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Traces of illegal pushbacks: Refugees on the Bosnian-Croatian border show their wounds
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DER SPIEGEL / Lighthouse Reports / Media Partner
After research by SPIEGEL and other media partners into the systematic mistreatment of refugees at the EU's external borders, the German government is pushing for an investigation.
The reports and pictures were "noted with great concern."
The Croatian authorities should clarify this quickly and comprehensively, said a spokesman for the Foreign Office on Monday in Berlin.
»Abuse of refugees and migrants by border guards is not acceptable.
Any kind of border protection must meet humanitarian standards under all circumstances, comply with the applicable international and European legal provisions and respect fundamental European values, ”he continued.
Beaten up, deported, exposed at sea
Together with other media, DER SPIEGEL spent months researching the EU's external borders in Greece and Croatia. The research showed for the first time that the Croatian intervention police and special units of the Greek coast guard systematically abuse asylum seekers and force them back in clandestine operations.
In Greece, the special forces deploy asylum seekers on the Aegean Sea - in wobbly orange life rafts.
The illegal actions are often recorded on videos.
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.
The Greek government flatly denied the allegations.
According to SPIEGEL research, German federal police officers were also involved in the pushbacks.
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Croatian intervention policeman during pushback
Photo: DER SPIEGEL / Lighthouse Reports / media partner
In Croatia, the researchers filmed eleven so-called illegal pushbacks on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
These videos show how masked intervention police 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.
The work of the masked men in Croatia is partly financed by European taxpayers' money.
Unlike the Greek government, Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović has since admitted that his officials mistreated the refugees.
It was individual misconduct, said Božinović.
Three officers were suspended.
Research by SPIEGEL, however, suggests the opposite.
Three Croatian officials who wanted to remain anonymous said that the orders for the illegal actions were coming from Zagreb.
One said the instruction came from the very top, from Davor Božinović's Ministry of the Interior.
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EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson urged Croatia and Greece to conduct serious investigations immediately after the research was published.
Johansson said she was "shocked" by the research.
On Monday, the federal government welcomed the fact that the EU Commission was investigating the serious allegations immediately and had emphatically demanded clarification from the EU member states concerned.
She has the full support of the federal government, said the spokesman.
Germany supported Croatian border guards
Germany has always supported Croatia's border guards in the past - with thermal imaging cameras and all-wheel drive vehicles, among other things.
When the equipment was handed over, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said that he had "absolutely nothing to criticize" in the work of the Croatian authorities.
SPIEGEL and other research partners had sent the Interior Ministry a detailed catalog of questions before the reports were published.
The Ministry of Interior did not reply.
