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Mercenaries recruited since at least 2020 for illegal migrant ‘pushbacks’ in Greece, BBC told
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We have seen internal police documents in which guards describe how the recruitment of so-called mercenaries was ordered and overseen by senior officers.
Our findings reveal allegations of brutality, with witnesses reporting migrants being stripped, robbed, beaten and even sexually assaulted. It has been claimed that mercenaries have been unofficially employed on the border since at least 2020.
The Greek prime minister told the BBC he was "totally unaware" about allegations of the use of migrants for pushbacks, while the country's authorities have not responded to our written detailed requests for comment.
Pushbacks - forcing migrants and asylum seekers back across borders without due process - are generally considered illegal under international law.
Claims that they were being carried out in Greece by foreign masked men were reported in 2022 by the Netherlands-based news organisation, Lighthouse Reports.
Our own investigation - carried out in collaboration with the Consolidated Rescue Group (CRG) - began last autumn, when we were sent disturbing video allegedly showing migrants being mistreated by mercenaries.
It was shared with us by a smuggler, who claimed to have become disgruntled with his associates. We have not been able to verify the content but it mirrors accounts we have gathered from other independent sources.
We have since pieced together information from migrants, former mercenaries, police sources, official documents and leaked transcripts:
Greece has seen well over a million migrant arrivals since 2015 - chiefly through sea crossings but also along its land border with Turkey.
This frontier runs 200km (124 miles) along the Evros River. It marks the outer edge of the European Union, separating Greece's Evros region and the Turkish territory of East Thrace.
Refugees or illegal migrants crossing the river into Greece enter a heavily militarised restricted zone, dotted with watcht
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