An asylum-seeker, pushed back by the Greek coast guard while trying to cross the Aegean Sea, plans to file a lawsuit against Greece for allegedly being stabbed in the back during the ordeal.

The 37-year-old Abdullah Mohamad Isaak was among the 35 irregular migrants rescued off the coast of Türkiye’s western Aydın province on March 7 after Greek authorities pushed their lifeboat back, a frequent occurrence in the waters dividing Türkiye and the European Union’s easternmost member.

Isaak lived in Türkiye’s western Izmir province for a year before booking a spot on a lifeboat carrying migrants like him through illegal means to Europe.

"We went up on board from the Kuşadası district and reached Greece after three hours in the sea," Isaak told reporters from Aydın’s Migrant Returns Center where he was staying following the treatment for his wound.

Once the migrants reached the shore, their raft was stopped by five Greek coast guard officers, one woman and four men, according to Isaak.

"They all wore ski masks and took us all aboard their ship. Then they hit us with iron batons. Two of them beat me with an iron baton. I kept crying out ‘Don’t! Stop!’ and ‘La ilaha illa Allah.’ They cursed at me, telling me not to say ‘La ilaha illa Allah.’ Then they stabbed me and I forgot where I was at that moment," Isaak recalled.

"I spoke Turkish, saying ‘Abi, tamam,’ (All right, brother) but they yelled at me not to speak Turkish. Then they hauled us into the raft, tugged us over to the open sea and pushed us back," he recounted.

Isaak also claimed the Greek officers confiscated the phones and belongings of their group, who were later rescued by the Turkish coast guard.

"They accompanied us to the port, then took me to the hospital. They treated me there. I’m grateful to the Turkish government; they took very good care of me. They helped me a lot and restored my health," he said.

"The Greeks stabbed me and I want to press charges. I will file a complaint. They treated us horribly. We’re human beings and they did not treat us as such. They treated us like animals. So, I want to sue Greece," he said.

Greece has long been under fire for its illegal, often inhumane and sometimes deadly practice of pushback — summary deportations of migrants without allowing them to apply for asylum.

The Greek government denies all allegations, despite claims to the contrary from alleged victims, rights groups, Turkish drones and even the U.N.'s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.

"In Greece, pushbacks at land and sea borders have become the de facto general policy," the U.N.'s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Felipe Gonzalez Morales, said last year.

Similarly, many in the international community, including Türkiye, which attracts illegal migrants from around the world for being a key gateway to Europe, have frequently condemned the practice as a violation of humanitarian values and international law for endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants.

While the Turkish coast guard has come to the rescue of thousands sent back by Greek authorities, countless others died at sea as boats full of refugees sank or capsized, especially in the Aegean Sea.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded nearly 2,000 migrants dead or missing in the Mediterranean Sea last year. A report by Türkiye’s Ombudsman Institution said in July 2022 that Greece has pushed back nearly 42,000 migrants since 2020. Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 16, 2022, the Turkish Coast Guard Command’s Aegean Command Station saved 47,498 irregular migrants in 1,550 separate cases across its areas of jurisdiction, over 18,000 of whom were victims of Greece’s pushback policy.

In the early months of 2023 alone, Greek coast guards pushed back hundreds of migrants trying to cross the Aegean, causing at least nine deaths in two separate shipwrecks near Türkiye’s western shores last week.

Athens consistently rejects the accusations despite abundant migrant testimonies, media evidence and international scrutiny. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government, since coming into office in 2019, has vowed to make his country "less attractive" to asylum-seekers.

Greece has also been accused of deliberately collaborating in its clampdown on migrants on its borders with the EU's border protection agency Frontex, whose complicity was confirmed by several media reports and an investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) early in 2022.

In the meantime, pro-migration humanitarian groups in Greece have been lamenting the Greek government’s "toughening anti-migration stance" and "waging a witch-hunt" against refugees, as well as their defenders, forcing some campaigners to step away from the struggle altogether.

Last November, a lawyer who previously worked with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) to help pushback victims said she received less legal work because of her involvement in the notably sensitive case of dozens of Syrians who had been stranded on the Greek-Turkish border earlier in 2022.

Some 50 humanitarian workers are currently facing prosecution in Greece, following a trend in Italy which has also criminalized the provision of aid to migrants.

Refugees rally

Resistance, however, continues rising in the country against Greece's harsh policies.

Hundreds of refugees gathered for a protest in Athens on Saturday, accusing the government of "murdering" asylum seekers through pushbacks.

"Stop pushbacks, down with the government of murderers," read one of the banners at the rally in front of parliament. Another read, "The blood of the innocent cries out for justice."

Some protesters carried signs with the dates of migrant boat sinkings in the Aegean Sea.

Other demonstrators drew a link between migrant deaths at sea and the Feb. 28 train tragedy that left 57 dead and has been blamed on Mitsotakis’ government.

"Mitsotakis, you have blood on your hands – dead kids at sea, dead kids on trains," they chanted.

Since taking office four years ago, Greece's conservative government has further reinforced its land and sea borders with Türkiye in a bid to stem illegal arrivals.

Police Minister Takis Theodorikakos this week said a contract to build a planned 35-kilometer (22-mile) extension to the country's steel fence on the border with Türkiye would be signed "in coming days."

In the latest incident in Greek waters, a woman and a man died earlier in March after a speedboat with nearly 30 people on board sank near the island of Kos.

A month earlier, a woman and a man drowned when a dinghy carrying 41 asylum-seekers crashed onto a rocky coast at Lesbos island.

The EU has said it is working with the United Nations and the African Union to organize voluntary returns to countries of origin, and to take refugees to camps before being resettled in the EU or elsewhere.

In January, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the EU planned to put in place migration deals with countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria "to improve returns and to prevent departures."

Greece has repatriated more than 8,000 people over the last two years in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration, Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said this week.