On 19 May 2023, the New York Times (NYT) published video footages of an alleged pushback from the island of Lesvos, which allegedly took place in the midday hours of 11 April 2023. Amongst others, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson in an interview121 said that “What seems to be in these videos is a deportation”, adding that she had no reason to doubt the footage obtained by the New York Times and called on the Greek authorities to conduct a full and independent investigation into the reported incident. The Greek Prime Minister, in an interview to CNN,122 had committed to investigating the incident, describing it as an “completely unacceptable practice”. NTA appears123 to have been requested by the European Commissioner to activate an investigation on the incident, even if this authority has been repeatedly criticised for its ineffectiveness in investigating similar incidents. In a Joint NGO Statement dated on 21 June 2023, 21 organizations are stating that there is “No monitoring of fundamental rights violations in Greece without independent and effective mechanisms”,124 a statement that was done following the European Commission request125 to the Greek authorities for an investigation of a push back of refugees126 by the Hellenic Coast Guard on Lesvos island, documented by the New York Times.127 On 27 July 2023, in a joint submission to the Prosecutors of the Piraeus Naval Court, the First Instance Court of Mytilene and the Supreme Court Prosecutor, 28 civil society organisations called128 for an effective investigation into potential criminal acts committed in relation to what was published on 19 May 2023 by the New York Times (NYT). In November 2023, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) published a report,129 which “calls on the Greek authorities to investigate reports of hundreds of missing migrants and allegations of people being threatened, abducted, and ill-treated”. MSF based its report on the testimonies of 56 patients and information gathered between August 2021 and July 2023 on Lesbos130 and Samos. MSF are also reporting that “Since we started providing emergency medical assistance to people arriving by boat to Lesbos in June 2022, we have been unable to find approximately 940 people who were never found at the reported location”.131 MSF calls for a permanent end to pushbacks at borders, for an independent monitoring system to be set up on the Aegean islands, and for search and rescue operations to be stepped up at sea.132 On 16 January 2024, the ECtHR issued a decision and a press release with the title “When firing several times at a motorboat transporting individuals illegally towards Greece, coastguards used force that was not “absolutely necessary” within the meaning of Article 2 of the Convention”.133 The case concerned a serious gunshot wound sustained by a member of the applicants’ family on 22 September 2014 near the island of Pserimos, when a vessel was intercepted transporting people illegally to Greece. Under the procedural aspect of Article 2, the Court noted that there had been numerous shortcomings in the investigation conducted by the national authorities; this had led, in particular, to the loss of evidence, and 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 POLITICO, EU’s Johansson slams Greece over “deportation” of migrants”, 24 May 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3TSJ1k1. Greek Government, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ interview on CNN, with journalist Christiane Amanpour, 23 May 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/43PTTDQ. Kathimerini, Μεταναστευτικό: Ερευνα από την Εθνική Αρχή Διαφάνειας για το βίντεο από τη Λέσβο, 25 May 2023, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3xExAF6. Amnesty Internaitonal, Joint NGO Statement: No monitoring of fundamental rights violations in Greece without independent and effective mechanisms 21 June 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3vJolmI. Public announcement on “X” available at: https://bit.ly/3Jc7ps3. The Times verified the footage, taken on the Greek island of Lesbos on April 11, using a range of tools including metadata analysis and geolocation. Times reporters also tracked down the migrants involved in the incident and interviewed them at a detention facility in coastal Türkiye last month. Available at: https://bit.ly/3xqyJQJ. The Report of New York Times is available at: https://bit.ly/49oQwFe. GCR, Intervention of 28 organisations to competent Prosecutors on the pushback incident published by the New York Times, 27 july 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3xqRLq1. MSF, Pushbacks, detention and violence towards migrants on Lesbos, 9 November 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/4aNY9WY. See also, Reuters, Asylum-seekers in Greece face violence, pushbacks -aid group MSF, 2 November 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3xrHkme. Ibid. Ibid. ECtHR, Application No. 3566/16, Alkatib and others v. Greece, 16 January 2024, available in French at: https://bit.ly/3PV48RU. See also the ECtHR Press Release of 16 January 2024, available at: https://bit.ly/43OWz4T. 45