A media investigation released on Thursday reported that a Cameroonian asylum seeker has accused Greek border guards of pushing him into the sea, along with two other men who perished, charges Greece denies.

The man told journalists from Der Spiegel in Germany, The Guardian in the United Kingdom, Mediapart in France, and Lighthouse Reports in the Netherlands that he and two other West Africans were kidnapped from the Greek island of Samos near the Turkish border.

Turkish officials discovered the other two men, one from Cameroon and the other from the Ivory Coast, dead in September, according to the story. But Greece's Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi dismissed the report as "fake news" fuelled by "Turkish propaganda".

"In the absence of any action by the Turkish authorities, the Greek coastguard continues to save the lives of thousands of men, women, and children at sea every year," he said in a statement.

He claimed they had rescued "230,000 people from third countries in danger at sea" from 2015 to 2021.

Journalists working on the case questioned witnesses and studied medical reports, images, and videos, and spoke with Greek security officials as informants.

Two Greek officials are said to have acknowledged that the government had regularly driven migrants into the sea, mostly in small groups. The charges have been refuted by the Greek authorities.

Greek lawyers are planning a complaint in a local court, while Turkish lawyers have filed a petition with the European Court of Human Rights.

According to Der Spiegel, the Turkish coastguard has recorded 29 pushbacks since May 2021, with people allegedly being tossed into the water.

Turkey accuses Greek officials of illegally sending migrants back into Turkey regularly, claims which Athens denies.

Turkey announced earlier this month that it had discovered 19 frozen bodies near the Greek border. Ankara accused Greece of allowing the migrants to die in the winter cold after stripping them of their clothing and pushing them back across the border.