Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 4th of July 2020
Case name: 2020_07_04-AEG686
Situation: 29 travellers had their engine stolen and were then rescued by the Turkish coastguard. Some other 30 travellers were pushed back to Turkey by the Greek coastguard.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 4th of July the Alarm Phone was alerted to two distress cases in the Aegean Sea. One boat had its engine stolen at sea and was later rescued by the Turkish coastguard. Another boat was intercepted by the Greek coastguard and pushed back into Turkish waters.

In the early morning of Saturday the 4th of July, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in distress carrying around 29 travelers. The engine of the boat had been stolen at sea. Due to language barriers, communication was initially difficult. After failing to re-establish contact with the travellers our shift team called the Turkish coastguard at 08:24h CEST. On the phone they told us that they had just rescued a boat with 29 people South-East of Lesvos. In addition, they had also been alerted to two other boats that had been pushed back by the Greek coastguard earlier in the morning in the same area. At the time, the Turkish coastguard was currently searching for these boats. Half an hour later we sent an email to both Turkish and Greek coastguards with all the details on the case. Around 10:45h we sent further emails to both coastguards asking whether they had information on the case. At 11:07h the Turkish coastguard confirmed the rescue, stating that the boat had been found at 06:30h earlier that morning.

At 13:26h of the same day, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in distress with 30 travellers on board, including 3 children and 11 women. The boat was in Greek waters and the travellers had no more food or water. They also reported that the Greek coastguard had broken their engine and tried to attack people, before telling them to paddle back to Turkey with their hands. At 13:49h our shift team sent an email to the Greek coastguard informing them about the boat in distress and asking for a rescue operation. At 14:13h we spoke again to the travellers, it was very hot and children were crying. at 14:35h we called the Greek coastguard who told us everything was under control, without further information. We were then told that the coordinates we gave them earlier were incorrect, we thus gave them again in another format. At 15:03h we confirmed the GPS position via email. At 15:12h we called the travellers again, they told us that they had been pushed back to Turkey by the Greek coastguard who gave them life-vests and sent them back towards the Turkish coast. As we were speaking, they were on a Turkish coastguard vessel in Turkish territorial waters. While everyone survived, the travellers reported that some people had been hurt by the Greek coastguard and phones had been thrown in the water.

Twitter Chronology:

2020-07-04
14:06 https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1279385988314390539
15:17 https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1279403904497836032
16:23 https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1279420525736071168