On Thursday 7 October, the European Commission had to defend its action once again to the Member States, after several media, including Der Spiegel and Libération, published new images of migrant pushback by Croatian and Greek border guards, but also in Spain and Poland.
Commissioner Ylva Johansson expressed her “deep concern” after viewing the footage, which “appears to be convincing evidence” of mistreatment of migrants, showing “some orchestration of violence” against them.
She was due to discuss this in the afternoon with the Greek and Croatian Ministers of Migration and Interior, Mr Notis Mitarachi and Mr Davor Božinović, as part of the meeting on the protection of Afghans at risk (see other news).
Commission spokesman Adalbert Jahnz also said that the Member States concerned “have a responsibility to investigate” these “unacceptable” and illegal actions.
The Croatian Minister announced the opening of an investigation.
The investigation targets in particular the Greek (Aegean Sea) and Croatian (Bosnia-Herzegovina border) police forces, which have already been the subject of similar revelations in the past and which led the Commission to set up a mechanism to monitor respect for fundamental rights at certain sensitive EU borders.
The Frontex Agency was also implicated in Greece in October 2020 with the Greek coast guard, which triggered the establishment of a Scrutiny Working Group in the European Parliament. This Working Group concluded in July that Frontex, although not directly linked to pushback, had been negligent and had turned a blind eye to violations (see EUROPE 12763/17). The Agency’s Management Board had also pointed out weaknesses in the follow-up of incidents that come to Frontex’s attention.
A little hope for the Pact
The new images of migrants being beaten, some with batons, by hooded police officers were revealed as Parliament welcomed initial progress on the Pact on Migration and Asylum in Strasbourg on Thursday morning.
Parliament debated the agreement reached at the end of June on the new European Asylum Agency, which will be endowed with new resources, will be able to better assist Member States in the distribution of relocated asylum seekers and will have a permanent staff of 500 experts (see EUROPE 12751/14).
For the rapporteur, Bulgarian Elena Yoncheva (S&D), this is a “historic effort”, as the agreement proves that asylum reform in the EU is “possible” and most importantly that the focus was “on what unites us”, she said.
Parliament will validate this agreement at a forthcoming plenary session. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)