Rights Groups Say Europe Recorded Over 80,000 Migrant Pushbacks In 2025

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief reporting from Budapest, Hungary

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – A coalition of human rights organizations said Tuesday that European politicians condemning abuses by U.S. immigration authorities should also confront what they described as widespread illegal “pushbacks” at Europe’s own borders.

In a report shared with Worthy News, the groups documented at least 80,865 pushbacks in 2025 — cases in which migrants fleeing war, persecution or poverty were allegedly forced back across European Union external borders without access to asylum procedures.

The coalition, which included 11.11.11, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and several other international organisations, said this amounted to roughly 221 people per day. It added that the real number was likely higher because many incidents occurred at sea or in remote border areas.

Pushbacks — the forced return of migrants without an individual assessment of their protection needs — violate European Union law and the principle of non-refoulement enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention of the United Nations, according to the groups.

The organisations said such practices denied migrants access to asylum procedures and affected children, the sick and others potentially entitled to protection.

SURVIVORS SPEAK AMID LEGAL ACTION

The report cited testimonies from migrants along the Balkan route who alleged they were beaten, stripped and forced across rivers during nighttime operations by masked border officers.

“They threw us in the river at three in the morning,” a young Egyptian man was quoted as saying after attempting to enter the European Union near the Bosnia and Herzegovina border. “There were children with us, ten years old. I saw them pushed into the water, already injured and shaking from the cold.”

The coalition argued that such incidents were not isolated misconduct but reflected what it described as a systematic practice carried out on a large scale by, or with the knowledge of, European Union member states.

Hungary has been at the centre of legal disputes over its border policies. In June 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union fined Hungary 200 million euros (about $216 million) and ordered it to pay an additional 1 million euros (about $1.08 million) per day until it complied with European Union asylum rules, citing unlawful restrictions on access to protection procedures.

The Hungarian government rejected the ruling and said it was defending Europe’s borders and national sovereignty.

HUNGARY DEFENDS MIGRATION POLICY

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has argued that migrants can apply for asylum legally at Hungarian embassies in neighbouring Serbia and Ukraine rather than entering Hungary irregularly. Under rules introduced by Budapest, asylum seekers must first submit a declaration of intent at designated Hungarian diplomatic missions, notably in Belgrade and Kyiv, before being permitted to travel to Hungary to formally lodge an application.

Critics have said the system effectively restricts access to asylum, while Hungarian officials have insisted it ensures what they describe as orderly and secure migration management.

The government has also emphasised that Hungary has protected people fleeing Russia’s war in neighbouring Ukraine. Since February 2022, millions have crossed into Hungary, and tens of thousands have received temporary protection or assistance in the country, according to official figures. Most continued onward to other European Union states.

In January 2025, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that pushbacks in Greece were not isolated incidents but formed part of a broader pattern, according to rights organisations monitoring the case.

BROADER EUROPEAN MIGRATION DEBATE

The coalition also referred to incidents at sea and along land borders in which migrants reportedly died after rescue attempts were delayed or obstructed.

Although the number of recorded pushbacks decreased slightly compared to the previous year, the organisations said this did not necessarily reflect a reduction in violence. Instead, they argued that the European Union had increasingly outsourced migration control to third countries, including Libya, where returned migrants have faced documented abuses.

The groups noted that European leaders had recently criticised the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency over detention and deportation practices.

“The images are shocking and the outrage is justified,” Flor Didden, migration policy expert at 11.11.11, was quoted as saying. “But where is that same moral clarity when European border authorities abuse, rob and let people die?”

Orbán has repeatedly defended his hardline migration stance, warning that large-scale immigration from predominantly Muslim countries threatens what he has called Europe’s “Judeo-Christian heritage” and cultural identity. Rights groups have criticised such rhetoric, saying it fuels division and undermines international protection obligations.

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