Greece claims its border policies comply with international law, but the ruling raises concerns about how European nations handle migrants.
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday issued a landmark ruling finding that Greece had unlawfully expelled a woman to Turkey, describing the use of summary expulsions or "pushbacks" as a systematic practice.
The ruling, handed down at the court in Strasbourg, could have significant implications for how European countries manage migrants at their borders, especially as Greece and several EU member states push for stricter immigration controls.
The Turkish woman, identified as A.R.E., was awarded €20,000 in damages after the court determined that she had been improperly deported in 2019.
She was denied the opportunity to lodge an asylum claim after crossing the Greek-Turkish border.
“The court considered that there were strong indications to suggest that there had existed, at the time of the events alleged, a systematic practice of “pushbacks” of third-country nationals by the Greek authorities, from the Evros region (on the Greek border) to Turkey,” the judgment stated.
A separate claim by an Afghan man, who alleged he was forcibly returned to Turkey from the Greek island of Samos in 2020 at the age of 15, was rejected due to insufficient evidence.
Greek officials have denied the allegations, questioning the credibility of the evidence and insisting that their border policies adhere to international law.
Representatives at the hearing argued that Greece’s actions comply with obligations under international agreements.
The UN refugee agency has called on Greece to conduct thorough investigations into repeated allegations of pushbacks, which several major human rights organisations have described as a systematic practice.
Greece’s National Transparency Authority, a publicly-funded watchdog, reported in 2022 that a four-month investigation found no evidence to support claims of illegal deportations.