161. Greece currently has several dozen applications concerning alleged pushbacks pending before the European Court of Human Rights, which may or may not result in a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (procedural limb and/or substantive limb). 70 In many cases, the applicants complain that they were pushed back from Greece to Türkiye although the Court had granted interim measures under Rule 39 of the Rules of the Court.71 This included five applications where the Court indicated an interim measure at the time of the CPT’s 2023 visit. For the CPT, there is sufficient evidence to conclude that pushbacks to Türkiye have taken place and continue to take place, albeit on a smaller scale at present. The focus now must be on ending violent, dangerous and illegal pushback operations once and for all. 162. The CPT reiterates its recommendation that the Greek authorities act to prevent any form of pushbacks taking place either across the Evros River border or at sea in the Eastern Aegean by law enforcement officials, military or coast guards personnel, as well as by foreign nationals employed to carry out such tasks. All foreign nationals arriving at the border or present in the territory of Greece who wish to request international protection should be effectively protected against the risk of refoulement, including possible chain refoulement. To this end, every foreign national intercepted or apprehended at the border should: - - be individually identified and registered; be offered the opportunity to apply for asylum, which involves an individual assessment of the risk of ill-treatment, on the basis of an objective and independent analysis of the human rights situation in the countries concerned; be issued with an individualised removal order and placed in a position to effectively make use of the legal remedies against their forced return. When deprived of their liberty, foreign nationals should, from the very outset of their deprivation of liberty, enjoy the protection of the fundamental safeguards against illtreatment during detention, notably the rights to notify a third party of their detention, to have access to a lawyer and to a doctor and to be systematically and fully informed of their rights, their legal situation (including the grounds for their detention) and the procedure applicable to them. Individualised detention orders and custody records should be systematically used if a foreign national is apprehended to prevent arbitrary detention. Further, in the context of border control activities at both land and sea borders, all law enforcement officials or state agents involved should display clearly visible identification numbers or tags on their uniforms. There can be no justification for balaclavas to be systematically worn. Border control activities should also be video recorded to prevent both ill-treatment and false accusations and be systematically monitored. In this regard, the Greek authorities should guarantee the operation of effective and independent monitoring mechanisms for systematically monitoring border control activities.72 The CPT would like to be informed of the actions being taken by the Greek authorities to ensure that pushback operations no longer take place. 70. See, in particular, the two communicated cases in G.R.J. v. Greece and 1 other case (nos. 15067/21 et 24982/21) and A.D. v. Greece and 1 other case (nos. 4034/21 et 15783/21). To date, the Court has communicated 35 applications concerning alleged pushback operations from Greece to Türkiye to the Greek authorities. 71. See, for example, Greek Council for Refugees, Information Note on interventions and on interim measures granted by the ECtHR in cases regarding pushbacks, updated on 26 January 2024. The Court ordered the Greek authorities not to remove the persons from the country’s territory and, in most cases, to provide them with food, water and medical care. The Court also requested information on whether the persons had submitted asylum applications and whether they had access to the asylum procedure. 72. See the extract from the CPT’s 32nd General Report on The prevention of ill-treatment of foreign nationals deprived of their liberty in the context of forced removals at borders, CPT/Inf (2023) 7 – part. 49