July 2nd 2025
On1st of July 2025 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rejected the Greek Government's request to refer to the Court's Grand Chamber the first case examined by the Court in relation to a complaint of pushback of an asylum seeker from Turkey in Evros by the Greek authorities.
We recall that on 7 January 2025, the ECtHR with its landmark Judgment A.R.E. v. Greece (no.15783/21) condemned Greece for the first time in a pushback case,, which was supported before the Court by lawyers of the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR).
The ECtHR in its Judgment condemned Greece, 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.
and found violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), (Articles 3, 3 and 13), in relation to the pushback of the victim by the Greek authoritiesthe (prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment), Article 5 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).
Following the rejection by the ECtHR of the Greek Government's request for the case to be reviewed by the Court's Grand Chamber, , the Judgment in A.R.E. v. Greece (no. 15783/21) becomes final.
It is noted that to date the Greek authorities systematically deny the practice of pushbacks at the Greek-Turkish borders. The –now- final 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 note that since the publication of the A.R.E. decision, on 7-1-2025, until today, the GCR has submitted to the ECtHR 14 requests for interim measures (R 39), which were all granted, for 55 asylum seekers (including families with children), of which: 20 are Turkish asylum seekers and 35 asylum seekers from other nationalities (Syrian, Afghan, Iraqi, Iranian, stateless). In 2 of these cases, the applicants from Turkey were lawfully arrested and subjected to the legal procedure by the Greek authorities; in 2 cases, concerning 2 Turkish asylum seekers, the applicants complain that they were subjected to pushback by the Greek authorities and after re-entering Greece they were lawfully arrested; in another 7 cases, concerning 41 asylum seekers (including children), we were informed that all of them were pushed back to Turkey; and in 3 cases, concerning 8 Afghan applicants ( families with young children) and 2 Turkish applicants, we received no information on their whereabouts.
We call again on the competent Greek authorities to stop pushbacks and the Greek judicial authorities to effectively investigate the relevant complaints.
The Court's Press Release on the rejection of the referral request of the Greek Government (English).
The Court's Judgment A.R.E. v. Greece (ref. 15783/21) (French) and the Court's Press Release (English).
The video of the oral hearing before the European Court of Human Rights, in which GCR lawyers supported the case (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 783 interventions to the Greek authorities for the cases of more than 5.243 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 hundreds of refugees before the European Court of Human Rights, by filing 111 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.
