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Authorities in Greece have been accused of stealing more than €2.2 million in cash and goods from migrants as well as refugees during alleged pushbacks along the Turkish border in the past six years.
According to a report of El Pais, the amount of stolen cash is not only based on money allegedly taken from migrants along the border but also takes into account confiscated valuable objects such as jewellery and mobile phones, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The same noted that the amount of stolen cash could be significantly higher than the number calculated after many pushbacks, as well as deportations, are neither reported nor registered.
Based on the calculations of El Pais, based on NGO information and data, migration advocated as well as other sources active in the Evros river border area.
The report noted that the frequency of border guards stealing goods and money from migrants and refugees in the border areas has surged significantly in recent years.
Eva Cosse, a researcher at Human Rights Watch told El Pais that stealing mobile phones as well as money from migrants was primarily intended to halt them from future unlawful border crossings.
“When you take away their phones, you get rid of any evidence that they were there. When you take their money, you make their lives more difficult,” she pointed out.
At the same time, the analyst for Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN), Hope Barker, said that sometimes authorities keep cell phones, and sometimes they destroy them.
“But they definitely keep the money. And if they find that someone has been hiding their money, they’ll typically beat them more as a punishment,” she said.
According to the data provided by the Greek National Commissioner for Human Rights, last year 93 per cent of migrants who were pushed back confirmed that they were also robbed of their belongings and money. The same says that the number of migrants who admitted that suffered violence during such pushbacks was almost as high.
Greece is continuously receiving a large number of migrants, while Greek officials are often accused of allegedly pushing back illegal migrants.
The Minister of Protection of Greece, Takis Theodorikakos, previously said that the Greek Police caught a total of 154,102 illegal migrants from reaching this country from the beginning of 2022 until September last year.
In addition, according to him, Turkey and smugglers are attempting a new coordinated invasion of illegal migrants in Greece, while stressing that for this Greece will extend the fence along the entire length of the common border with Turkey.
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