Greece guilty of ‘systematic’ pushback of asylum seekers, ECHR rules in ‘potentially trailblazing’ decision, European court of human rights finds country engaging in illicit deportations.
The European court of human rights has found Greece guilty of conducting “systematic” pushbacks of would-be asylum seekers, ordering it to compensate a woman forcibly expelled back to Turkey despite her attempts to seek protection in the country.
It was the first time that Greece has been publicly condemned for carrying out a policy it has long denied, and the first time the European court has examined a complaint of pushback by authorities in the country.
“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 Türkiye,” Tuesday’s decision concluded.
An earlier attempt to have the complaint heard in Greece was rejected by an appeals court prosecutor in the region of Thrace on the grounds that Greek police “never” engaged in such activity.
