The EU mafia: Witness to their crimes

One of the worst violations of human rights and one of the biggest mass killings of civilians Europe has experienced since the Second World War is taking place as we speak; and the vast majority of corporate media as well as the people of Europe are staying silent. According to the International Organisation for Migration and the Human Rights Watch, only during the past 2 years, at least 8000 mainly women and children have drowned in their attempt to escape from the deadliest wars of the past 40 years in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Just as a reminder, ALL of these wars were either started or fuelled through arms hand outs and training of extremist groups mainly by the USA and their NATO allies. Of course these numbers do not include the thousands of refugees who die on the way before they ever reach the borders of Europe, mainly in the ragged mountains on the borders of Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey and the people who are shot or tortured by the smugglers or the authorities in the aforementioned countries.

I have spoken to hundreds of refugees and they all have the same gruesome stories to share. On their way to Europe most of them have to cross Turkey. There, the smugglers in admirable collaboration with the authorities, repeatedly take them hostage, threaten them and torture them in order to  extort the maximum amount of money they can from them. I have been told about secret underground prisons where refugees are kept like animals, hungry and thirsty until they pay their 20-30€ fee in order to be set free. Refugees have described to me how the smugglers “rent” the highways from the Turkish Gendarmerie (a branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for the maintenance of the public order in areas that fall outside the jurisdiction of police forces, generally in rural areas). That means that the Turkish Gendarmerie are getting paid so that they remove their check-points for a few hours; if the refugees can’t make it through during these time slots then they usually get arrested and asked for more money in order to be released. Only a few days ago the first documented killings of refugees by the Turkish armed forces as they are trying to cross from Syria into Turkey have surfaced. Only yesterday, the Bulgarian army shot dead an Afghan refugee as he was trying to cross the border from Turkey.

Of course, as is always the case, this is a matter of social class. Most of the rich and upper-class people who want to escape the war zones, do so by plane and European or North American passports that have been issued by the industry of human suffering within the Western embassies themselves. The cost of buying passports and a plane ticket to Europe for a family of 4 varies between 100.000 and 200.000 €. The transaction takes place using an ingenious system where money never changes hands directly. It becomes obvious that the financial beneficiaries of this situation have no reason to see this situation changed. When one wants to solve a crime and find the perpetrator, one has to answer a simple question: In whose benefit?

Almost all of the refugees I have spoken to have had a close relative or a friend killed in the wars back in their home countries; and still the “civilised and democratic” Europe, the very regimes that invade other countries using the violation of human rights as a pretext, have come to be some of the worst human rights violators themselves. Under and agreement that the 28 countries of the EU have signed with Turkey, tens of thousands of refugees (I remind you again that around 40% of which are children) are to be held in prison concentration camps mainly in Greece, without any access to basic necessities, medical attention, legal representation, humanitarian organisations, until they are expelled back to Turkey; the same Turkey whose totalitarian regime is murdering hundreds of its own citizens in the Kurdish dominated areas of its south-east territory. The same Turkey where refugees are being extorted, imprisoned and tortured. That is why most refugees are telling me that they prefer going back to die in their home land than being deported back to Turkey. Already, in the first few days of massive deportations 2 refugees have committed suicide as soon as they were sent back to Turkey. Of course this agreement is in flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention, the New York Protocol and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which clearly states in the two clauses of Article 19:

1. Collective expulsions are prohibited.
2. No one may be removed, expelled or extradited to a State where there is a serious risk that he or
she would be subjected to the death penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.
Another outrageous part of the agreement is the fact that it does not recognise the right of Afghanis or Pakistanis to apply for asylum as these countries are “not considered at war”. The images bellow were taken a few months ago in Afghanistan where the civilian casualties of the war, almost equally split between Talibans, ISIS, Afghan Forces and NATO-led forces, rose to record levels for the seventh year in row in 2015, especially amongst women and children

In Pakistan alone at least 1100 civilians have been killed in bomb blasts and battles between extremists and the army while hundreds more have been murdered in USA drone strikes and bombardments during the past 2 years. These are the countries the EU is considering “not at war” and wants to deport thousands of civilians back to.

Every single refugee death is a direct consequence of the policies of the EU. Turkey and Greece share a land border. If this border had been opened, we would not have a single drowned toddler, we wouldn’t have a single extorted or tortured refugee. Since Austria, Germany and most Balkan countries closed their borders to refugees the only thing they have achieved is to throw these vulnerable people in the hands of armed gangs. Only yesterday, a family of Afghani refugees I had met here in Athens a couple of weeks ago, contacted me from Hungary describing me their ordeal as they fell in the hands of criminals in the FYROM-Greece border where they were taken hostages at gun-point until ransom was paid. The same day a Syrian refugee contacted me from Italy, where he had just arrived through Albania giving the last bit of money he had left to Albanian and Italian smugglers.
Borders, guns and authoritarian regimes might kill, extort or drown some, but eventually people who are desperate will find a way to get to a safe space. It’s not a mere matter of a “better future” for them and their children; it is a matter of life and death. The only two things closed borders policies achieve are 1. The deaths of thousands of innocent people running away from wars we have started and extremist groups we have armed or financed and 2. Handing out more than 6 billion € so far, to criminal gangs of smugglers.
Every single refugee I came across, when asked whether they would like to go back to their home country if things get better in the future answered “home is home; of course we would go back”. These wars will continue being necessary as long as they are profitable for big corporations and serve as generators of endless crowds of desperate people who are willing to work for peanuts. The Western imperialism, the arms industry, the totalitarian “representative democracies” and most of all the blinded masses who numbly watch human rights violated, other humans being imprisoned without a judicial process and thousands of them killed and extorted, are all responsible. If we don’t act now, very soon, the time will come when in the place of these imprisoned, tortured and desperate people will be us; and then there will be no one left to save us.
Nikolaos Gryspolakis
About these ads