As the smoke clears in Greece, authorities are struggling to identify the charred remains of 18 people found in the dense forests straddling the country’s north-eastern border with Turkey. The victims, which include two children, are believed to be asylum seekers who entered the country irregularly. This grim discovery comes as wildfires continue to ravage the area, which has become a makeshift crossing point for thousands of refugees and migrants.
Amnesty International has linked the deaths to two “great injustices of our times”: catastrophic climate change and the lack of access to safe and legal routes for people on the move. The organisation’s migration researcher, Adriana Tidona, says the victims are caught in a tragic cycle of exclusion and violence, with the fires serving as a stark reminder of the system’s failures. “It’s a situation where people are forced to make impossible choices,” Tidona said. “They’re not safe in their own countries, and they’re not safe on the move.”
The presence of hundreds of asylum seekers in the fire-ravaged area was flagged by Alarm Phone, which reported that people were stranded on different islets of the Evros River, desperate for help as the fires approached. Pleas for aid went unanswered by authorities for days, leaving those in the affected areas to fear for their lives as the flames drew near.
Greece Faces Humanitarian and Racist Fallout as 18 Asylum Seekers PerishFor Vassilis Kerasiotis, the director of HIAS Greece, the situation is a stark testament to the power of fear. “The asylum seekers have legitimate fears of being pushed back to Turkey,” he said. “That’s why they’re hiding instead of going to the nearest Greek authority.” The “hostile” environment created by Greek authorities, aimed at deterring migration, has only served to amplify the risks faced by asylum seekers, pushing them deeper into the forests and closer to the danger zones.
The fires have also fuelled a wave of racist incidents, with far-right groups and individuals taking to social media to spread false claims and hate speech. On Facebook, a far-right MP made baseless claims that refugees and migrants were responsible for the fires, sparking widespread outrage and concern. Three men were arrested for allegedly detaining 13 asylum seekers in a cargo trailer, with the incident linked to a viral video that showed a man detaining young people and connecting them to the fires.
In response to the incidents, Greece’s supreme court prosecutor, Georgia Adilini, has launched an investigation into alleged racist violence. As the country grapples with the consequences of its policies, it is clear that the real crisis lies not in the fires themselves, but in the deeply entrenched system of exclusion and violence that has led to this point.