Greek border authorities have been systematically recruiting migrants and asylum seekers to forcibly push other migrants back across the Turkish border, according to testimony gathered by BBC News from witnesses and alleged former participants in the operations.

The practice, which witnesses say has been ongoing since at least 2020, represents a disturbing evolution in the pushback tactics that have long shadowed Greece's border enforcement. By deploying migrants themselves as masked enforcers, Greek authorities appear to have created a system that both conducts illegal expulsions and obscures direct state responsibility for them.

A System Built on Desperation

The accounts describe a recruitment process that exploits the vulnerability of people seeking protection in Europe. According to the BBC investigation, migrants and asylum seekers—some already in Greece, others intercepted at the border—have been approached by Greek authorities and offered various inducements to participate in pushback operations against their fellow migrants.

Former participants interviewed by the BBC described being given masks, rudimentary training, and instructions to forcibly escort other migrants back across the border into Turkey. The masked enforcers would typically operate at night, approaching groups of newly arrived migrants and compelling them to return the way they came, sometimes with physical force.

This approach represents a significant departure from previous pushback allegations against Greece, which typically involved Greek police or coast guard personnel directly conducting the expulsions. By interposing a layer of migrant enforcers between the state and those being expelled, the system creates plausible deniability while maintaining the same outcome: the illegal return of asylum seekers without due process.

The Legal and Moral Dimensions

Under both European Union law and international refugee conventions, people who reach EU territory have the right to apply for asylum and have their claims assessed through proper legal procedures. Pushbacks—the summary expulsion of migrants without individual assessment—violate these protections, regardless of who physically conducts them.

Human rights organizations have documented pushback operations at Greece's land and sea borders for years, compiling testimony from hundreds of migrants who describe being forcibly returned to Turkey, often after being detained, stripped of possessions, and sometimes beaten. The Greek government has consistently denied these allegations, though the evidence has continued to accumulate from multiple independent sources.

The use of migrants as enforcers adds a troubling dimension to these practices. It potentially implicates vulnerable people in illegal activities, creating a coercive situation where asylum seekers may feel compelled to participate in violations against others in exchange for their own safety or advancement through the asylum system.

Context at a Contested Border

Greece's eastern land border with Turkey has been one of Europe's most sensitive frontiers since the 2015 migration crisis, when more than a million people crossed into Europe, many via Greek islands and the land border at the Evros River. The route saw renewed tension in 2020, when Turkey briefly opened its borders and encouraged migrants to cross into Greece, leading to violent confrontations.

Greek authorities have framed their border enforcement as essential to European security, arguing that they are protecting not just Greece but the entire Schengen zone from irregular migration. The government has invested heavily in border infrastructure, including a 40-kilometer fence along the Evros River and sophisticated surveillance systems.

However, this emphasis on deterrence has occurred alongside persistent allegations of systematic rights violations. The European Commission has received numerous reports of pushbacks at Greek borders, and several investigations by international media outlets and human rights groups have documented the practice. The EU's border agency, Frontex, has itself faced scrutiny over its potential complicity in pushback operations during joint patrols with Greek authorities.

Patterns of Denial and Deflection

The Greek government's response to pushback allegations has typically combined categorical denial with assertions that any incidents represent isolated actions by individual officers rather than policy. Officials have also pointed to the challenges of managing migration flows and accused Turkey of weaponizing migrants for political purposes.

The alleged use of migrant enforcers, if confirmed, would make official denials more technically defensible—Greek authorities could claim that any pushbacks were conducted by non-state actors—while still achieving the policy objective of preventing asylum seekers from remaining in Greek territory.

This pattern reflects a broader challenge in documenting and addressing border violations across Europe. Pushbacks by their nature occur in remote areas, often at night, with the primary witnesses being the migrants themselves, whose testimony is sometimes dismissed by authorities. Physical evidence is scarce, and official records, when they exist, rarely acknowledge illegal practices.

Implications for European Migration Policy

The allegations against Greece arrive at a moment when European migration policy is shifting toward stricter border enforcement and externalization—moving migration management beyond EU borders through agreements with transit countries. Several EU member states have advocated for a more robust approach to preventing irregular arrivals, even as human rights advocates warn that such policies inevitably lead to violations.

The reported use of migrants as border enforcers represents an extreme manifestation of this enforcement-first approach, one that instrumentalizes the very people seeking protection. If the practice is as systematic as the BBC's sources suggest, it would indicate that Greek authorities have developed a sustained operational model specifically designed to conduct illegal expulsions while evading accountability.

For the migrants caught in this system—both those recruited as enforcers and those subjected to pushbacks—the consequences are immediate and severe. Those forcibly returned to Turkey face an uncertain future in a country that hosts nearly four million refugees and asylum seekers, many living in precarious conditions with limited rights. Those recruited to conduct pushbacks may find themselves compromised, potentially facing legal jeopardy for participating in illegal activities under coercion.

The Path Forward

The BBC's investigation adds to a substantial body of evidence documenting systematic pushbacks at Greece's borders. What remains uncertain is whether this evidence will translate into meaningful accountability or policy change.

European institutions have limited enforcement mechanisms when member states violate EU law, particularly in areas touching on national security and border control. While the European Commission can initiate infringement proceedings, such processes are lengthy, and political will to confront a member state over migration enforcement has historically been weak.

Human rights organizations have called for independent monitoring of Greek border operations, prosecution of officials responsible for illegal pushbacks, and a fundamental reassessment of European migration policy to prioritize rights protection alongside border management. Whether these calls will be heeded depends largely on political choices made in Athens and Brussels—choices that will determine not just the fate of migration policy, but the credibility of Europe's commitment to the legal and moral principles it claims to uphold.