On November 29, Greek authorities removed 18 asylum seekers who had managed to reach #Lesbos, put them on a life raft and then left them adrift in the Aegean, despite increased EU scrutiny over #pushbacks, a new @derspiegel investigation reveals 1/ spiegel.de/politik/auslan…
2/ One of them is Angela, 28, from Burundi. On the 29th, she met and was photographed (left pic) by a Greek university professor walking with his wife in Lesbos. She is now in Izmir (middle and right pics with a newspaper showing the date) where we interviewed her 
3/ Based on interviews with some of the asylum seekers, audiovisual material captured by hidden phones by migrants, shared with us by Norwegian NGO @ABR and verified by our researchers, and eye-witness accounts, we reconstructed how the operation took place
4/ The group spent the night hiding, was picked up by GR authorities the next day, who, instead of placing them in quarantine at the #refugee camp, took them north to the port of Petra, where they were summarily deported. The Turkish Coast Guard picked them up at 5AM
5/ In response to detailed questions by Der Spiegel, Greek authorities refrained from commenting on the specifics, repeating the mantra that they always act in accordance with the law.
6/ The illegal, collective expulsion happened a day before @Frontex chief Leggeri appeared before the @Europarl_EN to defend his agency's track record and pushing responsibility to Athens to investigate the mounting reports of pushbacks in the Aegean.
7/ On Wednesday, Frontex's management board is expected to appoint an inquiry team to investigate all cases of pushbacks suspected of involving agency assets
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