When the Israeli attacks on Gaza began last October, the Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum, Dimitris Kairidis, expressed concern that this new conflict would lead to an increase in irregular immigration. “As if the multitude of flashpoints in North Africa and Syria were not already pushing thousands of migrants towards Europe, now this,” he said. By mid-2023, Palestinian asylum requests had already tripled those of 2021 in the EU, but the minister was wrong: the attacks of October 7 have slowed down departures, in light of the evidence collected by several EU agencies. and the United Nations, which point to a reduction in flows from Gaza and the West Bank in recent months.
Fatima – fake name – is Palestinian and 35 years old. Her husband and her children are some of those Gazans who caused concern to the conservative Greek minister. They left the Strip on September 15, three weeks before Israel closed access to bomb the enclave in response to the 1,200 deaths and almost 300 kidnapped that resulted from the Hamas attack.
Since October 7, all of his brothers and nephews have been victims of Israeli bombs, adding to the more than 31,000 people who have died so far in the Strip. Fátima's husband is the only survivor of a family of 50 members, she has lost 39 relatives and still does not know how to tell her seven-year-old son that her grandparents are still under the rubble. Her children, three girls and a boy, are the only ones alive from her generation. “For Palestinians there is no institution more important than the family,” explains the Psychology graduate. She cries throughout the conversation, but she wants her story to be known. He doesn't want to talk to anyone and for weeks he has been causing self-harm.
In 2023, Palestinians who requested protection in community territory were 11,561, mainly in Greece and Belgium, according to the most recent data from the European Asylum Agency (USA); triple that of two years before. .
On the Greek islands, they are the third nationality among refugees: They accounted for 16% of those registered in 2023, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Until 2020 they did not enter the top three positions, coinciding with an increase in the deaths of citizens of Gaza and the West Bank at the hands of Israeli soldiers or civilians: there were 230 until the day before the Hamas attacks, 191 in 2022 and 320 in 2021 , according to the Israeli human rights association B'tselem.
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This is the case of Fátima, which arrived in Greece irregularly crossing the eastern Mediterranean from Turkey long before the events of October 7. Or Ghada – not her real name either – who is from Beit Lahia, on the outskirts of the largest Gazan refugee camp, Jabalia, and who is now a neighbor of Fátima, both residing in the Kara refugee camp. Tepe, in Lesbos (Greece). Ghada has lost 60 members of her family, but her suffering also did not begin on October 7: in May, her home was destroyed during an earlier clash between Islamic Jihad and the Israeli army. “There is no life in Gaza, only fear,” she laments during a conversation outside her temporary home.
Like Fatima and Ghada, 41,561 Palestinians arrived by sea in 2023 and 7,160 more crossed the Turkish border on foot. They make up 16% of irregular arrivals to the islands, the third most frequent nationality, according to the Greek Ministry of Migration. .
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Since October 7, Gaza's borders have been closed. If the numbers of Palestinians arriving in Greece continued to rise, it was because of those who left before the attacks, notes another Europol report from January 2024. Seweryn Stopa, head of the European Migrant Smuggling Center of this agency, corroborates this: “ We see some individuals [llegando irregularmente], but not a significant increase,” he tells EL PAÍS. In Turkey, the country from which the majority access Greece, more than 18,000 Palestinians were detained without papers, the highest number recorded in the last decade, according to data from the Turkish Ministry of the Interior. Between January 1 and February 22, 2024, 1,740 new arrests have been made.
Europol's assessments coincide with the point of view of the EUAA, which warns that the increase in asylum requests was more pronounced starting in July, but the trend began to reverse in December 2023, and that they cannot directly link the increase of applications with the events of October 7 due to the existing limitations on leaving Gaza. “The registered Palestinians requesting international protection were probably already in the EU,” explains an agency source.
Another indication that fewer Palestinians are arriving is that the number of those housed in Greek refugee camps from October to the end of January is decreasing, says George Skordilis, from the press office of the Ministry headed by Kairidis. “In October there were 2,621, and in January there were 1,630,” he details. This decrease is due to two reasons: the speeding up of asylum application resolutions and the main one, according to Skordilis: “the great reduction in the flow of Palestinians to Greece,” adds the spokesperson.
Hot returns
Europol reports describe how smugglers organize trips from Turkey, at least until October 7. Palestinians traveled from Gaza to Egypt by bus. From Cairo, they flew to Istanbul on tourist visas and once there they went by road to Izmir, from where local facilitators took them clandestinely by sea to the Greek islands. “The rates point to 550 euros per person for the Egypt – Turkey – Greece route, but a criminal network charged up to 15,000 euros per person,” says Europol.
Fatima and Ghada lived that journey. Before leaving Gaza they had agreed that each family would pay 5,580 euros for the zodiac crossing from Turkey to Greece, but they had to renegotiate the price because the relatives who financed them died while they were on the trip. They deposited the agreed amount of money, 3,720 euros, to an intermediary known as hawala, that unlocks it once the migrants arrive at the destination.
Both women tried to reach Greece seven times before they succeeded, as they were victims of hot returns, which on the Greek islands are an illegal but common practice since 2020. Migrants are detained in Greek waters by boats manned by coast guards and men hooded men who remove or destroy the engine, before abandoning them adrift. In 2023 there were 25,145 returns of this type in the Aegean Sea and the Palestinians were the second nationality that suffered the most, with 9,697 affected. “I saw death in my children's eyes every time we went to sea,” says Fátima. On two occasions they pointed their weapons directly at their heads to make them stop the boat. One of the times, a Turkish coast guard told them “Why do you come here? “Go back to Gaza so the Israelis will kill you.” Finally, on December 6, 2023, they arrived in Lesvos.
Fatima and Ghada's eldest daughter, 13, are still healing from severe burns they suffered during the sea crossing. It is a common injury among migrants, which is caused by the reaction between salt water and gasoline from the boat engine. In Kara Tepe life is not easy. The Government has managed to shorten the processing of asylum applications and the stay in the camps. Fatima and Ghada have already got the roles. For this reason, they no longer have the right to receive food and must leave the camp, but they do not have the money to even buy the ferry ticket to Athens. “We don't even have enough money for the bus to the port,” Ghada clarifies.
The goal of both families is Belgium. Her government, says Fatima, has shown greater sensitivity towards the Palestinians than the rest of the EU. Although they don't know anyone there, they hope to meet compatriots who will help them take the first steps of their new life.
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