The situation for migrants coming to Greece from Asia and Africa was already terrible and violence against them is now escalating. Organised groups of armed fascists block the entrance to camps. Locals stop boats from docking at the island of Lesbos. The Greek coastguard fires shots at dinghies in attempts to push them back [3].

This situation is the consequence of Erdogan’s decision to open the borders of Turkey. Borders that were sealed by the EU in 2016, when a 6 billion EUR agreement was signed with Turkey to prevent refugees coming mainly from Syria to enter the EU. The EU has spent money to outsource the violation of rights of refugees, but it has now been forced to find a solution to a problem that has postponed over the past five years.
The Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis has increased border controls, has changed the asylum laws, so that the right to apply for asylum in Greece has been suspended for a month. This new policy is completely illegal as it violates the Geneva Convention but EU officials do not seem to be interested. On the contrary, when Eric Mamer, the chief spokesman of the President of the EU Commission Von der Leyen, has been asked on whether is it legal to fire rubber bullets at asylum seekers, his answer has been:

“I would say that you can’t ask a theoretical question like that, it all depends on the circumstances and are Greek authorities, in their task of protecting the border, to decide what are the appropriate ways of reaching that objective”[4]

We encourage the Council to call on the UK government to make a clearer stand and condemn the attacks on refugees at the Turkish border.

This petition is in line with similar initiatives by other cities [5] and the open letter calling for the decongestion of the Aegean islands by many different humanitarian and social organizations [6].

[1] https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/74227
[2] https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-syria-security-greece-berlin/berlin-to-take-in-up-to-100-children-from-greek-refugee-camps-rtl-idUKKBN20X0QU
[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51721356
[4] https://www.facebook.com/Mediterranearescue/videos/212587270126739/
[5] https://www.dw.com/en/german-municipalities-demand-action-refugees-mediterranean/a-51990144
[6] http://www.actionforeducation.co.uk/aegean-open-letter

On reaching 1500 signatures A full council debate will be held.

This ePetition ran from 10/03/2020 to 09/04/2020 and has now finished.