#Greece has announced that it intends to request #EU funding to extend the border fence in the Evros region.
This is an area already riddled with pushbacks, violence and deaths.
Some thoughts 👇 on why this cannot and should not happen 🧵
nytimes.com/2022/02/02/wor…
The extended fence would be built in an already highly militarized border, with abundant border guards patrolling (including via @Frontex), thermal cameras and even a sound cannon being reportedly used.
euronews.com/my-europe/2021…
Greece recently announced they had prevented 40K entries at this border in 2022 alone.
greekcitytimes.com/2022/05/29/gre…
In 2021 @amnesty documented 21 pushbacks by 🇬🇷authorities (19 in Evros), mostly violent, estimated to have affected 1,000+ people.
Victims went through detention & heinous abuse, sometimes amounting to torture, by 🇬🇷 authorities in cooperation with civilians, often armed.
In August '21 @YlvaJohansson declared that the release of additional border control funding to Greece would be conditional on the creation of an independent border monitoring mechanism to help prevent & investigate violations.
This is yet to happen.
bit.ly/3x0OFqb
Greece’s National Transparency Authority, tasked with monitoring violations, fails to meet the conditions for independence and lacks the necessary expertise on the matter.
Its first investigation into pushbacks, which found no violations, was flawed.
gcr.gr/en/news/press-…
And even breached #privacy/#GDPR regulations.
politico.eu/article/greek-…
Meanwhile, as recently as April, the @ECHR_CEDH granted interim measures in several cases of Syrian refugees, incl. 44 children, stranded on an islet in the Evros river, requesting Greece provide humanitarian assistance and not to remove the individuals.
Some of those individuals had already been pushed back to #Turkey
gcr.gr/en/news/press-…
The @EU_Commission is failing to enforce compliance with EU law and fundamental rights in this area.
Incredibly, the Vice President of the European Commission @MargSchinas does not see this as part of his role.
We need more safe pathways, and an end to pushbacks.
EU must build bridges, not walls.
And we need a tranparent and effective investigation into pushbacks and #humanrights violations at borders.
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