Thousands of refugees, including Syrian ones, have surged through the Turkish borders to the Greek border following the Turkish decision to lift restrictions imposed on refugees wishing to go to Europe.
On 1 March 2020, the United Nations said that there are about 13,000 refugees along the Turkish-Greek border. Greek government figures indicated that at least 24,000 people have been prevented from crossing the Turkish border into Greece since Saturday.
Those refugees live in a very bad condition and are treated inhumanly and brutally by the Greek police. Activists in the region accuse the Greek coast guards of trying to sink refugees' rubber boats. Some of the refugees were forced to take off their clothes and return naked to the Turkish border in a humiliating and a poor health condition. The refugees spoke of being subjected to torture by the Greek police. They were beaten with sharp machines on different areas of their bodies and were stripped of all their identity papers and mobile phones.
SBC condemns this inhuman way of treating refugees who are risking their lives trying to find a safer place for themselves and their children. Some of those refugees are Syrians who were forcibly displaced by Assad and Russian forces. SBC calls on the international community to protect those refugees and to put pressure on the Greek government to respect their rights according to Geneva conventions and related international laws.
The Syrian refugee crisis proved insurmountable despite all the steps taken by the EU including the EU-Turkey deal. ‘’We ask the international community to actively engage in addressing the roots of the Syrian refugee crisis by stopping Assad brutality that forces people to be displaced’’ SBC Chairman, DR. Haytham Alhamwi said.
