AYS News Digest 24/02/23 — “I couldn’t walk for 10 days”: Violence and Abuse in Greek Detention
Geo Barents: Detained for saving lives // Citizenship stripping and racism in the UK // Worth attending to and reading
FEATURE
Every week in Athens someone you know gets taken into detention. Most of those taken are waiting for new appointments to appeal their asylum decision but are taken by the police during paper checks in targeted urban spaces where people on the move spend time. Once someone is detained there is no way of knowing how long they will be held for or if you will be able to contact them. All that is certain is that they will face dire living conditions and the constant threat of violence in remote areas were they have no access to their support networks.
This week, three comprehensive reports came out from human rights organizations detailing abuse in almost every corner of Greece, from the Closed Controlled Access Centres on the islands to the mainland detention and pre-removal facilities. The quote in the title comes from a respondent in Paranesti Pre Removal Denention Centre (PRDC) in Drama in a testimony taken from the Border Violence Monitoring Network during which he describes being beaten by the officers present in the PRDC. Their report, Dark Rooms, degrading treatment and denial: The use of violence in Greece’s pre-removal detention centres draws from 50 testimonies by respondents who were detained in one of six PRDCs on the Greek mainland since 2020: Xanthi, Paranesti, Corinth, Amygdaleza, Tavros (Petrou Ralli) and Fylakio, as well as several police stations or holding facilities across Greece including Metagogon (Thessaloniki), Athens airport and Isaakio police station.
People across Greece are experiencing state sanctioned violence every day, often in EU funded facilities.
In “Prison for Papers”: Last Resort Measures as Standard Procedure Researching Pre-removal Detention Centres on Mainland Greece, The Mobile Info Team along with Border Criminologies also examine Pre-removal detention in Greece. They found an average detention period of five months, but the longest period of detention was 33 months. They conclude by highlighting the difficulties that individuals and organizations face when reporting on these issues, as detainees often have their phones taken from them or their cameras disabled, making it impossible for people to record the sitaution they are living in.
Yes of course everyone, they took everyone’s phones, cameras from us. The detention that I was in, as I know from 160 people, no one has any cameras and actually if the police find anyone with a camera, then they are in trouble. — Makan, Paranesti PRDC, Drama
I Have Rights have instead looked at the situation for people on the move in Samos, and the surveillance and de facto detention of new arrivals in the Closed and Controlled Access Centre (CCAC), funded by the EU. They provide an important legal analysis of why this is not legal under international law.
The de facto detention of people on the move facilitates the evasion of detention safeguards otherwise required when an order for detention is issued. In addition to deprivation of liberty or arbitrary detention — contrary to Article 5 of the ECHR, Article 6 of the CFR, and Article 9 ICCPR — this report raises concern over the potential breach of several fundamental rights guarantees of people within the CCAC.
Covid-19 is still being used as a reason for detention. From the the 1st of May 2022 Greece dropped all COVID-19 entry measures for tourists, yet on the 27th of October 2022 a mandatory quarantine was brought in for all those applying for international protection at the Reception and Identification Centres in Greece. This has led to an average detention period of 12 days, but the longest recorded stay was three weeks. Unaccompanied children also face detention under this measure, as they are not identified prior to quarantine.
They conclude by asking that all CCACs be closed and that the EU Commission stops funding these structures and instead supports the housing of people in regular and dignified accommodation. And so we also ask, given the evidence, given the weight of each human life, isn’t it time for this violence to finally end?
SEA
Geo Barents: Detained for saving lives
On 23rd February, the Italian authorities informed MSF that the Geo Barents, the search and rescue ship of Doctors Without Borders, has been given an administrative detention of 20 days and a fine of 10 thousand euros.
This is the first measure issued against a non-governmental organization since the introduction of the so-called “NGO decree” brought into law by the far right Italian government this month. The accusation is that that on January 25th, the ship had changed course for a second rescue defying the decree of the Interior Ministry to go to their pre-assigned port. While looking for the ship in distress, the Geo Barents came across a third boat in difficulty in the SAR Libya area and rescued a further 61 people, including 13 women and 24 minors. When the third and final rescue was completed there were 237 people on board.
At the start of the month, Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, wrote to Matteo Piantedosi, Minister of the Interior of Italy, to ask them to reconsider the decree as it prevents NGO ships from carrying out their obligations under international and maritime law.
Due to the reduction in state-operated search and rescue operations at sea, NGOs have been providing invaluable assistance to member states in preserving human life at sea. The implementation of the Decree, paired with the practice of assigning distant places of safety, will have the foreseeable consequence of depriving the deadliest migration route of the life-saving assistance provided by NGOs.
Despite this, the decree was voted into law on the 23rd and immediately used to penalise an NGO search and rescue ship, putting lives at risk and punishing those to work to save them.
UK
Citizenship stripping and racism
Shamima Begum, a British woman who was likely trafficked out of the UK by ISIS when she was just 15, has lost her appeal at the Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal over the stripping of her UK citizenship.
The Commission ruled that the UK Home Secretary’s power to strip Begum of her citizenship was not limited by her likely being a child victim of trafficking, or that it leaves her de facto stateless. — Human Rights Watch
This is obviously a concerning move in the UK political game over immigration with potential impacts for all people residing in the UK, or seeking protection there, who have, or have the possibility to have, a second nationality.
Along with thousands of others, including large numbers of women and children, this young British woman is now trapped in a dangerous refugee camp in a war-torn country and left largely at the mercy of gangs and armed groups.
Just as other nations have done, the UK should be helping any of its citizens stranded in Syria — including by assisting in their safe return to the UK, whether or not that means facing possible criminal investigation or prosecution. — Amnesty International
WORTH ATTENDING TO AND READING
In defence of defenders: criminalised solidarity in Europe: The Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, in cooperation with the Border Violence Monitoring Network, would like to cordially invite you to join our launch event and online panel discussion on how to support criminalised Human Rights Defenders in Europe on a policy, legal and practical level.
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