The Greek province of Evros, where at least 18 migrants were found charred by a terrible fire on Tuesday, has already been hell on earth for those fleeing their countries in search of a better life in Europe without the need for flames. For more than a decade, countless cases of abuse and violations of the most basic rights of those who dared to cross this territory, where the river of the same name acts as a natural border between Greece and Turkey, have been reported. For more than a decade, human rights organizations have recorded beatings, forced deportations, rapes and illegal detentions. But while the situation was already dangerous, it is now getting even worse: since the last fire last Saturday, groups of citizens have spontaneously formed and organized themselves into militias to hunt down migrants. It is not a new practice, but it has been reintroduced due to the widespread belief that they are responsible for the fire.
Greek Supreme Court chief prosecutor Georgia Adilini on Wednesday ordered a double probe to be launched to find possible evidence of “an organized plot” to start the fire, although police later assured it was lightning Learn more about the “alarming phenomena of violence” against migrants and the incitement to “racist pogroms”.
The investigation was prompted by a video broadcast on social networks on Tuesday, in which a man triumphantly shows the result of what he believes to be his prey. He, who is also the alleged author of the recording, opens the door of a trailer attached to a van and behind it an unknown number of caged men stare at the camera, not knowing where they are or what is happening. The individual refers to these people as “chunks,” affirming there were 25 of them and that he “hunted” them because they were responsible for the fires. “The mountains are full of it,” he adds.
“Some of the population believe that the fires are the fault of the migrants and are therefore persecuting them,” explains Lefteris Papayannakis, director of the Greek Institute for Refugees, in an interview with EL PAÍS. “They work like a militia; They arrest them of their own accord and use violence against them,” he claims.
The owner of the vehicle and author of the video, a resident of the province of Albanian origin, and two other people of Greek nationality were arrested this Wednesday and brought to justice. But Vassilis Kerasiotis, director of the NGO HIAS Greece and a lawyer specializing in migration, assures that these militias are by no means a one-off phenomenon and are organized with complete impunity because the authorities are looking the other way. “The tolerance of the authorities is there, so they feel free to publicize these crimes,” he adds. “Of course, the authorities have to react when a crime is committed. That’s why they were arrested,” he said. “It’s appalling how openly hostility towards migrants is accepted in a certain part of society,” denounced a spokesman for Alarm Phone, an organization that works to take messages from vulnerable migrants across the Mediterranean and to the relevant authorities to forward them.
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Calls for the persecution and arrest of migrants are spread via messages on social networks such as Facebook, X or TikTok. The Albanian citizen’s video showing the result of his “hunt” was uploaded by himself to a channel on the Viber news network, which has 240 members. Another footage released Wednesday shows a man in military fatigues directing several dozen Evros citizens to organize another pogrom. “Who can, start patrolling (…)” But I will ask you not to use weapons or knives, otherwise you will get into trouble. It’s illegal. They will arrest you,” he says.
Before the video of the illegally detained migrants surfaced, Paris Papadakis, an MP for the far-right Greek Solution Party for Evros province, released another inflammatory speech, in which he accused the migrants of “obstructing the work of the firefighters” and of having started the blaze .
Several left-wing MPs have called for Papadakis to be subjected to an investigation by the Parliament’s Ethics Committee. In his publication, the far-right MP described the situation as a “war” and called on his fellow citizens to organize raids to arrest illegal migrants “in the same way” as in March 2020, when the Turkish government incited tens of thousands of migrants, migrating to Greece via the Evros rose, and some locals organized themselves into militias to help the police and army defend the border.
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In fact, Evros was the main entry route to Greece and Europe until 2015 and 2016, when migrants started using boats to reach Aegean islands like Chios or Lesvos. However, refugee transit has never stopped. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Acnur), about 3,700 migrants have entered Greece by land so far in 2023, up from about 6,000 for all of 2022. However, it is possible that the number of those crossing the Evros to Greek area is much higher. “More than 250,000 illegal entries were prevented at the Evros border in 2022,” the Ministry of Citizen Protection said in a statement. Some of them probably managed to enter Greek territory, but were illegally deported by the Greek authorities, a practice widespread in the region, although contrary to Greek and European law. Various associations and human rights organizations have collected testimonies and evidence on almost 400 incidents of this type over the past six years, in which some 20,000 migrants have been illegally deported, in most cases using force and losing their money and belongings.
Hide for fear of deportation
Between Tuesday and Wednesday, Alarm Phone sent out alerts about four groups totaling about 300 people trapped in the area affected by the fires: three of them on islets in the river and another in a wooded area near the town of Ilitt. “The fact that people hide in the forest in the face of a fire instead of trying to get to safety suggests the importance of hiding out of fear of deportation,” says Vassilis.
The Alarm Phone spokesman says authorities contacted them and assured them they hadn’t found anyone at the specified locations. The organization also adds that two of the four groups lost contact on Wednesday, leaving only the two largest stranded on islands: one of about 250 people was surrounded by police. Another one in a hundred was trapped on an island near the town of Lagina, captured by the agents and taken to a detention center. We can’t say much more about the situation. [de los grupos]But before the authorities say they can’t find them, they attack the migrants and illegally send them back to Turkey. “It’s an excuse they often use,” adds the NGO spokesman.
Migrant hunting is another threat, adding to the already critical conditions faced by migrants crossing borders. You are coming through a militarized zone that no one has access to, not even humanitarian organizations. They use the dense forests to hide indefinitely and have no access to food, sanitation, or other services. “There is no help here. It’s almost impossible to help them when they’re hidden. Sometimes they carry food with them, sometimes they go somewhere nearby and get it,” describes Lefteris Papayannakis from the Greek Institute for Refugees. “We know that the Turks sometimes give them food while forcing them to cross, or give them access to electricity to charge their phones,” he adds.
Papayannakis adds that road accidents involving vehicles carrying kidnapped migrants are common. “They are smuggled into the cities in taxis or vans. It’s illegal, so sometimes the smugglers go in the opposite direction very quickly… We know of people who have died or been seriously injured in accidents,” he denounces.
For his part, the Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias, attributes the deaths of the migrants to their failure to follow evacuation orders, which are automatically sent in Greek and English to all mobile phones in the affected area. : “In Evros, there were 15 sources of fire at the same time, which combined to form a huge fire.” Satellite images show a huge area on fire, with a front reaching 20 kilometers and spreading “uncontrollably” in different directions. The dense smoke of this great fire, together with that of other fronts in Greece, has reached the islands of Sicily and Malta, more than a thousand kilometers away, covering 80% of Hellenic territory. For HIAS’ Kerasiotis, reading is a different matter. “The cause of these 18 deaths is a combination of the lack of safe and legal entry procedures on Greek and European territory and the fact that potential asylum seekers fear illegal repatriation to Turkey.”
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