Cyprus has engaged in offshore pushbacks as several boats carrying displaced people have approached in recent weeks. Returning people to countries where they could face persecution is prohibited by international law.
Greece's migration minister rejected claims on Monday saying that the Greek government was involved in illegally pushing back migrants and refugees at sea. Notis Mitarachi said that false reports about pushbacks were being spread by people smugglers, as changes to Greece’s border policies was damaging their business.
Nearly 100 migrants were rescued on Tuesday night from Aegean waters near the Greek island of Rhodes. The Greek coast guard said it would continue searching for survivors after their boat was found partially sunk.
Mitsotakis says Greece has 'tough but fair' border management policies and has denied claims of illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers at sea.
German soldiers have filed reports saying that they had repeatedly observed migrant boats in the Mediterranean being pushed back into Turkish waters. The German dpa news agency said it had information chronicling at least three such instances in June 2020 alone.
In an unprecedented case, the captain of an Italian commercial vessel is to be taken to court for returning migrants he rescued in the Mediterranean to civil war country Libya. The man is accused of violating international law, under which Libya is not a safe harbor.
The association Caritas Intermelia in Ventimiglia denounced that French authorities are pushing back about 100 migrants daily to the Italian border.
The Legal Centre Lesvos, a legal charity registered in Greece and operating on the island of Lesbos, has just released a report in which it has documented allegations of illegal push-backs of migrants by the Greek authorities in the Aegean Sea.
Greece is accused of pushing back migrant boats to prevent them from reaching EU waters. To what degree does that contravene international law? DW looks at the key issues.
Are Greek coast guard forces deliberately sabotaging refugees' and migrants' boats on the high seas as part of a strategy to push them back to Turkey, away from the Greek islands of Lesbos and Samos? A DW investigation.
Following protests in Athens slamming the government for its treatment of migrants, the Greek government over the weekend said it would extend the COVID-19 lockdown on the migrant camps on Greek Aegean islands and on the mainland.
A number of humanitarian groups claim that the EU is using aerial surveillance to spot stranded migrants in the Mediterranean but only alerting Libya's coast guard to intervene. They say the alleged move facilitates illegal pushbacks while preventing non-governmental rescue operations from reaching migrants.