Specifically, it is about ferries that go from Bari on the Adriatic to Greece, such as Patras or Igoumenitsa. Some of the refugees were even handcuffed, reported the research team, which includes the ARD political magazine Monitor, the Swiss public broadcaster SRF, al-Jazeera and the Dutch NGO Lighthouse Reports.
Apparently, minors are also affected. According to Dana Schmalz from the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, this violates both EU law and the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights. The responsible ferry company denied all allegations.
The research team found evidence of such unofficial prisons on three ferries that bring thousands of tourists from Italy to Greece and vice versa in the summer. The refugees were held in one of the garages. For safety reasons, nobody should stay there during the crossing. Statements and cell phone photos of refugees in the shafts and barred frames were checked there using traces on the walls (such as scratched Arabic characters) and interviews with ferry employees.
“Monitor”: Makeshift Prisons
The research team reported that these were people who were forced to return to Greece from Italy without being able to apply for asylum.
As part of the research cooperation, it was possible for the first time to prove the existence of the temporary prisons on the passenger ships. Those affected stated in the interviews that some of them were detained on the way back to Greece without adequate food or access to a toilet. For the research, the journalists spoke to a dozen people who were illegally deported, employees on the ferries, border police officers and experts.
Italy was already convicted in 2014
According to the research team, the refugees were deported from Italy illegally and in violation of procedural rules (pushback), with the authorities sometimes using violence. Italy was already condemned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the pushbacks in 2014. Contrary to what Rome claims, these illegal deportations have not stopped or have at least resumed, according to the research team.
Refugees first tried to get to Italy from the Greek port of Patras as stowaways on the daily ship connections, which is illegal and dangerous. According to SRF, many tried to get on a ferry hidden under a truck. It is difficult to even get to the well-secured port area.
Italy obliged to asylum procedures
According to interviews with refugees who have been pushed back, if they are caught unloading the ferry, they are not given the opportunity to apply for asylum. According to their own statements, mobile phones, documents and clothing were sometimes taken away from them and they were locked up in the port for several days. Minors who enjoy special legal protection would be treated as adults and would also be taken back to Greece.
The migration expert Sarah Progin-Theuerkauf emphasized to the SRF that, according to the current legal situation, Italy would have to accept the people and carry out an asylum procedure, for example. Because Greece is no longer considered a safe country after a corresponding verdict.
Police and ferry companies reject allegations
How many deportations take place this way is unclear. According to the Greek authorities, there were 74 in the previous year and 157 in 2021. The police chief in Bari, Giovanni Signer, rejected all allegations, according to SRF. Anyone who wants to apply for asylum can do so. The affected ferry company, Attica Group, also rejected the allegations. Such an approach is rejected. And in a written statement, Attica Group promised to continue investigating the allegations.
