It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Wed, May 11, 2022
It’s a new time, National Chief RoseAnne Archibald of the Assembly of First Nations told Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) chiefs gathered May 10.
“There is much work to be done as leaders on this healing path forward. That’s what my commitment is as national chief. We owe it to our future generations to express our sacred gifts, to be active in decision-making, and for all of us to push back against the colonial system,” she said.
The Healing Path Forward is a document produced by the AFN to “influence and shift” the work undertaken by the federal government. It was introduced prior to the 2021 federal election.
Archibald said the document was about building a better future for First Nations, which includes equality and equity that would lead to the “same things every municipality has,” such as clean drinking water, adequate housing and proper services.
“Ever since I was elected … 10 months ago, I’ve been working alongside regional chiefs as well as our federal partners to ensure that First Nations’ priorities are top of mind and that commitments that are made are followed through,” she said.
Meeting those goals would require the federal government to change its budget process, she said. Despite the AFN doing a pre-budget submission with an investment request of approximately $104 billion, financial allocations fell woefully short in the April budget.
“The federal government continues to purposefully underfund First Nations and restrict our communities from accessing our true wealth from our lands and resources,” she said.
First Nations need a new economic deal that allows them to have autonomy, self-government, self-sufficiency and self-determination, all of which are guaranteed in the Constitution, said Archibald.
She pointed to the Ring of Fire, a significant mineral development region in northern Ontario. She said minimal impact benefit agreements with First Nations and promises of jobs weren’t enough.
“We have to move to being owners of those developments, to have a piece of the wealth. This is something that I’ve started to talk about and I will continue to talk about as I move through my term: The new economic deal that we need,” she said.
But changes aren’t only needed at the federal level. First Nations need to conduct business in a different way as well, she said.
Archibald, who was elected July 2021, stressed that efforts had to be made to ensure all marginalized voices were heard, including women, youth and two spirited, lesbian-plus.
To that end, she said, the AFN is establishing a national caucus of elected women leaders, who will meet for the first time in Vancouver at the AFN’s annual general assembly in July.
“As we move forward, all of the brothers that are around this table have to stand beside women in leadership, have to stand beside women, period, and say, ‘We’re going to stand with you and make sure you’re treated with dignity and respect always,’” said Archibald, who acknowledged NAN’s women leaders.
She said the only way the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls can be decreased was for men and women to work together.
The AFN also has its first two spirited, lesbian-plus council.
Archibald said she and her office were in dialogue with the youth council to see how they could assist in meeting its goals nationally.
“I stand before you as the first woman national chief. And how long did it take for that moment to happen? And how long will it take for us to listen to these other voices and to continue to lift up women, and youth, and 2SL (plus) people and other people as well who are marginalized… (that) we need sitting at this table,” said Archibald.
“I do want future generations to look at this moment and see this turning point that we are on. That we have turned a corner and that this momentum that(we are) building is going to continue, that’s it’s unstoppable. That these changes have arrived and that we need to embrace one another,” she said.
Archibald stressed that she would continue to call for accountability when it comes to the lives of children lost at Indian residential schools. Archibald was recently at the United Nations where she called for the special rapporteur to come to Canada to investigate the deaths and burials of children at Indian residential schools. She said she wanted to see that work happen alongside the special interlocuter the federal government is considering appointing.
Archibald also stressed the need for Pope Francis to apologize to residential school survivors on Canadian soil for the role of the Catholic church. In March, at the Vatican, the Pope apologized to delegates from the First Nations, Métis and Inuit for the behaviour of some Catholics. It is anticipated that the Pope will visit Canada in July.
Archibald committed AFN to standing with organizations like NAN for systemic change in addressing “overt, covert, and systemic racism in this country. It affects all of us in every sector, particularly in Canada’s policing and justice system.”
She acknowledged NAN’s leadership role in the recent re-investigation of First Nations deaths in Thunder Bay and NAN’s push to dismantle the Thunder Bay Police Service. The police service has come under strict criticism for its systemic racism in the handling of investigations into First Nations deaths.
She noted that of the 94 calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the legacy of Indian residential schools, 21 of those calls relate to justice or the legal system.
“I’ll continue to support your communities and stand with you and advocate with you on the issues that matter to you,” said Archibald.
May 10 marked the first of a three-day Chiefs Spring Assembly for NAN. Discussions will include health transformation, child welfare, reclamation and healing, emergency management, education, policing, the opioid crisis, and the NAN housing strategy.
Windspeaker.com
By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com
Wed, May 11, 2022
Earlier this week, Edmonton-Griesbach’s MP demanded answers from an oil and gas industry representative on whether companies intend to cough up an estimated $253 million owed to rural communities in Alberta.
The NDP MP, Blake Desjarlais, went on the offensive during a natural resources committee study on creating a fair and equitable energy transition for Canadians.
At the end of 2021, oil and gas companies owed small municipalities approximately $253 million in unpaid property taxes according to a member survey done by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta.
The affected communities are predominantly Indigenous and need the money to pay for roads, water and other basic services, Desjarlais told the committee. The Fishing Lake Métis Settlement in Alberta is one of the many communities still asking oil and gas companies to pay their taxes, said Desjarlais, who is originally from there.
“But these companies are putting that debt, that unpaid tax burden, on regular everyday people,” he said. “It's killing communities.”
Both Desjarlais and his father were energy workers, he told the committee.
“My father died on an energy site and you know what [the company] said? ‘Take a hike,’” said Desjarlais, adding that is still the situation for workers today.
“And they're asking for partnership with the government? Since when do we partner with criminals?”
Property taxes are “a matter of survival” for many rural municipalities because critical infrastructure like roads relies almost entirely on that revenue, according to Rural Municipalities of Alberta. It says a lack of enforcement by the Alberta government is to blame. A popular argument made by government and industry alike is that paying property taxes would lead to insolvency for companies and result in lost jobs, it noted.
“It's absolutely unfair to the men and the women who work in these communities and their families to be shackled to companies that don't want to pay their fair share, pay for their communities, pay for the basic programs and benefits that every worker deserves,” Desjarlais declared.
His question for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ (CAPP) witness, Shannon Joseph, was simple: Will CAPP’s members pay the taxes owed to rural communities?
“Our members pay taxes and there have been issues,” Joseph began in response before Desjarlais interjected “to correct the record” to reflect that “they are not paying their taxes.”
When pressed further, Joseph responded that the provinces, companies and municipalities are in discussion about what constitutes a “fair share” but would not be clear on whether the $253 million would ever be paid, declining to comment further.
In her opening remarks, Joseph had indicated CAPP is ready to partner with the federal government to create “a fair and equitable energy transformation.”
“They're asking for partnership when they can't even pay the measly $253 million,” said Desjarlais.
“We can't even get a clear answer if they're going to pay their taxes. How is that equitable?”
Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer
US funding doubts overshadow Biden's latest global Covid summit
US President Joe Biden will attend a global Covid-19 summit that aims to increase international cooperation on combating the pandemic
Thu, May 12, 2022, 5:31 AM·3 min read
President Joe Biden will address a global summit on Covid-19 Thursday, but Congress' refusal to authorize billions of dollars in funding has thrown into doubt his role as leader of ambitious plans to vaccinate the world and finally stop the pandemic.
The US crossed a grim milestone ahead of the summit, with the White House announcing that more than one million Americans had died due to Covid-19, the highest recorded death toll from the pandemic in the world.
A senior US official said the summit would aim to "redouble" international cooperation on combating Covid, which has killed more than six million people worldwide and triggered profound economic disruption.
"We want to prevent complacency. The pandemic is not over," the official said, adding that the summit will also discuss preparing the world "for the next one -- the next pandemic."
The virtual gathering will be co-chaired by the United States, along with current G7 president Germany, G20 president Indonesia, African Union chair Senegal, and Belize, the current chair of the CARICOM Caribbean grouping.
Biden is expected to open the summit, which follows a first global huddle last September.
Unlike then, when Biden challenged partners to surge vaccines around the world and get 70 percent of every country vaccinated by September of this year, the US government will come to Thursday's session hobbled by inability to secure even its own funding.
Biden has requested another $22.5 billion in emergency Covid funding, including $5 billion for the administration's signature international program, which has already seen some 500 million vaccine doses shipped to more than 100 countries.
After debate, preliminary agreement was reached in the legislature on spending just $10 billion, with nothing for the foreign vaccines.
"You will hear a loud call" to Congress, the US official said. "We know the virus is not waiting for Congress. So we need urgent, urgent action."
In his statement announcing the US death toll on Thursday, Biden said it was "critical" for Congress to continue to fund anti-pandemic efforts.
According to the official, a properly funded and coordinated international approach is the only way that the world can rid itself of a virus which -- while now far less deadly than before vaccines were available -- continues to mutate and spread, slowing down the return to full economic activity.
Opponents in Congress have been especially concerned by the money requested for foreign vaccinations, but the official argued that when a new virus variant strikes it is likely to start abroad before hitting the United States.
"Without additional emergency Covid-19 funding, the United States will be unable to purchase additional life-saving treatments to the American people. The United States will be less able to stop the spread of dangerous new variants from around the world and the United States will be unable to keep vaccinating the world against Covid-19."
The summit will hear appeals for countries to invest in a World Bank pandemic preparedness fund, with the United States set to pledge another $200 million, raising its contribution to $450 million, the official said.
sms/caw/aha
Huge Canadian white diamond sells for $20.9 million in Hong Kong online auction
CDN DIAMOND FETCHES $21M
A rare white 102.39-carat oval diamond mined in Canada has been sold in Hong Kong for the equivalent of $20.9 million.
Sotheby's says the diamond's new owner, an unnamed collector in Japan, named the stone the "Maiko Star" for his second daughter after he won it with a bid made by phone to the auction house's Hong Kong location.
It says the same buyer last year named another important diamond from Sotheby’s the "Manami Star," after his eldest daughter.
The diamond sold Monday was cut from a 271-carat "rough" discovered by De Beers Group at its Victor Mine in northern Ontario in 2018. The mine opened in 2008 and is now being decommissioned.
Sotheby's says the diamond was offered without a reserve price, a first for a lot of its importance and value, and attracted a flurry of bids, including one for the Canadian equivalent of $14.6 million, the highest bid ever placed on a jewel from an online bidder.
The auction house says the diamond was "perfect according to every critical criterion," with the highest grade of colour and clarity, putting it in the most chemically pure class of diamonds.
"This extraordinary gem needed no help from a pre-sale estimate or reserve to reach its rightful price – just the instinctive desire of collectors to own one of the earth’s greatest treasures," said Patti Wong, chair of Sotheby’s Asia.
Slain Journalist's Funeral Held in Ramallah
The funeral of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was held in front of a huge crowd at the presidential palace in Ramallah on Thursday, May 12, with President Mahmoud Abbas speaking.
Abu Akleh, a veteran Al Jazeera reporter, was fatally shot while reporting on an Israeli raid in Jenin the previous day, May 11.
Speaking at the event, Abbas said, “We hold the Israeli occupation authorities completely responsible for her killing, and they cannot, with this crime of theirs, remove the truth.” He added, “This crime must not pass without punishment. We indicate that we have refused, and still refuse, a joint investigation with the Israeli authorities, because it committed the crime.”
Abu Akleh’s burial was due to take place in Jerusalem on Friday.
The Israel Defense Forces said they were investigating the shooting death. IDF Chief of the General Staff LTG Aviv Kohavi said it was “at this point not possible to determine the source of the gunfire which hit [Abu Akleh]”.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet tweeted that Palestinian gunmen had opened “inaccurate, uncontrolled, and indistinguishable” fire in Jenin.
Speaking from his hospital bed, fellow Al Jazeera journalist Ali Samoudi, who was injured in the shooting, said, “We were not armed, we did not pose a threat to Israeli security, and they did not ask us to leave the area.” He added, “They shot at us when we were right in front of them, as they saw and watched us, and are sure that we are journalists, because we were, five, six, wearing press vests and helmets, and carrying cameras.”
Palestinians planned a memorial service Thursday for journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was killed while covering an Israeli raid in the West Bank, but have rejected US-led calls for a joint investigation into her death.
Palestinian-American Abu Akleh, 51, a veteran of Qatar-based Al Jazeera's Arabic TV service, was shot in the head during clashes in the Jenin refugee camp, a major flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel's Defence Minister Benny Gantz conceded late Wednesday that it could have been "the Palestinians who shot her" or fire from "our side" – appearing to walk back Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's remarks that she was "likely" killed by stray Palestinian gunfire.
"We are not certain how she was killed but we want to get to the bottom of this incident and to uncover the truth as much as we can," Gantz told reporters.
Al Jazeera, Palestinian officials and witnesses said Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces, and the network insisted she was targeted "deliberately" and "in cold blood".
School girls visit the site where veteran Al Jazeera Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead while covering an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank, in Jenin on May 12, 2022
Israel has publicly called for a joint investigation into the killing and asked Palestinian authorities to hand over the bullet that struck Abu Akleh for forensic examination.
An Israeli security source told AFP that Israel was prepared to examine the projectile in front of Palestinian and US officials, "out of transparency".
Israeli security forces detain a Palestinian during a protest condemning the death of Shireen Abu Akleh in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Beit Hanina in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on May 11, 2022
'High transparency'
The European Union has urged an "independent" probe while the United States demanded the killing be "transparently investigated", calls echoed by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet.
An initial autopsy and forensic examination were conducted in Nablus in the Israel-occupied West Bank hours after her death, but no final conclusions have been disclosed.
Senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein Al-Sheikh, a close confident of president Mahmoud Abbas, has ruled out a joint probe.
"Israel has requested a joint investigation and to be handed over the bullet that assassinated the journalist Shireen. We refused that, and we affirmed that our investigation would be completed independently," Al-Sheikh said on Twitter.
"We will inform her family, #USA, #Qatar and all official authorities and the public of the results of the investigation with high transparency. All of the indicators , the evidence and the witnesses confirm her assassination by #Israeli special units."
A Palestinian woman holds a photograph of slain veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, as her body is carried toward the offices of the news channel in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on May 11, 2022
'Sister of all Palestinians'
Abu Akleh rose to prominence for Arabic audiences after joining Al Jazeera in 1997 and through her coverage of the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, from 2000-2005.
"She was the sister of all Palestinians," her brother Antoun told AFP at the family home in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
"What happened cannot be silence ... She will not be forgotten."
A woman lights a candle in front of a poster depicting veteran Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh at the the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank biblical city of Bethlehem on May 11, 2022
In a sign of her status among Palestinians, she was set to receive what the Palestinians labelled a full state memorial at the presidential compound in Ramallah on Thursday morning.
Her death came nearly a year after an Israeli air strike destroyed a Gaza building that housed the offices of Al Jazeera and news agency AP.
A total of 31 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs have died during the same period, according to an AFP tally, among them perpetrators of attacks and those killed by Israeli security forces in West Bank operations.
(AFP)
Niamh Cavanagh
·Producer
Tue, May 10, 2022
LONDON — Many observers expected Russia’s air force to blow away Ukraine’s forces in the opening days of the Kremlin’s invasion. Ukraine’s military would be left completely vulnerable as Russian warplanes could pick off targets at whim.
But that hasn’t happened.
More than two months later, Russia has still not established air supremacy over large swaths of Ukraine, despite having the world’s second-largest air force — and a highly advanced one at that. The New York Times reported Monday that, according to the U.S. Defense Department, Ukraine “continues to fly its own fighters and attack jets against Russian troops.”
A pair of Russian Su-35 fighter jets in the sky in Russia in November 2021.
Russia’s air force has even been timid as Ukraine’s relatively scrappy anti-air defenses remain a formidable threat. NATO countries have done their best to flood Ukraine with man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADS, like the U.S.-made Stinger missile. The Stinger system can be fired by a single operator, whose missile locks onto aircraft with infrared guidance.
“The Western supplies of MANPAD and other types of air defense systems allowed Ukraine to increase and to improve its capabilities,” said Pavel Luzin, a Russian armed forces expert and contributor at the Jamestown Foundation.
William Alberque, the director of strategy, technology and arms control at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Yahoo News that Ukraine was able to effectively distribute these air defenses so it became too dangerous for Russian combat flights.
U.S. Marine gunners provide surface-to-air defense using the FIM-92 Stinger during an exercise on Okinawa, Japan, in March 2021.
NATO countries have also been providing Ukraine with increasingly advanced military hardware as Russia’s war drags on. Slovakia announced last month that it had donated its Soviet-era S-300 long-range air defense system to Ukraine.
Russia has been further hampered by its combat aircrafts’ lackluster weapons systems. U.S. officials say Russian pilots are “unable to quickly locate and engage targets on the ground,” and missiles launched into Ukraine “often miss their targets — if they work at all,” according to the Times.
Alberque said Russian stocks of precision-guided munitions are significantly smaller than NATO’s. This observation was backed by security analyst Oliver Alexander, who said on Twitter that with Russia’s lack of precision-guided munitions, “they are forced to use dumb munitions [unguided bombs] to operate at scale.”
A MiG-31 fighter of the Russian air force takes off at an air base during a military drill in Tver region, Russia, in February.
But technology alone does not fully explain Russia’s failure to establish air superiority. Experts say Russia’s air doctrine has been poorly thought out and haphazardly executed from the opening days of the war.
“They thought it would be all over very quickly, with a complete Ukrainian collapse at first contact and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky either captured or fleeing,” Alberque said. If the Kremlin had predicted Ukrainian resilience, the Russian military would have “done a lot differently and their air power would be far more devastating now,” he said.
And because Moscow believed it would capture Ukraine the first few days, Russian military command was keen not to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure it wanted to keep for controlling the country after the war, Alberque said.
Russian air force Sukhoi Su-25SM jets leave trails of smoke in colors of the national flag during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow in 2021. (Pavel Golovkin/AP)
Phillips Payson O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and Edward Stringer, a retired Royal Air Force air marshal, published a Monday essay in the Atlantic delving into the Russian air force’s failures. They argued1 that the Russian military struggles to creatively use air doctrine because it is philosophically wedded to being a traditional land power with massive reserves of soldiers at its disposal.
“When the invasion started, the Russian air force was incapable of running a well-thought-out, complex campaign,” they wrote. “Instead of working to control the skies, Russia’s air force has mostly provided air support to ground troops or bombed Ukrainian cities. In this it has followed the traditional tactics of a continental power that privileges land forces.”
India's top court suspended authorities from charging people with sedition under a controversial colonial-era law. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accused of misusing the law to silence critics.
The constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression as a fundamental right to all citizens, but critics say some of India's limitations to this are outdated and becoming overused
India's Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended a controversial colonial-era sedition law.
India's top court said federal and state authorities couldn't levy new charges of sedition against individuals until it completed a review of the law.
It also suspended pending trials, appeals and proceedings related to sedition charges and added that people charged under the law could seek bail from courts.
India's government said on Monday that it had decided to "re-examine and reconsider" the law but that it remained in force.
Several journalists, politicians and others filed a series of petitions challenging the law in the Supreme Court.
Watch video 02:39 Press freedom in India in serious decline
What the Supreme Court said
"The rigors of Section 124A [are] not in tune with the current social milieu, and [were] intended for a time when this country was under the colonial regime," India's Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, part of a three-judge bench hearing a petition against the law, said.
"It will be appropriate not to use this provision of law till further reexamination is over," Ramana said.
India's sedition law, or Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code, came into force in 1860. It was mainly used to punish Indian leaders seeking independence from the British during the 19th and early 20th century.
Section 124A defines sedition as: “Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government established by law shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added."
The British 17th century Sedition Act from which the law stemmed became obsolete in the 1960s and was formally repealed in 2009, though parts of it do endure in other laws concerning treason.
Sedition cases climb during BJP rule
After India's independence in 1947, the law was used by successive Indian governments to silence dissenters, but the number of people charged with sedition steadily went up during the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) rule after 2014.
There were 30 cases of sedition in 2015 and 236 cases of sedition between 2018 and 2020, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners, told the Supreme Court 13,000 people were in jail as a result of the law.
BJP accused of misusing sedition law
Experts have accused India's ruling party of weaponizing the law to intimidate and silence critics.
Perhaps most notoriously, a young climate activist was detained on sedition charges in February 2021 for creating a toolkit showing people how they could help India's protesting farmers.
In October 2021, three Kashmiri students were detained on sedition charges for celebrating Pakistan's cricket team's victory over India in a T20 World Cup game.
India's press freedom ranking fell from 142 in 2021 to 150 this year, according to a report compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), placing it just below Turkey and Hong Kong and just above Sudan and Tajikistan.
rm/msh (Reuters, AFP, AP)
DW RECOMMENDS
Sedition law under fire
Yemen: $33 million pledged to prevent 'catastrophic' oil spill
The funding is needed to drain a stranded oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. The UN has warned the vessel could spill four times more oil than the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989.
The UN says the cleanup costs for a potential spill will cost around $20 billion
Donor countries have offered $33 million (€31.3 million) in funding to prevent a stranded oil tanker off the coast of Yemen from spilling oil.
The FSO Safer, which is in a state of decay, had been used as a floating storage platform. But according to the UN, it is now at risk of breaking up and potentially causing a catastrophic oil spill.
Officials warn the tanker is carrying four times the amount of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez in Alaskan waters in 1989.
More funding needed
The amount gathered on Wednesday fell well short of the $80 million needed to fund an emergency operation to drain the vessel of its 1.1 million barrels of oil.
Netherlands pledged nearly $8 million, with other contributions coming from Britain, Germany, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Sweden, Switzerland, and the European Union.
"We need to work quickly to get the remaining funds to start the four-month operation in the weather window we have ahead of us," UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, said in a statement.
"We need to finish this operation by the end of September to avoid the turbulent winds and currents that start in the latter part of the year ... increasing the risk of a breakup and, also, increasing the risk in conducting any operation."
Greenpeace called for countries to swiftly raise the money needed. "Enough delays: time to step up and fully fund US $80million to transfer the oil to safety, swiftly and securely," the organization said in a tweet.
Before the donor conference, Gressly warned that there was an "imminent threat of a major oil spill from the Safer," adding that a spill "would unleash a massive ecological and humanitarian catastrophe centered on a country already decimated by more than seven years of war."
It's feared a potential spill would hit fishing communities hard which could impact millions of lives. Other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia would also be at risk.
According to the UN, the cleanup costs for a spill of this magnitude are estimated at around $20 billion.
kb/nm (AFP, Reuters)
Pushback: Greece has denied illegally sending back refugees likes these at the Turkish border in 2020
Marina RAFENBERG
Wed, May 11, 2022,
For years Greece has been accused of illegally pushing asylum-seekers back to Turkey, a practice it strenuously denies.
But according to witnesses and rights groups, the summary deportations are also hitting vulnerable opponents of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Kurdish writer Meral Simsek, 42, is one of several people who told AFP they were sent back to Turkey to face imprisonment and possible torture after already making a perilous crossing of the border on the River Evros.
Simsek said her experience was harrowing. She claimed Greek police forcibly strip-searched her and another woman from Syria, and that she nearly died on the journey back.
"They took our phones and all our documents. They told us to undress and strip searched us. They even put hands on my vagina," she said.
The two women were then put into an unmarked van and driven back to the river.
- 'Blood and urine' -
"The vehicle smelled of blood and urine, indicating that other people had been abused in there," the writer said.
Simsek was then forced onto a dinghy piloted by two migrant men who "intended to drown" her, she claimed.
"I jumped into the water and swam to the other bank," she said.
Last month Human Rights Watch said Greece was using men of apparent Middle Eastern or South Asian origin as "proxies" to facilitate illegal deportations at its land border with Turkey.
When she got back to the Turkish side, Simsek was locked up in the nearby city of Edirne.
She was fortunate to avoid a 22-year prison sentence for belonging to a terrorist organisation thanks to help from Amnesty International and other rights groups.
But she still faces a 15-month sentence for spreading propaganda against the Turkish government.
"This experience at the Greek-Turkish border revived the trauma of my past," said the writer, who was jailed and tortured in Turkey in the 1990s.
"I wanted to rebuild my life in Europe, be protected. Instead of that, I lived a nightmare," she said.
- Change of attitude -
Greece has traditionally been sympathetic to the plight of Kurds, some of whom have been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
But according to the Kurdistan Cultural Centre in Athens which assists fugitive Kurds, the policy appears to have changed last summer and many are now sent back to Turkey before being given a chance to apply for asylum in Greece.
Hundreds of non-Kurdish Turkish citizens have also sought protection in Greece following the failed coup against Erdogan in 2016.
Mehmet, a former police officer accused of being loyal to Fethullah Gulen -- a preacher and former Erdogan supporter accused of plotting the coup -- claimed Greece pushed him back three times last year.
He avoided a fourth expulsion thanks to a Greek lawyer, who helped him lodge an asylum request.
Meryem, a 32-year-old with dual Franco-Turkish nationality, said she was turned back in October even after showing Greek police her French identity card and a copy of her passport.
She was jailed in Turkey after being sentenced for being part of Gulen's organisation, which is now illegal. Her case is pending before the European Court of Human Rights.
Athens has always denied that its security forces engage in illegal pushbacks.
In March, Greece's national transparency authority said a four-month investigation found no evidence of such practices.
EU border agency Frontex has also repeatedly been accused by rights groups of illegally returning migrants across EU borders.
Its chief Fabrice Leggeri quit last month amid an investigation by the European anti-fraud office OLAF, reportedly into alleged mismanagement.
Alkistis Agrafioti, a lawyer with the Greek Council for Refugees, said the time has come for the EU to mount a "serious" inquiry into pushbacks.
"Pushbacks not only run contrary to international law, but they are also accompanied by criminal acts -- stealing, violence, abuse" and lives being put in danger, she added.
AFP did not receive a reply to a request for comment from the Turkish authorities.
burs-mr/chv/jph/fg