On March 23 2020, 31 people were found drifting in a life raft outside the Greek island of Simi, Dodecanese, Greece.
People onboard testified that they had been held captive for two days on the island by Greek authorities, before taken back out to sea and abandoned in a life raft.
This was the first case registered of such practice – using life-saving equipment to illegally remove asylum seekers from Greek territory, leaving them helplessly drifting in the middle of the sea.
It was extremely difficult to believe, at first, that anyone, especially a European country, could do such a thing towards other human beings.
In fact, it was only the beginning. In the coming days, months and years, thousands of men, women and small children have been found drifting in life rafts in the Aegean Sea by the Turkish coast guard, all reporting that they had been forced into these rafts by the Greek coast guard.
Greece has denied all and any involvement in these brutal and inhumane acts, claiming it’s only “fake news”, propaganda by NGOs that for some reason ‘want to undermine and discredit Greece’.
Hundreds of cases have been investigated and documented by organisations, EU bodies, independent researchers, international media, and even Frontex, all with the same conclusion: there is absolutely no doubt that Greek authorities are behind this. But still they continue to deny the obvious.
Even when their own coast guard and police are caught on camera, brutality and illegally removing people from Greek territory, and abandoning them in life rafts at sea, they continue to deny it.
The evidence is overwhelming, but still Greek ministers and even the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, lie to journalists on TV. Who do they think they are fooling?
The answer to that would be first the Greek people, who have been misled and lied to for several years by their government, and second, the European Commission.
We don’t believe for a second that the European Commission has been unaware of what has been going on in Greece, there is too much evidence available for that, even from the EU’s own investigation through the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).
It became clear as day when the Commission desperately tried to keep the findings of this investigation away from the European public, by classifying the report secret. Fortunately, they didn’t succeed, and the report was published by investigative journalists in October 2022.
The European Commission, led by Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, has been fully aware of the Greek government’s systematic human rights abuses, and not only that, they have supported their efforts and funded their operations, all in the name of ‘border protection’.
It seems that fundamental human rights in Europe are not for everyone, and are preserved only for the privileged.
Earlier this week, the BBC in the UK broadcast an investigation, Dead Calm: Killing in the Med about the Greek Coastguard’s illegal activities leading to people drowning while being pushed back. It did its job well, uncovering clear evidence of the Greek Coastguard and government breaking the law and effectively killing people in the process, but viewers should not believe it showed anything like the true magnitude of the violations against the law and human decency being committed by Greece’s Coastguard and government.
Since March 2020, 1,478 life rafts have been found drifting in the Aegean Sea by the Turkish coast guard, carrying almost 26,000 men, women and children. In total, 85,000 people have been illegally pushed back from Greece in the last four years.
The average cost of one life raft that can hold 15+ people, manufactured by Lalizas, is approximately €4.000.
That indicates that the Greek coast guard has spent around €6 million on life rafts in less than four years, to illegally deport men, women and children.
Who is picking up the bill? Like everything else related to border protection in Greece, the EU pays.
The European Commission is knowingly and deliberately funding violations of international law and human rights performed by Greek authorities. There are no questions asked.
As long as the job – preventing people from arriving in the EU, and removing those who do arrive – is being done, the cost in human lives doesn’t seem to be of any concern. Why would it? They are not European.
That may sound harsh, but the awful truth is that this is the modern EU.