Humanitarian organizations are demanding that the European border surveillance agency Frontex, accused of refoulements of migrants in the Aegean Sea, cease its activities in Greece, the agency denouncing for its part on Wednesday February 17 "
unproven allegations
".
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The Greek NGO Legal Center Lesvos and the legal organization Front-Lex officially asked the executive director of Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, on Monday to "
immediately suspend or cease
" the activities of the European agency in the Aegean Sea.
The latter has two months to respond before the European Court of Justice is seized, according to a report sent by the Legal Center Lesvos.
This Greek NGO, which has documented since March 2020, seventeen refoulements of more than 50 migrants between Greece and Turkey, considers that Frontex violated European law and violated the 1951 Geneva Convention on the rights of refugees.
The report mentions the “
unilateral suspension of the right to asylum in violation of European law on asylum and international law
” in March 2020, but also the complicity in the “
summary detention of migrants on the Aegean islands in ports, buses, ships, beaches where they have been denied access to asylum procedures
”.
"Accomplice" of violence
He accuses the European Agency of being "an
accomplice
" to "
violence against migrants in the Aegean Sea in particular and in Greece more generally
" but also of having "
failed to give a transparent, faithful and accurate account of the circumstances and the number of refoulements in which Frontex has been involved
”.
"
Frontex operates with complete impunity in a context of flagrant violations of fundamental rights and international protection obligations
", criticize the NGOs.
For Frontex spokesperson Chris Borowski, the “
flawed
”
appeal
of these NGOs “
based on unproven allegations seems to be part of a broader intention to weaken European solidarity
”.
The spokesperson recalls that "
neither an internal investigation nor a preliminary report of a special working group appointed by the Board of Directors has so far found evidence of human rights violations
".
On Friday, the German NGO Mare Liberum reported an "
unprecedented escalation
" in 2020 of refoulements of migrants in the Aegean Sea involving Frontex.
Several journalistic and NGO investigations have documented pushbacks in the Aegean Sea, involving the Greek Coast Guard and Frontex.
Frontex is currently the target of an investigation by the European anti-fraud gendarme, Olaf, in particular for these accusations of illegal refoulements of migrants.
The Greek government for its part has always denied and still qualified last Sunday these accusations as "
false
".