Greece's independent authority for transparency on Tuesday rejected accusations of migrant pushbacks after an examination process despite several footages and reports by human rights organizations, the United Nations as well as Turkey.
The National Transparency Authority said in a statement that the allegations by the Lighthouse Reports nonprofit organization (NGO) last year concerning “informal obligatory returns” of asylum-seekers by masked men “were not confirmed.”
“Upon completion of the examination process and the laboratory examination of the relevant material, no supporting evidence emerged,” the statement said.
Greece is a major entry point for people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa seeking a better life in the European Union. A record of about 1 million people arrived through neighboring Turkey in 2015, but in recent years the numbers have dropped drastically following tougher border management.
Greece has repeatedly been accused by human rights groups and Turkey of illegally sending back asylum-seekers who have reached Greek shores and abandoning them at sea. Similar claims have been made concerning asylum-seekers who cross the land border with Turkey and are allegedly clandestinely sent back. Athens strongly denies the practice, known as pushbacks.
The NTA statement said its more than four-month investigation into the Lighthouse Reports' allegations included visits to the eastern Aegean Sea islands where migrant boats from Turkey arrive and to the northeastern land border, and interviews with Greek security services, local residents and asylum-seekers. It said it also examined video and photos connected with the allegations, with the assistance of the Greek police.
Last October, Netherlands-based Lighthouse Reports said a joint investigation with European media organizations collected and analyzed 635 videos of alleged pushbacks in the Aegean Sea, “at least 15 of them showing masked men in action.”
It said current and former senior officers in the Greek coast guard reviewed the videos and “were able to identify the masked men as members of elite Greek coast guard units.”
Greek officials at the time denied the allegations.
Last year, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, criticized European countries for their treatment of migrants as he called on multiple countries to defend the principles of the Geneva Refugee Convention.
Amnesty International said last year that illegal pushbacks of refugees and migrants to Turkey had become Greece's "de facto" border policy The Greek government has repeatedly denied the accusations.
Between January 2020 and March 2021, the UNHCR documented around 300 reported incidents of illegal expulsions around the Aegean islands and Greece's northeastern Evros land border with Turkey. Several migrant support groups, including the Greek Helsinki Monitor, in May filed a complaint with the European Court of Justice against Frontex, the EU's border monitoring agency.
A joint investigation by several international news outlets reported in October 2020 that Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, had been complicit in maritime pushback operations to drive away migrants attempting to enter the EU via Greek waters. A month later, Brussels-based news outlet EUobserver revealed that Frontex exchanged letters with Greek authorities about Athens' orders to push back migrants to Turkish waters.
Furthermore, Greek authorities said earlier this month that the bodies of six people believed to be possible migrants have been found off the island of Lesbos, at a time when Athens stands accused of rights abuses against irregular arrivals.
The Greek coast guard said four bodies were found on the coast near the port of Mytilene and two others were taken from the water.
The deaths came after 19 irregular migrants were found frozen to death near the Greek-Turkish border after Greek border officials stripped them off their clothes, stole their valuable possessions and pushed them back into Turkish territory.
