The highest court of the European Union accepted the appeal of Syrian refugee Alaa Hamoudi, who is seeking compensation from Frontex for a pushback that he and other refugees were subjected to by Greece to Turkey in 2020.
The court ruled that the evidence presented by Hamoudi was “sufficiently detailed, specific and consistent,” Judge Ben Smulders said in a video published yesterday, 19 December 2025.
The decision is considered “rare” and “historic” and opens the way for other cases of pushbacks involving Frontex, for which evidence is often difficult to obtain. The General Court will now re-examine the case and issue a new ruling.
Hamoudi and 21 other people arrived in Samos and shortly afterwards the police confiscated their mobile phones and forced them to sail in a dinghy to Turkey.
“We hope this will put an end to Frontex’s de facto legal impunity,” Hamoudi’s lawyer told the Associated Press.
According to Hamoudi’s testimony, he was among the 22 people, including children, who landed on the Greek island of Samos on 28 April 2020. A few minutes later, police arrived and confiscated their phones before forcing them to board a life raft. They were towed during the night into Turkish territorial waters and left adrift for 17 hours until they were rescued by the Turkish coast guard.
Source: Associated Press
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