DUBAI: Greece’s independent authority for transparency said Tuesday that after an in-depth investigation it has found no basis for reports that Greek authorities have illegally turned back asylum-seekers entering the country from Turkey.
The National Transparency Authority said in a statement that the allegations by the Lighthouse Reports non-profit organization last year concerning “informal obligatory returns” of asylum-seekers by masked men “were not confirmed.”
“Upon completion of the examination process and the laboratory examination of the relevant material, no supporting evidence emerged,” the statement said.
Greece is a major entry point for people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa seeking a better life in the European Union. A record of about 1 million people arrived through neighboring Turkey in 2015, but in recent years the numbers have dropped drastically following tougher border management.
Greece has repeatedly been accused by human rights groups and Turkey — its historic regional rival from which thousands of migrants try to enter every year — of illegally sending back asylum-seekers who have reached Greek shores and dumping them at sea. Similar claims have been made concerning asylum-seekers who cross the land border with Turkey and are allegedly clandestinely sent back. Athens strongly denies the practice, known as pushbacks.
The NTA statement said its more than four-month investigation into the Lighthouse Reports’ allegations included visits to the eastern Aegean Sea islands where migrant boats from Turkey arrive and to the northeastern land border, and interviews with Greek security services, local residents and asylum-seekers. It said it also examined video and photos connected with the allegations, with the assistance of the Greek police.
Last October, Netherlands-based Lighthouse Reports said a joint investigation with European media organizations collected and analyzed 635 videos of alleged pushbacks in the Aegean Sea, “at least 15 of them showing masked men in action.”
It said current and former senior officers in the Greek coast guard reviewed the videos and “were able to identify the masked men as members of elite Greek coast guard units.”
Greek officials at the time denied the allegations.
Greek independent authority rejects migrant pushback claims
https://arab.news/6wsjk
Greek independent authority rejects migrant pushback claims
- “Upon completion of the examination process and the laboratory examination of the relevant material, no supporting evidence emerged,” the statement said
- Greece is a major entry point for people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa seeking a better life in the European Union
Lawsuit challenges Trump administration’s ending of protections for Somalis
- The lawsuit cites a series of statements Trump has made describing Somalis as “garbage” and “low IQ people” who “contribute nothing.”
BOSTON: Immigrant rights advocates filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to stop US President Donald Trump’s administration from next week ending legal protections that allow nearly 1,100 Somalis to live and work in the United States. The lawsuit, brought by four Somalis and two advocacy groups, challenges the US Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Somali immigrants, whom Trump has derided in public remarks. Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in January announced that TPS for Somalis would end on March 17, arguing that Somalia’s conditions had improved, despite fighting continuing between Somali forces and Al-Shabab militants. The plaintiffs, who include the groups African Communities Together and Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, in the lawsuit filed in Boston federal court argue the move was procedurally flawed and driven by a discriminatory, predetermined agenda.
The lawsuit cites a series of statements Trump has made describing Somalis as “garbage” and “low IQ people” who “contribute nothing.”
The plaintiffs said the administration is ending TPS for Somalia and other countries due to unconstitutional bias against non-white immigrants, not based on objective assessments of country conditions.
“The termination of TPS for Somalia is racism masking as immigration policy,” Omar Farah, executive director at the legal group Muslim Advocates, said in a statement.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously said TPS was “never intended to be a de facto amnesty program.”
TPS is a form of humanitarian immigration protection that shields eligible migrants from deportation and allows them to work. Under Noem, DHS has moved to end TPS for a dozen countries, sparking legal challenges. The administration on Saturday announced plans to pursue an appeal at the US Supreme Court in order to end TPS for over 350,000 Haitians. It also wants the high court to allow it to end TPS for about 6,000 Syrians.
SOMALI COMMUNITY TARGETED
Somalia was first designated for TPS in 1991, with its latest extension in 2024. About 1,082 Somalis currently hold TPS, and 1,383 more have pending applications, according to DHS. Somalis in Minnesota in recent months had become a target of Trump’s immigration crackdown, with officials pointing to a fraud scandal in which many people charged come from the state’s large Somali community. The Trump administration cited those fraud allegations as a basis for a months-long immigration enforcement surge in Democratic-led Minnesota, during which about 3,000 immigration agents were deployed, spurring protests and leading to the killing of two US citizens by federal agents.
In November, Trump announced he would end TPS for Somalis in Minnesota, and a month later said he wanted them sent “back to where they came from.”
The US Department of State advises against traveling to Somalia, citing crime and civil unrest among numerous factors.
