Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of February 2020
Case name: 2020_02_29-AEG655
Situation: 3 people stranded in Greece, near the Evros river were helped by civilians, 3 people rescued by fishermen.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 29 of February we were alerted to two distress cases, the first one involved 3 travellers stranded near Evros river, they were finally helped by civilians. The second case concerned a boat carrying 3 travellers that was eventually rescued by fishermen.

Around 06:10h CET of the 29 of February the Alarm Phone was alerted to 3 travellers in distress that were stranded around the Evros river, on the Greek side near Üyüklütatar . We spoke to the travellers twice and they told us that they had walked 4-5 km after crossing the river. They were cold in in a “bad condition”, one man had broken his leg. At 07:13h we alerted the Greek authorities, specifying that the travellers were seeking to apply for asylum in Greece and were in need of international protection. At 07:15h we spoke to the travelers again, they reported that Greek soldiers had found them and had left again telling them that they would send a bus to bring them to the hospital. At 08:51h we called back the travellers, they told us that they hadn’t been drinking for more that 26 hours, they were still waiting for help and were very worried. One hour later we spoke to them again, they were thirsty, hungry, exhausted and desperately needed help. They told us that the military passed by again but did not stop. After having unsuccessfully tried various times to contact the police in Orestida at 10:23h we sent an email, updating about the deteriorating situation, however nobody reacted. At 11:36h the travelers told us that they had been helped by civilians who gave them food, water and accompanied them to a village.

On the same day our shift team was alerted to a boat in distress carrying 3 travellers, 2 men and 1 woman, near Kavala, Greece. At 01:23h CET of the night, we informed the Greek coastguard. There was a lot of screaming in the background. The boat seemed to be leaking and losing air, they gave us a GPS position that we forwarded to the coastguard. At 02:35h we were informed that the travelers were being rescued by a fishing boat. The travellers were really scared as the fishermen told them “Greek police will kill you because you come in this country”. At approximately 03:00h we received an updated GPS position that we passed on to the Greek coastguard. After having lost contact with the travellers, in the morning they told us that they were safe, although they did not tell us whether they were in Greece or Turkey.