Refugees, migrants, aid workers and journalists are facing an increasingly hostile environment in Greece since Turkey lifted restrictions late last month on Syrians, Afghans and others trying to reach Western Europe.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has described the buildup of migrants and refugees on Greece’s borders and islands as an “asymmetric threat.”
His deployment of the army and police to stop them has European Union backing, but rights groups are increasingly concerned at the threats confronting their own workers, reporters and the migrants and refugees themselves amid an upsurge in hostility among local Greeks.
While the media focus has been on the land border since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan abandoned a 2016 migration deal with the EU, Vasilis Stravaridis, general manager of Medecins sans Frontieres, MSF, in Greece said tensions on Greek islands had already been building.
“Unfortunately, tension is growing the past three weeks, with the islanders feeling tired of lifting the burden of the so-called refugee crisis all these years,” Stravaridis told BIRN.
He said MSF staff on the island of Lesvos had recently faced two violent incidents, resulting in the closure of an MSF clinic on the island for two days.
“This is unprecedented for us,” Stravaridis said. “This was the first time in our 30-year presence in Greece we were attacked.”
He said the Greek media and government bore part of the responsibility for the polarisation of Greek society.
On Saturday, fire tore through a Lesvos community centre working with refugees and operated by the Swiss NGO ‘One Happy Family’. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Migrants and refugees, aid workers and volunteers have found themselves the targets of angry Greek islanders. Some Greeks on Lesvos have tried to block boats carrying refugees and migrants. Video has also emerged of a group of people dressed in black beating up a German freelance journalists and tossing his camera into the sea.
On March 3, Dutch media reported that aid workers of the Dutch Bootvluchteling foundation were in hiding after being attacked by residents on Lesvos.
Residents of Lesvos and the Greek police have already clashed over government plans to requisition land to build migrant and refugee detention centres.
Lefteris Papagiannakis, Head of Advocacy, Policy and Research at the Athens-based NGO Solidarity Now, said the situation on the islands was more alarming, and potentially longer-lasting, than at the Evros River between Turkey and Greece.
“What happened in Evros was a crisis staged by Turkey, but it won’t last,” he told BIRN.
“On the contrary, toxic narratives and politics are deployed on the islands and I don’t think there will be de-escalation soon.”
No legal basis to suspend asylum registration
At the land border itself, Greece says it is using “proportionate force”.
Greek security forces and migrants and refugees have clashed repeatedly, while vigilante groups are also active on the Greek side. There have been conflicting reports about whether or not a Syrian man was shot dead by Greek security forces on Monday, March 2, as reported by Turkey but denied by Greece.
On March 6, Dutch journalist Olaf Koens tweeted that Greek security forces had stripped, beaten up and pushed back refugees to Turkey.
Greece says it has temporarily suspended the registration of asylum claims and that it would deport anyone caught entering the country by irregular means without examining individual cases.
Stella Nanou, representative of the UN Refugee Agency in Greece, said there was no legal basis for such a move.
“States have the right to monitor their borders and manage illegal mobility, but they also have to continue processing asylum claims in a structured fashion,” Nanou told BIRN.
“Neither the 1951 Refugee Convention, nor the European Union refugee law provide any legal basis for suspending asylum claims registration.”