ATHENS — Greece could lose funding from Frontex as the European Union’s border agency investigates 12 open cases of potential human rights violations of migrants at its borders, the highest number of ongoing investigations by country across the bloc.
The majority of the open cases are related to alleged forced removals of thousands of people by Greek migration officials at land borders and at sea, a practice known as pushbacks that is illegal under the U.N. Refugee Convention and international law.
Frontex said it will make specific suggestions for Greece to implement — with potential repercussions if ignored.
“[T]he executive director of Frontex has said that he expects all these recommendations to be implemented. Otherwise, he would consider reducing or cutting funding for co-financed assets,” said Chris Borowski, spokesman for the EU border agency Frontex. Those co-financed assets refer to a number of Greek coast guard vessels.
Officials from the Greek coast guard and Greek government did not respond to a request for a comment.
In January 2025, the European Court of Human Rights found Greek authorities guilty of conducting systematic pushbacks of migrants, and violating human rights law in the process. The EU has previously called on Greece to investigate allegations of migrants being abandoned at sea and deportations by its authorities.
“We are now putting fundamental rights at the heart of these negotiations. In the past, this discussion happened towards the end of the negotiations, so they were kind of a secondary issue, but now they’re really the core of these negotiations,” said Borowski.
In 2023, hundreds of migrants were thought to have died at sea when a fishing boat sank off the coast of Greece’s southern peninsula while trying to reach Europe from Libya. Greek Ombudsman Andreas Pottakis set up an independent investigation into the shipwreck, after the Hellenic coastguard explicitly refused to conduct its own despite pressure from Frontex. The independent investigation recommended disciplinary action for eight Hellenic coast guards involved in the incident.
Frontex Fundamental Rights Officer Jonas Grimheden then recommended temporarily suspending the agency’s activities in Greece.
The Greek government has denied the allegations.
“We really have to work together to continue to improve our cooperation in ways that are effective,” said Borowski. “There are these two sides of the same coin, protecting borders but also protecting our values, protecting fundamental rights, respecting the dignity of the people we’re dealing with.”
Migration remains a highly contentious political issue in Europe. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently appointed former far-right student activist Makis Voridis to head the migration ministry and he himself has stepped up anti-migration rhetoric. In a meeting of European leader in March, Mitsotakis said Greece will lead the EU’s efforts to step up migrant returns.
Preliminary data from Frontex reveals a significant drop in irregular border crossings in 2024, the lowest level since 2021.
“Europe’s efforts and presence are necessary, and any kind of rapid withdrawal would also jeopardize rescue operations in the area. It’s a very complicated and difficult decision. There are other ways to deal with this, and one of them is to reduce funding,” added Borowski.
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