EU governments deny the existence of a violent campaign by masked men to turn away asylum seekers at EU borders. A months-long investigation by @LHreports & leading media unmasks these groups, reveals who commands & finances them
Our reporting shows that these clandestine forces aren't masked vigilantes but police units who report to EU governments. The operations are denied in public but financed & equipped from EU budgets
In Croatia, we filmed 1st ever high-res footage of a violent pushback at the border with Bosnia Herzegovina. Forensic examination of the video reveals that the men had equipment & uniforms consistent with a branch of the Croatian police called Intervention Police
The men used a specific type of baton, called Tonfa, with which they beat Afghan & Pakistani asylum seekers. The Tonfa is only issued by Croatian authorities to the Intervention Police
In total @LHreports & partners filmed 11 pushbacks in Croatia. Drone footage shows a police officer covering his face with a balaclava before forcing at least 15 people over the border to Bosnia
Based on testimonies of police involved in border operations, violence is regularly used against asylum seekers & their property is stolen/confiscated, later burned at dumpsites. The whistleblowers said these actions were part of a national operation codenamed ‘Koridor’.
The Croatian gov established an Independent Monitoring Mechanism, a condition of EU funding, to track activities of the police at the borders. But reporting reveals 2/5 organizations making the pre-scheduled monitoring visits receive funding from Croatia’s interior ministry.
The EU significantly finances Croatia’s border operations, including Koridor. Open source evidence reveals that Intervention Police who are part of Koridor stay at hotels along the border when they are on mission. Hotels & per diems are paid out of the EU's Internal Security Fund
The jackets worn by police officers caught on video conducting a violent pushback match the specific descriptions found in the EU’s tender database. And in 2018, the EU allocated €6.8 million to Croatia to finance daily allowances and overtime payments for officers
In Romania, @LHreports used remote camera tech typically used by hunters to capture footage of Romanian police units pushing people back to Serbia. The videos are supported by testimony from the people who said they were seriously assaulted by police during these pushbacks.
In Greece, open source videos show masked men engaging in pushbacks on the high seas. Current & former senior Greek coast guard officers identified the masked men as members of elite Greek coast guard units: the Underwater Operations (MYA) and Special Operations (KEA) and (OEA).
For a thorough breakdown of our open source methods, investigators @bash_deeb and @JackSapoch compiled a twitter thread explaining their work
The EU is facilitating a deadly deportation machine in Turkey that is sending 100s of thousands of Afghans back to the Taliban & Syrians to ongoing conflict
A new investigation from @LHreports & partners reveals millions of euros spent on a system of abuse and forced returns 🧵
We found refugees in Turkey are being rounded up on the street, locked up & abused & then forced to sign 'voluntary' return forms
& Europe is supporting this system at every stage
@el_pais, @derspiegel, @politico, @nrc, @lemondefr, @espressonline, @Etilaatroz, @SIRAJ_SYRIA
In some cases, people deported by Turkey end up dead
Jamshid, an Afghan ex-military officer who tried to seek refuge in Turkey, was deported to Iran & then Afghanistan in the Summer of 2023
Tens of thousands of Black refugees & migrants are being rounded up across North Africa & dumped in the desert & remote areas, sometimes left for dead
These operations are secretly financed with European money, despite regional and EU denials 🧵
The EU has given 100s of millions of euros in “migration management” funding to Morocco, Tunisia & Mauritania
A year-long investigation reveals how this money facilitates a deadly system of mass arrests & displacements targeting people based on skin colour lighthousereports.com/investigation/…
The system works the same way in all 3 countries: people rounded up on the streets, taken from their homes or intercepted at sea
They're detained, loaded onto buses & left in the desert without food or water, at risk of kidnapping, extortion & sometimes death
What is France doing in return for UK cash to ‘stop the boats’?
Unseen footage obtained by @LHreports shows new aggressive campaign where French police carry out violent interceptions at sea – flooding & ramming into vessels & using pepper spray
Thread 🧵
The footage, plus leaked documents & testimonies - obtained with partners @lemondefr @ObserverUK @derspiegel - reveal French police have:
- Rammed into a dinghy at high speed
- Circled a dinghy, causing waves to flood it
- Punctured dinghies at sea, forcing people to swim ashore
One video shows a French police boat in Dunkirk harbour circling a dinghy with around 25 people aboard, creating a wake which floods it
Panicked passengers attempt to bail the water out using their shoes
Experts say this could have caused mass deaths in water 14+ metres deep
EU border agency @Frontex have been sharing coordinates of refugee boats in the Central Med with a ‘pirate’ vessel run by a Libyan militia known for kidnap & torture. The cooperation with the group, which is linked to Wagner, is an apparent violation of international law
The Tariq bin Zeyad militia has forcibly returned 1000+ refugees to Libya from the Central Med this year in a patrol vessel, also called TBZ. Refugee boats it intercepted were often first spotted by EU and Maltese surveillance aircraft & drones
International law forbids Frontex from sharing positions of refugee boats with Libyan Coast Guard vessels because Libya isn’t a safe place to return people to. Sharing directly with the TBZ, who don’t work for Libya’s official govt, is an even more serious violation
The no. of people travelling through the Balkans to claim asylum in Europe hit its highest since 2015 last year – & the route is now more deadly
We've found that a growing number of bodies of those attempting the journey are piling up in morgues or being buried without a trace
The Balkan route many thousands of refugees took in 2015 was largely open
But with help of EU & UK funding, fences have since been erected & security bolstered
This hasn't deterred people, it’s only pushed them to take more dangerous routes – on which some go missing & die
In the absence of a system that registers deceased or missing migrants, families looking for loved ones have to navigate an opaque & often hostile process
Sometimes the deceased are identified only after being buried in 'no name' graves. Many will forever remain unidentified
There is little public information about their special forces units, known as the ‘Triples’, or their partnership with UK forces, set up by the UK in the 2000s
They became central to Britain’s fight against the Taliban over 2 decades
By speaking to British veterans & 100+ ex-Triples, & obtaining reams of documents, we along with @Independent & @SkyNews gained insight into the closeness of the UK’s partnership w the Triples, officially called Commando Force 333 (CF333) & Afghan Territorial Force 444 (ATF444)