120.457 illegal pushbacks in 2024: a deadly reality at Europe's borders
Feb 13 2025
4 minutes
Every day, hundreds of people are pushed back at Europe’s external borders without access to an asylum procedure, often with violence, and sometimes with fatal consequences. In 2024 alone, at least 120.457 of these illegal pushbacks took place, according to a new report by 11.11.11, based on research we conducted together with human rights organisations in countries including Hungary, Bulgaria and Croatia.
What are pushbacks?
People abandoned at sea in floating rafts. Border guards beating refugees, ripping off their clothes and robbing them. Children hunted down by police dogs. Pregnant women and the sick left without help. People dying in the forests from hunger and cold. Identity papers, phones and medicines deliberately destroyed. Minors tied up, abused and pushed back.
Pushbacks are the illegally pushing back people seeking protection, without being given the opportunity to apply for asylum. A practice that is contrary to European and international law, but is nevertheless the rule rather than the exception at Europe's external borders.
Based on reporting by governments and human rights organizations, we counted at least 2024 pushbacks at the European external borders in 120.457 – or about 330 per day.
Heartbreaking stories from the field
In Bulgaria, where the highest number of pushbacks was recorded (52.534), violence is commonplace. Men, women and children – even those in critical medical condition – are beaten, hunted by police dogs, forced to strip naked and robbed of their belongings. They are then pushed back to Turkey, often with deadly consequences.
Rescue teams are denied access to the border zone. Frontex border agents are deliberately kept away from places where violence is taking place and pressured to remain silent. In January this year, Bulgaria came under fire when media and human rights organisations showed how border agents ignored emergency calls from three Egyptian teenagers after which the boys eventually died from the biting cold.
Also in Greece is the border policy very tough: 14.482 people were pushed back out to sea. Many were put into small lifeboats and abandoned in Turkish waters. Dozens did not survive. In the Mediterranean, at least 21.762 people, with EU support, were driven into the hands of the Libyan coastguard, where they are exposed to abuse, torture and slavery.
In Poland (13.600 pushbacks) border guards opened fire on migrants and used dogs, metal bars and chains to intimidate them. Property, such as phones, was systematically destroyed to erase evidence of abuse. The border with Belarus was turned into a 60 km no-go zone, making independent monitoring impossible.
Illegal, but impunity reigns
Recently, European courts reaffirmed that pushbacks are illegal under European and international law:
- In January 2025 Greece Condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for systematically pushing back people who are fleeing.
- In June 2024, Hungary fined 200 million euros from the European Court of Justice for blocking asylum applications for years.
Yet countries like Hungary and Greece continue these practices, because impunity reigns. No border guard has ever been sanctioned for carrying out pushbacks, despite a mountain of evidence.
The impunity surrounding pushbacks is criminal in itself. Greek authorities have refused to provide any explanation for the Adriana shipwreck of June 2023 near Pylos, in which more than 500 people died. Investigations show that the boat capsized during a pushback operation. Yet no responsibility has been accepted.
Evidence erased, human rights defenders targeted
Documenting pushbacks is becoming increasingly difficult – and dangerous. No-go zones are being set up in border areas where aid agencies are not allowed to enter. Border guards systematically destroy the phones of captured migrants to erase evidence.
Human rights organizations and activists are increasingly being criminalized: they are faced with protracted lawsuits, without concrete evidence, intended to intimidate them and make their work impossible.
11.11.11: 'Stop European funding for border violence'
Despite these massive human rights violations the European Union will continue to provide financial support to countries carrying out pushbacksBulgaria even joined the Schengen area in 2024 and received additional resources for border control.
“In this way, the European Commission is sending the signal that pushbacks are legitimate. While it should be the Commission that is responsible for ensuring strict application of European rules,” says 11.11.11-expert Flor Didden. “We see more and more Member States adopting national legislation to supposedly legalise pushbacks. Finland is the latest example. Previously, this happened in Hungary, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.”
11.11.11 and its international partners therefore call for:
- An immediate freeze of EU funding to countries carrying out pushbacks.
- The program withdrawal of Frontex support.
- The start up of legal proceedings against Member States that violate fundamental rights.
The illegal mismanagement of the member states must not remain without consequences. For example, it has been clear for years that Greece is overstepping the mark. It refuses to cooperate with ongoing investigations. Pushbacks have become normal there, while it concerns deadly, completely illegal policies. The EU must stop financing: every euro that flows to this policy makes it complicit.
Want to know more?
11.11.11 conducted this research together with Hungarian Helsinki Committee, We Are Monitoring Association (Poland), Center for Peace Studies (Croatia), Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH), Sienos Grupė (Lithuania), Center for Legal Aid (Bulgaria), Foundation Mission Wings (Bulgaria) and I Want to Help Refugees (Latvia). We calculated the number of pushbacks based on reporting by governments and human rights organizations.
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