A video that Greek MP Notis Mitarakis says was filmed “by a refugee who was saved by Greece”, has been under public scrutiny with mixed reactions, since posted by the Minister on his official Twitter account on Wednesday.
The two-minute footage appears to show Turkish coastguard officers on a vessel hitting migrants with sticks and pushing their boat away.
Greece’s Migration and Asylum Minister Mr Mitarakis said that the officers were “violently pushing forward migrants to Greece, in violation of international law and the EU joint statement.”
The video garnered thousands of retweets and comments, with some expressing frustration in line with the Minister’s comment over Turkey’s “instrumentalisation of migration flows”.
Others condemned the actions but criticised Greece for doing the same with pushbacks of asylum seekers to Turkey.
While the video has been recirculated in Greek TV bulletins with Mr Mitarakis’ comments, some outlets speak of a “Minister’s gaffe” of posting a video dating back to 2019 that “in fact shows a pushback by the Turkish Coast Guard of asylum seekers who were trying to go from Lesvos back to Turkey”.
The revelation that the video was on YouTube since 2019 was brought forward by Der Spiegel’s journalist Giorgos Christides who posted the link to the original video from that date and reports on the incident from back then.
“Turns out the video of the TCG assaulting refugees in the Aegean, posted by Greece’s migration minister earlier today, is not exactly new: it has been public on YouTube since September 2019[…],” Mr Christides wrote.
“Interesting that now that Turkey is the culprit, videos filmed by refugees are acknowledged as proof of wrongdoing by the Greek government, which otherwise treats such material as “doctored” or fake news when implicating Greek authorities.”
Under a 2016 deal with the European Council, Turkey has agreed among others to “take any necessary measures to prevent new sea or land routes for irregular migration opening from Turkey to the EU”, but Greece has accused Turkish authorities of encouraging people to cross into Greek territory or facilitating access.
Greece has also been under scrutiny over alleged pushbacks of asylum seekers.
In February 2022, the UN refugee agency said it had noted around 540 reports of “informal returns” by Greece of asylum seekers across the borders since 2020.
Most recently in August, a group of 38 asylum seekers were picked up by Greek authorities after being stranded for days on an islet at the Evros border between Northern Greece and Turkey. A five-year old child died during the time the group claim they were being pushed back and forth across the border by the authorities in both countries.
