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"Frontex scandal": Horst Seehofer apparently hushed up Greek crimes - SPD calls for clarification

2020-12-23T20:10:39.555Z


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 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.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-12-23

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