The 40-page report Frontier Europe: Human Rights Abuses on Greece’s border with Turkey examines the Greek authorities’ dangerous use of ‘push backs’- when they turn groups of migrants back across the border, denying them the right to have their individual cases heard or to challenge their expulsion.

The report also highlights the dangers refugees and migrants face trying to cross from Turkey to the Greek islands, and explores the appalling detention conditions those who do make it are often held in.

Since March, Amnesty International has spoken to nearly 30 people in Greece and Turkey who, in at least 39 separate instances, have been stopped trying to cross the Aegean or the northern land border between the two countries along the river Evros.

Almost all of them described how they had experienced or witnessed violence and/or other ill-treatment by the Greek authorities. Many said guards had taken their belongings, including money, family photos and heirlooms, and in some cases thrown them into the sea.

“What’s happening along the Greek border does not just shame Greece. It shames the European Union as a whole,” said Jezerca Tigani, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia.

“The number of push back stories we collected is extremely alarming. It suggests that the Greek authorities are employing this practice on a regular basis, despite the fact that it is unlawful. And it is also extremely dangerous – to the point where it puts people’s lives seriously at risk.”

Testimonies collected by Amnesty point to the blatant disregard for human life shown by the Greek coastguard during these operations carried out in the Aegean Sea. Thirteen of the 14 interviewees who described being returned to Turkey said how their inflatable boats were rammed, knifed, or nearly capsized while they were being towed or circled by a Greek coastguard boat. They said their boats’ engines were disabled and their oars removed, then they were just left in the middle of the sea. Life-endangering practices were also reported by people caught after crossing the river Evros.

The route across the Aegean has become more popular since last year when authorities built a 10.5 kilometre fence and deployed nearly 2,000 new border guards along the border at the river Evros. But it is a dangerous one. As well as the threat of push backs, since August last year more than 100 people – including women and children and mostly Syrians and Afghans – have drowned trying to reach Greece.

“As the weather gets better and conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia continue, we expect more people to attempt the journey and we are likely to see more tragedies like these,” said Jezerca Tigani.

Those who do make it to Greece are routinely detained in dark, dirty cells for long periods. Many of the people Amnesty spoke to had spent nearly nine months behind bars. Health problems are rife.

“The conditions refugees and migrants are being held in are often appalling. In fact, when we visited people in those cells it was difficult to remember we were actually in the EU. Many of them are fleeing conflict, poverty and hunger but too often they are being held in dark, dirty, damp cells, with limited access to fresh air and not enough food,” said Jezerca Tigani.

“Some detainees told us they had to call the police when they needed to use the toilet as there were no toilets in their cells. They said their calls were often not answered for hours so they had to urinate in bottles. Others said their bedding had not been washed for months, and that they had limited access to soap, shampoo or sanitary towels,” she added.

Amnesty International is calling on the Greek authorities to stop push backs immediately and investigate allegations of collective expulsions and ill-treatment, and to prosecute those involved. It wants all those intercepted trying to cross borders to have their cases for international protection heard fairly. It wants the Greek authorities to end the indiscriminate and prolonged detention of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers; and use alternatives to detention.

The EU has a role to play too. It must support the Greek authorities by helping to improve reception services instead of sealing off borders. The EU should also explore new ways of sharing responsibility for refugees and migrants.

“It is obviously Greece’s prerogative to control its borders, but not at the expense of the human rights of those trying to reach safety, or looking for a better life, in Europe. These are difficult times in Greece, and for millions across Europe, but there is no excuse for how refugees and migrants are being treated,” said Jezerca Tigani.

“Other EU Member States appear only too happy for Greece to act as their gatekeeper. But the policies and practices along the Greek border expose the bitter irony of European countries pressing for peace abroad while denying asylum to and putting at risk the lives of those seeking refuge in Europe. The EU must act now to stop these human rights violations at its borders,” she said.

Every year, tens of thousands of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers from the Middle East, Asia and Africa cross the Greek land and sea border with Turkey in search of shelter, refuge or just a better life within the European Union (EU). Few of them find it in Greece.

“Greece’s failure to respect the rights of migrants and asylum-seekers is taking on the proportions of a humanitarian crisis. Against a backdrop of sustained migratory pressure, profound economic crisis and rising xenophobic sentiment, Greece is proving itself incapable of providing even the most basic requirements of safety and shelter to the thousands of asylum seekers and migrants arriving each year,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Program Director at Amnesty International.

While the burden on Greece is great, there is no excuse for the obstacles asylum-seekers face in registering their asylum claims. A new agency set up by law in 2011 to hear asylum applications is yet to process a single case on account of staffing shortages.

In the meantime, at the Attika Aliens Police Directorate in Athens, only around 20 people succeed in registering their asylum application on the one day a week it opens. The queue forms days in advance and stretches hundreds long down the street. Amnesty International spoke to numerous asylum-seekers who had had to fight their fellows to keep their place.

The majority who do not manage – or give up trying – to register their asylum claims run the risk of arrest in mass sweep operations and of being detained in overcrowded, unhygienic detention facilities for up to a year or more.

“The Greek authorities continue to systematically detain asylum-seekers and irregular migrants including unaccompanied children in breach of international standards and seem to use detention – often in appalling conditions – as a deterrent,” said Dalhuisen.

“The situation of unaccompanied children, who are amongst the most vulnerable, is particularly worrying. We found several children detained among adults in very poor conditions during a recent visit at the Corinth detention center.

“Amnesty International has even received reports of people fleeing conflict and war in countries such as Syria being pushed back to Turkey through the river Evros”  said Dalhuisen.

There has also been a dramatic rise of  in the number of racially motivated attacks throughout 2012. Asylum-seekers, migrants, community centres, shops and mosques have been the target of such attacks which have been reported on an almost daily basis since the summer.

A draft presidential decree creating the specialized police units to curb racist violence is a first step towards the right direction, but falls short of  guaranteeing the effective investigations and prosecutions for crimes where victims are reluctant to approach the police for fear of arrest and detention themselves.

EU asylum policy requires asylum-seekers to return to the first country they entered upon arrival in the EU. However, after the European Court of Human Rights concluded in 2011 that Greece lacked an effective asylum determination system, many EU countries have halted the return of asylum-seekers to Greece.

“Most European countries have taken the right step in stopping the return of asylum seekers to Greece until the country reforms its asylum system. However, they must share responsibility for processing asylum applications and supporting asylum seekers more equally among member states,” said Dalhuisen.

“The current situation in Greece is totally unworthy of the Nobel Peace Prize winning European Union and so far below international human rights standards as to make a mockery of them. Greece needs help but it must also accept its own responsibilities.”

The immigrants were transferred to the camp after they were arrested early morning in the context of a sweep operation code-named “Xenios Zeus”.

Amid local protests to the former barracks of the 6th Infantry Regiment in Corinth being used as a migrant detention centre, supporters of Golden Dawn clashed with police in an attempt to block them from entering the camp with arrested illegal immigrants.

In a statement issued by the party it said it opposed military facilities being used as “tourism centers for illegal immigrants.”

Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris stressed that the only possible solution to the issue of illegal immigration is deportation.

ANA reported the protest was led by Golden Dawn MP Efstathios Boukouras, who placed himself in front of a truck carrying migrants.

Nearly 11,000 undocumented immigrants have been brought to the Corinth military camp since the beginning of August, according to Kathimerini, adding that almost 2,000 of those people have been arrested.

Meanwhile, local Mayor Alekos Pnevmatikos also objected  the transfer of the migrants to the army camp. According to To Vima, the Corinth Municipality cut off the camp’s water supply and is refusing to collect its garbage.

A municipal council meeting took place late last night to discuss the issue, with episodes continuing outside between Golden Dawn members and police.

An estimated 100,000 people from Asia, Africa and the Middle East pass though Greece to reach the European Union every year. But anti-immigrant sentiment is growing as Greece faces a major economic crisis.

Despite reaction by local residents and rights groups, with the transfer of dozens of migrants detained over the past few days in police sweeps in central Athens, were transferred to Amygdaleza center.

Police said they transferred a group of 56 migrants in the early afternoon and were to move another 164 into the center late last night.

Residents staged a protest against the center outside the police training school which is adjacent to the facility, Kathimerini reported

Dozens more are expected at the camp in the next few days, which can will be housing 1,200 people unitl mid-May, according to Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis.

Amygdaleza is the first of about 30 camps that Greek officials say will be built by mid-2013. It consists of dozens of containers that were originally set up to house people hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes.

The minister noted, in a posting on his Twitter account Sunday, that the opening of the first facility was a success. “With Amygdaleza we have proven that a government can and should work even a few days before elections,” he said

“The biggest lesson learned from the current humanitarian crisis in the center of Athens is that governance without political costs-that is trying to fool the world by ignoring the problems of keeping everyone happy, all come back to you in the future,” said Michalis Chrysochoidis referring to the opening of the first Restricted Hospitality Center in Amygdaleza.

The facilities, which are officially named “closed hospitality centers” will be created at abandoned military sites in a EUR 250 million program funded by European Union, according to athensnews.gr. The first new center is set to open this month in Kozani, at an abandoned army base, prior to elections. The center will host thousands of illegal immigrants, according to Chrysohoidis.

Chrysohoidis stated that immigrants would temporally be held at the centers. “Whoever (illegally) enters the country will be given hospitality and will be immediately asked to return home,” Chrysohoidis said during a press conference. “Unless they are refugees, in which case they have a sacred right to asylum.”

Vice Minister Citizen Protection, Manolis Othonas in an interview with protothema.gr said that the centers are being organized. Outside and inside the center will be guarded, hence, the illegal immigrants won’t have any communication with local communities.

The minister also explained in detail the process that will follow when an illegal immigrant is held. Anyone that gets caught will go to the reception center, the authorities will try to identify the detainee, so they can return them to their countries, if they do not have any solid reasons to reside in Greece. The immigrants to be detained will be held at the centers till their departure.