Greece accused of using migrant ‘mercenaries’ in pushback operations on Turkish border

Police in Greece have been recruiting migrants to violently force other migrants back across the land border with Türkiye, according to a BBC investigation published on Tuesday, Anadolu reports. The report, done in collaboration with the Consolidated Rescue Group (CRG), alleges that so-called “mercenaries” – themselves migrants – have been deployed in the Evros border region since at least 2020 as overseen by senior officers. Internal police documents are said to describe how the recruitment was ordered and managed. Witness testimony gathered by investigators describes serious brutality, including migrants being stripped, robbed, beaten, and in some cases sexually assaulted. The BBC says it was first alerted by a video showing alleged mistreatment, later corroborated through accounts from migrants, former mercenaries, […]