This morning European and Greek authorities began their mass deportations of migrants to Turkey. Two privately owned Turkish ferries, chartered by European union border police force Frontex, took the people under guard from the islands of Lesvos and Chios to the Turkish port of Dikili.
The Greek state says that the prisoners were mainly from Pakistan and Afghanistan, with people of Iranian, Syrian, Iraqi, Sri Lankan, Somali and other nationalities also deported. The humanitarian left wing government of Greece says that the 2 Syrians “volunteered” to go; it doesn’t say any such thing about the others.
Photos show one Frontex guard “escorting” each prisoner on the boat. Most of the Frontex guards are wearing facemasks.
If you can stomach it, this video shot from inside Vial prison camp on Chios gives a very small taste of the initial violence of deportation, as police surround a group of Afghan deportees.
On the Turkish side, some reports say that the deportees are being sent straight from Dikili to another prison camp near the Bulgarian border. From there, people will be dispersed to other camps (according to the Turkish state) or deported again to their “home” countries.
In recent days police have arrived in the Greek islands from various European countries, as the Syriza authorities have complained that they don’t have enough riot cops of their own to secure the prison camps and ports and stop demonstrations. Apparently there are now cops from France (both CRS riot police and gendarmes mobiles), Portugal, Croatia, Romania, and other countries on Lesvos and Chios.
Elsewhere, in the “safe third country” of Turkey, heavy clashes continue between Turkish and Kurdish forces, with the Kurdish YPS claiming that it destroyed a Turkish tank today in Gever.
And in Northern Greece, this afternoon refugees and others have blockaded the E75 highway 3km away from the Macedonian border they are not allowed to cross, with trucks and other traffic piled up behind.
Finally, we quote from a call-out posted on 325 today from “Some Anarchists”:
April 4th, 2016
Today, on the island of Lesvos, Greece, where the weather is at its best day since 2016, the deportation machine to send refugees back to Turkey has started. This morning a ferry left to Turkey with a couple of hundred refugees on board, this afternoon the same will happen, and this will repeat itself from now on.
Frontex has started sending our comrades back to hell …
OUR HEARTS ARE ON FIRE!
Let’s start to burn down Frontex, police, military and all those in power!!! Let’s burn the deportation machine down!
One of the deportation ferries
Frontex guards on coach back to their hotels after a hard day’s work
Arrival camp in Dikili
Tent at the port in Chios, still occupied by people after mass break-out from Vial prison camp
Blockade near Macedonian border
What awaits in Southern Turkey: scene from the fighting today in Turkish Kurdistan
