01/10: push back of 28 people near Samos

02.10.2020 / 16:25 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 1st of October 2020

Case name: 20201001-AEG701

Situation: 28 people pushed back near Samos and Turkish coastguard took them back to Turkey

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On 1st October 2020 at 01.00h CEST the Alarm Phone learned about a boat in distress in the Aegean Sea near the Greek Island Samos. We got a position and called the coastguard of Piraeus who already knew about the case and said to be on their way to the boat. When we called again at 04.27h CEST the Greek coastguard told us they did not find anyone. At 07.48h CEST we got information from the people on board that they had been push backed by what they assumed to have been the Greek coastguard and brought back to Turkey by the Turkish coastguards.

Later, we got in touch with the travellers who were back in Turkey. They gave us the following testimony about the pushback they had been subjected to : “...we entered again the island of Samos by the Aegean Sea. I don't remember the exact date because my mental situation is very broken and I forgot. But we got to the island of Samos around 2. We wandered on the island for about 3 hours and we presented ourselves as asylum seekers to the police. First the police ensured us that they will bring us to the camp. Then they put us all in a minibus and took all our belongings and put us in a boat and left us in Turkish waters. They brought us from one big boat to our boat and with force they left us in our old and broken boat in Turkish waters and they fled quickly. It took about one hour and a half in the big boat until they left us in our boat. For about 2 hours we stayed in the water with a lot of fear until a cruise boat saw us and alerted the police. The coast guard took us to their site. I do not know the location. After interrogation, they took us to a camp in Aydin and released us after 24 hours. In this situation, we were in a state of stress and anxiety, so one doesn't remember exactly, especially as we have suffered and are full of fear and apprehension."

Last update: 12:59 Mar 24, 2021

Credibility:

Border police patrols
While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
Coastal radars
Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
Exclusive Economic Zone
Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
Frontex operations
Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
Mobile phone coverage
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
Oil and gas platforms
Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
Search and Rescue Zone
An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
Territorial Waters
A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans