Greek police have recruited migrants to violently force others back across the land border with Turkey, according to an investigation by the BBC.
Internal police documents obtained by the BBC show that senior officers ordered and oversaw the recruitment of so-called 'mercenaries.' These individuals, primarily migrants from Pakistan, Syria, and Afghanistan, are used to intercept people crossing the Evros River.
Witnesses and former mercenaries report extreme brutality during these operations. Allegations include migrants being stripped, robbed, beaten, and sexually assaulted.
One border guard testified at a disciplinary hearing that they reported information to superiors regarding mercenaries raping female migrants. Other accounts describe migrants being beaten until they lost consciousness.
Systematic abuse at the border
The investigation, conducted alongside the Consolidated Rescue Group (CRG), uncovered evidence that these 'mercenary' operations have been active since at least 2020. The mercenaries are reportedly compensated with cash, looted mobile phones, and travel documents that facilitate passage through Greece.
A police source in the Evros region told the BBC that these pushbacks involve hundreds of people every week. "There is no soldier, police officer or Frontex officer serving here in Evros who does not know that pushbacks are taking place," the source stated.
A report from the Fundamental Rights Office, an independent investigator within the EU border agency Frontex, corroborated similar findings. The office found evidence that between 10 and 20 'third-country nationals' acted under the instruction of Greek officers to subject migrants to physical abuse, death threats, and sexualized body searches.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the BBC he was "totally unaware" of the allegations involving the use of migrants for pushbacks. Greek authorities have not responded to detailed requests for comment regarding the specific findings.
Pushbacks—the practice of forcing asylum seekers back across borders without due process—are illegal under international law. Maria Gavouneli, president of Greece's human rights commission, described the findings as an "extremely significant" abuse of human rights.