• Amnesty International and Mobile Info Team and Refugee Legal Support have published damning reports on ‘closed controlled access centres’ (CCACs) in Greece.
• A new report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) into alleged ill-treatment at the EU’s borders has singled out Greece as one of the EU’s worst offenders.
• Seven NGOs have issued a joint statement in which they claim that the European Commission’s 2024 Rule of Law Report was ‘overly positive’ about the state of the rule of law in Greece.
• Analysis undertaken by Save the Children has revealed that the number of child arrivals in Greece has quadrupled in 2024.
• The Hellenic Coast Guard has rejected accusations by the Turkish coastguard and defence ministry that it carried out numerous pushbacks in July.
• A Greek court has convicted three vigilantes for illegally detaining 13 people they falsely accused of starting a deadly fire in the Evros region in 2023.

Several NGOs have published damning reports on ‘closed controlled access centres’ (CCACs) in Greece. Their reports echo the findings of an earlier report by the Council of Europe in which it urged Greece to treat refugees and migrants with dignity and humanity, and to stop pushbacks and the mistreatment of people in detention. On 30 July, Amnesty International published a report that described the EU-funded accommodation centre on the island of Samos as a ‘dystopian nightmare’. The EU has been providing support to Greece to establish and operate CCACs since 2020. The first CCAC was opened on Samos in September 2021 with the objective of providing better conditions than older reception facilities. However, Amnesty International has reported that the camp suffers from overcrowding and inadequate living conditions, insufficient water, severe lack of medical supplies, lack of support for vulnerable people, harsh restrictions on unaccompanied minors and systematic restrictions amounting to arbitrary detention. “This is all happening in an EU-funded site that is supposed to be compliant with European standards,” said the organisation’s senior director for regional human rights impact, Deprose Muchena. “Instead, we found a dystopian nightmare: a highly securitised camp lacking in the most basic infrastructure,” he added. The NGO warned that such centres “must not become the blueprint for the EU Migration Pact”. On 26 July, the NGOs Mobile Info Team and Refugee Legal Support published a joint report based on interviews with 30 residents from nine different camps in Greece. Their research, which was focused on the “inhumane” CCACs on the Aegean islands, also revealed “a troubling picture of neglect and mismanagement” on the mainland. “We are extremely concerned at the lack of dignity and adequate living standards afforded to people who come to Greece seeking international protection,” they concluded.

On 30 July, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) issued a report in which it decried the lack of investigation into alleged ill-treatment at the EU’s borders. The FRA found that Greece, Croatia and Hungary in particular “did not effectively investigate incidents of ill treatment and loss of life during border management”. It cited several incidents in which people were subjected to mistreatment without consequences for the perpetrators – including one in Greece in 2022, in which two Palestinians were purportedly beaten, sexually assaulted, and abandoned on a life raft at sea – noting that “the low number of investigations of such cases, despite the high number of credible allegations, casts a negative light on border management authorities’ operation”. It added that fear and intimidation also prevented victims from reporting mistreatment. “There are too many allegations of human rights violations at the EU’s borders (…) Europe has a duty to treat everyone at the borders fairly, respectfully, and in full compliance with human rights law,” said FRA director Sirpa Rautio.

On 1 August, seven NGOs issued a joint statement in which they claim that the European Commission’s 2024 Rule of Law Report was misleading about the state of the rule of law in Greece. “The overly positive account in the report starkly contrasts an alarming reality experienced by journalists, activists, and civil society organizations on the ground, and a growing international concern over the deterioration of the rule of law in the country,” they wrote. The group added that “civil society organisations and human rights defenders, particularly those working on migration issues, also face significant obstacles, and even criminal charges, for their work in Greece”.

On 17 July, Save the Children reported that the number of child arrivals in Greece had quadrupled in 2024. According to the NGO, over 6,400 children entered Greece in 2024, four times more than in the previous year. Fileri Kyriaki from ECRE member organisation the Greek Council for Refugees said that children often experience agony and fear, knowing that they could die on their journey. “There are no safe and legal channels to migration. The children have to risk their lives,” she explained. The analysis conducted by the two NGOs revealed that, in 2023, most unaccompanied children seeking safety in Greece had had their asylum claims rejected, thus leaving them without legal papers and vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. “Children arriving alone in Greece are facing dire conditions that demand urgent attention, and the new EU Pact could make a bad situation even worse for them,” said Save the Children Europe director and EU representative, Willy Bergogné. “Every child deserves safety and dignity upon arrival. Yet, these children arriving in Greece are not being treated as children. It’s imperative that Greek authorities and the EU step up to provide robust guardianship, essential proper protection systems, and improved living standards. The Mediterranean also cannot continue to be a graveyard for children. Safe and accessible routes into Europe must be established to ensure their safe passage,” he concluded.

The Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG) has rejected accusations made by the Turkish coastguard and ministry of defence that it conducted illegal pushbacks. The Turkish coastguard has claimed that it rescued victims of Greek pushbacks in at least four separate incidents in late July. Türkiye has repeatedly accused Greece of mistreating people on the move and relations between the two countries are tense. On 22 July, the Turkish defence ministry X posted drone footage which appeared to show a Hellenic Coast Guard vessel pushing a migrant boat back into Turkish waters. Commenting on the incident, a senior HCG official said: “This is in no way a pushback. It is detection and prevention of illegal entry into Greek territorial waters”.

On 11 July, a Greek court convicted three vigilantes for illegally detaining 13 people they had falsely accused of starting a deadly fire in the Evros region in August 2023. The case was initially treated as a racially motivated attack. However, in its ruling, the court stated that the motives of the three men could not be deemed as racist. The victims’ lawyers expressed their disappointment with the ruling and claimed that it “undermined” attacks on migrants. Commenting on the court’s decision to downgrade the charges against the vigilantes from ‘kidnapping’ to ‘illegal detention’, one of them, John Patzanakidis, said: “it’s obviously a negative development”. “The number of racist crimes recorded in Greece is just the tip of the iceberg. Only a few of them reach the court and in even fewer, the court recognises a racist motive,” he added.

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