returns by Greece since the beginning of 2020. Disturbing incidents are also reported in Central and South-eastern Europe at the borders with EU Member States’. In addition, the European Parliament delayed the approval of Frontex’s accounts in 2021 and rebuked the agency for failing to respond to its previous recommendations. In a report motivated by its the latest delay, the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee found that Frontex ‘did not evaluate its activities in Greece, even though reports by institutions of Member States, the Council of Europe, and the United Nations show that the Agency was carrying out operations in sections where simultaneously, fundamental rights violations were taking place’. 55 In May 2022, the European parliament refused to sign off the EU border agency’s accounts, saying it failed to investigate alleged human rights violations of asylum seekers in Greece. 56 In line with the European Parliament’s Budget Control Committee’s recommendations from 6 October, the European Parliament on 18 October refused57 to approve the 2020 budget of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex. Home Affairs Commissioner, Johansson expressed her “shock” over findings in the leaked report by the EU watch-dog OLAF58 but stated that he had confidence in the Management Board. Frontex stated that the misconduct revealed in the report were “Practices of the Past” but NGOs have found no difference in practice and have urged EU action against Greece and suspension of the agency’s operations. Pushbacks at land borders In relation to pushbacks at land borders, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants has noted that, in addition to ‘increased militarisation of the Evros land border…which has effectively resulted in preventing entry and in the summary and collective expulsion of tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers’, there have been allegations that ‘pushbacks are also reportedly carried out from urban areas, including reception and detention centres’.59 In a report issued in April 2022, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants stated that ‘[i]n Greece, pushbacks at land and sea borders have become de facto general policy’.60 On 21 February 2022, UNHCR expressed its concerns regarding recurrent and consistent reports from Greece’s land and sea borders with Türkiye. At least three people are reported to have died since September 2021 in the Aegean Sea, including one in January 2022, while almost 540 reported incidents of informal returns by Greece have been recorded since the beginning of 2020. 61 The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has also been alarmed by increasing migrant deaths and continuous reports of pushbacks at the border between Greece and Türkiye. 62 Regarding pushbacks on land, in June 2022 a journalistic investigation 63 reported that the Greek police were using foreigners as “slaves” to 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 Committee on Budgetary Control, Report on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency for the financial year 2020 (2021/2146(DEC)), A9-0110/2022, 6 April 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/43AQ5Fx, 11. The Guardian, ‘EU censures border agency after reports of human rights abuses in Greece’, 4 May 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3WoGOhk. ECRE, ‘Frontex: MEPs Vote to Refuse Approval of Budget, Commission ‘Shocked’ by OLAF Report but Confident in Management Board as Agency Calls Misconduct ‘Practices of the Past’ NGOs Finds No Difference’, 21 October 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3grKgH2. The Guardian, ‘Head of EU border agency Frontex resigns amid criticisms’, 29 April 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3ohAnQD. Full OLAF’s report published by Der Spiegel available at: https://bit.ly/45pnGDK. Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Report on means to address the human rights impact of pushbacks of migrants on land and sea, 12 May 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3WvA94I, para. 55. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, available at: https://bit.ly/3QxvbBn, para 32. UNHCR, News Comment: UNHCR warns of increasing violence and human rights violations at European borders, 21 February 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/43jYnkL. IOM, IOM Concerned about Increasing Deaths on Greece-Türkiye Border, 18 February 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3MlQtjS. ‘…The Greek police are using foreigners as ‘slaves’ to forcibly return asylum seekers to Türkiye, In recent years there have been numerous accounts from the victims, as well as reports by human rights organisations and the media, stating that the men driving these boats speak Arabic or Farsi, indicating they are not from Greece. A months-long joint investigation with The Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and ARD Report München has for the first time identified six of these men – who call themselves slaves– interviewed them and located the police stations where they were held. Some of the slaves, who are kept locked up between operations, were forcibly recruited themselves after crossing the border but others were lured there by 32