Accusations against EU Border Agency, Frontex

Pushing back refugees

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Baerbock wants to clarify accusations against Frontex

The EU border agency, Frontex is accused of ignoring the Greek Coast Guard's pushing back of refugees at sea.  German Foreign Minister Baerbock said during her visit to Athens that this was "not compatible with EU law".

In Greece, German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock criticised the illegal rejection of refugees at the EU's external border and called for systematic clarification.  "If we look the other way, our values will be lost in the Mediterranean," she said after visiting a refugee camp near Athens and the border protection agency, Frontex at the Port of Piraeus.

European values must also apply at the EU's external border, she said.  "It is often about the weakest here: it is about men and women who have been fleeing for years and it is about small children," Baerbock stressed.

Baerbock: "Observe human rights around the clock".

Aid organisations have criticised for years that Greek border guards systematically push migrants back to Turkey so that they do not apply for asylum in Greece.  There are also repeated media reports on such so-called pushbacks, in which Frontex is also accused of involvement.

According to information from "Der Spiegel", a secret EU report accuses the EU border protection agency, Frontex of deliberately turning a blind eye to the pushing back of refugees at sea by the Greek coast guard.  The 129-page report documents is entitled "How the EU border agency, Frontex was involved in the illegal activities of the Greek Coast Guard", writes "Der Spiegel". According to the report, the border guards systematically abandon asylum seekers at sea in the Aegean Sea.

Baerbock went on to say that the EU "must be able to ensure even more strongly that, of course, human rights are also respected around the clock at Europe's external border".  Pushing refugees back across the EU's external borders is "not compatible with European law", she clarified. 

Joint sea rescue

The Foreign Minister also called for more support for Greece in securing the EU's external border and for a joint European sea rescue operation to save refugees from drowning who are trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean.  At present, aid organisations take on this task.  However, she demanded: "In the medium term, this task must become a state task again."

According to the refugee agency, UNHCR, since the beginning of the year around 6,250 people have managed to cross the border in north-eastern Greece or to cross by boat from the Turkish west coast to the Greek islands.  There have also been repeated boat accidents and deaths.  Athens and Ankara blame each other for this state of affairs.

Commemoration of victims of the Second World War

At the beginning of her visit to Greece, Baerbock commemorated the victims of the German occupation during the Second World War.  The Green politician visited the former prison of the Nazi occupation, where thousands of resistance fighters and civilians were imprisoned and tortured between 1941 and 1944. Afterwards, she laid flowers at the Athens Holocaust Memorial.

The Foreign Minister then emphasised that a "line" should never be drawn under the Nazi past.  However, she also re-iterated Germany's rejection of Greek claims for reparations.  Greece, like Poland, continues to assert claims for compensation and is calling for negotiations on the matter.  Germany, on the other hand, considers the issue closed, citing the Two Plus Four Treaty on the foreign policy consequences of German re-unification in 1990.

Trip to Turkey

On Friday, Baerbock will hold her talks with Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias in Athens.  She will then travel on to Turkey.  The double visit to the two NATO partners is important to her especially in these difficult times, in which Russia is trying to divide the Western alliance, the Green politician said in an interview with the newspaper "Ta Nea".

Relations between NATO members Greece and Turkey had recently deteriorated massively again. Ankara questions the sovereignty of Greek islands in the Eastern Aegean such as Rhodes, Samos and Kos and demands the withdrawal of the Greek military.  Turkey lends weight to its demands with overflights of Turkish fighter jets over inhabited Greek islands.