Greece has secret extrajudicial asylum centre: Report

ISTANBUL

The Greek government has been holding migrants incommunicado at a secret extrajudicial before illegally expelling them back to Turkey without due process, as part of several hard-line measures to seal its border, contravening international law.

According to a report from the New York Times, several migrants have reported having been captured, stripped of their belongings, beaten and expelled from Greece without being given a chance to claim asylum or speak to a lawyer, in an illegal process known as refoulement.

One migrant, speaking to the New York Times, said of the Greek border guards: “To them, we are like animals,” having spent a night detained, without food or drink, before being ferried back across the border dividing Turkey and Greece.

Meanwhile, Turkish officials said that at least three migrants had been shot and killed while trying to enter Greece in the past two weeks.

The Greek authorities have denied reports of deaths along the border.

A spokesman for the Greek government, Stelios Petsas, did not comment on the existence of the site, but said that Greece detained and expelled migrants in accordance with local law.

An act passed March 3, by presidential decree, suspended asylum applications for a month and allowed immediate deportations.