Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th of June 2019
Case name: 2019_10_19-AEG680
Situation: 38 people pushed back to Turkey, around 50 people pushed back to Turkey, 36 travellers pushed back to Turkey, 20/40 stranded south of Lesvos
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

Case 1:

Shortly before 04:00 CEST, 19 June 2020 our night shift was called from a boat in distress in Greek waters. The boat was carrying 38 people, including 14 children. They have been attacked by people on another vessel. They could see both the Turkish coastguard and the Greek coastguard standing by.

We alerted the Greek coastguard to the distress case, but received no response from Piraeus. At 05:23 we called Piraeus again. They told us that they had dispatched an asset, but that it was not yet on scene.
The boat was drifting back towards Turkey and rescue was not forthcoming. At 07:03 the travellers sent us a picture of the Greek coastguard alongside their vessel. We were hopeful that they were going to be rescued. Unfortunately, we were contacted about 20 minutes later by the passengers with the news that the Greek coastguard had simply carried out another attack on their vessel. All of this was observed by the Turkish coastguard.

Although the boat was now immobile and drifting towards Turkey, the passengers continued trying to paddle the boat towards Europe. We lost contact with the boat. Shortly after midday we contacted the Turkish coastguard who informed us that they had intercepted three boats that morning from the area around Lesvos. We were later able to confirm that this boat was one of those three.

Case 2:

Also that morning, we were informed about another boat in distress on its way to Lesvos. There were around 50 people on board, including 12 children, two of whom were infants. They told us that the Greek coastguard had arrived on scene and damaged the boat by stabbing it. We were in contact with the boat and we received a position in pictures. We contacted Piraeus who took the position.

We got back in touch with the passengers on the boat at 09:43, who told us that they had been violently pushed back into Turkish water and then finally rescued by the Turkish Coastguard. The rescue was confirmed by Ankara.

Case 3:

At 09:30 CEST we were again contacted by a relative of somebody on a boat in distress. They told us that their relative was on a boat heading for Lesvos. They also told that the boat had been attacked and destroyed. They had been transferred into another rubber boat. They were apparently in Greek waters, though we never received a position.

We contacted the Greek Coastguard who told us that they could do nothing without a position.

We then contacted the Turkish coastguard who told us that they had rescued three different boats from the area around Lesvos. We were later able to conclude that our boat had been picked up by the Turkish coastguard and had been carrying 36 people: 10 children, 5 women and 21 men.

Case 4:

Mid-morning we were also contacted by relatives who wish to inform us about a group of people stranded near the gulf of Gera in the south of Lesvos. They had already alerted the authorities to the presence of the group. We received contradictory information about the number of people. One person put the group size at 40 and another at 20, including nine children. We were not able to reach the stranded travellers, but shortly after 14:06 CEST we already received confirmation that they had been located and were with the police. Welcome to Europe.