Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 11th of June 2016

Case name: 2016_06_11-AEG254
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to a push-back operation in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 11th of June 2016, the Alarm Phone received a WhatsApp message at 3.59am from a contact person, alerting us to a vessel in distress off the Turkish coast, near Cesme. There were 53 people on board, among them 14 children and three elderly people.

At 4.05am we received a second GPS position, showing them still in Turkish waters. They said that the Turkish Coastguards were following them. At 4.41am we learned that they had ‘escaped the Turkish Coastguards’. At 4.52am we were informed that they had reached Greek water and were moving toward a boat of the Greek Coastguards. We received pictures showing them being transferred onto the Greek Coastguards vessel. The pictures clearly showed also the presence of a Romanian vessel there, which is part of the Frontex mission. The Coastguards stated that they would bring them to Chios/Greece. However, at 5.22am, we received the information that the Greek Coastguards were not transferring them to Chios. We received photos showing them on a vessel of the Turkish Coastguards. The Greek Coastguards forced the people under the threat of force to move onto the vessel of the Turkish Coastguards. At 5.23am, we received a new location. This location showed that they were in Greek waters, about five hundred meters beyond the borderline. At 5.36am they confirmed that they were being pushed-back. At 7.09am we received an updated GPS position, showing them in the harbour of Cesme/Turkey. Later on we received the information that the group was taken to a prison.

We followed up on the case on Monday the 13th of June when we were able to speak to one of the travellers again. He told us: “There were 14 children with us and 3 elderlies. We were refugees from Syria, Eritrea, Iraq and a few people from other countries in our boat. The Turkish CG detected and followed us until the Greek waters. Then they stopped. We drove for another 10 minutes until a Greek boat stopped us. There were 5 officers on this Greek boat and there were two more boats: one from Portugal and a big boat, where we didn’t know from where it was [the white one on the photo appears to be from Romania. This means that there was one Greek Coastguard boat, one Romanian Frontex and one Portuguese Frontex boat present]. The Greek boat took us on board. They said: “You are safe now. You arrived in Europe. We tried asking for protection in Greece. We said we want asylum. They didn’t allow us to speak. We couldn’t tell them our problems or that we are in danger also in Turkey. Then we waited there. The other boats were standing and watching from distance. After 25 minutes a Turkish Coastguard boat came. The Greeks held guns on our heads and threatened to shoot if we don’t move to the Turkish boat. The ‘boss’ of the Greek Coastguards said in English and it should be translated for all people: ‘Tell them I will kill you if you come here again.’ The Turkish Coastguards took us and brought us back to Turkey.”