HRW: Iraqi Refugees Seeking Asylum are Mistreated in Greece

by Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

NEW YORK, United States - On November 26, Human Rights Watch published a report documenting mistreatment of Iraqi refugees by Greek officials. The report, titled “Stuck in a Revolving Door,” claims that Greece “systematically rounds up and detains Iraqi asylum seekers... in dirty, overcrowded conditions and forcibly and secretly expels them to Turkey.”

The report documents how Greek Coast Guard officials push migrants out of Greek territorial waters, sometimes puncturing inflatable boats or otherwise disabling their vessels. "Our conclusion is that the practice of summary expulsions across the Evros River is systematic and routine," said to Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch and author of the report.

The report also includes a detailed eye-witness account that provides insight into the practices of Greek authorities: “One time I crossed the river into Greece and arrived in Komotini… They put us in jail for five days and then took us to the river and pushed us back. We were 60 persons. They put us in a small river boat with a motor in groups of 10. They did it in the middle of the night. It was raining hard, and the Greek police started beating us to make us move more quickly. I saw one man who tried to refuse to go on the boat, and they beat him and threw him in the river. They beat us with police clubs to get us to go on the boat.”

In addition, those who manage to lodge asylum claims are almost always denied. In 2007, out of 25,111 asylum claims, Greece granted refugee status to eight persons after the first interview, an approval rate of 0.04 percent; the approval rate at the appeals stage was 2 percent.

The report is based on 173 confidential interviews of illegal migrants. One interviewee is an Iraqi Kurd from Kirkuk. After five failed attempts to cross from Turkey into Greece, during which he was beaten and summarily expelled from Greece and also beaten and detained by Turkish authorities, he was finally registered by the Greek authorities. However, the authorities used detention to deter him from seeking asylum - “They told me that if I asked for asylum and a red card that I would need to spend more time in jail beyond 25 days, but if I didn't want asylum and a red card I could leave detention after 25 days. So, I refused the red card and after 25 days they released me. I got a white paper telling me I needed to leave the country in 30 days.”

European Union asylum system, governed by the regulation known as Dublin II, is grounded on the false assumption that all EU states have the same standards and procedures for determining refugee status. Dublin II requires that state of first entry is responsible for examining an asylum claim. Meaning, member states must send asylum seekers back to the country where they originally entered the 27-nation bloc.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees urged EU states in April to stop returning asylum seekers to Greece because of harsh conditions and the low approval rate of claims. Like the UNHCR, Frelick recommends that "Until Greece cleans up its act, EU states shouldn't send asylum seekers back there."

For more information, please see:

Hurriyet - Greece Abusing and Degrading Migrants - Report - 28 November 2008

Guardian - Rights Group: Greece Deporting Migrants Illegally - 26 November 2008

HRW - Greece: Iraqi Asylum Seekers Denied Protection - 26 November 2008

HRW - Stuck in a Revolving Door - 26 November 2008