Harrowing allegations of rape, robbery and brutal assaults have emerged following revelations that Greek border guards are recruiting migrants from countries including Pakistan, Syria and Afghanistan to violently prevent other asylum seekers entering the country through illegal pushback operations.
A BBC investigation analysing internal police documents and witness testimony has exposed a systematic programme operating since 2020 at the Greece-Turkey land border where so-called mercenaries are rewarded with cash, mobile devices looted from victims and documentation enabling eventual passage through Greece in exchange for attacking fellow migrants.
A female Afghan asylum seeker described masked men demanding her phone before a border guard removed her daughter’s nappy searching for valuables whilst the child screamed in terror, with the woman witnessing a young man being beaten unconscious by the mercenaries.
A border guard told a disciplinary hearing they possessed information that mercenaries had been raping female migrants, whilst a lawyer has lodged a European Court of Human Rights case on behalf of an Afghan woman alleging rape by a Farsi-speaking masked man before a 2023 pushback.
Two migrants and a former mercenary described witnessing extreme violence by both mercenaries and Greek police including victims being violently beaten until losing consciousness, with one asylum seeker recounting dozens of migrants loaded into a suffocating truck before being strip-searched by mercenaries and forced into dinghies mid-river before being pushed into the Evros.
June 2023 video footage analysed by the broadcaster purportedly shows a group of migrants who had just crossed into the Evros region being attacked by masked men.
Frontex’s independent Fundamental Rights Office documented one instance where 10 to 20 “third-country nationals” acted under Greek officer instruction, subjecting migrants to “death and rape threats, intrusive and sexualised body searches” alongside beatings, stabbings and theft before forcibly transporting them to Turkey violating EU human rights law.
Greek authorities denied finding any migrants from that group in the area that day despite the documented evidence.
A police source confirmed the widespread nature of operations: “There is no soldier, police officer or Frontex officer serving here in Evros who does not know that pushbacks are taking place.”
Greek Prime Minister told the BBC he was “totally unaware” of allegations that migrants were used for pushbacks.
Forcing migrants and asylum seekers back across international borders without due process remains illegal under international law, though Athens has adopted increasingly hardline migration policies.
Greece is working with Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Denmark establishing deportation centres in third countries—”preferably in Africa”—for rejected asylum applicants, with Migration Minister Thanos Plevris confirming technical teams would meet next week advancing the return hub proposals designed as deterrents for prospective migrants unlikely receiving asylum.
