Greece report from the Frontex Deportation flight 2.12. to Pakistan from Athens‏

Frontex and the Greek goverment started again deportation flights.
here a report about the one on the 2.12. that was not very succesfull:
The Pakistani police allowed just 13 of the 39 passengers to disembark.
The rest reboarded the aircraft for the return flight to Greece. The
authorities in Pakistan refused to accept some of the migrants deported
from Austria and Bulgaria.
marily


http://www.ekathimerini.com/204172/gallery/ekathimerini/special-report/the-hours-before-a-deportation

SPECIAL REPORT 11:33
The hours before a deportation

YIANNIS SOULIOTIS
By YIANNIS SOULIOTIS, Photographs: ENRI CANAJ

Yasser, 27, came to Greece from Pakistan six years ago. Until his arrest
four months ago for entering the country illegally, he had been working
at a clothing manufacturer in the downtown Athens district of Patissia.
On the afternoon of December 2, he was standing at the gate of the
Amygdaleza Migrant Detention Center north of the capital, waiting to be
deported back to Pakistan.

“My family doesn’t know I’m going back to Islamabad. I tried to stay in
Greece but my asylum application was rejected,” he told Kathimerini.
Together with 38 fellow countrymen, Yasser was on the first deportation
flight organized by the European border agency Frontex and the Attica
Aliens Department to leave Athens in some 18 months.

“Of the 39 Pakistani nationals on the flight, 32 have been convicted of
various crimes ranging from robbery to drug dealing,” said Kyriaki
Kyriakopoulou, head of the police department’s returns section.

Abid, for example, is 31 and served a four-year sentence for beating
another Pakistani man. “I came to Greece 17 years ago. I lived on Crete
and worked at a greenhouse in Rethymno. I was convicted for beating and
robbing a Pakistani man. I spent four years in prison and was exonerated
in November 2014 by the appeals court,” he explained. “But I was deemed
a threat to the country, transported to Amygdaleza and now, 17 years
later, I’m returning to Pakistan. I won’t stay there. I have a wife and
child on Crete. I’m coming back.”

The process
The operation by the Greek Police Department for Foreign Nationals,
which is headed by Brigadier Manolis Grigorakis, began shortly after 3
p.m. on that Wednesday afternoon. The 39 migrants who were gathered in
Section A of the detention center handed in their luggage, underwent a
full body search and boarded a police bus so they could be transported
to the holding area at the Petrou Ralli Street precinct and then on to
Athens International Airport, each with an escort of two policemen.





“This is considered an easy operation; the flight is direct to
Islamabad,” a young police officer told Kathimerini. “We get paid 140
euros per day for the operation and get an extra two days off.”

The Spanish-owned airplane was chartered by Frontex and the operation
included the participation of Austrian and Bulgarian policemen, who were
escorting Pakistani deportees from their countries, nine and four
individuals respectively.

The flight had originally been planned for November 4 and was to take 65
Pakistani nationals to Islamabad. However, a day earlier the government
there refused to grant landing clearance, arguing that Greece had failed
to submit the relevant application by the deadline, 15 days before the
flight was scheduled.

The Greek Police promptly filed a new request and the flight was slated
for December 2. In the meantime, around 20 of the deportees applied for
asylum in order to postpone their extradition and even though the Asylum
Service investigated their requests immediately and rejected them as
having no grounds, the deportees still managed to be exempted from the
new flight.

Background
On December 1, the day before the deportation flight, Islamabad raised
more objections to the operation. The Pakistani government notified
Greek authorities that it would only be accepting those for whom the
Greek Police had filed a request for re-entry and not those who had been
issued a passport from the Embassy of Pakistan in Athens.

“The consul of Pakistan visited us in Amygdaleza for the papers. I told
him I didn’t want to go back,” said 22-year-old Ali, who had worked at a
car wash in Aghioi Anargyroi, northwestern Athens, until he was arrested
for having forged travel papers. “They can’t force me to go back.”



The convoy of vehicles (police vans and squad cars, as well as buses)
escorting the migrants arrived at Gate B16 of Athens International
Airport shortly after 8 p.m. As they waited for the boarding call at 11
p.m., the police officers distributed sandwiches and water to the
migrants, and spoke with their Austrian and Bulgarian counterparts, the
Italian “observer” from Frontex and the representatives of the Ombudsman
who were supervising the process.

The head of the mission, police officer Argyris Gerogoulias, explained
how the joint return operations with Frontex began in 2008. “By 2014,
however, we could no longer cover the cost of per diems. Recently there
was an agreement with Frontex for all return flights to stop at Athens.
Since the start of October, we have participated in flights to Nigeria,
Georgia and Albania.”

The airplane took off from Athens International Airport just after 11
p.m. and arrived in Islamabad several hours later. The Pakistani police
allowed just 13 of the 39 passengers to disembark. The rest reboarded
the aircraft for the return flight to Greece. The authorities in
Pakistan refused to accept some of the migrants deported from Austria
and Bulgaria.