Greek Authorities Holding Of 450 Migrants On Naval Vessel Violates Int'l Law - Watchdog

Greek Authorities Holding of 450 Migrants on Naval Vessel Violates Int'l Law - Watchdog

Greek authorities are holding more than 450 migrants who attempted to cross the Aegean Sea by boat from Turkey, and their detention on a naval vessel docked in the Mitilini port of the island of Lesbos in order to prevent them from lodging asylum claims constitutes a violation of international law, a prominent rights watchdog said on Tuesday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th March, 2020) Greek authorities are holding more than 450 migrants who attempted to cross the Aegean Sea by boat from Turkey, and their detention on a naval vessel docked in the Mitilini port of the island of Lesbos in order to prevent them from lodging asylum claims constitutes a violation of international law, a prominent rights watchdog said on Tuesday.

According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW) group, which spoke to one of the detainees by telephone, 451 people have been on board the Greek naval vessel since March 1.

"The refusal to allow people in its custody to seek asylum and the open threat to send them back to their persecutors flies in the face of the legal obligations Greece has agreed to and the values and principles it claims to represent," Bill Frelick, HRW refugee and migrants rights director, said in a report published on the group's website.

According to HRW's source, the asylum seekers were taken to police station and fingerprinted, before being issued deportation orders, requiring them to leave Greece within 48 hours. The majority of the detainees are Afghan citizens, HRW cited the source as saying.

On February 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey could no longer restrict the movement of migrants and asylum seekers in the country who wished to reach the European Union either by land or sea, due to the escalation of violence in Syria's Idlib province. In response, Greek authorities on March 1 blocked any new asylum applications in the country for one month.

The number of sea arrivals on Greek islands rose significantly in the wake of Turkey's easing of restrictions on migrant movement. So far in 2020, 6,673 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived on the Greek islands, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. More than one-fifth of these individuals landed in Greece on March 1 and 2 after Erdogan's announcement.