A Palestinian mother and her three children had to hide in the woods in Greece to escape forceful pushbacks while the rest of her group were forced back toward Turkey, the Guardian reported on Tuesday.
After hiding in the mountains with the children, where the family had to drink water from streams and had to struggle to stay alive, the mother, Aisha, went to the office of Dimitris Choulis, an immigration lawyer based on the Greek island of Samos.
According to Guardian, Aisha said “pushback” and the lawyer understood what happened.
“The arrival and apparent pushback of the group had been reported by local media, which said island residents had given water to some of the arrivals and were now being pressured by authorities into saying that the group “never existed,” it said.
Aisha explained that the others had been caught and deported back to Turkey while she was determined not to go back and stay on the island. “It was a stressful and dangerous journey,” Aisha was reported as saying. “We were (suffering) hunger, thirst and the terror of being caught,” she said.
Choulis stated that the crime of pushback could be easily proven as “the family appears in photos published by the Norwegian NGO Aegean Boat Report, which documented the arrival of a group of 32 asylum seekers on Samos on April 21.”
The Greek coastguard, however, reportedly rejected the accusations, saying there was no incident on that date.
Furthermore, the U.N. refugee agency told the Guardian there were indications of a pushback. “On April 21, UNHCR received a message that a group, including women and children, had arrived on Samos,” said Mireille Girard, a UNHCR representative. “We sought information multiple times from the local and central authorities but did not receive confirmation of any arrival.”
Girard further stated that the situation was “concerning.”
Pushbacks are considered contrary to international refugee protection agreements, which say people should not be expelled or returned to a country where their life and safety might be in danger due to their race, religion, nationality or membership in a social or political group.
Turkey and Greece have been key transit points for migrants aiming to cross into Europe, fleeing war and persecution to start new lives. Turkey has also accused Greece of large-scale pushbacks and summary deportations without access to asylum procedures, which is a violation of international law. It also accuses the EU of turning a blind eye to what it says is a blatant abuse of human rights.
The news article elaborated that Aisha fled an abusive marriage in Palestine and was worried that her husband would find her in Turkey, for which she sought safety elsewhere.
“We had been living in a tragic situation in Palestine, and I left to Turkey and it was worse, and then I made it to Greece and it was even worse. I hope to see (my children) in a place where they can play and be educated.”
Aisha and her three children are currently in a refugee camp in Samos while their application for asylum has been accepted.
Most recently, Amnesty International criticized Greek authorities for the torture, ill-treatment and illegal pushback of migrants and refugees to Turkey, saying that the country's practice had become its "de facto" border policy.
In a new report, the rights group described 21 incidents that involved around 1,000 people.
Many had been subjected to violence before being transferred back to Turkey, Adriana Tidona, migration researcher for Europe at Amnesty, said in the report.
The pushbacks, on land and at sea, sometimes involved people apprehended as far as 700 kilometers (435 miles) inside Greek territory, said Amnesty.
Another example of Greece’s illegal acts toward asylum seekers was brought to light on Tuesday by the Turkish defense ministry.
Turkish border guards detained dozens of irregular migrants who were strip-searched and beaten by Greek officials across the border. The ministry noted that some 42 irregular migrants, including 12 naked individuals, were detained in Edirne province near the Greek border.
The migrants told the Turkish border units that the Greek side did not give them food or water, mistreated them, stripped them and forced them to cross into Turkey.
