November 27, 2008	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 28, 1429

ATHENS: Greece is violating international law by rounding up asylum seekers from countries such as Iraq, holding them in degrading conditions and secretly expelling them across the border into Turkey, a rights group said on Wednesday.

In a report entitled “Stuck in a Revolving Door”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) described how coast guards forced out migrants trying to enter Greece’s territorial waters, sometimes puncturing their inflatable boats or disabling their vessels.

For those who succeeded in entering Greece, authorities blocked asylum procedures and turned down around 98 per cent of claims, said the report by the New York-based group.

In northern Greece, migrants are routinely rounded up by police, beaten and ferried back across the Evros River into Turkey under cover of night, the 121-page study said.

“Greece denies protection to vulnerable people and abuses them in detention,” said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at HRW and the author of the report. “Until Greece cleans up its act, EU states shouldn’t send asylum seekers back there.”A Greek interior ministry official declined to comment.

The European Commission estimates there are up to 8 million illegal migrants in the bloc, with up to half a million arriving every year.—Reuters