UN refugee agency ‘deeply distressed’ by reports of nearly 100 stripped migrants at Greece-Turkey border
More than 100 refugees have been taken from the Greek island of Lesbos to Turkey in a matter of days in what the UK-based International Rescue Committee (IRC) says is a “deeply disturbing” practice.
Over the past three years, since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the UK-based IRC has reported more than 100 cases of refugees and migrants who have been’stripped of their possessions, stripped naked and forced onto flimsy wooden boats and ferries’ while they await deportation.
The IRC claims the practice has gone on for more than two years – with the majority of cases coming across the Aegean Sea to Turkey.
“These people are not refugees, they’re not victims – they are migrants – and it’s deeply disturbing to see the people who fled to Europe to escape war and persecution treated this way,” IRC UK President Mark Lowcock said in an interview to The Independent on Tuesday.
“We’re deeply distressed by the reports of the people stripped naked, stripped of their belongings and forced onto flimsy wooden boats and ferries off the coast of Lesbos on one of these ferries,” he said.
“We have received reports from refugees who have arrived in Turkey from Lesbos in the past few weeks, after being stripped of their belongings, stripped naked and forced onto flimsy wooden boats and ferries which the smugglers then threw them into the sea in order to try and make them drown.
“As always, we have been seeking assurances from Turkey that people who are found in need will be brought back to their countries and that no refugees will be sent to camps in Turkey,” said Mr Lowcock.
“We have also been requesting assurances from the Greek authorities that refugees in their care will not be placed on ships to either Greece or the European Union,” he added.
Mr Lowcock said: “We have had a long standing dialogue with the EU which is focused on the protection of refugees.
“We welcome the news that Greece and other EU members are starting to repatriate people.
“While this is good news our hearts go out to those people who are still stranded on the Greek island of Lesbos.
“We have received new information that one of the people