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A new investigation found that Italian authorities took part in illegal intra-EU pushbacks of asylum seekers, detaining foreign nationals below deck on commercial ferries after their arrival in Italy’s ports and sending them back to Greece.
The findings come at a time of mounting scrutiny of the practices of both national and EU border authorities in handling arrivals at Europe’s internal and external borders.
Asylum seekers travelling from Greece to Italy as stowaways on commercial ships were detained by Italian authorities upon arrival at the ports of Ancona, Bari and Brindisi before being locked up in garage or luggage rooms and returned to Greece, the investigation, released on Wednesday (18 January), found.
Researchers from Netherlands-based investigative non-profit Lighthouse Reports, in collaboration with Al Jazeera, Monitor, Solomon, SRF and Il Domani, verified asylum seekers’ testimony, photo and video evidence through on-site research and confirmation from crew members, who referred to the sites as “prisons”.
The team identified imprisonment sites on three different commercial ferries operating in the Adriatic Sea, all operated by Attica Group. Attica insisted that its ships comply with national and international laws.
“Values such as integrity, respect for life and dignity and safety for everyone on board are anchored in our culture. We take the allegations made […] very seriously and assure you that we will continue to investigate them,” the group said in a statement to Swiss media SRF.
Bari’s police chief Giovanni Singer also rejected any misconduct allegations, telling SRF: “This is absolutely against our code of conduct. Anyone who wants to apply for asylum or international protection can do so.”
“People who arrive here illegally and are not EU nationals have guaranteed rights. They are cared for, they get health care and if they decide to apply for asylum or international protection, the process starts here in Italy,” he said.
Since 1999, Italy and Greece have held a bilateral “readmissions” agreement, permitting Italy to return undocumented migrants who have arrived from Greece back to the country. However, this cannot be applied to those seeking asylum.
In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Italy had unlawfully and indiscriminately sent foreign nationals back to Greece in this way, denying them their right to claim asylum. Italian authorities have repeatedly stated that the practice has stopped.
“We’ve found that it continues in full force,” Lighthouse Reports said, citing data from the Greek authorities that 157 people were returned in this way in 2021, and 74 in 2022.
The findings released on Wednesday are the latest in a two-year series of investigations by Lighthouse Reports on pushbacks and illegal practices at the EU’s external and internal borders, including details of Europe’s so-called ‘black sites’ – clandestine detention centres – and EU border agency Frontex’s own complicity in illegal pushbacks.
In 2022, the European Parliament issued a warning to the agency over its “misconduct” in handling asylum seekers at EU borders.
Transparency in border control
“We have many challenges,” EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told a press conference on Thursday, as she introduced Hans Leijtens, Frontex’s recently appointed executive director.
Leijtens will take up the post on 1 March from the current interim director, Aija Kalnaja, who in December was identified as a “person of concern” by the EU’s anti-fraud watchdog (OLAF) in an ongoing investigation into the organisation.
Kalnaja herself took over following the resignation of Fabrice Leggeri, after OLAF’s initial findings revealed that Frontex officers covered up the illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers at the border on a massive scale between 2020 and 2021.
Under his leadership, Leijtens has vowed to “revamp” the way Frontex operates, emphasising that trust is key to the border agency’s operations.
He underlined three “guiding principles” of accountability, fundamental rights and transparency.
“We have to tell, we have to show, what we do,” Leijtens said. “I’m not the type of director who builds a fence around Frontex, I want to open the doors.”
Looking ahead to the future of the EU’s migration policy, Johansson emphasised that the “most important” way to deal with the issue is for EU governments to agree and implement the Pact on Migration and Asylum.
“We had significant progress during the Czech Presidency [of the EU Council], with a lot of files being closed in trilogues. And now, the Swedish presidency is stepping in.”
[Edited by Benjamin Fox]
