Frontex continues covering up pushbacks from Greece- Aegean Boat Report

European Union boarder agency, Frontex, has been accused of Continuing to Cover up Pushbacks From Greece.

Aegean Boat Report, an organization that monitors people’s movement in the Aegean Sea made the allegation on its website.

It said: “In the afternoon of 25 January, a boat carrying 38 people, all Afghans, had almost reached land in the north of Lesvos, when they were stopped by two vessels from the Greek Coast guard, and illegally pushed back to Turkey.

“This happened while a Latvian Frontex vessel was present, seemingly only observing. It did nothing to intervene while these violations were performed by Greek authorities in front of them.

“In the videos taken by the refugees and presented to Aegean Boat Report, three vessels can be seen, two from the Greek coastguard – a white two-engine speedboat and a Lambro 57 coastal patrol vessel – and a Latvian registered OPS vessel, ID number RK-30, currently a part of Frontex’Operation Poseidon, stationed on Lesvos.”

Aegean Boat Report added that “The Greek coast guard towed the rubber boat back towards Turkey, and sat it adrift inside Turkish waters, leaving 38 people helplessly drifting in the middle of the sea.
A few hours later, they were found by the Turkish coast guard and taken back to Turkey.

“The Latvian Frontex vessel, clearly present while this was happening, should have filed a report after the incident, as the agency’s rules state its operatives must report any incident in which there are suspicions or indications that violations of international laws or human rights have been committed; this time by Greek authorities.”

In this case, it said: “since the rubber boat carrying 38 people had been stopped and towed back, and this had happened while a Frontex vessel had been present, there shouldn’t be much doubt that the Greek coast guard had performed an illegal pushback.

“Strangely enough, no report was filed by the captain of the Latvian Frontex vessel. We can only speculate about why this wasn’t done.

“According to EBCG Regulation and the Frontex Codes of Conduct, every participant in Frontex operational activities, must immediately report in the form of a Serious Incident Report (SIR), any situation of possible violations of fundamental rights.”

Despite this clear ruling, Aegean Boat Report said “we have investigated several cases – many of which we will publish the coming month – in which Frontex vessels have been involved in, or at least present during, pushbacks.

“One common factor in all these cases is that Frontex vessels involved have not filed any reports. This means they are covering up Greek authorities’ human rights violations.”