Around 40 refugees are stranded in the Evros, with humanitarian organizations and political parties appealing for an end to their drama. The word drama is not an exaggeration, as late on the night of Monday to Tuesday a five-year-old girl, Maria A., ended up after being bitten by a scorpion.
Organizations such as the Hellenic Council for Refugees and HumanRights360 have already informed the European Court of Human Rights and the Prosecutor’s Office of Orestiada.
Iasonas Apostolopoulos from Mediterranea Saving Humans in his sharp post says: “Sos from Evros! SAVE THEM NOW! The 40 Syrian refugees remain helpless on the island and the body of 5-year-old Maria buried. They put it in the river to keep it cool.
The 9-year-old girl is still alive but in critical condition. The Greek authorities who said they couldn’t find them, now say they found them, but claim that the islet belongs to Turkey when all their maps point to Greek territory!
It’s shocking to see super-patriots ceding national sovereignty when it comes to immigrants at risk, in the name of national sovereignty.”
The Facebook post
Confrontation between Apostolopoulos and Mitarakis on refugees
The Minister of Immigration and Asylum responded to the posts of Jason Apostolopoulos, with the two having a heated confrontation on Twitter.
“It’s a shame and only a shame to blame Greece for RESCUING immigrants who, without security rules, paying slave traders, tried illegally from Turkey to go to Italy. I don’t usually reply on Twitter but your comment is unacceptable. And it insults our country”, wrote Notis Mitarakis.
Jason Apostolopoulos answered him: “Mr. minister of pushback, don’t you leave twitter to go save the 9-year-old kid frolicking in Evros after your pushback?
5-year-old Maria has already died from a scorpion sting, how many more dead children do you want to play to your far-right clientele?
Spiegel: Crimes at Europe’s External Borders
The German magazine Spiegel talks about crimes at the external borders of Europe. On the occasion of the tragic death of Maria A on the island of Evros, the magazine comments on its website about the situation prevailing at the external borders of Europe.
“Again and again refugees try to cross the Ebro from Turkey to the EU. And again and again their obstacle is the violence of the Greek security forces. Violence at Europe’s external borders is one of the greatest crimes against human rights of the 21st century. This is a crime that covers all EU states without exception. The Greek government has turned the area around the Evros into a military zone. Even journalists and lawyers are not allowed to enter the area.”
Nevertheless, as the publication points out, “witness accounts, satellite images and geodata play an important role in clarifying cases like the death of little Syria.”
Taz: “The refugee route with the highest death toll”
In another report on the refugee, Taz recalls that “the central Mediterranean is the refugee route with the highest death toll, as more than 23,000 people lost their lives there in the last seven years”.
In an interview with the newspaper, the activist Iasonas Apostolopoulos emphasizes that “during the last two years there have been systematic re-deportations of refugees – to the Evros, but also to the Aegean”.
In fact, he points out that there is now clear evidence for this tactic: “The previously secret report of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), published by Spiegel, confirms that FRONTEX not only knew about the illegal repatriations by the Greek authorities, but he tolerated them and tried to cover them up. The scandal forced its head, Fabrice Lesery, to resign.”
To the journalist’s question about why the Greek media are not reporting on the case of re-promotions, Apostolopoulos replied that “in Greece there is a huge problem with regard to Freedom of the Press. (…) No one has the right to criticize the government’s policy. A truly dystopian situation prevails, more reminiscent of a dictatorship than a democracy.”
Appeals from the parties
Three SYRIZA MPs issued a joint statement on the tragic situation that has developed in Evros.
Andreas Xanthos, Member of Parliament for Rethymno and head of the Health Department of SYRIZA-PS, George Psychogios, MP for Corinth and head of Migration Policy, SYRIZA-PS and Anastasia Gara, Member of Parliament for Evros and deputy head of Digital Governance, Communication and Information, SYRIZA-PS emphasize in their statement yesterday: “For three days now, a humanitarian tragedy has been ongoing on an island in the river Evros, in which dozens of refugees remain trapped and helpless, among them many women and children. According to an official complaint by OENGE (Federation of Hospital Doctors), a 5-year-old girl has already died from a scorpion bite and her 9-year-old sister is in critical condition.”
Then they add: Three days (s.s. four) after the emergence and publication of this tragic situation, EL.AS. clarified that the islet is within Turkish territory. However, it is unacceptable that our country limits itself to watching dispassionate people, especially children, lose their lives at the Greek-Turkish border, trying to cross them.
Greece must, at a high political level:
- to push for the activation of both the Turkish authorities and the EU
- to demand the immediate health care and care of these individuals, within the framework of the Euro-Turkish cooperation framework in the refugee
- to support a strong legal resettlement framework for refugees from Turkey in Europe
With our continuous interventions in the Parliament and the European Parliament, we have asked the Government to take initiatives at the European and international level in this direction. This is what we are asking for now. Anything else and under any pretext means that Greece turns a blind eye to tragedies and human rights violations on its borders, accepting the role and responsibility of a guardian country in a fortress Europe.”
KKE: Criminal policy of EU and Greek governments
The Evros Sectoral Organization of the KKE in a statement highlights “the criminal policy of the EU and the Greek governments over time”.
“Once again, the criminal policy of the EU and Greek governments throughout time is highlighted. This time with the death of a 5-year-old refugee girl stranded on an island in the river Evros from a scorpion sting. At the same time, her 9-year-old sister is also in critical condition. It is tragically confirmed that the refugees are the victims of the imperialist interventions and the policy of confinement and pushbacks.
Trapped between traffickers, FRONTEX and superstructures-prisons. It is immediately the government’s responsibility to release the refugees from the islet in Evros and to provide the necessary care to the little refugee girl whose life is in danger. A real antidote to the “poison” of racism and the anti-immigration policy of the EU and the Greek governments are the positions and proposals of the KKE which, among other things, provide for the repeal of the EU-Turkey joint declaration, the creation of Asylum Committees within Turkey, under the responsibility of the EU and of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and from there the refugees travel directly to their destination countries under the responsibility of the UN,” he notes.
Day 25: Provide a solution immediately
An immediate solution and intervention by the Ministry of Migration Policy for the approximately 40 stranded refugees on an islet of Evros, near the village of Kissari, requests the Rights Section of MeRA25, as well as for medical aid to be sent to prevent another dead child on the Greece-Turkey border .
In the announcement by MERA25, it is noted that the government does not seem willing to take any action to disentangle the people and rescue them despite the news that the 5-year-old girl from Syria ended up dead after being stung by a scorpion – while her 9-year-old sister is also in danger for the same reason – and the appeals of the Federation of Associations of Hospital Doctors of Greece for immediate provision of medical assistance.
“Minister Mr. Mitarakis and the Greek Government have on their hands the blood of children, refugees and immigrants from the pushbacks to the Aegean and the Evros fence. Even now, let them try to atone for the suffering they have caused to thousands of souls in the past,” emphasizes the Party’s Rights Section.
He also adds: “Unfortunately, from the beginning of the refugee crisis, both the current and the previous Government tried to use the migration flows to negotiate defense equipment, trade agreements and also for internal consumption of an external enemy threat. Whether they are called Moria, Idomeni, or Manolada, the reality for refugees and immigrant women is unfair, humiliating and inhumane.”
Tags: Evros Refugees dying Pingpong blame Greece Turkey appeals humanitarian organizations
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