EU and Turkey 'tossed rights to the wind' with refugee deportations
The newly instituted EU-sanctioned deportations of migrants and refugees to Turkey are were "rushed" and "chaotic," according to a human rights group.
A new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) details what it says are violations of the human rights of those deported to Turkey after making a dangerous boat journey across the Aegean to the Greek islands.
The first group of 66 people to be sent from Chios to Turkey on April 4 lost contact with family and friends held in Greece, and Turkish authorities have not allowed visits by rights groups or the United Nations, according to HRW. The group says the hurried nature of the deportations meant that many people were unaware they were being sent to Turkey before being placed on a boat.
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They were not able to take their personal possession with them, according to HRW.
“In the mad dash to start the deportations deal with Turkey, the European Union and Greece tossed rights to the wind, including for people who wanted to seek asylum,” said Fred Abrahams, Human Rights Watch associate director for program, in a statement. “The abusive deportations expose the fundamental flaws in the EU’s expedited mass returns to a country that cannot be considered safe.”
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Some of the deportations may have actually violated international humanitarian law. According to the UN Refugee Agency, 13 of those deported from Chios had expressed a desire to seek asylum in Greece, which should have granted them amnesty in the country.
“The EU deal is based on the deceptive premise that all returned people are safe in Turkey, when the facts say otherwise,” Abrahams said. “To build walls around Europe, the EU is turning a blind eye to the dangers faced by people in desperate need.”
Those being deported are not the only ones facing desperate conditions.
A new report from The Guardian detailed how Greek authorities are failing to provide for the most basic needs of people being held in detention centers on the Greek islands.
For example, infants being held in one center in Chios are only being provided one-third of the recommended amount of formula needed.
"Approximately 25 babies under the age of six months, whose mothers are unable to breastfeed, are being given roughly 100ml of milk formula just once a day on the island of Chios, according to photographs sent by detained refugees and testimonies provided by phone," according to reporting from The Guardian's Patrick Kingsley.
Those in makeshift camps across the country are faring no better.
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Megan Specia was Mashable's Assistant Real-Time News Editor and joined the team in September 2014. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism & Mass Communications from the University of New Hampshire after growing up in the Jersey 'burbs. She made her way to New York via a four year stopover in Dublin. Megan previously worked as a journalist and editor at Storyful in both Dublin and New York. Before all of that, though, her claim to fame was as head cake arranger and purveyor of all things sweet at Queen of Tarts cafe in Dublin, where she developed a serious addiction to macarons.
