ATHENS – As Greece has denied pushing back refugees – while trying to keep them out by almost any means – a group of United Nations human rights analysts said there has been “racist violence” used against some seeking asylum.

The UN pointed to the findings from its Human Rights Council-appointed eight experts, including Special Rapporteur Ashwini K.P. that urged Greece to investigate violence the government denied happened.

The soft recommendations in diplomatic terms were for Greece to adopt “safe and impartial” border policies, which didn’t mention a 16-foot high anti-refugee wall with razor wire near the border with Turkey.

The panel also said that Greece must hold law officers accountable for abuses the government said didn’t happen although Supreme Court prosecutor Georgia Adeilini separately ordered an investigation into whether refugees were being subjected to violence in border crossings.

The experts said they were “particularly concerned” by the failure of the country’s security personnel and Coast Guard to provide “prompt and effective” assistance to migrants in distress and ensure safe disembarkation and adequate reception.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/08/1139997

Earlier in August, they asked for more information from the government on a case involving 12 asylum seekers from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, including a six-month-old infant, who had reached Greek territory only to be rounded up by masked men, stripped of their belongings and forcibly taken to the port of Mytilene on Lesbos in April.

“The violence, which was captured on video – verified, and reported by the media – exposed the racist exclusion and cruelty of Europe’s border protection practices,” they declared.

“The past 12 months have been among the deadliest for asylum seekers, refugees and migrants of African descent and others on their journeys, particularly along sea and land routes in the Middle East and North Africa region, and in perilous Sahara and Mediterranean crossings,” they noted.

Turkey is holding some 4.4 million refugees and is supposed to contain them under an essentially-suspended 2016 swap deal with the European Union and hasn’t stopped human traffickers from sending them to Greece.

They had gone to Turkey fleeing war, strife and economic hardship in their homelands, primarily Syria and Afghanistan, but as far as sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh, seeking a better life in the EU.

“While the investigation is ongoing, there is growing evidence of a deliberate and coordinated policy of forcible return and other dehumanizing border control practices by Greece “going far beyond deterrence and in contravention of its international obligations”.

“The role of racism and systemic racism in the treatment of asylum-seekers must be confronted within any meaningful review of these practices,” the group said.

It was pointed out that states have human rights obligations to meet as well as abiding by laws to protect refugees and migrants and the dangers they face in trying to reach other countries.

A lack of regular migration pathways, coupled with restrictive migration policies, xenophobic rhetoric and many other push factors, operate to aggravate dangers and risks rather than mitigate them, they said.

They also found alleged unlawful, arbitrary, and collective expulsion of the asylum-seekers worrisome in violating due process and protections under the 1951 Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights.

They said it was important to safeguard the lives of Africans “to ensure that their human rights, security and dignity are also preserved with special protection measures for those – including women and children – who are at most risk.”

Special rapporteurs and experts who serve on Working Groups are not UN staff and are independent from any government or organization. They serve in their individual capacity and aren’t paid for their work.