return incidents (IFR), which had reportedly occurred between January 2022 and December 2023,
through personal interviews with 37 alleged victims. According to the testimonies, the 45 IFR incidents
involved a minimum of 1.438 persons, including at least 158 women, 190 children and 41 persons having
special needs, such as persons with medical conditions, elderly people and people with disabilities. The
countries of origin of the alleged victims are countries whose nationals are granted international protection
status in Greece and the rest of the EU at significant rates (Syria, Palestine, Türkiye, Iraq, Iran, Somalia,
Cameroon, Mali and Democratic Republic of Congo). Upon an invitation to that end by the ECtHR, the
GNCHR submitted a third-party intervention in the cases of G.R.J v. Greece and A.E. v. Greece, 120 in
which the Commission referred to the abovementioned findings.
Throughout 2024, the Mechanism received testimonies of alleged victims of pushback operations at land
and sea borders, and the Full Report was published in July 2025. According to the report’s findings,
cases continued to refer to persons of certain nationalities having a very high recognition rate of
international protection in Greece (as highlighted in the previous report). According to the conclusions
from the 45 recorded alleged victims, 27 were men and 18 women, 44 were adults and 1 was a minor at
the time of the interview. It is of particular importance the finding that 24 out of the 45 alleged victims fall
into categories of vulnerability. (9 victims of torture, 7 victims of sexual violence, 7 victims of other serious
physical or psychological violence, 6 single-parent families, as well as persons with serious health
problems, mental illnesses, pregnancy or disability): “This finding confirms that physical removal practices
disproportionately affect people with a particular need for protection and enhanced safeguards. It is
noteworthy that 40 out of the 45 persons stated that they were never subjected to any official procedure
of registration or identification by the Greek authorities, despite their detection, a fact which constitutes a
serious indication of violation of Greece's obligations under national, Union and international law, and in
particular of the safeguards arising from the right of access to the asylum procedure”.121
The Greek Ombudsperson, after taking under consideration the number of reported pushback incidents
between 2017 and March 2024, the relevant complaints submitted to its own office and the findings of its
own investigations in his capacity as National Mechanism for the Investigation of Arbitrary Incidents
regarding law enforcement officers, concluded that “the persistent reluctance on the part of the disciplinary
bodies of the enforcement agencies to investigate such incidents” and “the recurrent shortcomings
impeding the effectiveness and diligence of the few investigations launched”, suggest that [...] “unlawful
pushbacks at land and sea borders present features that do not correspond or correlate to an isolated
phenomenon”.122
The CPT of the Council of Europe has repeatedly underlined over the previous years that it receives
“consistent and credible allegations” of pushbacks.123 In the recent CPT Report on its ad hoc visit to
Greece, which took place from 21 November to 1 December 2023, published on 12 July 2024, 124 the CPT
underlines that “ […] there is sufficient evidence to conclude that pushbacks to Türkiye have taken place
and continue to take place […]”. “During the 2023 visit, the CPT delegation again received many
consistent and credible allegations of informal, often violent, forcible removals of foreign nationals across
the Evros river or at sea to Türkiye. Such removals occurred without consideration of their individual
circumstances, vulnerabilities, protection needs or risk of ill-treatment when returned (“pushbacks”)”.
120
121
122
123
124
GNCHR, Written submission to the European Court of Human Rights (Third Section) made by the Greek
National Commission for Human Rights as a third party, in relation to Applications nos. 15067/21 - G.R.J. v.
Greece, and 15783/21 - A.E. v. Greece, 28 March 2024, available in English here. See, esp., paras 13-33.
All reports of the Recording Mechanism of Informal Forced Returns of the Greek National Commission for
Human Rights available here.
Greek Ombudsperson, Third party intervention before the European Court of Human Rights in the cases
G.R.J. v. Greece and A.E. v. Greece (applications nos. 15067/21 and 15783/21), p.11, 14 March 2024,
available here.
See CPT, Report to the Greek Government on the visit to Greece carried out by the European Committee for
the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 10 to 19 April 2018,
CPT/Inf (2019) 4, 19 February 2019, paras. 136 seq. and Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Report to
the Greek Government on the visit to Greece carried out by the CPT from 13 to 17 March 2020, CPT/Inf (2020)
35, 19 November 2020, paras. 53 seq.
CPT, Report to the Greek Government on the visit to Greece carried out by the European Committee for the
Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 21 November to 1
December 2023, published on 12 July 2024 available here.
46