Thread by @we_are_solomon

🆕 #THREAD: On April 5, the European Court of Human Rights handed down a negative judgement on claims regarding the alleged pushback of approximately 1,500 asylum seekers into Greece via North Macedonia in 2016.

@Malichudis and @yuhsiang_wangTW report.

The case regards incidents that took place in March 2016, and offers an insight into the shift that would come in migration management within the continent.

As countries in the #Balkans began sealing off their borders with fences...

wearesolomon.com/mag/on-the-mov…

... #Idomeni, a small Greek village near the border with North Macedonia, became crowded with thousands of stranded asylum seekers who had to sleep in the open for weeks.

On March 14, 2016, approximately 1,500 asylum seekers entered North Macedonia on foot.

They were divided into two groups, and waded across a river, in what later became known as the “March of Hope”.

After crossing into North Macedonia, they were faced with mistreatment. Several reporters and photojournalists accompanying the groups were persecuted.

Recalling that day, Dayana, who had fled the war in Syria, said North Macedonian soldiers made them sleep outdoors, in the rain, surrounded by dogs and weapons, before they forced them back to Greece the next morning.

@ECCHRBerlin @ProAsyl

Dayana was among 8 asylum seekers that filed a case with the #ECHR later that year, claiming that their collective expulsion constituted a breach of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Their case was supported by @ECCHRBerlin and @ProAsyl.

ecchr.eu/en/case/from-i…

In its April 5 judgement, the #ECHR acknowledged the applicants had entered North Macedonian territory, before they were intercepted by soldiers who forced them to cross on foot back to Greece through holes in the newly-erected fence.

But, the court:

- found they could have entered N. Macedonia by the border points, where they could have sought asylum,

- although it acknowledged that at the time, transit in these border crossings “had effectively no longer been possible."

wearesolomon.com/mag/on-the-mov…

Hanaa Hakiki from @ECCHRBerlin told Solomon both state and @Refugees data show that between March 8 and September 21, 2016, North Macedonia registered *no* intentions of asylum-seekers to claim asylum anywhere in the country, including at border crossings.
wearesolomon.com/mag/on-the-mov…

The 6 years of the court procedure marked the shift in migration management within Europe.

Zoran Drangovski from @MYLA_Macedonia said that during the first steps of the trial, state officials working on the case would acknowledge that North Macedonia was set to lose the case.

As years passed, though, the same practices were normalized by more countries across the continent.

@Malichudis @yuhsiang_wangTW

wearesolomon.com/mag/on-the-mov…