wreck off Farmakonisi in the Eastern Aegean on 20 January 2014, where 8 children and 3 women died. The survivors reported that the boat sank during a pushback operation conducted by the Greek Coast Guard. Unfortunately, the case was quickly closed and filed. On 7 July 2022 the ECtHR finally issued the landmark decision on the application that was lodged by human rights organizations on behalf of the survivors.11 The ECtHR found a violation of the right to life, due to the authorities’ failure to responsibly and effectively investigate such serious allegations. Moreover, the ECtHR found a violation of the right to life due to the omission of actions that the Greek authorities should and could have taken to protect human lives and prevent the tragic incident. The Court also held that Coast Guard officers had inflicted degrading and inhuman treatment against shipwreck survivors.12 Recently, a series of reports were issued on the systematic conduct of pushback operations mainly at the land border of Greece with Turkey, in the Evros region. In June 2021, Amnesty International published a new report on pushbacks in Greece documenting 21 incidents of unlawful and violent returns from Greece to Turkey.13 In March 2022, Human Rights Watch published a revealing report about Greek security forces and unidentified men who assaulted, detained, robbed asylum seekers and forced them to return to Turkey.14 In August 2022, Medecins sans Frontieres (MsF) published a report thoroughly documenting violent pushbacks in the North Eastern Aegean island of Samos against people seeking international protection.15 In October 2022, MSF reported findings of a group of newly arrived asylum seekers handcuffed and injured from beatings in Lesvos.16 The UN High Commissioner for Refugees even issued a statement in February 2022, stating: “We are alarmed by recurrent and consistent reports coming from Greece’s land and sea borders with Turkey, where UNHCR backs in the Evros region, 20 February 2018, http://bit.ly/3X6UXiM, GCR, The new normality: Continuous pushbacks of third country nationals on the Evros river, 12 December 2018, http://bit.ly/3ZB6h8g, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, (ECCHR), Analyzing Greek Pushbacks: Over 20 Years of Concealed State Policy Without Accountability, https://bit.ly/3iwwZhV The organizations that represented the case before the Court are the Greek Council for Refugees, Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) / PRO ASYL, Network of Social Support to Refugees and Migrants, the Hellenic League for Human Rights and the Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants 11 12 ECtHR, Safi and Others v Greece, App No 5418/15, Judgment of 7.7.2022, available at: https://bit. ly/3FFgzv9 Amnesty International, Greece: Violence, lies, and pushbacks – Refugees and migrants still denied safety and asylum at Europe’s borders, 23 June 2021, available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ eur25/4307/2021/en/ Needs to be noted that already 8 years ago, in 2013, Amnesty International reported for the first time that the Greek authorities put the lives of refugees in danger by unlawfully returning them to Turkey: Amnesty International, Greek authorities put lives in danger by pushing refugees and migrants back to Turkey, 9 July 2013, available at: http://bit.ly/3P7tk65 13 14 Human Rights Watch, Greece: Violence Against Asylum Seekers at Border Detained, Assaulted, Stripped, Summarily Deported, 17 March 2022, available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/17/greece-violence-against-asylum-seekers-border 15 MsF, Fear, beatings and forced returns for people seeking safety on Greek island of Samos, 9 August 2022, available at: https://www.msf.org/fear-beatings-and-pushbacks-people-seeking-safety-greek-island-samos 16 MSF, People found handcuffed and injured on the Greek Island of Lesvos, 25 October 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3ukUz3e AT EUROPE’S BORDERS: BETWEEN IMPUNITY AND CRIMINALIZATION 7