Secret refugee prisons of EU life in Turkey – DW – 08.12.2022
It has been claimed that there are secret prisons on the outer borders of the European Union (EU), where asylum seekers are held and subjected to ill-treatment. The German public broadcaster ARD and Spiegel magazine reportedly deported users in these prisons with illegal “push-back” practices, according to the news, which is based on structures together with the publications Lighthouse Reports, Sky News, Le Monde, Domani, SRF and RFE/RL Bulgaria.
As a result of the joint research of the broadcasting organization, it was noted that it was the first time that such prisons did not exist. According to the research, one of these prisons is located in Bulgaria, on the territory of the border post. It is stated that the place, which looks like a makeshift shack surrounded by iron bars, was viewed with hidden cameras, and the records showed that the refugees were kept lying on the ground among the garbage, and then taken to another place by cars.
In the news, it is recorded that the asylum seekers were kept in these barracks for days without food and water in order to include their statements, and then they were taken to the border by the police and forced to return to Turkey.
Constantin Hruschka, a lawyer from the Munich-based Max-Planck Institute, stated that he was going to the ARD and said that these shelters mean deprivation of liberty and are completely against the law.
“There are 10 officers from Frontex at the station”
In the search for the release, illegal detentions also came to the fore in front of the EU border agency Frontex. It has been reported that 10 officers from Frontex are working at the said border post in Bulgaria. Wenzel Michalski, director of the Germany branch of Human Rights Watch, stated that Frontex was “part of the problem” and emphasized that officers who did not prevent such practices would be complicit.
Answering the question of the proposition of the publication on the subject, Frontex noted that Frontex officers evaluated the Bulgarian border police in their region during the observation at the border, that the restrictions were not determined by Frontex, but the information was conveyed to the relevant units. Bulgarian authorities left questions about the answer unanswered.
Frontex, an EU institution, has previously been the target of harsh criticism on the grounds that it condoned Greece’s practices of pushing back asylum seekers in the Aegean Sea.
“Also in Hungary”
The broadcaster revealed similar practices in Bulgaria as well as Hungary. In the footage, it was seen that the asylum seekers were forced into ship containers by the Hungarian border police with the police. In their statements, the refugees said that they were kept in these containers for hours without being given food and water, and then they were taken to the border by buses and forced to return to Serbia.
The Hungarian government, in response to its behavior, denied all accusations and stated that the Hungarian police always acted in accordance with the EU. The EU Commission, on the other hand, stated that it would take the accusations of “misconduct” at the EU’s external borders very seriously, but that “the state concerned is responsible for respecting fundamental rights and clarifying the charges”.
AFP/BK,TY