Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th of November 2015

Case name: 2015_11_25-AEG139
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 5 cases of distress near Farmakonisi, Chios Nera/Agathonisi, Lesvos, and Samos, military violence towards stranded travellers on Farmakonisi island
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Wednesday the 25th of November 2015 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 5 cases of distress near Farmakonisi, Chios, Nera/Agathonisi, Lesvos, and Samos. On one case, several hundreds of travellers stranded on the island Farmakonisi where they faced military violence and where they had to spend several days without food, water and adequate shelter before being picked up and transferred to Leros. It is not the first time that human rights violations are reported on and near the island of Farmakonisi. Moreover, it has become evident that there are insufficient boats to transfer stranded travellers from islands such as Farmakonisi to other places with a reception infrastructure. The UNHCR wanted to establish a reception centre on Farmakonisi, but was denied access, because the island is a military terrain.
In another case, a group of 30 travellers stranded on the island of Nera. Unlike in the Farmakonisi case, they were picked up relatively fast and brought to Agathonisi. The other cases this Wednesday were cases of distress at sea. In two cases the travellers were rescued by the Greek coastguard and in one case the travellers reached Greece without any assistance.

In the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, we were contacted by different solidarity groups and persons about a group of about 200 persons, who had stranded on Farmakonisi and who had been threatened by the military on the island (Case 1). We were told that the military had fired shots in the air, had threatened the group with dogs, and had beaten one person. We immediately reached out to the group. The person we talked to (Farmakonisi contact person 1) confirmed that they were about 200 persons with many children and a few elderly persons and that they had been subjected to military violence, but said that no one was hurt. We promised to inform the Leros Port Authorities and to then call them back. The Port authorities were already informed about the case, when we called them, but they thought that there were only 100 persons on the island. They told us that they would send a boat to pick up the travellers at around 5am. We passed on this information to the travellers and also urged them to call 112. We promised to stay in touch and regularly check on the status of the rescue operation with the port authorities.
Around 2am, one of the solidarity groups told us that a boat had arrived on the island and had picked up a part of the group and was going back later to pick up the rest. We sent a message to the travellers. Our contact person (1) was among the lucky few, who had made it on to the boat. Apparently only families were taken on board. He also wrote that a lot of people with children were still on the island and he promised to send us the number of someone still stuck on Farmakonisi. In the morning at 8am we called the Leros Port Authority, who told us that the rescue operation was still on-going and that we should call them back in two hours. However, when we called them back two hours later, they did not give us any information and referred us to the military on Farmakonisi, whom we could not reach. We called back the port authorities several times, but we always spoke to the same person, who was not willing to give us any update on the situation on Farmakonisi.
At 1.35pm we received a contact to those travellers still stranded on Farmakonisi. After several failed attempts, we reached them via WhatsApp. Our contact person (2) sent us several voice messages and pictures, describing the desperate situation in the same way as the traveller whom we had been in contact with earlier. He added that some of them had spent already 4 or 5 days on the island. They felt unsafe and were desperately waiting to be picked up. Around 4pm, we received the contact number of another traveller still stuck on island (contact person 3). He told us that a military ship had just arrived, but only with food and water for the army. A few travellers had tried to get closer to the boat, but again the military had fired gunshots into the air, in order to keep them away from the boat.
At 4pm we called the UNHCR about the case. They were already informed and told us that the coastguard on Leros had rented a commercial boat to organize the transfer from the islands, but that the weather conditions did not allow the boat to leave the harbour. They also confirmed the information given by the travellers and explained that the military on Farmakonisi had blankets and food (that the UNHCR and other groups had sent them) but were reluctant to distribute them to the travellers.
At 10.20pm we reached out to our contact person (2) again and he told us that they were still waiting for the boat that was supposed to pick them up during the night and bring them to Leros. He said that they were freezing and in need of food and water. Throughout the next hours, we kept in touch with him and told him that the UNHCR and the local police were informed and that they would certainly be picked up at one point.
Around 1am in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, our contact person (2) told us that it had started to rain and that the situation was unbearable. The boat did not come as had been promised. At 6am still no boat had appeared. The travellers were not only angry, but desperate and they were starting to fight with each other, according to our contact person. We called again the coastguard urging them to intervene, but they only told us that the weather conditions did not allow for any rescue operation and that the people had to wait. We held contact with the UNHCR and the group on Farmakonisi throughout the next hours. At 7.20pm on the following day our contact finally confirmed that a boat had come, but had only taken 25 persons. He had not been able to get on board, even though he had a one-year old daughter. He also reported that the persons trying to get on board had been pushed back violently and that again shots were fired into the air to keep people away from the boat. At 11pm a second boat came to Farmakonisi, taking more persons than the first boat, but still leaving about 50 persons behind. Our contact person (2) was among those picked up by the second boat. We asked him and other contact persons for numbers of those persons left behind on Farmakonisi.
On Friday morning, we contacted a solidarity group on Leros to inquire about the situation on Farmakonisi. The Leros solidarity network confirmed that all people had been transferred from Farmakonisi to Leros. They had also heard about the military violence on the island and had filed a complaint with the ministry.

At 3.14am we received a WhatsApp message by a contact person alerting us to a distress case of a boat in Turkish waters on its way to Chios carrying 41 travellers (Case 2). The travellers had trouble with their engine. We reached out to the travellers and they asked us to call the Turkish coastguard. At 3.51am we reached the Turkish coastguard, who told us that they were already informed about the case and were about to send a boat. At 4.38am however, still no rescue boat had arrived. We thus called back the coastguard, who said that they had rescued two boats in the area we had indicated. We insisted that the boat with 41 travellers had not yet been rescued. We called back the contact person to find out about the latest position of the boat. At 5:22am the travellers sent a message that their engine was working again - at least a little bit. At 5.31am the travellers had reached Greek territorial waters - "with their hands" as the contact person told us. Around 6am the engine stopped working again so that we called the Greek coastguard. They told us to tell the travellers to call 112, but when the travellers did they did not get through. Despite this, they were rescued by the Greek coastguard, which was confirmed to us at 6.41am in several messages on Facebook and WhatsApp.

At 4.43am we received a distress call through a contact person from a group of 30 travellers whose boat was broken and who had stranded a few hours earlier on Nera, a small Greek island close to Agathonisi (Case 3). The contact person provided us with several numbers, none of which could be reached unfortunately. We thus just went ahead and informed the port authorities of Agathonisi. They told us that 'they would see what they could do'. One hour later, at 6.45am we called them back for an update, but they told us that they had handed over the case to Samos. We thus called the port authorities in Samos, who had no update and apparently only little information about the case. The person on duty told us to call them back later. During the morning shift, we again tried to reach out to the stranded travellers, again without success, and we sent an Email to the Greek police and the UNHCR. We also called the Samos port authorities twice - the first time they told us that they had no information regarding the case and the second time they told us to call the Port Authority of Pythagorio. At 8:57am the Port authorities of Pythagorio confirmed to us that they had picked up the 30 persons from Nera and that they had brought them to Agathonisi.

Around 5am we received an alert on Facebook about travellers in Turkish waters heading towards Mytilene/Greece, who were in a situation of distress and wanted us to call the coastguard (Case 4). After several failed attempts we reached the Turkish coastguard and passed on the coordinates of the boat. After the contact with the coastguard at 5.36 we did not hear back from them and did not reach them anymore, so at 8am we decided to send them an Email. At 9:25am the Turkish coastguard confirmed to us that the boat in question had reached Lesvos.

Later on Wednesday morning, at quarter past ten, a contact person called the Alarm Phone and informed us about a distress case near Samos (Case 5). We managed to establish direct contact with the travellers and they told us that they had run out of fuel, and that several among the 43 persons on board felt ill. At 10:55am we informed the Greek coastguard about the case. They had not yet heard about the distress case and promised to send a patrol boat. We sent a WhatsApp message to the travellers informing them that help was underway. At 11:30am the Greek coastguard confirmed to us that they had rescued a boat with 43 persons and brought them to Samos.