The European Commission has ordered Croatia and Greece to investigate new allegations of illegal pushbacks. Migrants are forcibly sent back across the border.
Commissioner Ylva Johansson called these practices “shocking and unacceptable”. “Member States should investigate these allegations and take action where necessary.”
A research collective of several international media, including the Dutch KRO-NCRV program Pointer and research collective Lighthouse Reports, has found new evidence showing that migrants along the land border are sometimes literally knocked back to the country they just came from, for example in EU member state Croatia. Aid organizations have been sounding the alarm about the pushbacks for some time now.
masked men
Including Pointer and the French Release published images of masked men crossing migrants into Bosnia and Herzegovina in Croatia. According to the program, it is the first time that the pushbacks have been filmed in high quality at this location.
Pointer states that the men who use violence are Croatian cops. This would be apparent from the jackets they wear; which correspond to the undergarments of the Croatian police uniform. This is also confirmed by a Croatian former police officer, Pointer writes. The research collective has also analyzed images of pusbacks at sea off Greece. Masked men can be seen on it, according to the researchers, these are Greek elite units of the coast guard.
This excerpt from the Pointer program shows how the masked men use violence against the refugees:
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