For eight years, the Border Violence Monitoring Network has been documenting pushbacks, the unlawful and often violent and deadly crossborder expulsion of an individual without due process, as well as related forms of violence. Based on the thousands of testimonies collected by BVMN and its members, we have demonstrated that pushbacks are a systematic practice and de facto policy at European borders. 

In the two most recent rulings related to pushback incidents (G.R.J. v. Greece and A.R.E. v. Greece), the European Court of Human Rights has confirmed that Greece systematically pushes people back at its borders and that  a form of temporary forced disappearance formed part of the modus operandi of pushbacks. Despite this recognition, the court failed to draw actionable consequences from it.

Download the full statement here.