Chased and Pushed Back: Violent Practices of the Hellenic Coast Guard in the Aegean - Aegean border violence patterns 2024 and 2025

This is a second of four essays drawing on our new published report that examines border violence patterns on the Aegean Sea based on the Aegean Sea Border Incidents dataset and the Evidence-Based Action For Human Rights At Borders- Methodological Toolkit. 

These systematically document incidents at sea using incident‑level data verified through a four‑tier system and multi‑source triangulation between official statistics, NGO documentation, media reports and IOM’s Missing Migrants Project. By including only events that could be cross‑checked across at least one credible source and classified within this verification framework, the analysis provides a conservative minimum picture of violence and obstruction in the Aegean rather than speculative or anecdotal claims. This second article focuses on the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG) as a central actor in systematic pushbacks, high‑speed boat chases and enforcement‑linked shipwrecks.

Methodology

The methodological framework applied in this dataset was developed within Collective Aid’s Evidence‑Based Action for Human Rights at Borders project and is detailed in the Methodological Toolkit for border incidents. Every entry in the Aegean dataset represents a single border incident between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025, coded with variables such as location, actors involved, type of enforcement practice, people affected, children present, deaths, disappearances and criminalisation outcomes. Incidents were only included if they met the criteria of the four‑tier verification system (Single Official, Multisource Official, Single credible non‑official source, Multisource non‑official), which means much of the violence that leaves no trace in public records remains outside the dataset.

Across the two‑year period, the dataset documents 96,913 people affected by Aegean Sea border incidents including 24,876 children, again representing only those cases that could be traced and verified.

Pushbacks as routine policy, not isolated abuse

Across 2024 and 2025, the dataset documents 594 pushback incidents carried out by Greek authorities, affecting 17,071 people. These pushbacks represent 16.5% of all recorded incidents in the Aegean during the two‑year period and are explicitly characterised in the report as “systematic denial of asylum access and violent enforcement practices perpetrated at sea.” While the number of pushback incidents dropped sharply from 482 in 2024 to 112 in 2025, they remained a stable part of the overall enforcement landscape, averaging 7.2% of all incidents per year and continuing to function as a normalised policy tool rather than an exception.

The human impact behind these figures is stark. In 2024 alone, the 482 documented pushbacks affected 13,781 people, and the data record 5 fatal pushback incidents that caused 12 deaths, all in that single year. In 2025, 112 pushbacks were recorded involving 3,290 people, and although the dataset registers no fatal pushbacks in that year, the persistence of the practice underscores that lethal risk is embedded in the method rather than limited to a handful of “accidents.” Legally, these pushbacks breach the right to access territory, the prohibition of collective expulsion and the principle of non‑refoulement; operationally, they expose people to direct physical violence, vessel sabotage and abandonment at sea.

Boat chases: high‑speed enforcement as structural endangerment

Beyond pushbacks, the report identifies 278 boat chase incidents conducted by Greek authorities over the two years, endangering 6,274 people. These are defined as high‑speed maritime pursuits that involve aggressive manoeuvres, sirens, close approaches and other coercive tactics to force boats to stop, turn or enter unsafe trajectories. Of the 278 chases, 251 incidents did not involve gunfire, while 27 included the firing of weapons during the pursuit or related pushback operations.

The temporal evolution is revealing. In 2024, there were 214 boat chases affecting 4,348 people; in 2025, the number fell to 64 chases involving 1,926 people, constituting a 70% reduction. Yet the dataset records 17 fatal boat chases overall – 8 in 2024 and 9 in 2025 – which together caused 42 deaths. This corresponds to a fatality rate of approximately 0.67% per chase, a “low” percentage that nevertheless translates into dozens of preventable deaths directly linked to enforcement patterns. Crucially, the report notes that although boat chases declined in number, the overall death toll associated with them remained the same, underlining that high‑speed tactics continue to destabilise and destroy vulnerable vessels even at reduced frequency.

The 27 incidents involving gunfire represent an even more acute escalation of risk. The dataset groups these as situations where firearms were discharged during a boat chase or pushback, either as warning shots or direct fire towards or near the vessel. Beyond the immediate risk of bullet wounds, the presence of gunfire fuels panic, sudden movements onboard and rapid shifts in weight that can cause overcrowded, unseaworthy boats to capsize or throw people overboard.

When enforcement causes shipwrecks

One of the most damning findings of the report is the direct linkage between Greek enforcement tactics and shipwrecks in the Aegean. Nearly one in three shipwrecks documented in the dataset – 32% – occurred during Greek enforcement actions, specifically during pushbacks or boat chases. In absolute terms, this corresponds to 32 incidents of enforcement‑linked shipwrecks affecting 756 people: 3 shipwrecks with pushbacks involving 83 people, and 29 shipwrecks during boat chases involving 673 people.

The remaining 68% of shipwrecks are not proven to be directly caused by Coast Guard actions and are primarily attributed to weather conditions and vessel unseaworthiness. However, the report notes that since pushbacks became systematic, people have been forced to travel on days with worse weather in the hope of avoiding interception, and arrival points, at least on Lesvos, have shifted from two main landing areas to more remote, rocky, darker locations that are harder to monitor but also far more dangerous to approach. In this sense, even shipwrecks not formally linked to enforcement may be indirectly shaped by deterrence tactics that push people into more hazardous crossing strategies.

Taken together, these figures refute narratives that depict the Hellenic Coast Guard as a purely humanitarian actor engaged mainly in rescue. Instead, the dataset presents consistent evidence that Greek maritime enforcement practices – pushbacks, boat chases, use of firearms, and high‑risk interceptions – are a major driver of shipwreck risk and mortality in the Aegean.

Violence as part of a broader architecture

The violent practices of the Hellenic Coast Guard documented here cannot be separated from the broader enforcement architecture in which they operate. The report situates HCG actions within an EU‑backed system that combines the re‑designation of Turkey as a “safe third country,” the tightening or fast‑tracking of asylum procedures, and the deployment of Frontex vessels, aircraft and surveillance technology to expand detection and interception capacity at sea. Within this configuration, HCG becomes the operational face of Greece’s external border policy, translating political pressure to “control arrivals” into concrete acts of violence against people on the move.

The lethal consequences of these practices will be the subject of the third blogpost in this series, which turns to the 263 deaths and disappearances recorded in the dataset and examines how they persist despite a drastic fall in overall incidents. The final fourth blogpost will then explore how Greek and Turkish authorities respond to these dynamics not by scaling back enforcement but by criminalising people and alleged “facilitators” through arrests, prosecutions and routine detention.