AN international medical charity says it has received 50 testimonies over two years from migrants who allege a “recurring practice” of secret, illegal and often brutal deportations to Turkey from two eastern Greek islands.

Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said in a report released today that the forced returns were alleged to have been carried out by uniformed Greek officers or unknown masked individuals.

Athens has strongly denied such so-called “pushbacks,” and argues its coast guard has saved hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa who crossed over in small boats from Turkey.

MSF said: “As a medical and humanitarian organisation, we could not stay silent in the face of the exceptional scale and severity of the violence reported to our teams” on Lesbos and Samos. 

The report said that while some allegations concerned boats being stopped at sea and towed back to Turkish waters, others said people who had reached Lesbos and Samos were rounded up before they could claim asylum, mistreated and then dumped offshore on inflatable life rafts.

“Testimonies point to a pattern of practices including physical assault, handcuffing, informal detention, groups being forcibly taken to the shore before being pushed back at sea, as well as humiliating strip searches,” it said. 

MSF international president Dr Christos Christou said: “We urge the Greek government and European leaders for a permanent end to pushbacks at borders, for an independent monitoring system on the Aegean islands, and for enhanced search and rescue operations at sea.”

Dr Christou added: “We urge Greek government and European leaders to take immediate measures to ensure that individuals seeking protection in Greece are treated with humanity and dignity.”

Greek authorities have yet to comment on the report.