A Norwegian NGO has rejected claims by Greece’s Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis that it is helping people smugglers, describing it as a “deliberately misleading attack.” The NGO was featured in a presentation to foreign journalists by the minister on Tuesday.
Mitarakis presented video testimonies by African migrants who said they were instructed by people smugglers to use NGO Aegean Boat Report, once they landed on Greek shores, to contact the UN refugee agency.
Mitarakis claimed that the NGO was providing tangible support to those trying to reach Europe.
The NGO said if Mitarakis wants to allege illegality “he must produce something more than a small number of refugees saying that smugglers in Turkey know the name Aegean Boat Report and tell them if they attempt to contact us they will be given dry clothing and a bottle of water.”
“We are astonished at this unprovoked and deliberately misleading attack on our organisation,” said Tommy Olsen of the Aegean Boat Report, in an email to euobserver later the same day.
Olsen disputed th eminister’s claims, noting that Aegean Boat Report strongly opposes people smuggling between Turkey and Greece.
“We must request the minister cease his baseless allegations,” he said.
“If he wishes to allege we have acted illegally or improperly he must produce something more than a small number of refugees saying that smugglers in Turkey know the name ‘Aegean Boat Report’ and tell them if they attempt to contact us they will be given dry clothing and a bottle of water,” said Olsen.
Olsen described Aegean Boat Report as a public service which locates men, women and children who arrive on the Greek islands. He in turn accused the Greek government itself of failing to provide them with even basic services.
“We do not deliver aid to those people, though the minister should be pleased that some organisations do this, because without their work, the failures of his own ministry would have caused hundreds more deaths than have taken place so far,” he said.
Aegean Boat Report is not the only NGO on the Greek government’s radar, however.
Last month, German magazine Der Spiegel reported over 30 organisations and aid workers were being investigated by the Greek police.
Among those included are Mare Liberum, Sea Watch, FFM e.V., Josoor and Alarm Phone/Watch the Med. Many are German, with some reportedly having had their phones wiretapped.
The Greek allegations against them range from helping smugglers, to stealing state secrets – which could result in lengthy prison sentences if charged and convicted.
However, the episode appears to be part of a broader government effort to control NGOs working on migration in Greece.
A recent Greek ministerial decision, for instance, includes a confidentiality clause preventing aid workers, including volunteers, from speaking about their work at Greek migrant camps to the wider public.
read more – source: euobserver
#AegeanBoatReport a reality check: “In recent years, we have seen many examples of European countries placing new obstacles in the way of refugees as soon as the number of asylum seekers increases. In Norway, an almost united parlament decided to amend the Immigration Act so that refugees who had traveled through Russia could be returned there, without having their asylum application processed in Norway. As a result, the Russian authorities began refusing people without a valid Schengen visa to travel to the Norwegian border. Thus, refugees lost one of the few relatively safe ways to seek asylum in Norway.”