Athens, 26 November 2024 Today, the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) launches its latest report “AT EUROPE’S BORDERS: PUSHBACKS CONTINUE AS IMPUNITY PERSISTS”.
Pushbacks Continue as a Comprehensive, Systematic, Carefully Planned Migration and Border Policy of the Greek State
New testimonies from pushback victims offer a disturbing insight into the organized and systematic nature of these illegal practices of the Greek authorities - in consistency with the latest numerous credible reports from UN, European and national human rights bodies, institutions and organizations, documenting the same modus operandi. The above contradicts the ‘lack of evidence’ narrative that is still perpetuated by EU and Greek authorities.
Pushback Cases before the European Court of Human Rights & the Greek Public Prosecutor
The report provides a detailed description of 12 pushback cases in the Evros border region occurred in 2023. Additionally, it presents the details of the domestic criminal investigations and the latest 2023-2024 judicial developments of 3 earlier pushback cases. All cases presented in the report are legally represented by GCR before the European Court of Human Rights.
Arbitrary and Illegal detention
Ιn addition to violations of core rights of asylum-seekers such as the right to asylum and the right to be protected against refoulement, pushback operations always involve periods of arbitrary detention. Asylum seekers are illegally detained - without registration, information or access to effective remedy and rights and without basic supplies - in closed or open detention sites inside police stations, unidentified locations or even inside vehicles with no access to air, food and water.
Racist Violence
Pushbacks involve degradation, inhumane and humiliating treatment, physical and mental abuse, as well as gender-based violence against victims - from strip searching to invasive genital search and forced nudity. Moreover, pushbacks involve violent acts against children.
Detention, imprisonment and chain refoulement after the pushback
After their pushback to Türkiye, the victims are exposed to the risk of being arrested by the Turkish authorities, detained and/or imprisoned for illegally entering a military zone and/or for former political convictions (in the case of Turkish asylum seekers), or even refouled back to their country of origin (i.e. in the case of Afghan asylum seekers).
Noncompliance with the European Court of Human Rights’ decisions
Despite the fact that in the last two years the European Court of Human Rights has issued more than 80 interim measures aimed at the protection of newly arrived asylum seekers in the Evros region, the perpetrators continue to feel untouchable in Greece, showing complete indifference to the Court’s decisions.
Ineffective investigations into pushbacks and rights violations
Despite the numerous reports on pushbacks of thousands of asylum seekers, recorded victims’ testimonies, as well as the witnesses and video evidence in some cases, not a single pushback case has been tried in a Greek courtroom. Official statistics on Greek judicial investigations into pushbacks along with details of the criminal investigation of cases represented by GCR, where no criminal prosecution was initiated against personnel of law enforcement agencies or other persons, highlight a systemic issue of ineffective investigations into alleged pushbacks and rights violations in Greece that contributes to an environment of total impunity.
Alkistis Agrafioti Chatzigianni, Advocacy Officer at the Greek Council for Refugees, said:
“We strongly believe that independent, prompt and effective investigations will increase accountability for rights violations at the EU external borders and can assist in ending this cycle of violence.”
We call the EU to:
● Create safe and legal routes for people on the move to and in Europe.
● Implement and/or pro-actively monitor and assure complete, regular compliance of Greek authorities’ use of EU funds for migration management purposes with the EU’s commitments to fundamental freedoms and human rights.
● The European Commission should take disciplinary action and launch infringement proceedings against the Greek state for well-documented, long-term, and systematic breaches of international and EU law in its treatment of asylum seekers.
We call the Greek Government and the Greek judicial authorities to:
● Stop the illegal practice of pushback operations.
● Carry out investigations that are prompt, rapid, thorough, and capable of leading to the identification and punishment of all responsible for serious allegations of ill treatment related to the Hellenic Police and the Hellenic Coast Guard at external borders.
● Guarantee access to justice for victims of pushbacks and rights violations at the EU’s external land and sea borders.
Contact information
GCR Communications Officer | Kostas Vlachopoulos: k.vlachopoulos@gcr.gr
