Member of the Syrian Opposition Coalition’s (SOC) political committee and Director of the office of refugee affairs, Salim Idris, stressed that the inhumane treatment of Syrian asylum seekers by Greece violates all international laws and norms, calling for independent investigations to identify those responsible for the attempts to sink refugee boats.
Idris pointed out that the Greek authorities passed laws to shirk their international obligations towards asylum seekers which were laid out in the 1951 Geneva Convention regarding refugees. He said that the Convention prevents the detention and deportation of asylum seekers.
He made it clear that the Syrian asylum seekers stranded on the Greek borders are being subjected to systematic violations, such as severe beatings, imprisonment, seizure of their money and phones, leaving them in the open, sinking their boats, and keeping them on deserted islands until they die of starvation or thirst.
Moreover, Idris pointed out that the refugee camps in Greece, which hold tens of thousands of asylum seekers, are experiencing severe shortages of food, healthcare, and poor services, which suggests that they are more like detention centers or concentration camps.
He stressed that these practices violate refugee rights, calling on the United Nations, international organizations and the European Union to assume their responsibilities towards migrants.
(Source: SOC’s media department)
