17/11: 54 people stranded on the Greek side of the Evros river

18.11.2020 / 22:45 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of November 2020
Case name: 2020_11_17-AEG725
Situation: 54 people stranded on the Greek side of the Evros river, 49 people return to Turkey
Status of WTM Investigation: Ongoing
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea/land border between Greece and Turkey

Summary of the Case

At 23:07h CET on the 17 November we were contacted by a relative of someone among a group of 54 travelers. The group were from Syria, Iraq and Lebanon and was stranded on the Greek side of the Evros river. When we spoke to the group we discovered that they had previously been pushed back from Greece to Turkey and then returned by the Turkish authorities to Greece. They were now stranded. They explained that there were 41 men, nine women, and four children. Three of the women were sick as were two of the children. They had no food and they wanted to apply for asylum. They asked us to contact the authorities.

Despite making several attempts we were unable to contact the Soufli border patrol police, but eventually we were able to ring the Soufli police department. We passed on the information. We followed up with email in both English and Greek, copying in the UNHCR and other NGOs. We then put out a tweet:
We received a call for help from 50 people from Syria, Iraq & Lebanon that are stranded on the Greek side of #Evros landborder. They are exhausted & the food ran out. 3 women & 2 children are sick. They want to apply for asylum. We informed the Border Patrol station in Soufli.

We called for updates throughout the night but were unable to get any information. In the morning we received an email from the Greek Council for Refugees. It informed us that the border patrol had not arrested many people in the area and that they were going to ask them for an update.

Shortly after midday the police told us that they had picked up five Syrians, but we could not establish if they were part of the group we were looking for. Just after 14:00h CET we were able to get back in contact with the group. They had managed to return to Turkey,
presumably to seek medical assistance. We put out the following tweet:
The people told us that they returned to Turkey.

The following day we learnt from Greek Council for Refugees that the five people picked up by the border control were in fact five from this group.
Last update: 16:24 Mar 02, 2021
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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

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