43 alleged victims about 50 incidents of illegal forced returns. The countries of origin of the alleged victims are listed among the countries whose nationals are granted international protection status in Greece and the EU at a significant rate (Syria, Palestine, Türkiye, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Cameroon, Mali and Democratic Republic of Congo). The majority of the alleged victims are unregistered asylum seekers who reported that their personal data have never been recorded by the Greek Authorities and that they were informally and forcibly returned to Türkiye. The report also flags the cases of 6 Turkish nationals unregistered asylum seekers with a political persecution in Türkiye, who were directly pushed back to their country of origin without any assessment of their international protection needs. According to the “National Mechanism”, “[t]hese incidents constitute a direct violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which is the cornerstone of international protection of asylum seekers and refugees”.72 In the same report, and among the 43 alleged victims, 5 were already asylum seekers in Greece and 5 recognised refugees in Greece. The latter five alleged victims were deprived of their international protection status, already granted to them by the Greek State. In 2023, the practice of refoulements continued to be used as a “front-line” tool of Greece’s migration policy, which has been quoted as a “de facto general policy” of “pushbacks at land and sea border” by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants in a 2022 report73, to halt the flow of refugees and to deter others from attempting to irregularly cross the borders into the country. The practice is a permanent eventuality for people attempting to cross the borders according to testimonies, media coverage and reports. Serious incidents of alleged refoulements have been reported in which arbitrary removal of people residing on the mainland (mainly Thessaloniki) or on the islands were carried out. In addition, the European Parliament delayed the approval of Frontex’s budget in 2021,74 and rebuked the agency for failing to respond to its previous recommendations75. In a 2022 report, 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’.76 At the 20-21 June 2023 Warsaw-based Frontex’s Board Meeting, which took place soon after the tragic Shipwreck of Pylos,77 Jonas Grimheden, the head of the Fundamental Rights Office, recommended the suspension of Frontex’s activities in Greece, based on Article 46 of the agency's regulations, which applies 72 73 74 75 76 77 Ibid. page 5 of the report Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Felipe González Morales, Human rights violations at international borders: trends, prevention and accountability, 26 April 2022, para.32, available at: https://bit.ly/3VNoYpV. 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. “There are unresolved issues in recruitment and financial management, as well as in its operations in fighting illegal immigration and cross-border crime, and MEPs ask for further improvements. For this reason, MEPs in the report, finally adopted by 27 votes to 2 against and 1 abstention, ask for part of the Frontex 2022 budget to be frozen, to make it available only once the agency has fulfilled a number of specific conditions. These include recruiting 20 missing fundamental rights monitors and three deputy executive directors who are sufficiently qualified to fill these positions, setting up a mechanism for reporting serious incidents on the EU’s external borders and a functioning fundamental rights monitoring system”. See European Parliament, Press Release: EP committee asks for part of Frontex budget to be frozen, 27 September 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3vJtviz. 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, p. 11. “As a Frontex drone was to patrol the Aegean on the same day, the agency offered to provide additional assistance ahead of the planned and scheduled flight. The Greek authorities asked the agency to send the drone to another search and rescue incident south off Crete with 80 people in danger. The drone, after attending to the incident south off Crete, flew to the last known position of the fishing vessel. The drone arrived at the scene four hours later at 04:05 (UTC) in the morning, when a large-scale search and rescue operation by Greek authorities was ongoing and there was no sign of the fishing boat. No Frontex plane or boat was present at the time of the tragedy”. See Frontex, Frontex statement following tragic shipwreck off Pylos, 16 June 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3VSdvpf. See also, BBC, Greece ignored offer to monitor migrant boat, says EU border agency, 23 June 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3TUkdZg. 38