Scoop: Frontex has sent around 2200 emails with coordinates of refugee boats to the Libyan Coast Guard since 01/21 – while watching from the air how they hit, kick, shoot at migrants and drag them back to Libya, as per internal documents we obtained. @derspiegel @LHreports According to a letter by Frontex director Hans Leijtens to the European Parliament, "there were approximately 2200 emails sent by Frontex to RCC Libya, transmitting coordinates and other relevant information regarding vessels in state of emergency".

Im Mittelmeer schleppt eine brutale Miliz des Warlords Khalifa Haftar Flüchtlingsboote nach Libyen zurück. An Land werden die Flüchtlinge nach eigenen Angaben gefoltert, erpresst.

Die EU hilft dabei, wie unsere Recherchen @LHreports @derspiegel zeigen. 👇🧵 „Tareq Ben Zeyad" ist eine der gefährlichsten Milizen im Osten Libyens. Geführt wird sie von Saddam Haftar, dem Sohn des Warlords. Menschenrechtlern zufolge foltern und vergewaltigen seine Männer, lassen immer wieder Menschen verschwinden, exekutieren Gefangene.

Frontex has a budget of 845 Million euros, up from 6 million in 2005. Soon, it will likely reach a billion euros. So what is Europe's biggest agency doing with the money? Well, for instance, Frontex is financing tennis and basketball courts. 👇 Frontex budgeted more than a million euros in 2022 to renovate sports facilities in Ávila, Spain, our investigation shows @derspiegel @LHreports. Money was spent on an athletics track, a tennis court, basketball courts. All so the new Standing Corps recruits could train well.

Exklusiv @derspiegel: Baerbocks Außenministerium blockiert die versprochene Millionenhilfe für die zivile Seenotrettung. Sie war vom Bundestag vergangenes Jahr beschlossen worden. Geflossen ist sie bis heute nicht. Thread 👇
spiegel.de/politik/deutsc… Es geht um insgesamt acht Millionen Euro für »United 4 Rescue«. Doch das Auswärtige Amt habe gleich zu Beginn signalisiert, dass nur Projekte an Land unterstützt werden könnten, sagt Vorstandsmitglied Liza Pflaum.

Now in English, without paywall: We read the secret OLAF report that reveals the full extent of the #Frontexscandal. The agency covered up the Greek pushback campaign and even helped to finance it.👇 spiegel.de/international/… The report confirms our previous reporting – and adds incredible details, based on private messages. Instead of preventing the pushbacks, Leggeri and his team covered for Greece, blatantly lied to the EU Parliament and its own Management Board.

Exclusive: We were able to read the confidential #OLAF report on #Frontex' involvement in Greek pushbacks in Aegean. It shows in detail that Greece commits pushbacks, Frontex financed them and covered them up – some incredible gems in there.
spiegel.de/ausland/fronte… The report confirms all our reporting – and adds important details, based on private messages. Instead of preventing the pushbacks, Leggeri and his team covered for Greece, blatantly lied to the EU Parliament, and concealed the fact that Frontex is financing them.

#Spain considered delivering #Leopard tanks Ukraine. Then Berlin told them off, according to @derspiegel info @MelAmann.

According to govnmt sources, 🇩🇪 warned 🇪🇸 that this step would be a departure from the informal decision of West not to supply Kiev with western tanks 1/4 „Apparently, the plan was leaked before anyone in the Spanish government who was familiar with the issue had been involved, the German government said somewhat mockingly.“ 2/4

Exclusive @derspiegel @LHreports:

We now have internal photos proving Frontex and Fabrice Leggeri knew early on about the Greek pushback campaign and covered it up. Never has an illegal pushback been captured so clearly. Images in 🧵
spiegel.de/ausland/fronte… The pushback was recorded by a Frontex aircraft on April 18/April 19 2020. Images show clearly how the Hellenic Coast Guard is towing a migrant boat.

#Frontex had evidence of human rights violations in Greece & either did nothing or covered it up. The report by the @Europarl_EN, seen by @derspiegel, states that Leggeri made his Fundamental Rights Officer delete info on a pushback case!

spiegel.de/ausland/geflue… This was the case on April 18/19 2020. Frontex recorded a clear Greek pushback from the air. Leggeri buried the case, mislead parliament about it. We had published on the case before, now we know how far he went. He even made the FRO delete the material. spiegel.de/ausland/wie-fr…

According to @derspiegel info, UNHCR has given the Greek authorities info about "several hundred" suspected illegal pushbacks. UNHCR demands an investigation and consequences. 1/X
spiegel.de/politik/auslan… UNHCR has previously demanded an investigation, but now they are pressing the Greeks harder than ever. "The right to asylum is under attack in Europe", @UNHCRGirard told me. 2/X

Hat sich wirklich eine schwangere Frau auf Lesbos angezündet? @welt warf uns eine Falschmeldung vor – auf Basis eines Berichts der Bundespolizei, in dem von einem "Kochunfall" die Rede ist.

Wir haben den Fall rekonstruiert. Ein Thread.
spiegel.de/politik/auslan… So zitiert die Welt die Bundespolizei: "Nach Infos, die IOM vorliegen, und laut Fotos der Verletzungen handelt es sich nach Einschätzung des Beauftragten für Flucht und Migration [der dt. Botschaft] um einen gewöhnlichen Kochunfall – hauptsächlich Verbrennungen an den Armen."

In an interview with FAZ, #Frontex Director Fabrice Leggeri claims that asylum seekers in the Aegean turn around voluntarily as soon as they see the Greek Coast Guard. (He thus accepts the Greek Government's lie and makes it his own.) Short thread. Leggeri says the migrants do so because many of them "come from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. These people return because they know they are not entitled to international protection."

Die griechische Regierung will die #Moria-Flüchtlinge in geschlossene Lager stecken. Das war schon immer eine schlechte Idee - unter diesen Umständen ist sie unverantwortlich. Bear with me. 👇 1. Die Gefängnislager nehmen den Menschen die Freiheit, obwohl sie nur ihr Recht (!) auf ein Asylverfahren in Anspruch nehmen. Schutz zu suchen, ist keine Straftat. Flüchtlinge sind keine Kriminellen.

On March 4, Muhammad Gulzar was shot and killed at the Greek-Turkish border. Our weeks long investigation @derspiegel @ForensicArchi @LHreports @bellingcat shows that it was probably Greek soldiers who killed him. THREAD
spiegel.de/international/… Together with @g_christides @Maximilian_Popp we interviewed two dozen witnesses, including injured refugees, border guards and doctors. We reviewed Muhammad Gulzar’s autopsy report and met his widow, Saba Khan.

Muhammad Gulzar starb am 4. März bei dem Versuch, den türkisch-griechischen Grenzzaun zu überwinden. Unsere wochenlangen Recherchen legen nahe, dass er von griechischen Grenzschützern erschossen wurde. THREAD (1/20) Gemeinsam mit @ForensicArchi, @LHreports und @bellingcat haben wir den verhängnisvollen Tag an Europas Außengrenze rekonstruiert.
spiegel.de/politik/auslan… (2/20)

Von der Leyen today at Turkish-Greek border: „We will hold the line.“

I do not understand this language, at least to me it seems like it echoes a language used at war. And we are not at war. Migrants and refugees are not enemies. Some examples in the thread 👇 The Patriot, 1:01
„Hold the line! Hold the line! Hold!“

Erdogan hat die Grenzen für Flüchtlinge geöffnet. Was passiert in der Türkei und and den Grenzen zu Griechenland? 👇THREAD zu unserer Reportage @derspiegel spiegel.de/politik/auslan… In Istanbul drängelten sich gestern vor allem Syrer und Afghanen in Busse, die Hunderte Menschen an die Grenze brachten. Einer von ihnen war Abdullah Ruhabi, aus Aleppo, sein Ticket war gratis: Sein Ziel: Deutschland.