Masked migrants ’recruited by Greek police’ to force other migrants back across border into Turkey
Greek police have been ‘hiring masked migrants’ to forcibly push other migrants back across the border with Turkey.
Masked mercenaries, themselves migrants from countries including Syria and Afghanistan, are believed to have been unofficially operating on the border since at least 2022.
Pushbacks - when migrants and asylum seekers are forced back over a border without legal due process - are considered to be illegal under international law.
A police source said there was "no soldier, police officer or Frontex (EU border agency) officer" unaware pushbacks were being used and said mercenaries were used to push back hundreds of people a week.
There are also accounts of migrants being robbed, beaten, and sexually assaulted by mercenaries.
Greece has seen more than one million migrants arrive since 2015, primarily via sea crossings but also across the 200km long land border with Turkey which runs along the Evros River.
Allegations of pushbacks carried out in Greece by foreign masked men were made back in 2022 by Lighthouse Reports, a Netherlands-based newsroom.
Footage from 2023 showed asylum seekers crossing into Evros "ambushed" by masked mercenaries.
In a report investigating the incident, the Fundamental Rights Office, an independent investigator part of Frontex, said there were 10 and 20 "third-country nationals" obeying orders from Greek officers.
The report said they robbed, stabbed, and beat the migrants and carried out "intrusive and sexualised body searches."
It is just one report of several by the Fundamental Rights Office covering alleged pushbacks by foreign masked men.
The masked migrants are understood to have been ‘rewarded with cash and mobiles’ stripped from other migrants, as well as papers effectively granting access into Greece.
It is disputed if they were recruited willingly or forced to accept.
The Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, claimed to have no knowledge about alleged use of mercenaries but said Greece was protecting its borders and would not repeat "past mistakes" by allowing in a "massive influx" of migrants and refugees.
One Syrian woman who was detained with her family by police in 2025 in northern Evros said she was asked to hand over her phone and passport before being transported to the border in a white van.
She and 20 others were then allegedly herded down a track by around seven masked men who "|used sticks to keep them in line".
A masked man took off her daughter’s nappy while hunting for valuables.
Migrants saw violent episodes including people being "beaten to the point of unconsciousness" at the border with Turkey and robbed of their possessions.
In a 2024 disciplinary hearing claims were made that the Greek police used mercenaries - referred to sometimes as "boatmen".
A guard said in 2020 he was ordered to find "boatmen" to carry out pushbacks because Covid and tensions with Turkey had made it dangerous for the police to do the job themselves.
He added his superior said the system was already being used in the south of the region.
Guards claim to have raised concerns about boatmen allegedly "taking migrants into the woods" then raping women and robbing them.
One Moroccan migrant who was recruited as a mercenary said he had no "real choice" but to accept an offer from a Greek officer while in a migrant jail cell to "work with me" for fear of being beaten.
For ten weeks he worked with a team of mercenaries, led by an Afghan, transporting migrants across the river back to Turkey, burning leftover migrant belongings to destroy evidence, and checking boats were running correctly.
He told the BBC he was "deeply sorry" for his complicity in the alleged operation, adding "I wad under threat".
While he claimed he never beat anyone he witnessed violence from both Greek officers and mercenaries which left him "completely destroyed".
Editor-in-Chief
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
