Abrupt cessation of all communication: The last communication of the
lawyers with the Turkish asylum seeker
took place on 7 July at 13:38 when the
communication with her was abruptly interrupted. While speaking on the
phone with her, the lawyers heard a
male voice speaking in poor Turkish
with a Greek accent. The lawyers heard
the asylum seekers repeatedly and desperately asking: “Will you take us to the
police station?” The man replied, “Yes,
yes, come on”. Immediately afterwards,
the communication with the asylum
seeker was interrupted, as her mobile
phone was switched off. The lawyers
had lost contact with the group. The
Greek authorities did not respond to the
written intervention. The lawyer repeatedly contacted the authorities in order
to find out whether the Turkish asylum
seeker had been located and arrested
or not. The lawyers communicated via
telephone with the Police Directorate
of Orestiada, the Integrated Border
Management and Migration Centre of
Orestiada of the Greek Police and the
Border Guard Stations of Orestiada
(Neo Cheimonio), Kyprinos and Didymoteicho. The Greek authorities replied
orally that they were aware of the GCR
intervention, but the asylum seeker had
not been detected by the police authorities. The Police Directorate of Orestiada informed the lawyers that even
though they had conducted a search
and rescue operation, they were unable
to locate the asylum seekers. All Border
Guard Stations informed GCR by phone
that they had not made any arrests of
Turkish nationals on that day. The following day, the lawyers once again
contacted the Greek authorities, who
informed them that the asylum seeker
had not been arrested.
Granting of interim measures by the
ECtHR: On 7 July, a request for Interim Measures was submitted to the
ECtHR and granted the following day.
The Court indicated to the Greek Government, “that until further notice, the
Applicants should not be removed from
Greece and be provided with food,
water and adequate medical care as
needed”. After numerous attempts to
contact the Turkish asylum seekers, on
9 July the lawyers were informed by relatives of one of the asylum seekers that
all members of the group had already
been pushed back to Turkey on 7 July.
Unofficial arrest and detention in
Greece: After crossing the border to
Greece on 7 July, the Turkish asylum
seeker waited for about 4 hours. Thereafter, she started walking towards the
nearest police station. After a while, she
was unofficially arrested by a Greek police patrol. They took her to an unspecified police station, where she remained
illegally detained until 20:00, when the
illegal and forced repatriation (pushback) began and she and other asylum
seekers were transferred by police officers to the border. She was handed
over by police officers to an unidentified group of armed men with full face
masks, who were obviously acting in
collaboration with the Greek authorities. The armed men illegally confiscated her personal belongings and money
and put her with other asylum seekers
in a boat. In the middle of the river, they
threw all the asylum seekers into the
water.
AT EUROPE’S BORDERS: BETWEEN IMPUNITY AND CRIMINALIZATION
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