his brother, who is still missing.
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