The failed rescue mission
Thirty-eight Syrian and Palestinian men, women, and children were picked up by Greek authorities on August 22nd 2022. The asylum-seekers had spent over a week on a small islet in the middle of the Evros river, a natural frontier separating Turkey and Greece. During their time on the islet, the asylum-seekers maintained contact with civil society organizations and NGOs, sending them GPS coordinates to aid in the rescue mission. Greek authorities claimed that they were unable to locate the group and as a result of the time it took for the operation to be successful, a young girl lost her life.
What is surprising about this case, which is unfortunately not uncommon at the Evros border, is the fact that less than two kilometres away is a top-of-the-line surveillance pylon. Greece, with the help of the European Union’s internal security fund, has spent incredible amounts of money on security equipment to prevent asylum seekers from entering Greece (Schmitz & Emmanouilidou, 2021). An added use of the new tools would be the ensuring of the safety and well-being of those same asylum-seekers. This high-tech security system includes drones, heat sensors and cameras that allegedly reach as far as several kilometres into Turkey (Schmitz & Emmanouilidou, 2021).
Border surveillance failure
The Automated Border Surveillance System (or ABSS) has been continuously expanding over the past several years, amounting to a total of fifteen million euros. The technology can be watched live and the monitoring centres – which exist on a local, regional, and national level – are staffed on a twenty-four-hour basis (Boitiaux, 2021). The Greek government has boasted that thirty-six thousand migrants have been prevented from entering Greece this year alone, most effective in the areas where the surveillance mechanisms are the most prominent.
It comes as a surprise then that border surveillance equipment and staff were unable to locate the group present on the islet more rapidly. The technology is undoubtedly able to produce such a feat, researcher Lena Karamanidou looked at the satellite imagery and concluded that the system should have been able to detect and rescue the refugees. However, the Greek authorities maintain that they were unable to spot them and insist that they fulfilled their humanitarian duty as rapidly as possible. This denial seems even more outrageous given that the European Court of Human Rights issued an order to Greece to immediately complete the rescue mission. This confirmed Greece’s responsibility as to the location of the refugees, as during the situation it was unclear if the refugees were on the Greek or Turkish side of the border.
Greece had all the tools \ necessary to expedite the process before any of the asylum-seekers were put into harm’s way. This trend of malicious negligence is not new or uncommon in the context of Greece’s approach to refugees, but it is especially perceptible in the Evros region.
An escalating, worrisome situation
In February 2020 as the pandemic was looming, Turkey’s President Erdogan began encouraging refugees to go to the Evros border to attempt their crossing into Europe. As the border opened and more refugees crossed the river, the tensions between Greece and Turkey became increasingly palpable. Both countries accused each other of political foul play as statements from refugees described being pushed back between Greece and Turkey. Indeed, the thirty-eight people rescued said they had been transported from Greece to Turkey multiple times, with neither authority taking responsibility. Needless to say, the actions and behaviors of both states are extremely detrimental to asylum-seekers’ safety.
The pushbacks and sheer violence that Greek authorities have displayed, prove contrary to their international legal obligations. Greece is actively violating the prohibition of collective expulsion under the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights. Greece is acting in direct opposition to the principle of non-refoulment in the Geneva Convention, the central pillar of international law pertaining to refugees. Finally, the Greek government is also under the obligation to act in compliance with international law, as 75 per cent of its financing for the increase in border surveillance stems from European funds. If in violation, the reimbursement of costs would be rejected.
The securitization of Greece’s border is incredibly concerning. Not only does it have a detrimental effect on the fundamental rights of people to seek asylum in Europe, it also does not serve its primary purpose of making sure that refugees, but asylum-seekers and migrants are also granted safe arrival into Europe, that no one is harmed or loses their lives coming into Europe and that the right to seek asylum continues to be guaranteed.
Sources and further reading:
Schmitz, F. & Emmanouilidou, Lydia. (2022, September 8). Greece: Use of border surveillance system raises serious questions. Deutsche Welle. Retrieved on September 19th 2022 from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/greece-use-of-border-surveillance-system-raises-serious-questions/ar-AA11BOnE
Boitiaux, Charlotte. (2021, October 12). Evros frontier: A militarized no-man’s land when ‘no one can access migrants’. InfoMigrants. Retrieved on September 19th 2022 from https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/35657/evros-frontier-a-militarized-nomans-land-where-no-one-can-access-migrants
Vrantis, N. & Bogos, A. (2021, December 20). What does the overgrowth of surveillance in Evros mean for Greece and Europe? LeftEast. Retrieved on September 20th 2022 from https://lefteast.org/surveillance-evros-greece-europe/
Associated Press. (2022, August 23). Greece to Expand Fence, Surveillance at Border With Turkey. U.S. News. Retrieved on September 20th 2022 from https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-08-23/greece-to-expand-fence-surveillance-at-border-with-turkey
Karamanidou, L. & Kasparek, Bernd. (2020, July 31). What is Frontex doing about illegal pushbacks in Evros? Respond Migration. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lena-Karamanidou-2/publication/355197285_What_is_Frontex_doing_about_illegal_pushbacks_in_Evros/links/61670c0a8ad119749b134f8f/What-is-Frontex-doing-about-illegal-pushbacks-in-Evros.pdf
Ioannis N. Grigoriadis & Esra Dilek (2018): Securitizing Migration in the European Union: Greece and the Evros Fence, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2018.1506280
