Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 27th of August 2018

Case name: 2018_08_27-AEG418
Situation: Distress situation in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Closed
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday the 27th of August 2018, our Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to two incidents along the Turkish-Greek land border.

At 21:17h CET, we were informed by a contact person to the discovery of a body in the Evros river, on the Turkish side. The person who detected the body was too scared to approach it, and so we tried to contact local police authorities. After failing to reach different police stations in the area, we contacted the police in Edirne at 11.24pm. We were told to contact another police branch which we did at 11.32pm – they said that they would go and search for the body. On the next day, we spoke to the police again and they said that the area was very inaccessible but they were searching for the body. They had also informed local fishermen. They stated that it could be that the body might have moved from the location where it had been detected first. We informed our contact person about the situation and told him that relatives of people who went missing in that area could contact the police station that we had initially informed.

At 23.58h, we were informed by a contact person about a group of people in need of support in the Evros region. We received their position, showing them on Greek territory, and a phone number. At 1.45am, we received a new GPS position from the group. There were about 11 adults, and 7 children. 2 of the children were disabled, and 1 was still an infant. We asked them to compile a list of their names, so that we could contact the authorities and the UNHCR in the morning on their behalf, which they did. We informed the UNHCR at 8.40am. At 9.06am, we informed local authorities to the situation. At 10.41am, we received the information that a group of fifteen people (7 men, 3 women, 5 children) had been detected but we could verify later that this was not the group in question. Hours later, initial contact person informed us that the group was on the move to a refugee camp. Later we received the confirmation that they had reached the camp independently.