Police in Greece have been recruiting migrants to partake in pushbacks deemed illegal by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), according to the BBC. Their findings reveal allegations of mistreatment, including stripping and robbing migrants while forcing them back onto boats to cross the Evros River back into Turkey. The Greek police have unofficially employed these “migrant mercenaries” at the border since 2020, according to their claims.
What Are Pushbacks?
Though there is not one internationally agreed-upon definition for pushbacks, the United Nations’ (UN) Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants described it in a 2021 report as “migrants, including asylum seekers, being summarily forced back, without an individual assessment of their human rights protection needs, to the country or territory (…) from where they attempted to cross.”
In early 2025, the ECHR made a landmark ruling that found Greece guilty of “systemic” pushbacks at its border with Turkey and ordered the compensation of a woman forcibly expelled back to Turkey despite attempts to seek asylum.
“There were strong indications to suggest that there had existed, at the time of the events alleged, a systematic practice of ‘pushbacks’ of third-country nationals by the Greek authorities, from the Evros [border] region to Turkey,” the ruling concluded.
The ruling shows that the ECHR does not only recognize the existence of pushbacks at the Greek-Turkish border but also that these are illicit.
The Fundamental Rights Office (FRO), an independent office mandated to monitor Frontex operations so they are in line with EU law, raised the issue of pushback in Greece as well. Their 2024 Annual Report concluded that “collective expulsions, sometimes referred to as ‘pushbacks,’ are a violation of Article 19 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 to the European Convention on Human Rights.”
How Operations Work
As part of the investigation, the BBC obtained video footage from June 2023 showing a group of migrants being ambushed by masked men, pushing them back towards the Evros. The BBC reported that the FRO investigated the incident, concluding that approximately 10-20 “third-country nationals” were acting on the instruction of Greek officers.
Local police have also informed the media that they regularly employ mercenaries at the border, pushing back as many as hundreds in a week. “There is no soldier, police officer or Frontex (EU border agency) officer serving here in Evros who does not know that pushbacks are taking place,” they added.
The mercenaries are also referred to as boatmen by migrants being forcibly returned: Ahmad, one of the migrants speaking to the BBC, was found in the Evros by Greek police, who beat him unconscious. The following day, he was loaded onto a truck, along with dozens of others, and taken back to the river, where they were handed over to mercenaries. The men were stripped and beaten if they were hiding money.
The migrants were then loaded into rubber dinghies and rowed halfway across the river, where they were pushed into the water unless they jumped out. “The water could sweep people away. They didn’t care at all,” he said. The mercenaries refused to get closer to the Turkish border, where they feared guards would shoot at them.
The practice seems to have begun in 2020, according to excerpts from a 2024 disciplinary hearing. One guard told the hearing that he was needed to find these “illegal boatmen” to perform the pushback as COVID and deteriorating relations with the Turkish authorities made police officers’ jobs more dangerous.
Who Are the Mercenaries?
According to the BBC’s sources, mercenaries were recruited from countries including Pakistan, Syria, and Afghanistan. For their service, they were rewarded with cash and mobiles robbed from other migrants and even papers to pass through Greece.
Marwan, a Moroccan man, said he was given no choice when he was taken from his jail cell after being caught in the Evros. A Greek officer approached him, asking, “You seem like a good guy and you speak some English. Do you want to work with me?” Afraid of potential beating, Marwan accepted the offer.
He worked in the role for about 10 weeks, during which his duties included burning any leftover belongings to “destroy” evidence of the operations. The officer who recruited him returned for phones and euros taken from migrants, while the mercenaries were allowed to keep Turkish and Arabi currencies.
Marwan said he never beat anyone but witnessed frequent violence by both Greek officers and mercenaries. “I am deeply sorry… I was under threat,” he apologized when challenged about his complicity.
The Greek Response
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the BBC that he was “totally unaware” of the allegations over pushbacks. When asked about pushbacks in 2021, he said he is “unapologetic about defending” Greece’s borders, though he insisted this was performed while respecting human rights.
Greece is one of the most affected when it comes to migration waves coming from the Middle East and North Africa. Since 2015, the country has had to deal with over a million migrants, many crossing through the Evros. This resulted in a heavily militarized zone and continuous strong calls for more “European solidarity” when it comes to bearing the burden of migration.
The FRO has listed Greece as the country with the most serious incident reports in all annual reports between 2021 and 2024.
