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Allegations of migrant exploitation in Greece's border operations
Greek authorities are facing accusations of recruiting migrants to forcibly return others across the Evros River border with Turkey, according to a BBC investigation. Evidence includes internal police documents, witness testimonies, and leaked reports detailing systemic abuse, including beatings, theft, and sexual assault.
How the system operates
The 200-kilometer Evros River frontier, separating Greece's Evros region from Turkish East Thrace, has become a flashpoint for migration into the European Union. Since 2015, over a million migrants have crossed this militarized zone, often via smugglers. A police source in Evros told the BBC that so-called "mercenaries"-themselves migrants from countries like Pakistan, Syria, and Afghanistan-are used to push back hundreds of people weekly.
Rewards for these recruits reportedly include cash, mobile phones looted from other migrants, and unofficial travel documents allowing passage through Greece. One former mercenary, a Moroccan identified as Marwan, described being coerced into the role after his arrest in 2020. He claimed he was housed in a repurposed prison cell and forced to ferry migrants back to Turkey, destroy evidence, and even witnessed officers offering prostitutes as incentives.
Reports of brutality and sexual violence
Witnesses and victims allege severe mistreatment during pushbacks. Amal, a Syrian migrant, recounted how her family was detained in Orestiada in 2025, stripped of their phones and IDs, and handed over to masked men. She described her young daughter being forcibly undressed and migrants beaten with sticks until one collapsed. Another Syrian, Ahmad, said he was beaten unconscious by police before being loaded into a suffocating truck and later abandoned in the river by mercenaries.
A 2023 Frontex Fundamental Rights Office report documented an incident where 10-20 "third-country nationals" acting under Greek officers subjected migrants to "death and rape threats, intrusive body searches, beatings, and theft." Greek authorities denied the migrants were present in the area that day.
Denials and legal scrutiny
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the BBC he was "totally unaware" of mercenary allegations but emphasized Greece's right to protect its borders. The government has not responded to detailed requests for comment. Meanwhile, five border guards face corruption charges for their alleged roles in the scheme, with testimonies from disciplinary hearings revealing coded communications like "X persons to the operation by Special Team" to coordinate pushbacks.
Maria Gavouneli, president of Greece's National Commission for Human Rights, called the findings "extremely significant" abuses. Her organization has recorded over 100 alleged pushback incidents in Evros since 2020, including recent cases in October 2025 involving non-Greek operatives.
Survivors' trauma and ongoing risks
Amal's youngest daughter remains visibly traumatized months after their ordeal. Ahmad, who fled Syria due to war, said migrants endure such treatment because "they lived through the worst torture, oppression, and injustice." Both described being left in the Evros River by mercenaries who feared Turkish border guards would open fire if they crossed fully.
A lawyer has filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of an Afghan woman who alleges she was raped by a Farsi-speaking masked man during a 2023 pushback. The BBC also obtained a photo of masked men in a van, identified by facial recognition as a former leading mercenary known as "Mike," though his lawyer dismissed the allegations as "unproven."
EU border agency's stance
Frontex denied ignoring rights violations, stating it ensures lawful border management while supporting countries under strain. However, the BBC's investigation-conducted with the Consolidated Rescue Group-suggests systemic failures, with migrants recruited under duress and subjected to horrific conditions.
"I was dying slowly in Syria. People didn't leave their homes for no reason," Ahmad said. "They had no choice."
