Greece
on brink of chaos as refugees riot over forced return to Turkey
Rival
ethnic groups clash in Piraeus and 800 break out of detention centre
on Chios as EU deal brings desperation
Helena Smith in
Athens
Sunday 3 April 2016
04.29 BST
The Greek government
is bracing itself for violence ahead of the European Union
implementing a landmark deal that, from Monday, will see Syrian
refugees and migrants being deported back to Turkey en masse.
Rioting and
rebellion by thousands of entrapped refugees across Greece has
triggered mounting fears in Athens over the practicality of enforcing
an agreement already marred by growing concerns over its legality.
Islands have become flashpoints, with as many as 800 people breaking
out of a detention centre on Chios on Friday.
Some 750 migrants
are set to be sent back between Monday and Wednesday from the island
of Lesbos to the Turkish port of Dikili.
“We are expecting
violence. People in despair tend to be violent,” the leftist-led
government’s migration spokesman, Giorgos Kyritsis, told the
Observer. “The whole philosophy of the deal is to deter human
trafficking [into Europe] from the Turkish coast, but it is going to
be difficult and we are trying to use a soft approach. These are
people have fled war. They are not criminals.”
Barely 24 hours
ahead of the pact coming into force, it emerged that Frontex, the EU
border agency, had not dispatched the appropriate personnel to
oversee the operation. Eight Frontex boats will transport men, women
and children, who are detained on Greek islands and have been
selected for deportation, back across the Aegean following fast-track
asylum hearings. But of the 2,300 officials the EU has promised to
send Greece only 200 have so far arrived, Kyritsis admitted.
“We are still
waiting for the legal experts and translators they said they would
send,” he added. “Even Frontex personnel haven’t got here yet.”
Humanitarian aid also earmarked for Greece had similarly been held
up, with the result that the bankrupt country was managing the crisis
– and continued refugee flows – on very limited funds from the
state budget.
On Saturday
overstretched resources were evident in the chaos on Chios where
detainees, fearing imminent deportation, had not only run amok,
breaking through razorwire enclosing a holding centre on the island,
but in despair had marched on the town’s port. In the stampede
three refugees were stabbed as riot police tried to control the
crowds with stun guns and teargas. The camp, a former recycling
factory, had been ransacked, with cabins and even fingerprint
equipment smashed.
“If they make me
go back to Turkey I’ll throw myself and my family into the sea,”
said Mustafa, a Syrian waiting with his wife and children at the port
of Chios told Agence France-Presse. “We went from hell to hell.”
“This is what
happens when you have 30 policemen guarding 1,600 refugees determined
to get out,” said Benjamin Julian, an Icelandic volunteer speaking
from the island. “I witnessed it all and I know that all the time
they were chanting ‘freedom, freedom, freedom’ and ‘no Torkia
[Turkey], no Torkia’. That is what they want and are determined to
get.”
In the mayhem that
had ensued, panic-stricken local authorities had been forced to
divert the daily ferry connecting the island with the mainland for
fear it would be stormed.
Similar outbreaks of
violence had also occurred in Piraeus, Athens’ port city, where
eight young men had been taken to hospital after riots erupted
between rival ethnic groups on Wednesday.
With tensions on the
rise in Lesbos, the Aegean island that has borne the brunt of the
flows, and in Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonia frontier where around
11,000 have massed since the border’s closure, NGOs warned of a
timebomb in the making. Hopes of numbers decreasing following the
announcement of the EU-Turkey deal have been dispelled by a renewed
surge in arrivals with the onset of spring.
Official figures
showed that 52,147 refugees and migrants were stranded in the country
at the weekend, with 6,129 registered on Aegean islands that had been
almost completely evacuated after the accord was reached on 20
March.. Last year, more than 1.1 million irregular migrants streamed
into Europe with over 850,000 pouring into the continent through
Greece.
Pleas from Athens to
fellow EU member states to reopen the Balkan route have fallen on
deaf ears.
.webp)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário