I.110 The Evros/Meriç River: A Century of Border Design
- Date of Incident
- 1926 – 2025
- Location
- Evros/Meriç river, Greece/Turkey
- Forums
- Web Platform
- In Partnership With
- Self-Initiated
- Summary
- First drawn a century ago, the border that separates Greece from Turkey along the Evros/Meriç river at the EU’s southeastern frontier is deadlier and more opaque than ever. FA/Forensis built an interactive platform that unpacks this complex and lethal border infrastructure, and examines the present-day condition of the border against the transformation of the river landscape over the past century.
I.84 Drift-backs in the Aegean Sea
- Date of Incident
- March 2020 – Ongoing
- Location
- Aegean Sea
- Forums
- Legal Process, Human Rights Report, Media, Parliamentary Inquiry, Web Platform
- In Partnership With
- Forensis
- Summary
- Asylum seekers crossing the Aegean Sea are intercepted within Greek waters or arrested after they arrive on Greek shores, beaten, stripped of their possessions, and then forcefully loaded onto life rafts and left to drift back to the Turkish coast. FA/Forensis verified and mapped evidence for over 2000 such ‘drift-backs’, demonstrating the scale of this violent and illegal border defence practice.
I.78 Pushbacks Across the Evros/Meriç River: The Case of Parvin
- Date of Incident
- 01 Feb 2020
- Location
- Evros/Meriç river, Greek-Turkish border
- Forums
- Legal Process, United Nations, Human Rights Report, Media
- Commissioned By
- European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)
- Summary
- At Europe’s southeastern river border, migrants report being beaten, detained, and illegally ‘pushed back’ to Turkey from Greece by unidentified masked men. Greek and EU authorities refuse to investigate. We worked with Parvin, a young woman from Iran, to analyse evidence she had gathered during her crossings and reconstruct her journey and experiences of ‘pushback’.
I.62 Pushbacks Across the Evros/Meriç River: Situated Testimony
- Date of Incident
- 01 Oct 2016
- Location
- Evros/Meriç river, Greek-Turkish border
- Forums
- Legal Process, Human Rights Report, Media
- In Partnership With
- HumanRights360
- Summary
- At Europe’s southeastern river border, migrants report being beaten, detained, and illegally ‘pushed back’ to Turkey from Greece by unidentified masked men. Greek and EU authorities refuse to investigate. We used architectural and gaming software to gather evidence that proves the practice is widespread and systematic.
I.61 The Killing of Muhammad al-Arab
- Date of Incident
- 02 Mar 2020
- Location
- Evros/Meriç river delta
- Forums
- Legal Process, Media, Parliamentary Inquiry
- In Partnership With
- Self-Initiated
- Summary
- When Turkey mobilized refugees and migrants to cross into Greece, reports emerged that Greek forces had responded with live fire, causing casualties. We confirmed that, despite Greece’s denials, automatic rounds were fired from the Greek side of the border and one person, Muhammad al-Arab, was shot dead near a group of armed Greek soldiers.
I.55 The Killing of Muhammad Gulzar
- Date of Incident
- 04 Mar 2020
- Location
- Kastanies/Pazarkule border crossing, Evros/Meriç region
- Forums
- Media
- In Partnership With
- Bellingcat, Lighthouse Reports
- Summary
- After Turkey started encouraging refugees and migrants to cross the Evros/Meriç land border into Greece, reports emerged that Greek forces had responded with live fire, causing multiple casualties. Despite Greece’s official denials, we confirmed that live rounds were indeed fired from the Greek side of the border, that several people were wounded, and one person, Muhammad Gulzar, was killed.
I.51 Pushbacks Across the Evros/Meriç River: The case of Ayşe Erdoğan
- Date of Incident
- 04 May 2019 – 05 May 2019
- Location
- Evros/Meriç river, Greece/Turkey
- Forums
- Legal Process, Media
- In Partnership With
- HumanRights360
- Summary
- Ayşe Erdoğan crossed the Evros/Meriç river into Greece in 2019, fleeing persecution in Turkey. She and two friends recorded their journey. Using messages, location data, photos, and videos, we confirmed they had reached Greece before being ‘pushed back’, and arrested and imprisoned in Turkey.
I.50 Pushbacks Across the Evros/Meriç River: Analysis of video evidence
- Date of Incident
- 17 Sep 2019
- Location
- Evros/Meriç river, Greece/Turkey border
- Forums
- Legal Process, Media
- In Partnership With
- Der Spiegel, HumanRights360
- Summary
- At southeastern Europe’s river border, refugees report being beaten, detained, and illegally ‘pushed back’ to Turkey from Greece by unidentified masked men. Working with Der Spiegel, we analysed the first footage of a pushback in progress, and tried to identify those responsible.
I.39 The Killing of Tahir Elçi
- Date of Incident
- 28 Nov 2015
- Location
- Diyarbakır, Turkey
- Forums
- Legal Process, Media
- Commissioned By
- Diyarbakır Bar Association
- Summary
- In the context of rising tensions in Turkey's Kurdish-majority regions, Tahir Elçi's killing was a seismic event. The manner of his death was controversial, and only partially documented. We analysed the evidence frame-by-frame, and narrowed down the scope of who should be considered a suspect.