Beaten Back at Europe’s Borders

Pushbacks are not incidents that spiralled out of control, nor are they the misconduct of rogue border guards. They are a policy: a systematic practice of violence carried out on a large scale by, or with the knowledge of European member states. This is the conclusion of a new report “Beaten Back at Europe’s Borders” by 11.11.11, We Are Monitoring, Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Lebanese Center for Human Rights, Centre for Peace Studies, Sienos Grupė, and Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem (‘I Want to Help Refugees). In 2025 alone, 80,865 pushbacks were documented. Yet this likely shows only the tip of the iceberg, as most pushbacks occur unnoticed at sea or in remote border areas. 

In Hungary, last year the Police recorded over 4000 push-back measures at the Hungarian-Serbian border, which shows a decrease when compared to previous years:

Violence against migrants largely takes place out of sight of cameras and journalists, in ever more inaccessible border zones or far beyond its own borders. The present report aims at highlighting the continuous human rights violations committed against people on the move.

The 2025 report can be downloaded here.

The 2024 report can be downloaded here.