Thread by @saracreta

I just returned from #Turkey. I have spent days with Afghan & Syrian communities in Istanbul & at the border with #Bulgaria. I spoke with lawyers & local activists & archived evidences of pushbacks filmed by refugees who managed to survive violence & repression.

A few thoughts.

For the last years, #Turkey is the 1st address where Afghan refugees either stay permanently or wait at a transit point to cross to #Europe. Besides exploitation by employers & lack of access to public services, they are now facing the threat of detention or deportation to #Iran.

You’ll find them in #Zeytinburnu where restaurants employ a steady stream of runaways, including minors. I met young couples who already paid over the odds for passage over #Iran's treacherous mountains, sometimes waist-deep in snow & are now saving for another perilous journey.

Migrants are regularly rounded up for repatriation. Tensions with locals are increasing & #Istanbul's districts - Küçükçekmece, Başakşehir, Bağcılar, Avcılar, Bahçelievler, Sultangazi, Esenler & Zeytinburnu – have been closed for issuing any residence permit to foreign nationals.

Routes to #Europe are cut off, as many are daily pushed back. Often injured, traumatised & scared they turn - once again - to new smuggling networks. Smugglers are using luxury sailboats to sneak families to Italy & can make about 500,000 euros/trip on a stolen sailboat.

The sailboats are typically operated by Ukrainian and Russian smugglers working together with the Turkish mobsters and Italian clans. Families have reportedly paid 8,500€ each for adult spots on the sailboats, with children costing 4,000€.

Those who can’t afford the crossing to Italy are brutally mistreated by Bulgarian and Greek authorities. They are routinely stripped of their clothes & beaten. These deadly & dehumanising pushbacks violate int. & EU law but are a central feature of contemporary EU border regime.

Despite attempts to silence their voices, undermine insurgent perspectives & stifle their capacity to draw attention to these violations, with @LHreports we are documenting & archiving survivor testimonies to construct a counternarrative of refusal & subvert the EU knowledge.

I believe our investigative work helps to undermine the epistemic violence at the borders & create cracks in the EU hegemonic narrative. Survivors ask safety, justice & accountability. More will be coming out soon so watch this space.