Cracking Down

In the past, “pushbacks” involved migrants apprehended in the northern part of the country, close to the Turkish land border, or those intercepted at sea. In the summer of 2009, however, authorities expanded this practice, arresting hundreds of migrants, including unaccompanied children, in Greek cities and islands, moving them to the north, and expelling an unknown number to Turkey.

In July, Human Rights Watch interviewed two migrants, one a 17-year-old boy, who, after arriving on Greek islands, were detained by the authorities, shipped north, and pushed back to Turkey with dozens of other migrants. Human Rights Watch also gathered accounts from migrants who saw detainees being taken away at night. Their accounts are strikingly similar to those of the 41 people who described their expulsion in Human Rights Watch’s 2008 report on Greece. The recent interviewees said that police would select 20 to 50 people from a large group of migrants. They would load the smaller group onto what appeared to be military vehicles and drive away into the night. The witnesses told Human Rights Watch that expulsions took place from the Fylakio detention center and the Tichero border police station.

In another sign of the hardened stance, police on July 12 destroyed a makeshift migrant camp in Patras, on the Peloponnese peninsula. In the days before the camp was destroyed, the police reportedly arrested large numbers of migrants there and, according to credible sources, transferred an unknown number to the northern part of the country. Human Rights Watch met with several Afghans in Patras, including 12 unaccompanied migrant children, who as a result of this operation were hiding from the police and living in abysmal conditions.

Detainees reported shockingly bad conditions at detention centers in northern Greece (see box). They complained of shortages of food and warm clothing, lack of health care, and police brutality. Unaccompanied children were held in cells with adults.