When I first went to the [Evros River] border, my first priority was to uncover what was happening and not to get arrested.
Philip Pollák, director of the Anachoma documentary project
The 480-kilometer-long Evros River, which divides Greece and Turkey in an uneasy truce, is just one of many places where EU policy on pushbacks goes largely unchecked. The pushbacks we are witnessing on the Evros River are not only against international and EU law but also a weaponized region against migrants where death has sometimes the final say.
“In an ideal world, I hope our documentary Anachoma, which means embankment in Greek, will see its first screening in May, a month before the European Parliament election in June. I hope it will raise awareness and encourage people not to look the other way,” said Pollák. “The documentary, which exposes pushbacks with the help of investigative journalism, research and experts, aims not only to show that what is happening is illegal but barbaric and wrong. It also undermines and chips away at our democracy and European values.”
Philip Pollák, director o the Anachoma project.
The Anachoma project has during three years interviewed over 30 people in 20 locations from Istanbul to Brussels. Some of these include Green MEP Tineke Strik, Stefanos Levidis, a forensic architecture researcher, Panayote Dimitras, founder of the Greek Helsinki Monitor.
Note from Philip Pollák: “ANACHOMA is a project that came very far with immense commitment from the team and investment of our own resources. However, to make this hard work see the light of day, we need the support of a broader community, of people who care. That’s why we started our crowdfunding campaign through our website and social media handles.
anachoma.com | Instagram | X | Facebook | LinkedIn | Youtube
If you are interested in collaborating to make the world know about these stories, and to hold the bright light of a projector to the injustice witnessed for decades, please consider visiting our website and contributing to ANACHOMA.“
The Evros River region is located in the northeastern and western parts of Greece and Turkey, respectively. Source: Wikipedia.
“The entire military strip [between both countries] is off limits,” Pollák continued. “There Is a buffer zone, but there are no maps that show the exact geographic location because it is a secret. You do see the checkpoints and how the border is guarded.”
Pollák said that one can be arrested if you are caught in the buffer zone. “You can face espionage charges, if you are a Greek you can even face treason charges,” he explained.
Interest grew in Greece
Pollák got interested in the Evros River pushbacks when he moved to Greece in 2020 and started to hear stories from that region. He did his Master’s thesis on the topic.
“Our documentary is all about pushbacks in their crudest form,” Pollák continues. “The action and treatment of migrants at the border by the Greek authorities breach the 1951 Convention on Refugees, the 1967 Protocol of that treaty, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, European Convention on Human Rights, UN Declaration of Human Rights, and many other laws concerning the treatment of migrants.”
Other violations worth mentioning include the use of collective expulsion, torture, theft, degrading treatment or punishment, and the disregard for the principle of non-refoulment, as well as the right to asylum.
“There was a comprehensive investigation by [Madrid’s] El País in 2022 revealed around 2 million euros had been stolen by the authorities from these people,” he continued. “There is a lot of secrecy and cover-ups. The stories that emerge from migrants are only the tip of the iceberg.”
Pollák said that the National Transparency Authority can disprove anything. He compared the Greek authority’s cover-up to the movie, Thank You for Smoking, where the tobacco industry could even prove that smoking is good for you.
Who are they?
The asylum seekers and migrants attempting to cross the Evros River are mostly from countries like Syria, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Northern Africa. Many are people who have been exploited and abused in Turkey for a number of years.
“Let’s not forget that there has been a democratic crisis in Turkey since 2016,” said Pollák. “There were over 10,000 Turkish citizens that have requested asylum in Greece up to 2020..”
A documentary by the French channel Arte, The Nameless Dead, claimed that “thousands of migrants risk their lives by crossing the Evros River…and many drown or die of hypothermia in the attempt.”
Pavlos Pavlidis, a regional medical examiner at the General University Hospital of Alexandroupoli who examines all the cropses, said (2022) that in the last 22 years, he’s seen 600 bodies only on the Greek side. “Theoretically, there must be as many [desceased] on the Turkish side, so [a total of] 1,200 to 1,500 people.”
Another article by Enab Baldi and Fatima al-Mohammad reveals how the Evros River has turned into a graveyard for Syrians on their journey to Europe.
A perilous path
As a Hungarian national, Pollák has seen how an autocrat like Viktor Orbán has used, among other things, the anti-immigration message to undermine democracy and accumulate power. While there are some election bright spots in some countries like Spain and Poland, there are other ones like Holland where far-right politician Geert Wilders’ party won the election.
There are fears that the far right will do well in the EU election of June.
“Definitely, the changes in Hungary were done with the help of the migration crisis of 2015,” Pollák continued. “Migration is the best scapegoat card for the [anti-democratic] ‘reforms’ we have witnessed. In Hungary. The government has imposed restrictions on foreign services, persecuted and vilinized NGOs, and passed strict migration laws.”
“We are presently at a tinfoil level of cuckooness that is difficult to describe,” he added.
Pollák hopes the documentary will encourage voters in the EU to vote wisely and not for far-right candidates.
“If I am cynical, I have fears about what the EU project wanted to be [in the 2000] and where it is now heading,” he concluded, adding that the best indication of the seriousness of the situation is how we are treating asylum seekers and migrants at our borders.