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THREAD: πππ ππππππ ππ ππππππ πππππππ ππππππππ ππ πππ ππππππ http://legalcentrelesvos.org/2021/02/01/crimesagainstumanityintheaegean/
Since March 2020, collective expulsions in the Aegean Sea have been perpetrated with impunity. [1/16]
![THREAD: πππ ππππππ ππ ππππππ πππππππ ππππππππ ππ πππ ππππππ http://legalcentrelesvos.org/2021/02/01/crimesagainstumanityintheaegean/ Since March 2020, collective expulsions in the Aegean Sea have been perpetrated with impunity. [1/16]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EtKO04aXIAIVcie.jpg "THREAD: πππ ππππππ ππ ππππππ πππππππ ππππππππ ππ πππ ππππππ http://legalcentrelesvos.org/2021/02/01/crimesagainstumanityintheaegean/ Since March 2020, collective expulsions in the Aegean Sea have been perpetrated with impunity. [1/16]")
Since March 2020, collective expulsions in the Aegean Sea have been perpetrated with impunity. [1/16]
Legal Centre Lesvosβ new report contributes to the growing body of evidence, media coverage, civil society reports and other investigations which have documented how Greek authorities are deliberately and systematically abandoning hundreds of migrants [2/16]
in the middle of the Aegean sea, without means to call for rescue, on unseaworthy, motorless dinghies and liferafts. It is intended to serve as a resource for survivors of collective expulsions and solidarity actors. [3/16]
Following the Legal Centre Lesvosβ first report, the present report is based on recent additional evidence shared by survivors of collective expulsions, and underscores the widespread, systematic and violent nature of this attack against migrants. [4/16]
Beyond being egregious violations of international, European & national human rights law, this report argues the constituent elements of the modus operandi of collective expulsions in the Aegean amount to crimes against humanity per Article 7 of @IntlCrimCourt Rome Statute.[5/16]
Despite overwhelming evidence of Aegean collective expulsions, the national and EU response has been to turn a blind eye: failing to even attempt to hold responsible Greek authorities to account let alone other public and private actors directly or indirectly involved. [6/16]
On the contrary, the @EU_Commission has praised the violent 'border and migration management' practices implemented in Greece and underwritten its support with substantial financial and material assistance. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic which prevented Greece [7/16]
carrying out 'official' deportations to Turkey, collective expulsions have conveniently served as unofficial implementation of the 'EU-Turkey Deal' and other bilateral 'readmission' agreements with Turkey, which form part of fortress Europeβs border externalisation drive. [8/16]
There are only so many times legal and civil society actors can list human rights violations and be met with deafening silence and inaction, before this itself becomes evidence of Greek and EU liability for collective expulsions as an egregious attack on migrants' lives. [9/16]
Such inaction also reveals how migrantsβ lives are increasingly treated as disposable, in a manner that has historically accompanied the commission of atrocity crimes. [10/16]
While the systematic violence of pushbacks is scandalous, it is also the logical endpoint of a dehumanising and punitive European border regime that has systematically obstructed access to territory & the right to asylum by prioritising & funding...[11/16]
the βhotspotβ containment system, accelerated procedures, detention, deportations, border militarisation and externalisation through deals of questionable legality with third countries [12/16]
as well as by prosecuting migrants and solidarity actors in a manner that successfully obscures Europeβs own violent, imperialist role in many of the reasons people migrate. [13/16]
The lack of serious investigations or practical redress for violations are a clear sign collective expulsions form part of Greek & EU policy: instrumentalising human suffering in acts of spectacular state violence for the purpose of deterring migration, at any cost. [14/16]
In this context, it is important to ask what justice might look like for survivors of crimes against humanity in the Aegean, many of whom experience ongoing psychological trauma and distress as a result of these crimes. Survivors who have been in contact with @lesboslegal [15/16]
have spoken about justice in terms of being able to safely reach Europe. Justice for collective expulsions as crimes against humanity must therefore include safe and legal routes to Europe as well as defunding demilitarising and dismantling Europe's violent border regime.[16/16]
With special thanks to @disinfaux and @GLAN_LAW.
