This month, the European Court of Human Rights' (ECtHR) issued a seismic ruling in the case of A.R.E. v. Greece, condemning, for the first time ever, Greece for its “systematic practice of pushbacks”. This landmark verdict exposes not only Greece’s, but also Europe’s failure to handle migration fairly at its borders.
The case in question centres on A.R.E., a woman who entered Greece to seek asylum in 2019. Instead of examining her asylum application as required by international and European law, the Greek authorities forcibly returned her to Turkey after holding her in a police station where her phone, shoes, and money were taken from her.