Case supported by the Greek Council for Refugees

Athens, 7 January 2025: The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) today published its judgment in the case of A.R.E. v. Greece (Application no. 15783/21), legally represented by lawyers of the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR).

This is the first case to be examined by the ECtHR in relation to a complaint of pushback in the Evros region by the Greek authorities.

The ECtHR in its Judgment condemned Greece and accepted:

• the "systematic practice of pushbacks by the Greek authorities of third-country nationals from the Evros region to Türkiye",

• that the pushback of A.R.E., a Turkish asylum seeker, by the Greek authorities took place,

• that A.R.E. was illegally detained by the Greek authorities before the pushback,

• that the Greek judicial authorities failed to conduct an effective criminal investigation and archived A.R.E.'s criminal complaint despite the prima facie evidence.

The Court found violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), namely:  

• Articles 3, 3 and 13 in relation to the pushback of the victim by the Greek authorities (prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment),  
• Article 5 in relation to her unlawful detention (right to personal liberty and security),
• Article 13, in conjunction with Articles 2 and 3, in relation to the ineffective criminal investigation of the case by the Greek judiciary (right to an effective remedy).

We recall that the case concerns A.R.E., a Turkish refugee, who was forced to leave her country due to political persecution and entered Greece in 2019, through the Evros region, in order to seek asylum.  

She was informally arrested and detained by the Greek authorities and pushed back to Türkiye the same day without ever being given the opportunity to seek asylum in Greece. After being returned to Türkiye, she was arrested and detained by the Turkish authorities in the context of a political prosecution on the alleged charge of being a member of an illegal organization in Türkiye.

A.R.E., legally represented by GCR, had filed a complaint before the Public Prosecutor of Orestiada, which was rejected at the second instance by the Prosecutor of the Appeals Court of Thrace, on the grounds that there was no evidence against the police and that Greece, especially the Greek police, never conducts pushbacks to Türkiye.

Subsequently, A.R.E. filed an Application before the European Court of Human Rights, also legally represented by GCR, alleging violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). With the today’s Judgment the Court accepted her Application and condemned Greece.

It is noted that to date the Greek authorities systematically deny the practice of pushbacks at the Greek-Turkish borders. The Court's Judgment confirms that pushbacks at the Greek borders constitute a systematic practice of the Greek authorities, as has been documented for several years in numerous reports by international, European and national organizations, as well as in the complaints of the victims of pushbacks our organization receives on a daily basis.

We call on the competent Greek authorities to stop pushbacks and the Greek judicial authorities to effectively investigate the relevant complaints. 

Maria Papamina, A.R.E. 's lawyer and Coordinator of the GCR Legal Unit, said: "This is a landmark Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights. The ECtHR's recognition of this illegal practice of the Greek authorities is a vindication for the thousands of victims who denounce the Greek authorities' pushbacks at the Greek-Turkish border. Greek authorities must stop this illegal practice".

Read the Judgment of the Court (in French)

Press Release of the Court (in English)

Video of the oral Hearing before the ECtHR (June 2024)

Notes to editors:

GCR intervenes daily to the Greek authorities and represents before the ECtHR a significant number of victims in pushback cases. Since January 2022, GCR has sent at least 749 interventions to the Greek authorities for the cases of more than 5,019 refugees including many children, from Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran, Somalia and stateless refugees, the vast majority of whom entered Greece from the Evros region seeking international protection. At the same time, since March 2022 the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) has represented 779 Syrian, 154 Turkish, 98 Iraqi, 56 Palestinian, 28 Afghan, 3 Egyptian, 2 stateless (bidoon) and one Somali refugees, including many children, before the European Court of Human Rights, by filing 96 applications for interim measures (Rule 39), requesting to be granted humanitarian assistance and access to the asylum procedure. The Court granted the requested interim measures for all cases. A number of the refugees in these cases have been formally arrested by the Greek authorities, but most of them complain that they were pushed back to Türkiye while the ECtHR’s interim measure decision was pending or even after it was issued – Read GCR Information Note.

For all additional information on the case and for interview requests, please contact Kosta Vlahopoulos, GCR Media officer, k.vlachopoulos@gcr.gr