Masked and weaponized: How Greece turned migrants into tools of deportation
A BBC investigation has uncovered a covert operation in which migrants are recruited, sometimes forcibly, to violently push other migrants back across Greece’s border with Turkey, with evidence pointing to the direct involvement of senior police officers.
Along the Evros River, a 200-kilometre stretch of land separating northeastern Greece from Turkey, a shadowy system has allegedly been operating for years, one that weaponizes the very people it targets. Internal police documents leaked disciplinary hearing transcripts, survivor testimonies, and investigative reports paint a disturbing picture of an unofficial border enforcement mechanism built on coercion, brutality, and impunity.
The investigation, carried out by the BBC in collaboration with the Consolidated Rescue Group (CRG), reveals that Greek police have been recruiting migrants, primarily from Pakistan, Syria, and Afghanistan, to serve as so-called “mercenaries,” tasked with forcibly returning fellow migrants to Turkish territory. The alleged compensation? Cash, looted mobile phones, and documents that allow them safe passage through Greece.
A system with a name and a code
The existence of this operation was not merely whispered about in the shadows, it was, according to testimony from a 2024 disciplinary hearing, openly acknowledged within police ranks.
Five border guards currently awaiting trial on corruption charges, which they deny, appear in excerpts of the hearing seen by the BBC. In those excerpts, some guards referenced the mercenaries plainly, calling them “boatmen.”
One guard testified that as far back as 2020, he was instructed by a superior to find boatmen to carry out pushbacks, explaining that the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened tensions with Turkish authorities had made it increasingly risky for police to conduct these operations themselves. He noted that his superior indicated the system was already in use in the southern part of the region.
Communication about planned operations was reportedly conducted through the Viber messaging app, with a coded phrase used to signal an impending pushback: “X persons to the operation by Special Team.”
Violence that left no room for doubt
The testimonies gathered from migrants who say they were subjected to these pushbacks are harrowing.
Amal, not her real name, is a Syrian woman who says her family was detained by police in 2025 while walking through Orestiada, a city in northern Evros. They were subsequently handed over to two masked men who confiscated their phones and identity documents before transporting them to the border in a windowless white van.
At the river, the situation deteriorated.
“My daughter was wearing a diaper, they took it off,” Amal says. “She was screaming in fear.”
She recounts being herded along a track by roughly seven masked men wielding sticks, alongside approximately 20 other migrants. “As we were walking, there was a young man… they beat him so much that he fainted,” she says. Her own daughters, she adds, “were in a state of shock, terrified, crying.” When the BBC met the family in Turkey, Amal’s youngest daughter was visibly traumatised.
Ahmad, another Syrian migrant, describes a different but equally brutal ordeal. After being beaten to the point of unconsciousness by Greek police, he says he was loaded the following day into a crowded truck: “Because of the crowding and the smell, people were suffocating. We couldn’t breathe.”
At the river, he says, mercenaries stripped and searched the men, beating those who tried to conceal money. Migrants were loaded into rubber dinghies and rowed to the midpoint of the river, but the mercenaries reportedly refused to cross further for fear of being shot by Turkish border guards. Those who did not jump from the boats, Ahmad claims, were thrown out.
“The water could sweep people away. They didn’t care at all,” he says.
Ahmad, who made an unlawful crossing into Greece, does not shy away from the nature of his journey but frames it within a broader context of desperation.
“I was dying slowly in Syria,” he says. “People didn’t leave their homes for no reason; they lived through the worst torture, oppression, and injustice.”
Recruited from jail cells
One former mercenary gave the BBC a rare window into how the recruitment process worked.
Marwan, not his real name, is a Moroccan man now living in Paris, who says he was pulled from a jail cell in Evros in 2020 after being caught crossing the border. A Greek officer approached him with a proposition.
“You seem like a good guy and you speak some English. Do you want to work with me?” the officer reportedly asked.
Marwan says he “felt forced to say yes” out of fear of being beaten. He subsequently found himself living in a former prison cell alongside other mercenaries, under the leadership of an Afghan man whom he describes as bearing a particular hostility toward Syrian migrants.
Over roughly 10 weeks, Marwan says his duties included ferrying migrants back across the river, inspecting boats for damage, and burning leftover belongings to destroy evidence. His recruiting officer visited regularly to collect looted phones and euros, while Arabic and Turkish currency was left for the mercenaries to keep. He claims the officer even offered to bring prostitutes for the men.
“I am deeply sorry… I was under threat,” Marwan told the BBC when challenged about his role in the alleged operation.
Senior knowledge, official denials
Perhaps most damning is the chain of knowledge the evidence suggests existed. Border guards who testified at the 2024 hearing said they had raised concerns with higher-ranking officers, specifically that the “illegal migrant boatmen” had been “taking migrants to the woods, raping the women and taking their money.”
A BBC source within the border police stated bluntly: “There is no soldier, police officer or Frontex officer serving here in Evros who does not know that pushbacks are taking place.”
A separate case, filed before the European Court of Human Rights by a lawyer representing an Afghan woman, alleges that she was raped by a masked man who spoke Farsi, shortly before a pushback in 2023.
An independent investigator within Frontex, the EU’s border agency, examined footage from June 22, 2023, in which a group of migrants seeking asylum was ambushed after crossing into Evros. The Fundamental Rights Office report found that between 10 and 20 third-country nationals had been operating under the instruction of Greek officers, and subjected migrants to physical and verbal abuse, including “death and rape threats, intrusive and sexualized body searches,” beatings, stabbing, restraint, and theft. The migrants were then forcibly returned to Turkey in violation of EU human rights law. Greek authorities have denied that any migrants from this group were present in the area that day.
Maria Gavouneli, president of Greece’s national human rights commission (GNCHR), described the BBC’s findings as potentially amounting to an “extremely significant” abuse of human rights. The commission has itself documented more than 100 incidents of alleged forced returns in Evros since 2020, with dozens involving non-Greek nationals, the most recent recorded in October 2025.
When approached by the BBC in March, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was “totally unaware” of the use of migrants in pushback operations. He maintained, however, that Greece was fulfilling its responsibility to protect its borders, and that European leaders were united in their resolve not to repeat what he characterised as past “mistakes” by permitting a “massive influx” of migrants and refugees.
Frontex, for its part, rejected any implication that it overlooked rights violations, saying the agency works to ensure borders are managed in accordance with the law.
A figure at the center
Among the key figures emerging from the BBC’s investigation is a Syrian man referred to by sources as “Mike,” described by several witnesses as a former senior mercenary in the Evros operation. A photograph obtained by the BBC, shared by a people smuggler who claimed to have become disillusioned with his associates, shows a group of masked men in plain clothing inside a van. Facial recognition analysis reportedly returned an average 90% match between one individual in the image and four photographs of Mike. He is also referenced by name in internal police documents, and five separate sources confirmed his identity to the BBC.
When contacted through a social media account, Mike did not respond directly. His lawyer subsequently sent a letter warning against publishing his image or what were described as “unproven” allegations.
The broader legal context
Pushbacks, the forcible return of migrants and asylum seekers across borders without any form of legal process, are broadly regarded as illegal under international law. Greece’s Evros region sits on the EU’s outer frontier, making the allegations not merely a domestic concern but one with implications for Europe’s entire border management framework.
The BBC has invited the Greek authorities to respond to its detailed written findings. No response has been received.
Names of migrants and the former mercenary have been changed to protect their identities. Those with information relevant to this investigation may contact journalists Jessica Parker or Kostas Kallergis confidentially at kostaskallergis@pm.me
Source: BBC
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