Greek prosecution of mourning migrant father a warning to others

Yahya Ayyoubi, 6, died when a boat carrying 25 people capsized near Samos

A half-sunken inflatable boat  abandoned in the port of Pythagorio in Samos, Greece, just a few miles from Turkey. Getty

The prosecution of an Afghan migrant over the death of his young son when their boat capsized off the Greek coast is a “harsh and inhumane” tactic by the government aimed at stopping others from making the same journey, his lawyer said.

The father, named on Tuesday as Nadir Ayyoubi, 25, faces up to six years in prison under an endangerment law used for the first time for migrants after his son Yahya, 6, died when their boat was pushed on to rocks encircling the island of Samos.

Mr Ayyoubi’s trauma after his son’s death was compounded when he was forced to flee fire in a crowded refugee camp on the island of Samos on the first night that he left police custody.

Volunteers said the rubbish-strewn and crowded Vathy camp on the eastern island is home to nearly 4,000 people, as well as rats, scorpions and snakes. Tents and containers are closely packed in the camp, which was initially intended to house only 650 people.

Mr Ayyoubi, who is on bail, has been ordered to stay in the camp for 20 days by an island court and told he cannot leave Greece until his trial, which is not expected for at least a year, said his lawyer Dimitrios Choulis. The Afghan is struggling “psychologically and physically because the conditions in Samos are not good”, he added.

Mr Choulis said the law could have been used for any of the thousands of parents who brought children on unstable small boats from Turkey to Greece, but the authorities had decided to make an example of Mr Ayyoubi.

“This law could apply to a father who decided to go on a fishing trip in bad weather, or goes on a motorcycle without a helmet,” Mr Choulis said.

“It’s very harsh and inhumane. It’s designed to make life as difficult as possible and to send a message to others before they try to make this difficult journey."

Mr Ayyoubi told his lawyer that the boat carrying 25 people ran into choppy waters off the coast of Samos and overturned after it was driven on to rocks.

He lost contact with his son, who was wearing a life jacket, and claims that the authorities were slow to embark on a search early on November 8. The boy’s body was found nine hours later, the lawyer said.

Mr Ayyoubi told his lawyer that he left Afghanistan as a nine-year-old after a bomb attack on his mother’s home. In the intervening years he lived in Iran and then Turkey.

He says he was told by a lawyer in Turkey that he would not be allowed to claim asylum there and would have to return to Afghanistan or head to the European Union. He decided to travel to Austria where he had family, Mr Choulis said.

“These charges are a direct attack on the right to seek asylum and it is outrageous that a grieving father is being punished for seeking safety for him and his child," said Josie Naughton, founder of the aid organisation Help Refugees.

The case is the latest example of the Greek authorities’ tough stance against migrants after Turkey opened its borders in March. It followed the breakdown of a 2016 pact designed to limit the numbers arriving from Turkey to the EU.

The Greek coastguard has been accused of pushing boats back into Turkish waters to try to stop migrants arriving at the islands where camps struggled to cope with new arrivals. The Greek authorities denied the claims.

Relatives of another migrant said they planned to sue the Greek government after he was shot and fatally injured at the border between the two countries in March, when thousands of people were barred entry from the EU country.

Muhammad Gulzar was one of seven people shot during chaotic scenes after Greek soldiers were accused of using live rounds and tear gas to repel migrants from a border fence between the two countries.

UN and EU figures show a sharp drop overall in the numbers seeking to reach the EU compared with last year. The numbers in 2020 are on course to be less than 10 per cent of the million people who crossed to Europe at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015.

EU border agency Frontex on Tuesday said that there were fewer than 17,000 illegal border crossings in the first 10 months of 2020 in the Eastern Mediterranean region, which covers crossings from Turkey to Greece. It amounted to a decline of 74 per cent from the same period a year earlier.