Amnesty International mourns migrants dead in Greek wildfires

Firefighters discovered the charred remains of a 19th suspected asylum seeker burned in wildfires blazing across the country over the past week, authorities announced Friday (August 25).

The police have launched an investigation, and the body has been transported to the morgue at the University General Hospital of Alexandroupolis. The area, which has been beset by massive wildfires in recent days, serves as a regular entry point for migration from Turkey.

‘Double injustice’ for those who died

In response to the 19 deaths, Amnesty International migration researcher Adriana Tidona said: “The 19 people who died from the fires in Northern Greece seem to be victims of two huge injustices of our time. On the one hand, catastrophic climate change, which governments are failing to address and which is exacerbating the size of fires worldwide, as rising temperatures lead to longer and more destructive fire seasons. On the other hand, the lack of access to safe and legal routes for people on the move and the persistence of migration management policies based on racial exclusion and lethal deterrence, including racist border violence.”

She added: “Although the identity of the people killed by the fires is not known, it seems likely that they were immigrants and refugees who had recently crossed the border into Greece. Due to the lack of access to safe and legal routes for people trying to reach Europe, migrants and refugees are increasingly using the land border in the Evros region to cross illegally from Turkey to Greece. Authorities there routinely respond with illegal forced returns at the border, denial of the right to seek asylum, and violence.”

The wildfires also sparked some vigilante-style activity fueled by claims that migrants had started the fires in the Alexandroupolis area.

The Greek authorities apprehended several individuals linked to a disturbing video posted on social media on Tuesday, which showed a man holding a group of 13 undocumented migrants in a cargo trailer being towed by a 4WD vehicle near Alexandroupolis.

The individual who filmed the video alleged the migrants are responsible for the wildfires in the area. Along with the owner of the vehicle, who police have revealed is of Albanian origin, two Greek individuals have also been apprehended and are currently detained due to their suspected involvement.

‘Local racist rhetoric fueled by the fires’

“The fires fueled racist rhetoric and abuse against immigrants and refugees,” Tidona said, adding that “on his Facebook account, Paraschos Christou Papadakis, an ultra-nationalist Greek MP, used racist language to claim that the fires were caused by immigrants and refugees.”

“The NGO Alarm Phone reported that hundreds of refugees and immigrant women were trapped in various areas of Evros while the fires were raging in the area,” she said. “Amnesty International is calling on the Greek authorities to urgently evacuate those trapped in the Evros area and unable to move safely due to the fires, as well as to ensure that refugees and migrants who have entered Greece [irregularly] will be able to request asylum and will not be returned illegally and forcibly at the border. The Greek authorities must publicly condemn and investigate any act of racist violence or speech or incitement to such behavior, including by politicians.”

More new arrivals as numbers swell

In related developments, more than 300 migrants have arrived on Greek islands near the Turkish coast over the past three days.

On Thursday (August 24), the coast guard said authorities found 107 people on the islands of Samos, Mykonos and the tiny island of Ro, which lies in the Mediterranean off the southern coast of Turkey, in addition to over 220 found in the two days prior.

Most were picked up near the coastline by coast guard patrol boats. All were taken to migrant reception centers.

According to United Nations figures released recently, over 14,000 people have reached Greece by land and sea so far this year — about a tenth of the total successful Mediterranean crossings, most of which (about 104,000) were to Italy.

Arrivals in Greece for the whole of 2022 totaled 19,000, according to the data. In June, a battered fishing trawler heading from Libya to Italy with an estimated 500-750 people on board sank in international waters off southwestern Greece near the Peloponnesian town of Pylos.

Only 104 survivors were found, and Greek authorities were heavily criticized by both international and local media for failing to respond to and evacuate the stricken vessel in time.

The government has attributed the rise in migrant crossings over the past two months to better summer weather and smugglers taking advantage of an increase in Aegean small boat traffic during the tourist season.