REFUGEES trapped on the Greek-Turkish border faced tear gas and water cannon barrages from both sides today, as humanitarian groups confirmed that footage showing a Syrian refugee being shot dead was genuine.

On the Greek side of the border, riot police attacked refugees trying to enter the country with tear gas and water cannon, but those driven back were hit by tear gas volleys from Turkish border guards.

A coalition of human rights, lawyers’ and refugee charities declared that it would “hold Greece and the EU accountable for the violations of the rights of migrants and refugees fleeing Turkey.”

It accused the Greek authorities of deploying “a new level of violence” and facilitating rogue attacks on refugees by members of the civilian population along the border, some of whom have been roped into vigilante patrols because of their knowledge of local geography.

“At sea, the Greek coastguard have blocked the route of migrants and refugee boats, shooting in the air and even wounding passengers, and a child has drowned.

“On land, pushbacks across the Evros river have continued, and video footage — labelled as ‘fake news’ by the Greek authorities but now verified by [London-based research group] Forensic Architecture — shows a Syrian refugee being shot dead,” the alliance warned.

The Greek authorities are continuing to use violence despite mass rallies in Athens and Thessaloniki on Thursday night in solidarity with the refugees, demanding that the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis lets them in.

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) said that the EU and Nato were “on the one hand responsible for the dissolution of countries and the uprooting of peoples, and on the other for the entrapment of uprooted peoples on islands and at borders.”

But the country’s Foreign Ministry tweeted: “No-one can cross the Greek borders.” Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said he was deploying 1,000 special operations police to the border to prevent refugees from fleeing back. 

Turkey has opened its border with Greece, accusing the European Union of not abiding by the notorious 2016 agreement under which the EU paid it to take refugees sent back from Europe, a deal held by senior United Nations officials to be in breach of international law.

EU foreign ministers met in Zagreb, Croatia, where they said they were prepared to offer Turkey more money to keep its part of the accord, while condemning Ankara’s use of refugees as a “bargaining chip.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking EU endorsement of his invasion of Syria and is angry at EU measures aimed at preventing him from sending jihadists and arms into the Libyan civil war.

But EU chiefs were themselves condemned for approving Greece’s brutal border crackdown. European Council president Charles Michel praised Greece for “protecting European borders,” while European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has referred to the country as Europe’s “shield” against the refugee influx.