Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th of February 2020
Case name: 2020_02_24-AEG653
Situation: 60 travelers were intercepted to Turkey; the fate of 6 travellers, in distress at the Evros river land border, remains unknown.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday the 24th of February the Alarm Phone was alerted to two distress cases in the Aegean region.

The first concerned a boat carrying 60 travelers that was pushed back to Turkey, and the second a group of 6 travellers, lost on the Evros river land border region, their fate remains unknown.
At 00:33h CET the Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in distress carrying according to the alert 60 travellers, including 26 children, that had departed from Cesme. We were told that the situation on board was critical. After having unsuccessful attempted to establish direct contract with the travellers, we alerted the Greek coastguard at 00:49h. However, soon after we were informed that the boat had been intercepted by the Turkish coastguard and the travellers had been brought back to Turkey. Around 01:30h we were contacted by the travellers themselves, who reported that the Turkish coastguard brought them back to the coast and left them waiting for hours in the cold despite the fact that they all had wet clothes. We were told that at sea there were both the Greek and the Turkish coastguard. Some people jumped into the sea when they saw the Greek coastguard, however the Greek coastguard only pushed them back to their boat and waited for the arrival of the Turkish coastguard. The travellers also reported that the Turkish coastguard had beaten them with sticks and had insulted them and that two women were taken to hospital. In this case it appears as though the Greek and Turkish coastguard worked together to force the travelers back to Turkey.

At 01:57h of the same night, our shift team was alerted to 6 travellers in distress at the Evros river land border, at the intersection between Evros and Erythropotamos. We were told that 2 travellers had drowned and that the group had attempted to call the emergency number but no one had picked up. Soon after we called the travellers, they told us that they were 4 men stranded on an island on the Greek side of the Evros river, 2 other travellers had drifted away down the river at approximately 18:00h, they did not know what had happened to them. The travellers also told us that they had seen Greek and Turkish military vehicles in the area and that shots had been fired. Our shift team then tried to call the Evros and Didimoticho police however they were both not reachable. At 03:22h they picked up the phone and we passed on all the information we had. At 06:00h the travellers told us that no one had come to rescue them yet, we thus called back the Greek police, however we had trouble communicating as no one spoke English. During the hours that followed we called various police stations including Alexandropoli, Didimoticho and Evros, however we were only able to speak to someone who understood English at 08h27, we passed on the information to the officer who asked us to send an email, we immediately did so. At 09:11h we spoke to he travellers again, they were exhausted and were really in need of help. For more than two hours we tried to follow-up the rescue with the police, however once again there was no English speaker available. At around 11:30h a Greek speaking person contacted the police, we were finally informed that they had sent rescue vehicles to the location, however they had no further news. Unfortunately, during afternoon we were no longer able to establish contact with the travellers. When we called back the Evros police at 15:17h, they told us that on the Greek side of the river they had found no one, the Island was on the Turkish side, so they could not reach it, however they told us that they could not see people on the Island. Our shift team tirelessly tried to get further information on the fate of the travellers, however the Evros police did not find them and we were no longer able to establish contact with them, we really hope they are safe!