Frontex is accused of covering up human rights violations in Greece

Frontexthe European agency that guard the borders has been accused of covering up some human rights violations occurred against migrants in Greece. The allegations come from a confidential report of the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf), disseminated by the German freedom of information portal FragDenStaat. The document was drawn up at the end of an investigation lasting months on rejections of migrants by Greek officials, which prevented people from being able to exercise their right to seek asylum by sending them to Turkey or abandoning them in the sea.

According to Olaf’s report, Frontex leaders have “hindered Frontex’s ability to fully fulfill its responsibilities, ie to guarantee the protection and promotion of fundamental rights “, hiding or by not investigating human rights violations, accidents and push-backs by the Greek authorities. The investigation was also very complex because the term push-backs is not defined in European law, while it is defined as illegal the forced repatriation of persons across an international border, without an assessment of their right to seek asylum or other forms of protection. The returns also constitute a violation of international human rights law, immigration and maritime law.

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The investigation, which began in April 2022, led to resignation of the now former Frontex director, Fabrice Leggeri, investigated by Olaf in the context of the allegations of having covered up serious violations of human rights throughout 2020. While in July 2022, seven humanitarian organizations active on the island of Samo, where one of the greatest detention centers for migrants of the European Union, have asked to Frontex to trigger Article 46 of the agency’s regulation. This mechanism requires the Frontex Executive Director to cease operations o withdraw funding for operations in those countries where serious or frequent human rights violations occur.

According to the organizations, these violations would include i rejectionswhich, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), would have been about 540 between January 2020 and June 2022. Furthermore, as the Der Spiegelthe Greek authorities would have committed other human rights violations at the border and contributed to the deaths of some people. One of the incidents described in the report concerns a group of migrants who arrived by rubber dinghy in Hellenic waters and briefly rescued by the Greek coast guard, only to be transferred back to the dinghy, without life jackets and abandoned adrift in Turkish waters.