Die Frage, wie die hohe Zahl der Push-Backs von Griechenland in die Türkei, die von türkischer Seite mit zehntausenden angegeben wird, überhaupt realisiert werden konnte, findet eine Erklärung. Die Refugees werden offenbar in ein geheimes Gefängnis gebracht und von dort aus wieder an den Evros transportiert und mit Schnellbooten auf die türkische Seite verfrachtet.
Respondmigration hat am 08.03.2020 in ihrem Blog eine Veröffentlichung gepostet, Hidden infrastructures of the European border regime: the Poros detention facility in Evros, Greece – mit der wichtigen Anmerkung, dass diese Recherchen bereits vor der Öffnung der türkisch-griechischen Grenze stattgefunden haben.
The region of Evros at the Greek-Turkish border was the scene of many changes in the European and Greek border regimes since 2010. The most well-known was the deployment of the Frontex RABIT force in October of that year; while it concluded in 2011, Frontex has had a permanent presence in Evros ever since. In 2011, the then government introduced the ‘Integrated Program for Border Management and Combating Illegal Immigration’ (European Migration Network, 2012), which reflected EU and domestic processes of the Europeanisation of border controls (European Migration Network, 2012; Ilias et al., 2019). The program stipulated a number of measures which impacted the border regime in Evros: the construction of a 12.5km fence along the section of the Greek Turkish border which did not coincide with the Evros river (after which the region takes its name); the expansion of border surveillance technologies and capacities in the area; and the establishment of reception centres where screening procedures would be undertaken (European Migration Network, 2012; Ilias et al., 2019). In this context, one of the measures taken was the establishment of a screening centre in South Evros, near the village of Poros, 46km away from the city of Alexandroupoli – the main urban centre in the area.
The operation of the Centre for the First Management of Illegal Immigration is documented in Greek (Ministry for Public Order and Citizen Protection, 2013a) and EU official documents (European Parliament, 2012; European Migration Network, 2013), reports by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (2011), NGOs (Pro Asyl, 2012) and activists (CloseTheCamps, 2012), media articles (To Vima, 2012) and research (Düvell, 2012; Schaub, 2013) between 2011 and 2015.
Yet, during our fieldwork in the area in 2018, none of our respondents mentioned it. Nor could we find any recent research, reports or official documents after 2015 referring to it. It was only a tip from someone we collaborate with that reminded us of the existence of the Poros facility. We found its ‘disappearance’ from public view intriguing. Through fieldwork, document analysis and queries to the Greek authorities, we constructed a genealogy of the Poros centre, from its inception in 2011 to its ambivalent present. Our findings not only highlight the shifting nature of local assemblages of the European border regime, but also raise questions on such ‘hidden’ infrastructures, and the implications of their use for the rights of the people who cross the border.
Offenbar sind die Recherchierenden hier auf eine versteckte Einrichtung gestoßen, die seit Jahren zum Zweck des Push-Backs funktioniert.
The dearth of information and absence of monitoring of the facility means that it is unclear whether the facility provides adequate conditions for detention. While our Hellenic police informant stated that detention there lasts for one or two days, there is no outside gate at the Poros centre, just a rather flimsy looking wire fence. Does this mean that detainees are kept inside the main building or containers the whole time they are detained there? We also do not know if detainees have access to phones, legal assistance or healthcare, which the articles in the local press suggest that is absent from the Poros centre. Equally, in the absence of inspections by human rights bodies, we are unaware of the standards of hygiene inside the facilities, or if there is sufficient food available. Administrative acts archived in diavgeia.gov.gr normally offer some answers to such questions but, as we mentioned above, we could find none. In short, it appears that Poros is used as an informal detention centre, hidden from public view.
Gestern hat nun die NYT einen Artikel veröffentlicht mit Aussage von mehreren Zeugen, welche die Analyse seitens Respondmigration bestätigen. Ein Tropfen auf den heißen Stein; die europäischen Gerichte werden zu entscheiden haben, ob Menschenrechte in Europa überhaupt noch von Wert sind. Appelle an die Politik haben uns Merkel, Kurz und Seehofer vollends ausgetrieben.
POROS, Greece — The Greek government is detaining migrants incommunicado at a secret extrajudicial location before expelling them to Turkey without due process, one of several hard-line measures taken to seal the borders to Europe that experts say violate international law.
Several migrants said in interviews that they had been captured, stripped of their belongings, beaten and expelled from Greece without being given a chance to claim asylum or speak to a lawyer, in an illegal process known as refoulement. Meanwhile, Turkish officials said that at least three migrants had been shot and killed while trying to enter Greece in the past two weeks. […]
The site consisted principally of three red-roofed warehouses set back from a farm road and arranged in a U-shape. Hundreds of other captured migrants waited outside. Mr. al-Hussein was taken indoors and crammed into a room with dozens of others. […]
His phone was confiscated to prevent him from making calls, he said, and his requests to claim asylum and contact United Nations officials were ignored.
“To them, we are like animals,” Mr. al-Hussein said of the Greek guards.
After a night without food or drink, on March 1 Mr. al-Hussein and dozens of others were driven back to the Evros River, where Greek police officers ferried them back to the Turkish side in a small speedboat. […]
By cross-referencing drawings, descriptions and satellite coordinates that he provided, The Times was able to locate the detention center — in farmland between Poros and the river.
A former Greek official familiar with police operations confirmed the existence of the site, which is not classified as a detention facility but is used informally during times of high migration flows.
Griechenland operiert offenbar doppelbödig, um sich nichts anhängen zu lassen, und verwischt die Grenzen zwischen Polizei und rechtsradikalen Akteuren. Offenbar gibt es eine Kooperation von Mob und Militär, mit der wir es zunehmend zu tun haben werden:
Es ist ein sehr komplexes – und nicht besonders transparentes – System. Wenn Flüchtlinge es über die Grenze schaffen, gelangen sie häufig in die Hände von einer der Gruppen, die entlang der Grenze patrouillieren. Es gibt selbstorganisierte Gruppen von lokalen Bauern, die mit Schrotflinten herumlaufen. Es gibt darüber hinaus eine sogenannte nationale Bürgerwehr, in deren Reihen sich Rechtsextreme und Anti-Einwanderungs-Aktivistinnen und -Aktivisten mischen. Dann gibt es Gruppen von Männern mit Skimasken und Tarnkleidung, die Flüchtlinge abfangen, einsammeln und in kleinen Schlauchbooten zurück auf die türkische Seite des Evros-Flusses bringen. Sie tragen zwar keine Abzeichen, fahren jedoch die gleichen Autos wie Grenzpolizisten – das dokumentieren Fotos, die wir gesammelt haben. Polizisten haben mir gegenüber bestätigt, dass sie hin und wieder ohne Abzeichen an der Grenze unterwegs sind. Darüber hinaus gibt es jetzt auch das Militär, das an der sogenannten grünen Grenze patrouilliert.
Vassilis Tsianos auf mediendienst-integration | 11.03.20