Illegal Pushbacks in Evros:
Evidence of Human Rights Abuses at the Greece/Turkey Border
15 NOVEMBER 2019
“Pushback is the term used to describe the practice by authorities of preventing people from seeking protection on their territory by forcibly returning them to another country.”
- Oxfam International
Since August 2018, Mobile Info Team has been collecting first-hand testimonies of individuals who crossed the border into Greece and were forcibly pushed back to Turkey. Our expertise in asylum law and direct service to impacted communities makes us strategically poised to document and challenge these illegal and systematic expulsions. For this reason, Mobile Info Team is working with partners in Northern Greece to collect, document, and ultimately challenge these actions. Listening to the needs of asylum seekers and translating those concerns into targeted actions is at the core of our advocacy efforts.
Mobile Info Team is now launching the findings of these testimonies and research in our first report on illegal pushbacks. It solidifies previous research and outlines the specific stages of pushbacks which are systematically repeated, as are a multitude of abuses of key human rights and international law principles, including non-refoulement, the right to seek asylum, the ban of collective expulsions and the right to not be unlawfully detained and tortured.
Here are key summaries of our findings in different languages: