Migrants........

EU’s Johansson slams Greece over ‘deportation’ of migrants

Footage showing Greek coast guard abandoning migrants in the open sea is ‘absolutely unacceptable,’ EU home affairs commissioner says.

BY JACOPO BARIGAZZI, JAKOB HANKE VELA AND NICOLAS CAMUT

EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson criticized Greece for reportedly forcing migrants onto an emergency raft and abandoning them in the Aegean Sea.

In an interview with POLITICO, Johansson said the episode was more than a pushback — when migrants are forced away after crossing a border.

“What seems to be in these videos is a deportation,” Johansson said, adding she had no reason to doubt the footage obtained by the New York Times.

“If this turns out to be the truth, and [the NYT’s videos] very much point in that direction, of course, it’s absolutely unacceptable,” the commissioner said.

The EU on Monday called on the Greek government to investigate allegations of illegal migrant deportations, after footage showed a vessel from the Greek coast guard taking a dozen migrants into the Aegean Sea, where it left them on a motorless raft. They were later picked up by the Turkish coast guard.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who landed a major electoral victory Sunday but called a new election after failing to secure a majority, said Tuesday his government was “holding an inquiry.”

“They have promised me already last summer that they will set up an independent monitoring mechanism,” Johansson said. “And it’s still not there.”

The commissioner said the EU was making good progress on putting together a major — and long-awaited — migration pact, as the bloc seeks to revise its migration strategy.

Conceding that “a lot of problems remain[ed],” Johansson said it was “absolutely” possible to reach a deal “before the end of this legislative mandate [next year].”

Much of the progress made so far, she said, was reached thanks to the use of qualified majority, and not consensus, to take decisions.

In 2015, the use of majority voting triggered a major division in the EU, when Western European countries tried to push through a controversial plan to forcibly relocate 120,000 refugees across the Continent, including to countries that did not want to accept them.

The episode fueled EU skepticism in Central and Eastern Europe.

But, some officials say, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed the political landscape on the Continent. Hungary, which opposes the new migration deal, is now more isolated politically as the rest of the bloc, including Central and Eastern European countries like Poland, have united in their unequivocal support of Ukraine — making it easier for the other countries to overrule Budapest. In Johansson’s view, member countries have also learned to trust each other more — realizing they can reduce migrant flows by working together.

“There are always those that are against, that’s the normal life in politics,” Johansson said. “That’s why we take decisions with qualified majority.”