Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations - 10th of July 2015

Case name: 2015_07_10-AEG18
Situation: Alarm Phone contacted by families lost after arriving on Samos Island/Greece
Status of WTM Investigations: Unconfirmed
Place of Incidents: Samos Island, Aegean Sea, Greece

We from the Alarm Phone have received many calls in the past few weeks from those who were in distress at sea or disoriented after arrival on the Greek islands (see case below). For several weeks and months now, the Greek islands find themselves in a state of exception, with thousands of travelers moving through the Aegean Sea and landing on islands that are not prepared to adequately support and care for the newly arrived. Again and again people arrive, amongst them unaccompanied minors, pregnant women and the ill and injured, who desperately require assistance but who, more often than not, have to fend for themselves. The reception capacities do not suffice, leaving many on the street or in makeshift shelters.

In a recent report, Human Rights Watch referred to the situation as a ‘humanitarian crisis’ and stated: ‘Despite considerable effort by local authorities on the islands, debt-stricken Greece is unable to meet its most basic obligations toward the people who arrive there, the vast majority of whom are fleeing violence and repression’ (source 1). While the crisis materializes on the Greek islands, it is a European and political crisis, produced and maintained by a European border regime that closes down safe and legal paths of entry, often leaving only the option to attempt the dangerous sea crossing. On the 7th of July, a vessel capsized in the Aegean Sea, with 19 people presumably drowned (see source 2). We call for solidarity with the local support structures that do exist on the Greek island but that do not have the needed capacity and resources (see source 3 for previous Alarm Phone report and call for donations to local organisations).

Summary of the Cases On Friday the 10th of July, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 5 Syrian families, 19 adults and 10 children, who had arrived on Samos Island but had lost orientation and were lost in the woods. In several but interrupted conversations, one family member informed us that they were on a hill and could see a road. About an hour later they saw houses and were walking toward them. There turned out to be merely two houses and their inhabitants informed the families that they were in Galazio, about 10 km away from Vathy. They asked us to call the local police and ask them to come pick them up. The local police could not be reached and the headquarters in Samos merely stated that they did not have any buses to pick the families up. We turned to the port authority of Samos who stated that they were informed about the families and were on their way to help them. The families were moving toward Vathy and told us that some locals had also informed the police. Afterwards, contact to the families could not be re-established. We passed on the link to the w2eu web-guide (source 4) via text message and hope that they safely reached Vathy.