Study: Legal vacuum – Criminalization of refugees in Greece
The study is in german, English and greek Language available.
The study I commissioned from Borderline Europe analyzes the criminalization of refugees as suspected smugglers in Greece.
Trials last an average of 37 minutes, with the average prison sentence being 46 years. Most individuals are convicted based on the testimony of a police or coast guard person, who in 68 percent of cases is not even present during the proceedings. Persons convicted of smuggling are the second largest group in Greek prisons. These individuals are usually arrested immediately upon arrival, held in pre-trial detention for months, and have very limited opportunities to defend themselves
The judiciary is politically instrumentalized
These sentences are disproportionate and have no comprehensible connection to the crime of which the people are accused. The Greek judiciary is being politically instrumentalized to deter people from fleeing.
The people who drive the boat get discounts from the tugboats, they are mostly not tugboats themselves. The proceedings in which these accusations are heard are very short and violate basic standards of the rule of law. This is an infamous criminalization that the EU Commission and member states like Germany should take action against.
It would be the task of the EU Commission to exert pressure on Greece so that rule-of-law standards are once again upheld there. Unfortunately, the Commission has so far sided with Greece. It supports the policy of deterrence and isolation of the external border states and looks the other way when people are mistreated there and deprived of their fundamental rights.
81 Procedure observed
Those affected are usually arrested immediately upon arrival, held in pre-trial detention for months, and have very limited opportunities to defend themselves and receive assistance. The trials in which these charges are heard are very short and violate basic standards of fairness.
The report examines a total of 81 cases against 95 people arrested and tried for smuggling in Greece in eight different locations, namely Komotini, Thessaloniki, Rhodes, Samos, Lesvos, Crete, Syros and Kalamata.
The event to present the study will take place her here.