The case was filed on behalf of a French student who left the EU to study at a Turkish university. After she was politically persecuted and condemned to 6 years in prison by the Turkish regime, she fled to Greece in order to enter EU territory, with the aim of returning to her family and home in France. 

 

After crossing the Evros river in October 2021, the victim presented her French Passport and ID, permitting her to enter the Schengen zone, informed the Greek forces of the grave risk she was exposed to in Turkey, and begged them to let her in. Her family in France contacted the Greek and French consular authorities multiple times, alerted them of the situation and requested urgent diplomatic protection, but to no avail:

 

Based on a racial profiling, Greek forces abducted, detained, abused, forcibly transferred the young woman to an unsafe dinghy and collectively expelled her on a life-threatening voyage to a military zone in Turkey where soldiers captured her. She is now serving 6 years in a Turkish prison in cruel, degrading, and inhuman conditions for a political crime she has not committed.

 

The Greek Government and Frontex are perpetrating countless human rights abuses at the external borders of the EU. Whether EU citizens or foreign nationals, tens of thousands of toddlers, women and men have been victims of the appalling policy of pushbacks across the Evros river. 

 

front-LEX calls on the EU to immediately institute infringement proceedings against Greece and terminate Frontex’s operation in the country in accordance with EU, European and international law. front-LEX calls on the French government to demand Greece to immediately cease its pushback policy, and to demand Turkey to release and let a French national return to her home in France.