Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd of March 2018

Case name: 2018_21_03-AEG352
Situation: Push-back of 8 travellers at the land border Turkey/ Greece
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Evros River

Summary of the Case:

On Thursday, 22nd of March, at 5:30am CET, we received information via a contact person about a push-back at the land border between Greece and Turkey by the Greek Police. The 8 travellers concerned had been stuck on a small island on Evros river since the night before and weren’t able to move back or forth. The contact person sent us their GPS position and stated that the group had called various international emergency numbers but had not received any assistance. At 5:40am we informed the UNHCR offices in Greece and Turkey about the push-back and asked for immediate assistance of the travellers. Afterwards we tried to gather more information. At 8:45am we received the phone number of the travellers. We reached them at 09:10am and they reported that they had been violently forced into Turkish territory by Greek Police that also took away most of their phones. They urgently asked for assistance and medical care for some of the group. They had been stuck at the island for many hours. We asked them to sent us a list of their names and birth dates which we received at 9:20am. At 9:42am we called the group again. We passed information on all emergency numbers that they could try to call themselves while we would try to contact local authorities also from our side. At 10:15am we sent an E-Mail to UNHCR Greece and Turkey including all additional information and requesting assistance. At 10:15am we received an audio message from the group saying the weather conditions would deteriorate further and asking for immediate help. At 10:22 we sent them another emergency number to call, but they stated they had done so before but most emergency numbers would not work.
At 10:23am we tried to reach various authorities in Soufli, a Greek town nearby. At 10:31am we reached Soufli Police, but the officer stated that the people would be on Turkish territory and hence their case wouldn’t be the responsibility of the Greek Police. At 10:38am CET we called UNHCR Greece but couldn’t reach anyone. At 10:45am we asked the group for a second phone number to make sure we wouldn’t lose connection if the battery of the first phone died. At 10:50am we also tried to reach UNHCR Turkey via phone but couldn’t establish a connection.
At 10:58am we called the Head Office of the gendarmerie of the nearest biggest town in Turkey, Meriç. The responding officer took all information and promised to send assistance to the people.
At 11:12am we also called the Police Station in another nearby Turkish town, Edirne. We couldn’t reach anyone. At 11:14am we messaged to the travellers that the Meriç police promised to send assistance. The messages were not delivered anymore and when we tried to call their phone we couldn’t establish a connection.
At 11:18am we tried to alert the police in the town of Uzunköprü, but the officer hang up immediately. We as well continued to try to call UNHCR Turkey and Greece but still both agencies remained unreachable.
At 11:57am we called the Police in Meriç again that stated they had sent a team. We contacted a Turkish translator that called again to avoid misunderstandings. He confirmed that the police had sent assistance to the people.
At 1:25pm we called Meriç Police again that stated the rescue team had not found the group at the given position and they hadn’t been able to reach the group via phone, so they had returned.
Eventually we reached out to local contacts to inform them about the case and ask for assistance.
We still couldn’t reach the travellers any more.
At 2:25pm we called Meriç Police again to ask them to search again, but the officer responding would not transfer us to an English speaking person and didn’t understand us.
At 2:45pm our local contacts informed us that they had called Meriç Police and Edirne Provincial Directorate for Emergency and Disasters (AFAD) and both authorities had stated that they did sent teams to assist the travellers but the operation was very difficult due to weather conditions and flooding in the area. At 3:06pm the officer of AFAD informed us that they had provided all information to Greek authorities since the people would be closer to the Greek side of the river and their team had difficulties to access the travellers.
At 3:53pm the travellers called us. They informed us that they had decided not to wait for assistance any longer and so they had swum across the river to Turkey. All had arrived safely.