‘At least three – and in fact almost certainly four – men died on Friday 19 March 2021. They drowned having been adrift as part of a group of seven people in the Aegean Sea in a life-raft identical to those used by the Greek government for illegal push-backs. All seven had been cuffed with plastic hand restraints.
From 1 March to 31 December 2020, 3,973 men, women and children were registered as new arrivals at refugee camps on the Aegean islands. But in the same period, 9,741 people were pushed back via sea routes by the Greek government.
From 1 January to 21 March 2021, 581 men, women and children were registered at the island refugee camps. In the same period, 46 pushbacks, in which 1,157 men, women and children have – entirely against their will, and in direct breach of international law – been forced into engineless life rafts and set adrift.
People are dying as a result. And meanwhile, the Greek government tells the international community it is not pushing people back, but tells Greek people it IS, and is right to do so.
It is time for this disgraceful, unjustifiable and illegal activity to end.
We call upon all individual MEPs and all parts of the EU to pay attention to, and strongly oppose, the ongoing practice of pushbacks in the Aegean Sea.’
We want to invite you to take part in a project to engage MEPs with the issue of pushbacks.
There is only so much any of us can do alone. But together, there is nothing we can’t achieve.
If you are outraged by the Greek government’s illegal, dangerous and callous pushbacks, we invite you – as an individual or an organisation – to e-mail a letter to your local MEP/s to request they campaign to end this atrocious practice.
We would also really like you to share the letter with your friends and colloeagues, on your facebook or blog sites, and ask them to do the same.
Please download the individual letter here: https://7a9cd6a1-9bb6-44f2-9a56-948509fce51f.usrfiles.com…
Or if you are part of an organisation, use this link: https://7a9cd6a1-9bb6-44f2-9a56-948509fce51f.usrfiles.com…
To find your MEP’s e-mail address, visit: https://www.tttp.eu/
Initiated and written by Koraki: https://www.koraki.org/post/end-pushbacks-now
