Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of September 2020

Case name: 2020_29_09-AEG710

Situation: 159 travellers were pushed back from Greece and got stuck on an island in the Evros river – brought back to Turkey

Status of WTM Investigation:Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:
On 29th of September 2020 at 08:57h CEST the Alarm Phone was alerted to a big group of travellers who got stuck on the land border between Turkey and Greece. The group counted 159 people, among them around 60 children. The GPS position showed them on a small island in
the river. It was reported that they were in Greece the day before and then sent back to the border.

Later, we managed to establish a direct contact. The travellers – all from Syria – asked for urgent help. They needed food and especially food for the babies. The Alarm Phone recommended to
contact UNHCR as well.

At 10:22h CEST the shift team called UNHCR in Greece. They said they cannot act because the travellers were on the Turkish side, finally the officer offered to inform a special department. At 10:46h the travellers expressed their wish to go back to Turkey to get baby food.

Around 12h the shift team called the Turkish coast guard, who told us to pass the information to the police. Meanwhile, the UNHCR wasn’t reachable any more. At 13:21h the travellers informed the shift team that a Turkish police officer was there and said they will be brought back to Turkey at 20h. The officer also brought some milk for the babies.

At 20:35h the travellers were still in a extremely miserable situation. At 21:35 the Alarm Phone learned that the travellers were brought to the immigration office in Edirne. But when the shift team called there they weren’t informed about the issue.
Later, the travellers gave a more detailed account of what happened after they had entered Greece. They told us that they had encountered a group of men wearing camouflage clothes. Three of the men were masked and started beating up the travellers. Afterwards, they drove the travellers back to the river where they were ordered to prepare their inflatable boats for their return to the Turkish side. The pushback was accompanied by the masked men, who used shooting into the air and water to force the travellers to comply. The whole group was abandoned on a small island in the middle of the river. The travellers told us that they suffered a lot of physical violence from the masked men.

Following the sound of the bullets, another group of men, according to the travellers members of the Turkish army, appeared on the Turkish side of the river. They refused to help the travellers reach Turkish land, but sent a ration of milk for the children in the evening. From 07.00-19.00 the travellers were stuck on this island. The Turkish officers then embarked women and children on a boat, but forced the men of the group to swim across to the Turkish side. Once in Turkey, all the travellers were brought to the police station where they were not allowed to change into dry clothes and where they had their details taken. The following morning they were transferred to a camp where they stayed for two days before receiving expulsion papers ordering them to go to Gaziantep within 15 days, with the threat that they would otherwise be arrested and deported back to Syria.