Pushbacks

Based on its own documentation and reporting, the Legal Centre Lesvos demonstrates in a recent submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture that the illegal practice of systematic pushbacks in the Aegean region amount to torture, both under international and Greek law.

An expanded and updated edition of the Black Book of Pushbacks, consisting of more than 3,000 pages across four volumes. The majority of these pages are filled with testimonies from people-on-the-move who were beaten, kicked, insulted, humiliated and arbitrarily detained before being illegally pushed back both at the EU’s external borders and from deep within the territory of its Member States.

As the conditions worsen in Lesvos’ Reception and Identification Center in Lesvos (known as Mavrovouni RIC), the new Closed Controlled Access Center (CCAC) in Vastria continues to be built with the full support of the European Commission, despite the multiple voices raised against its construction: away from sight in the middle of a forest. Vastria has come to represent the future policies of the European Union and Greek State; more construction, fences and walls for people, at the expense of nature.