The Greek border guard systematically exposes refugees to the open sea.
An internal document now reveals piquant details: Is Interior Minister Horst Seehofer concealing a crime?
The
EU border protection agency Frontex
has been criticized for
illegal “pushback” actions by refugees
.
An
internal document
would
relieve
German
border officials
on site.
But
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer
refrains from officially processing a controversial incident in August.
Athens / Berlin - On the morning of
August 10, 2020
, a
boat
with
refugees was discovered
on the Mediterranean Sea *.
About
40 people
sat in the completely overcrowded rubber dinghy, which was clearly in
Greek waters
- and thus also in the
Schengen area
.
On behalf of the
EU border protection
agency Frontex,
German forces patrolled the
Aegean Sea
near the Greek island of
Samos
that day
.
The federal police officers of the "Uckermark" discovered the boat *, stopped it, but did not take the people on board.
Back then it took more than half an hour for the
Greek coast guard to take
care of the
rubber dinghy
.
But she did not help the
migrants
either - including many women and small children.
They were also never given the opportunity
to apply for
asylum
*.
The
migrants were
initially
prevented from continuing their
journey and then finally pushed into
Turkish waters
, where the
Turkish coast guard
later rescued the 40 people.
The wants
mirror
from an internal
Frontex
credit report
have experienced.
Video: Refugees keep dying while fleeing across the Mediterranean
Home Office rejects pushback allegations
At the end of November
,
Spiegel
and the ARD magazine
Report Mainz reported
again on the incident.
The
federal police
were also involved in the
illegal rejection of
the refugees, according to the accusation that
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) is
made.
Following their deployment in August, the Germans reported his details, but not the possible
human rights violation
- although the Greeks had not
entered the port
with the
refugees
in tow.
The Interior Ministry had a spokeswoman reply: "I don't know how you come to the conclusion that this was an
illegal pushback
."
But are already at that time the
Ministry of the Interior
to the
mirror
, according to long information were made available to the newly hindeuteten close attention.
All further press inquiries were not answered.
Now
Der Spiegel
reports
that the answers were answered in detail on the same day, but were never sent.
They are still stored in
the
Federal Police's
intranet
, a network that is only accessible to employees.
An "office
mistake
", the
Interior Ministry
informed
the Hamburg journalists on request.
Federal police make “politically sensitive” information - document incriminates Greece and Frontex
The statements of the
Federal Police
are
now available to
the
Spiegel
: The German officials on site
observed
on
August 10th
"that the (...) Greek forces
physically took
migrants
on board".
The
German
Frontex
officials
assumed that the
refugees
were safe.
In front of their eyes they were then taken to a ship belonging to the
Greek coast guard
.
The statements relieve the
German emergency services
on site.
Nevertheless,
Der
Spiegel
describes them as "politically sensitive":
Why has the Ministry of the Interior withheld this detail to this day?
Doesn't the Ministry want to expose the Greeks as liars?
The mirror
The statements of the
Federal Police are
piquant,
namely that they
strongly contradict
the information provided by the
Greek authorities
: They previously stated that the
refugee boat
had turned back when the
Greek coast guard was seen
and entered
Turkish waters
.
If the
refugees
had already been on board the
Greek coast guard
that day
, it would not have been possible for them to voluntarily get back on their unseaworthy
rubber dinghy
and vice versa.
So if the statements of the
Germans are
true, and this is
what Der Spiegel
assumes, the
only explanation for the incident remains an
illegal pushback by
the
Greeks
.
And it is now clear that the possible
pushback on August 10th
would not be an
isolated case
: the
Greek coast guard
intercepts many
refugees while they are
still on the water and pushes them towards
Turkey
- sometimes with dangerous maneuvers
.
Greek border guards are also said to
threaten
the migrants with
weapons
.
The
Frontex
units
, including
German federal police
, are subject in the
Aegean Sea
to the
Greek coast guard
and thus turned into "agents" of those "illegal practices in their act not even particularly obscured".
This is how
Der Spiegel describes
the results of its
exclusive research over
the past few months.
Video: Sharp criticism of the EU border agency Frontex
For the
Spiegel
reporter,
this raises
the question of why
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer
apparently covered up
the
crime committed by the Greek authorities
and now “accepts the system of silence”.
The fact that the
Interior Ministry
is still not fully investigating the incident is now calling on the
opposition
and even its own
coalition partner
.
"The Ministry of the Interior seems to be the
accomplice of the Greeks
," said the
Social Democrats'
human rights spokesman
, Frank Schwabe
.
"Both
Frontex
and
Interior Minister Seehofer have
to answer questions from the Bundestag."
"We have to assume that
Seehofer
covers
the violations of the rules by the
Greek coast guard
because they suit him politically," said now
SPD Vice Kevin Kühnert
.
The written statements by the company's own officials strengthened the impression that
pushbacks
do
indeed happen again and again
in the
Aegean
.
This is precisely why
Seehofer
must
now react immediately - and thus also
meet
the
duty of care
towards his own officials.
Also
Frontex
must "alleged the
Greek pushback practice
finally effectively prevent and the approaches to the
asylum procedure
to make sure," said
Kühnert
on.
Strong @ derspiegel piece about illegal pushbacks in #GRE.
Why is #Seehofer silent, even though the information available to him relieves the #Bundespolizei of serious allegations?
His silence covers illegal activity - presumably because it suits him. Https://t.co/HoVswbK1Rj
- Kevin Kühnert 😷 (@KuehniKev) December 22, 2020
Not only
Seehofer
but also
Frontex
boss Fabrice Leggeri
would have to explain themselves in view of the observations made by the German police officers.
His
border guards
were neither involved in the
pushbacks
nor did they know about them,
Leggeri
explained
, although the
EU Commission
itself has now
doubts this and has
accused
him of
false statements
.
When
asked by
Spiegel
,
Frontex
did not want to provide any information
about the ongoing investigations into the incident on
August 10
.
The
SPD
no longer
wants to
see
the
German border officials
involved
in this
scandal
.
For
Kühnert,
Seehofer
“
must be
shown this year how and by when he
wants to act
on
Frontex in
order to put the cooperation with the
Greek coast guard
back on a legally compliant basis”.
If this can
not be implemented
by the
federal government at
such short notice, the German contingent must "be withdrawn from the mission immediately," the
SPD politician
demands
.
The
Home Secretary
wants the
federal police
but despite all the allegations continue to the
Greek coast guard
insinuate: "A retreat in the
Aegean
deployed
federal police
is not intended," it says, BE REDUCED but so far "no evidence of any
violation of applicable law
" before.
(cos) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital network.