ATHENS: Greece has “normalized” abusive pushbacks of migrants under a broader EU policy that ignores violence against people in need, the international charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday.
Tens of thousands of migrants, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have entered Greece in recent years from the sea and land borders with Turkiye.
Greece has stepped up patrols in the Aegean Sea with the help of the European Border Surveillance Agency, Frontex.
“MSF teams have borne witness to how normalized pushbacks have become, and to the stark absence of protection for people who seek safety in Greece,” MSF said in a report.
“Despite extensive and credible evidence, Greek authorities, the EU and its member states have failed to hold to account the perpetrators of these violations,” it added.
In June, a dilapidated and overloaded former trawler capsized and sank off Pylos in the Peloponnese, drowning 82 people, while hundreds were reported missing.
Forty of the survivors have filed a group lawsuit against Greek authorities for failing to take appropriate action before the boat sank.
MSF said the current situation at Europe’s borders “is the result of EU policies that condone and enable continued violence against individuals in need.”
Despite extensive documentation and reporting of violent pushbacks at both land and sea “there is a striking and longstanding lack of accountability at Greek and Europe,” it said.
The charity says it has provided emergency medical assistance to nearly 8,000 individuals over the past two years, including over 1,500 children.
Most patients treated by the group said they had survived multiple pushbacks while many “were trapped in cycles of violence on arrival,” MSF said.
The organization said it had recorded testimonies of “violence, physical assault, strip searches and intrusive body searches on children, women and men” by uniformed officers and unidentified masked individuals.
The Greek migration ministry has been contacted by AFP for comment.
Between August 2021 and July 2023, MSF said its teams on the Aegean islands of Samos and Lesbos treated 467 survivors of sexual violence and 88 patients who had survived female genital mutilation in their country of origin.
Many of these women and girls were also suspected survivors of trafficking, while some were pregnant or had given birth after being raped.
The group also acknowledged reports of pushbacks on land, with people detained, forcibly placed on life rafts and left to drift back to Turkish waters.
On several occasions, MSF said its teams rushing to provide assistance to people in distress on Greek islands were delayed for checks by local law enforcement.
On five occasions, they were actively blocked from reaching the scene.
Greece and Turkiye in December are expected to discuss a renewal of a 2016 EU deal restricting migration.
Greece’s migration ministry this week said arrivals began increasing in mid-2022, peaking in September before declining in October.
In the first nine months of the year, migrant arrivals in Greece spiked to over 29,700 people, compared to 11,000 in the same period in 2022, the ministry said.
Abusive pushbacks of migrants ‘normalized’ in Greece: MSF
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Abusive pushbacks of migrants ‘normalized’ in Greece: MSF
- Tens of thousands of migrants, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have entered Greece in recent years
- “MSF teams have borne witness to how normalized pushbacks have become, and to the stark absence of protection for people who seek safety in Greece,” MSF said in a report
US deports Iraqi man at center of debate on refugee policy
- Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, who was granted refugee status in the US in 2014, denied Iraqi charges that he murdered a police officer as a Daesh operative
- Ameen was sent to Rwanda earlier this month according to the US official who spoke on condition of anonymity
NAIROBI/WASHINGTON: The United States has deported to Rwanda a resettled Iraqi refugee who it long tried to extradite in response to Iraqi government claims that he worked for Daesh, according to a US official and an internal email.
Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, who was granted refugee status in the US in 2014, denied Iraqi charges that he murdered a police officer as a Daesh operative, and a judge found in 2021 that the version of events in the case against him was “not plausible.”
But the administrations of Joe Biden and Donald Trump both pursued his removal from the country, accusing him of lying on his refugee application by saying he had not interacted with terrorist groups.
After the start of his second term in January, Trump launched a sweeping crackdown on immigration and attempted to freeze the US refugee resettlement program.
Ameen was sent to Rwanda earlier this month, according to the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, and the internal email seen by Reuters.
A US State Department spokesperson declined to comment on Ameen’s case, and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rwanda’s government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Online news outlet The Handbasket, which broke the news of Ameen’s deportation, cited a leaked cable from the US embassy in Kigali as saying that Rwanda had agreed to receive additional third-country nationals under a “new removal program.”
Reuters was not able to confirm the contents of the cable or any deal between the United States and Rwanda.
The central African country has positioned itself as a destination country for migrants that Western countries would like to remove.
It signed an agreement with Britain in 2022 to take in thousands of asylum seekers from the UK before the deal was scrapped last year by then newly-elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
After his arrest in 2018 following murder charges in Iraq, Ameen’s case was cited by the first Trump administration and some Republicans in Congress as an example of security risks posed by refugees and an argument against resettling them in the US
A US magistrate judge refused to allow his extradition to Iraq in 2021, saying there was overwhelming evidence Ameen was living as a refugee in Turkiye at the time of the alleged murder, but the US government continued to push for his deportation to a third country.
Human Rights Watch said in 2021 that his treatment showed “a system of arbitrary detention and cruel enforcement.”
India PM vows to pursue Kashmir attackers to ‘ends of the Earth’
- Modi’s statement comes after 26 people were shot dead at the tourist hotpot of Pahalgam
- He promised to make the perpetrators ‘pay beyond their imagination’ in a speech to a crowd
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed on Thursday to punish all those responsible for a gruesome attack in Kashmir that killed 26 men.
“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” he said in his first speech since Tuesday’s attack in the Himalayan region. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth.”
The shooting in the tourist hotpot of Pahalgam was the deadliest attack on civilians in the contested Muslim-majority territory since 2000.
Of the men killed, 26 were Indian and one was Nepali.
India accused Islamabad on Wednesday of supporting “cross-border terrorism” and downgraded ties with its neighbor with a raft of diplomatic measures.
Pakistan has denied any role in the Pahalgam attack.
Modi, who was speaking in Bihar state to launch development projects, first led two minutes of silence in memory of those killed.
“I say this unequivocally: whoever has carried out this attack, and the ones who devised it, will be made to pay beyond their imagination,” he said, speaking in Hindi in front of a large crowd.
“They will certainly pay. Whatever little land these terrorists have, it’s time to reduce it to dust. The willpower of 1.4 billion Indians will break the backbone of these terrorists.”
He finished his speech with rare comments in English, directing them to an audience abroad.
“Terrorism will not go unpunished,” Modi said. “Every effort will be made to ensure that justice is done.”
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the high-altitude territory in full but governing separate portions of it.
Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.
Indian security forces have launched a vast manhunt in Kashmir for the attackers, with large numbers of people detained in the operation.
Zelensky cancels part of South Africa trip, returns to Kyiv after Russian attack
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday he was canceling a part of his program in South Africa and returning to Ukraine after intense Russian missile and drone attacks on Kyiv.
Zelensky said on the Telegram app that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha would conduct all necessary meetings in South Africa to inform leaders about the situation in Ukraine.
Aid funding cuts disrupt child vaccinations almost as much as pandemic, says UN
- Outbreaks of infectious diseases, including measles, meningitis and yellow fever, have been increasing globally
- Cuts to funding also reduced vaccine supplies and hampered disease surveillance
LONDON: Global aid funding cuts, led by the United States, are disrupting efforts to vaccinate children against deadly diseases almost as much as the COVID-19 pandemic did, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Outbreaks of infectious diseases, including measles, meningitis and yellow fever, have been increasing globally.
Emergency and routine vaccinations meanwhile were significantly affected in nearly half of countries at the start of April due to the funding cuts, according to reports from World Health Organization offices in 108 largely low and lower-middle income countries.
Cuts to funding also reduced vaccine supplies and hampered disease surveillance, the WHO and UNICEF said in a joint release with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
“Setbacks (are) at a similar level to what we saw during COVID-19. We cannot afford to lose ground in the fight against preventable disease,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director. COVID-19 caused what was called the largest backslide in childhood vaccination in a generation, and aid funding cuts, led by the US – formerly the world’s largest donor – risked the same outcome, the joint release said.
They called for funding for childhood immunization to be maintained ahead of Gavi’s funding round, which will be launched in June. The group is seeking $9 billion for its work from 2026-2030.
Sania Nishtar, Gavi’s chief executive officer, said it was possible to fight the rise of infectious diseases but only if the group is fully funded.
Measles cases have increased year-on-year since 2021, while meningitis surged in Africa last year and yellow fever cases also rose after declines in the last decade, the agencies said. Last month, an internal US government document showed it would follow its cuts to UNICEF and the WHO, part of wider plans to streamline and focus foreign aid to align with the “America First” policy, by canceling its contribution of around $300 million annually to Gavi.
Last week, the US State Department told Reuters it had nominated Mark Lloyd, assistant administrator for global health, to Gavi’s 28-person board. The US seat had previously been vacant.
Both the US State Department and Gavi declined to comment about what this could mean for US funding.
Russia launched 215 drones and missiles against Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian air force says
DUBAI: Russia launched 215 drones and missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, Ukraine’s air force said.
Air force units shot down 48 missiles and 64 drones, while 68 drones were redirected by electronic warfare, the air force said in a post on Telegram.
