The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner has urged Greece to stop pushing back migrants trying to enter the country from Turkey and abide by its human rights obligations in dealing with refugees.

In a published letter addressed to three Greek ministers, Dunja Mijatovic said Greece could no longer "simply dismiss allegations of pushbacks despite the overwhelming body of evidence." Greece has consistently denied the allegations. 

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"I urge you to put an end to these practices and to ensure that independent and effective investigations are carried out into all allegations of pushbacks and of ill-treatment by members of security forces," she said in her letter. 

Mijatovic addressed the plea to Greece's minister of citizen protection, the minister of migration and asylum and the merchant marine minister.

Mijatovic noted that when migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey via land or sea borders they are rebuffed without proper procedure and have no recourse to apply for protection against such violations.

Despite a 2018 report by her agency concerning credible allegations of summary returns to Turkey, Mijatovic said charges of pushbacks persist.

"In such cases, member states cannot satisfy themselves that they are not sending them back in violation of, for example, Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the refoulement prohibition in the UN Refugee Convention," Mijatovic said.

"Moreover, the way in which these operations are reportedly carried out would clearly be incompatible with Greece's human rights obligations," she added.

Greece has consistently denied accusations of turning back migrants from Turkey without due process despite evidence to the contrary by non-governmental organizations and media outlets.

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Mijatovic, in her letter, also alluded to detention camps in Greece, saying they interfered with migrants' right to liberty and harmed their mental health, especially concerning children.

"I urge the Greek authorities to reconsider the closed nature of these centers in order to ensure that the regime applicable to these facilities safeguards the freedom of movement of their residents, in line with the relevant Council of Europe standards," she said.

Since becoming one of the main gateways into Europe for migrants and asylum-seekers in 2015, Greece has built dozens of detention centers where overcrowding is common.