Pushbacks by Greece
[1] This incident occurred as a result of Turkey ceasing to prevent migrants from leaving for the European Union in February 2020, and in some instances actively encouraging them.
In a number of these cases, the persons concerned alleged that they had been ill-treated and, in particular, subjected to baton blows after they had been made to kneel face-down on the boat during the push-back operations".
[11] In 2021 the European Commission refused to release funds for border operations until Greece agrees to establish an independent body to investigate allegations of human rights abuses against migrants.
[15][16] Migrant advocates criticized the decision because Turkey does not have a functioning asylum system and returns people to countries where they face a risk.
[18] Greece uses inflatable rafts intended for use as lifeboats, to put pushed-back migrants after taking them by water to near the Turkish coast and leaving them stranded there.
[21] After the 2016 EU–Turkey migration deal the Turkish Coast Guard has also been observed using unsafe tactics to prevent migrants from leaving, including circling rafts at high speed and throwing rocks.
[23] In March 2020, The New York Times reported that Greece was detaining migrants at a "secret extrajudicial location" or "black site" in the municipality of Poros near the Evros river before pushing them back to Turkey.
They reported being arrested by Greek police, held in detention, and then transferred at night to unidentified men wearing black masks who carried out the pushback.
[26] In 2021, a Syrian who had been granted protection in Germany filed a complaint against Greece at the United Nations Human Rights Committee on the basis that his pushback at the Evros river in 2016 constituted a forced disappearance.
[29] In 2008 Human Rights Watch published a book stating that Greek authorities regularly carried out pushbacks of asylum seekers both at the Evros and in the Aegean.
[32][33][34] Following this escalation, Greece violently pushed back migrants both at its land and sea border, attracting international media attention.
[32] The widely reported Farmakonisi pushback on 20 January 2014 resulted in 11 Afghans, including 8 children, losing their lives after their boat capsized while being towed at high speed through rough waters by the Greek Coast Guard.
[24] On 4 June, masked men aboard a RHIB that appeared to belong to the Hellenic Coast Guard pushed back migrants near Lesvos.
[42] In July 2021, 35 Sorani-speaking migrants from Iraqi Kurdistan, intending to reach Italy, landed on the island of Antikythera having traveled more than 370 kilometres (230 mi) from Turkey.
In 89% of these incidents, migrants were subjected to "disproportionate and excessive use of force", including beatings (some inflicted with metal rods, batons, and heavy boots) and immersion in water.
[53] In February 2021, Greece's minister for migration Notis Mitarachi said that allegations of pushbacks are "part of a broader fake news strategy promoted by Turkey, through certain non-government organisations and smuggler networks".
[56] In November 2021, Dutch reporter Ingeborg Beugel, from De Groene Amsterdammer, asked Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a news conference about Greece practicing pushbacks.
Subsequently, Beugel reported being subjected to threats and violence; after consulting the Dutch embassy in Athens, she decided to leave Greece.
[57][58][59][60] In November 2020, Greek newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton published a leaked document from Frontex, the EU border agency, containing accounts of maritime pushbacks in the Aegean, but they were labeled "prevention of departure".
On the same dates and sometimes the same times that Frontex states the migrants returned to Turkish territorial waters of their own initiative, human rights organizations reported coercive pushbacks.
[61] Although Frontex aircraft and ships in the Aegean operate with their location transponders turned off to avoid tracking, with video and photographic evidence they have been identified in the vicinity of six pushbacks between April and October 2020.
[18][23] Following these media reports, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson called an extraordinary meeting of the Frontex board and EU Ombudsman opened an inquiry.
[63] In December 2020, Frontex head Fabrice Leggeri appeared in front of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) during which he faced questioning about the organization's role in pushbacks in Greece.
[66] LIBE subsequently investigated Frontex, finding that the agency turned a blind eye to fundamental rights violations and ignored its duty to report them.
[67] At Greece's land borders, migrants have reported being pushed back by people wearing Frontex armbands or speaking German.
