How ‘Fortress Europe’ is welcoming Ukrainian refugees while getting tougher on migration

Many of the EU nations supporting Ukrainians fleeing war have grown increasingly hostile to other refugees and migrants, with violence and pushbacks now widespread, Moira Lavelle and Kieran Guilbert report

File photo: Migrants stand behind a fence at Karatepe refugee camp on Lesbos island, Greece, 29 March 2021 (EPA-EFE)

Having fled persecution and violence in Iran’s Kurdish region in 2018, Daryan headed to Turkey and spent six months trying to cross the border into Greece - hoping to apply for asylum there and start a new life in Europe.

Daryan - who was 20 at the time - said he was driven back from the border about a dozen times, but is unsure of the exact number because he was pushed back so frequently.

He described a system: men dressed in military fatigues or clad in black and wearing masks  who would capture people like him trying to cross the border, detain them for several days, then take them back to the border, beat them, and push them back to Turkey in large groups.