Thread by @LHreports

While tourists on ferries are sipping from their sundowners, people - including children - are chained & locked up below decks in dark places

@LHreports & partners has investigated illegal returns of refugees by Italy to Greece

Refugees from Afghanistan, Syria & Iraq risk their lives stowing away on ferries bound for the Italian ports in the hope of claiming asylum

Instead, when caught by authorities, they are locked up on ferries & sent back to Greece without any procedure, in breach of interntnl law

Last month, @LHreports & partners revealed the existence of “black sites” – clandestine places of detention – where refugees are denied the right to seek asylum & illegally imprisoned on EU land borders before being forced back
lighthousereports.nl/investigation/…

https://twitter.com/LHreports/status/1600734089354829824

Now, we have captured images of unofficial “prisons” that are used to detain asylum seekers on 3 passenger ships travelling Greece and Italy, sometimes handcuffed to metal shelves, as they are illegally deported

@saracreta interviewed a refugee from Afghanistan who managed to take a selfie while being handcuffed to metal shelves on the @SuperfastF(ast) II

The vessel runs between the Italian port of Bari & the Greek ports of Igoumenitsa & Patras - a journey that takes around 12 hours

"I couldn't lie down because of the handcuffs," the man, named Abdulmanan, said

"Once they brought me something to eat & drink. They took off my handcuffs. After that, they chained me again."

He said he was put there after being denied the right to apply for asylum in Italy

On the Superfast I ferry, refugees are locked up in a metal box with just a piece of cardboard & sheet

Some left messages on the walls, while others appear to have tried to escape by climbing the walls

The secret detention sites on the Superfast ferries are located next to where lorries are parked - an area that is considered unsafe for passengers to be during the journey

Yet asylum seekers are locked up there for the duration of the trip

A small room with a broken toilet & ceiling on the 7th floor of the Asterion II has been made into a makeshift prison

Refugees have scribbled their names & dates of detention on the wall while tourists enjoyed hot meals just metres away

Italy has justified these “readmissions” under a bilateral agreement with Greece - an agreement that was never ratified by the Italian parliament

The return of asylum seekers under this agreement was ruled unlawful by @ECHR_CEDH in 2014
asylumlawdatabase.eu/en/content/ect…

Italy has since repeatedly claimed that this practice has stopped, & has pushed for official monitoring of its border processes at the port - which were put in place following the ECHR judgement - to be stopped on the basis that the violations are no longer occurring

But @LHreports @AJEnglish @ARD_Presse #Monitor @srfnews @DomaniGiornale @we_are_solomon can reveal that the practices are still ongoing

More than a dozen people from Afghanistan, Syria & Iraq told us they have been subject to this treatment in the last 12 months

Among them are children. We have verified 3 cases where under-18 have been returned via ferry from Italy to Greece in this way

One 16-yo Afghan named Baloosh said: “They sent me back to Greece by boat, illegally. They didn't ask me at all about my asylum claim or anything else."

Personnel on board of the ferries, all owned by the Greek company Attica, confirmed to us that they are detaining asylum seekers & directed us to the locations where people are being detained

A number of crew members referred to the detention places as “prisons”

Hundreds of these illegal returns have taken place in the last 2 years

The Greek authorities confirmed that 157 people were returned from Italy to Greece in 2021, and 74 in 2022 - although experts believe that not all cases are documented

Italy can assess whether an asylum seeker can be returned to Greece under the Dublin Regulation, which enables returns of people who have already lodged a claim in another EU state

But this process usually takes at least 1 month, during which they cannot remove the individual

A team of great journalists worked on this for months: @saracreta @Malichudis @JackSapoch @maybulman @klaasvandijken @horlacher_maj @ConradinZ
@Julia_Regis_ @LisaSeemann_ @jonahhull

Visit our website for the full list of publications

lighthousereports.nl/investigation/…