Greece abusing and degrading migrants- report

In a report entitled "Stuck in a Revolving Door", Human Rights Watch (HRW) described how coast guards forced out migrants trying to enter Greece's territorial waters, sometimes puncturing their inflatable boats or disabling their vessels.For those who succeeded in entering Greece, authorities blocked asylum procedures and turned down around 98 percent of claims, said the report by the New York-based group.In northern Greece, migrants are routinely rounded up by police, beaten and ferried back across the Evros River into Turkey under cover of night, the 121-page study said."Greece denies protection to vulnerable people and abuses them in detention," said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at HRW and the author of the report."Until Greece cleans up its act, EU states shouldn't send asylum seekers back there."A Greek interior ministry official declined to comment.The European Commission estimates there are up to 8 million illegal migrants in the bloc, with up to half a million arriving every year.Under an EU rule known as the Dublin regulation, member states must send asylum seekers back to the country where they originally entered the 27-nation bloc.However, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR urged EU states in April to stop returning asylum seekers to Greece because of harsh conditions and the low approval rate of claims."The Dublin system traps asylum seekers in a revolving door," said Frelick. "They can't go home because of fear of war and persecution. They are almost never given asylum in Greece."The report cited one 34-year-old ethnic Turkoman from Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk who said he was arrested and held for five days by police, then taken to the Evros River at night with 60 other migrants and ferried across the river back to Turkey."They beat us with police clubs to get us to go on the boat," he said in the report. "I saw one man who tried to refuse to go on the boat and they beat him and threw him in the river."Human Rights Watch also accused Turkish authorities of detaining migrants in inhumane conditions and repatriating Iraqi migrants without giving them the chance to apply for asylum.The report said Iraqis had been warned by Greek police they would be held in prison longer if they applied for asylum."Every day I think I made a mistake to leave my country," one Iraqi Kurd was quoted as saying."I would be killed if I go back. But they treat you like a dog here. I have nothing."Photo: DHA