Pushback (migration)

In migration, pushback is "a set of state measures by which refugees and migrants are forced back over a border – generally immediately after they crossed it – without consideration of their individual circumstances and without any possibility to apply for asylum".

[5][1] In many cases the forced return is enforced with police violence and is often accompanied by threats, humiliation, and theft of migrants' belongings and mobile phones.

[7][2] In some regions additional laws apply, in Europe pushbacks often violate the prohibition of collective expulsion of asylum seekers in Protocol 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

[2][8] Marco Stefan and Roberto Cortinovi, at the European University Institute, describe pushbacks as "a major threat to the fundamental rights and rule of law standards established under EU primary and secondary legislation".

[2][10][11] UNHCR has urged European countries to put an end to pushbacks at Europe's land and sea borders, calling them "simply illegal".

[15] Pushbacks by the Hungarian authorities often involve police brutality - beating up asylum seekers and setting the dogs upon them - that in several cases end with death.

Under the law, no asylum claims will be accepted on Finlands eastern border, if Russia transports migrants there in a hybrid warfare destabilization attempt, like it did in late 2023.

[22] Many of the pushbacks in Greece and Croatia are accomplished by masked men who have been observed operating Hellenic Coast Guard vessels or in heavily surveilled areas of the Croatian–Bosnian border.

BVMN has reported "assaults lasting up to six hours, attacks by unmuzzled police dogs, and food being rubbed into the open wounds of pushback victims".