SPIEGEL research - EU Commissioner Johansson "shocked"

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Refugees after being mistreated by the Croatian Intervention Police

Photo: DER SPIEGEL / Lighthouse Reports / media partner

Masked men are hitting refugees and putting them out at sea - all so that they cannot apply for asylum in the EU.

Months of joint research by SPIEGEL and other media partners have shown for the first time that Greek and Croatian special units are behind these legal violations at the EU borders.

The responsible EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson has now commented on this for the first time.

She called the research "shocking" and was deeply concerned.

The allegations need to be investigated.

The research indicated systematic violence, Johansson said.

There is also apparently "convincing evidence of the misuse of EU funds."

She will meet the interior ministers of Croatia and Greece on Thursday evening and urge them to "take the issue very seriously".

"Violence and mistreatment of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees are unacceptable and need to be investigated," added a spokesman for the commission.

"Some of these reports are shocking."

Ylva Johansson

During the research, SPIEGEL and the other media partners evaluated hundreds of videos.

The researchers filmed some pushbacks themselves. These videos show how masked men on Croatian territory are driving refugees and migrants back to Bosnia with batons.

The victims of the abuse do not have the opportunity to apply for asylum.

Further recordings show how refugees are picked up by vans and illegally brought back to Bosnia across the border.

The jackets worn by the masked men and the batons they used prove - together with the testimony of six Croatian officials - that the men were members of the Croatian intervention police.

Your work is partly funded by EU funds.

(Read the complete research here.)

The Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović initially did not want to comment on the research on Thursday evening.

He had too little information, he told the TV station N1.

Possible attacks by police units would be investigated and, if necessary, punished, he said.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said he called his Interior Minister in the evening after the research appeared and asked for an investigation.

Greek special forces put people out on the water

According to the research, special units of the Greek coast guard in the Aegean are entrusted with intercepting potential asylum seekers and launching them on the sea in orange life rafts. Some of the life rafts were purchased with EU money. Three former or active Coast Guard officers report that the elite units MYA and KEA were involved in the pushbacks. Various videos that SPIEGEL evaluated show the pushbacks. Further pictures show the presence of one of the elite units in the Aegean. The letters OEA are visible on the uniforms of three men. The acronym stands for one of the task forces of the elite unit KEA.

The Greek government did not respond to a detailed catalog of questions from SPIEGEL.

Instead, Migration Minister Noris Mitarachi tweeted on Thursday: “We firmly reject these allegations.

The Greek borders are EU borders and we act within the framework of international and European law to protect them. «Greece will not apologize for taking action against human traffickers and protecting the European borders.

In addition to SPIEGEL, the research network includes the media organization Lighthouse Reports, SRF Rundschau, ARD Studio Wien, the ARD magazine “Monitor”, “Liberation”, “Novosti”, RTL Croatia and Pointer.

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