Greece's Migration Minister Thanos Plevris on Thursday slammed as "science fiction" a BBC report that Athens was deploying masked migrants to push back other migrants trying to enter from Turkey.

Greece has repeatedly been accused by NGOs and media of using illegal means to keep migrants out of a country that is a key transit point for people trying to reach Europe.

The BBC said it had "wide-ranging" evidence that Greek police had since 2020 recruited migrants "to violently push other migrants back across its land border with Turkey".