Media: German officers criticize Greek treatment of migrants

Dec 11, 2010, 14:20 GMT

Berlin - German police stationed on the Greek-Turkish border as part of EU patrol teams have criticized the harsh treatment refugees are subjected to, media reported Saturday.

Migrants were being restrained by physical force or driven away with warning gunshots, causing people to retreat onto mined territory, officers reported according to Spiegel news magazine.

The German police units are part of the Rapid Border Intervention Teams dispatched by the EU's Frontex agency to the Greek-Turkish border, a popular EU entry point for migrants.

After being arrested, people were placed into vans without seats or windows, to be transported to detention centres where they were held in inhumane conditions for questioning, officers reportedly said.

The conditions in detention centres were so bad that the officers wore face masks and gloves, according to Spiegel. German police had reportedly been banned from some aspects of the work, as they contravened German law.

'Germany is watching the developments with concern and has already demanded that Greece improve the situation of refugees,' an interior ministry spokesman told the magazine.

A ministry delegation flew to Greece last month to see how refugees were being treated.

Athens has been repeatedly criticized for its treatment of detainees, including immigrants, most recently by the Council of Europe which reported last month that methods at times bordered on torture.

Greece has had to request European Union assistance in trying to seal its border with Turkey and is now considered one of the major access points for illegal immigrants into the EU. More than 42,000 refugees from Turkey have been stopped by border agents since January.

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