Greece is breaking the law by continuing to allow its authorities to illegally push back migrants to Türkiye, while the European Union "supports it," a representative from a global human rights watchdog said Monday.

Sharing on Twitter a leaked report from the European anti-fraud office, OLAF, the European media director of Human Rights Watch, Andrew Stroehlein, said: "The EU's border agency, Frontex, acquiesces to Greece's illegal, and often violent, pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers" from Greece to Türkiye.

Stroehlein stated that "EU leadership might tell you this is old news," however, the OLAF report was circulated internally earlier this year and "its documentation of past crimes has already led to the resignation of (the) head of Frontex."

"The same crimes are still happening today," he emphasized.

"Greek authorities are still illegally pushing people back to Türkiye, and Frontex continues to operate in Greece the same as before," he added.

Stroehlein stressed that Greek "authorities (and their proxies) are assaulting, robbing, and stripping asylum seekers and migrants, including children, before summarily pushing them back to Türkiye."

"Frontex, whose mandate requires personnel to respect fundamental rights, stands by and does nothing," he added. "The European Commission, which should be opening legal proceedings against the Greek government for violating EU laws, looks the other way."

He underscored that everyone pursuing protection "has a right to apply for asylum and should be given that opportunity. People can't just be shoved back across a border with no legal process, and they can't be subjected to violence."

In addition, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said Monday she was "shocked" when reading the recent report on Frontex.

Johansson told European Parliament members in Brussels that they have taken the issue seriously since allegations of Greece pushing migrants back to Türkiye first emerged.

Johansson said the report revealed the personal mismanagement of three people from Frontex management, including the then director.

Stressing that Frontex has an important responsibility to protect fundamental human rights while safeguarding the EU's external borders, she said the previous administration's abuse of power is a very serious issue.

This has damaged the institution's prospects of fulfilling its mandate, she added.

Earlier on Monday, speaking at a press conference following the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Istanbul, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu touched on the issue, saying: "One has to be truly shameless and reckless to try to appear right even in the most unfair situation like Greece."

Çavuşoğlu’s remarks come a day after Greek Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi accused Türkiye of mistreating 92 refugees on the Greek-Turkish border on Twitter, and also shared a photograph of immigrants who were robbed, stripped naked and abandoned.

"Frontex is being an accomplice to Greece," Çavuşoğlu said further.

The Interior Ministry also rejected and slammed the Greek migration minister’s claims on Türkiye’s treatment of irregular migrants, accusing the Greek side of trying to distort the truth by using undated photos to slander Ankara.

"It is very apparent that Greece is trying to cover up the systematic unlawful pushbacks they have been doing routinely by confiscating all the belongings of the migrants including their money, phone, ID and passports, throwing them into the sea, by taking all their clothing and shoes, battering them naked with batons, injuring them with electro-shock devices, shooting at them with rubber bullets or putting them on worn-out lifeboats," the ministry said in a statement.

Frontex has been covering up illegal pushbacks of migrants by the Greek Coast Guard into Turkish territorial waters, a report by the bloc's anti-fraud office revealed Thursday.

According to the report by OLAF, which was made public by the Germany-based freedom of information website FragDenStaat, Der Spiegel and Lighthouse Reports, Frontex has been withholding cases of possible human rights violations from its own fundamental rights officers, suspending aerial surveillance to avoid recording illegal activities, co-financing Greek units that carried out pushbacks and misleading the authorities responsible for overseeing the agency.

The report highlighted that principal Greek officials claim they haven't read the report and European Commissioner Margaritis Schinas of Greece, whose portfolio includes migration, declined to comment on whether he was informed of the allegations.

Human rights defenders, however, call on the EU to officially release the report to allow pushback victims to use its findings in court cases, it added.

"The question in the coming years will be whether taxpayer money will continue to be used to help break the law at the EU's borders – or whether Frontex will be forced to comply with European law. The Schengen states, which control Frontex through the Management Board, apparently have little interest in such compliance," said the report in Der Spiegel.

In recent years, Frontex has come under fire for alleged mistreatment of migrants, often endangering their lives. Earlier this year, Frontex head Fabrice Leggeri resigned amid the scandal.

Human rights groups have also documented other human rights violations on EU borders where Frontex operates.

"Frontex has repeatedly failed to take effective action when allegations of human rights violations are brought to its attention," said Eva Cosse, Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch.

"Its rapid growth into an executive agency of the EU, with increased powers, funding, and legal responsibilities, makes it all the more urgent for Frontex to put in place effective tools to safeguard fundamental rights."

Meanwhile, Turkish coast guard units said Monday that they rescued 424 irregular migrants after Greek authorities pushed them into Turkish territorial waters.

After receiving information that there were groups of irregular migrants in rubber boats off the coast of Dikili district in western Izmir province, teams were dispatched to the area and a total of 302 migrants were rescued, said the Coast Guard Command.

Separately, coast guard teams rescued a total of 11 irregular migrants off the coast of Datça and Bodrum districts in western Muğla province, another statement said.

Additionally, a group of 87 migrants struggling in a rubber boat off Kuşadası district were pulled to the shore in Aydın, according to the local Coast Guard Command.

In a separate operation, Turkish coast guard units found 24 irregular migrants off the coast of Ayvacık in northwestern Çanakkale province after they were pushed back by Greek forces into Turkish territorial waters.

Türkiye and Greece have been key transit points for asylum-seekers aiming to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution.

Ankara and global rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece's illegal practice of pushing back asylum-seekers, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children.

In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called out Greece for its "persecution" of migrants in the Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean.

"While we struggle to prevent other babies, like Aylan, from washing up on the shores, Greece is turning the Aegean Sea into a graveyard for refugees with its unlawful and reckless pushbacks," said Erdoğan, referring to the 3-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi whose body washed up on the shores of Bodrum.