Greek police have been systematically recruiting migrants to forcibly push other migrants back across the country's land border with Turkey, according to a detailed BBC investigation based on internal police documents, leaked disciplinary transcripts, testimony from witnesses, and reports by an independent EU oversight body. The alleged practice, which authorities say has been in place since at least 2020, involves migrants from Pakistan, Syria, and Afghanistan being recruited as masked enforcers — known internally as "boatmen" — to carry out operations that international and European law consider illegal.

Witnesses describe harrowing scenes along the Evros River, a 200-kilometre stretch of water that forms the outer land border of the European Union between Greece's Evros region and Turkey's East Thrace. Migrants report being stripped, robbed, beaten with sticks, and in some cases sexually assaulted before being loaded onto rubber dinghies and forced back across the river. One Syrian woman described how a masked man removed her infant daughter's nappy while searching for hidden valuables. Another witness, a Syrian man named Ahmad, said he was beaten unconscious by Greek police before being crammed into a truck so overcrowded that migrants struggled to breathe. A former mercenary now living in France told the BBC he felt coerced into participating and witnessed extreme violence, though he said he did not personally beat anyone. He and others were reportedly rewarded with cash, stolen mobile phones, and in some cases documents providing unofficial passage through Greece.

The findings are corroborated by the Fundamental Rights Office, an independent investigator embedded within Frontex — the EU's border and coastguard agency — which documented a specific June 2023 incident in which between 10 and 20 non-EU nationals acted under the instruction of Greek officers, subjecting migrants to physical abuse, sexualised body searches, and threats before forcibly transporting them to Turkey in violation of EU human rights law. Excerpts from a 2024 disciplinary hearing involving five border guards — who face trial on separate corruption charges — show that some guards openly acknowledged the use of mercenaries, with one stating that the practice began during the Covid-19 period when direct police involvement became more dangerous.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the BBC he was "totally unaware" of allegations involving migrant mercenaries, while stressing that Greece has a duty to protect its borders. The country's authorities did not respond to the BBC's detailed written requests for comment. Pushbacks — returning migrants without allowing them to apply for asylum — are broadly considered illegal under international law and EU human rights standards, yet Greece has faced persistent accusations of conducting them for years; Dutch investigative outlet Lighthouse Reports reported on the use of masked foreign men in such operations as early as 2022.

The revelations carry significant legal and political weight across Europe. The president of Greece's national human rights commission described the findings as potentially "extremely significant," noting that her body has recorded more than 100 alleged forced returns in Evros since 2020. The broader context includes a recent European Court of Justice ruling that Frontex can be held legally responsible for pushbacks, and a French judicial investigation opened last month into former Frontex director Fabrice Leggeri over alleged crimes against humanity. For the tens of thousands of people who attempt to enter Europe each year fleeing war and persecution, the investigation underscores the human cost of border enforcement practices that remain largely hidden from public view.