Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 30th of August 2018

Case name: 2018_08_30-AEG420
Situation: Distress situation in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Closed
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Thursday the 30th of August, we learned at 2.25pm CET about a group of people that had crossed into Greece via the Evros river and was now held at the Soufli police station. There were 12 people in total, including 7 children and 2 women, one of whom was pregnant. The group was afraid to be illegally returned to Turkey. We knew of this group of travellers already as they had tried to cross to Greece before, on the 11th of August and had been pushed-back to Turkey. We contacted the police station and when unable to reach them, we sent an email to local authorities, the UNHCR, and several NGOs. However, we did not receive a response and were unable to get through to the various local authorities. On the next day, we were able to speak to a contact person at 10.10am who confirmed that the group was still detained. At 1.40pm we informed the UNHCR about the situation in a phone call. In the evening we spoke to a contact person who said that the pregnant woman in the group had delivered her child at the station. They were registered there and held for about 2 days before they would get transferred to a camp.