Today, the Border Violence Monitoring Network shares a letter of concern it sent to Frontex, regarding illegal pushbacks at the Greek-Turkish border and the recent publication of new evidence of Greek authorities coercing asylum seekers into pushing other transit groups back to Turkey by Lighthouse Reports, Le Monde, der Spiegel, the Guardian, and other media outlets. 

Over the last two years, the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) has submitted to Frontex an abundance of evidence of pushbacks, loss of life, and practices amounting to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment perpetrated at the Evros land border which is also Frontex operational area. New trends of abandoning people stranded on islets in the river as well as refusing to comply with interim measures issued by the European Court of Human Rights shows consistent disregard for the rule of law by the Greek state. Recent visual investigations from Lighthouse Reports, der Spiegel, le Monde and other media outlets confirm our documentation of people on the move being coerced by the Greek police to push people back.

On this basis, we call on Frontex should trigger Article 46 of the European Border and Coast Guard Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 and, effective immediately, terminate operations in Greece.