23/11: Group seperated at the landborder Turkey-Greece, several people report being pushed back on different occasions to Turkey

24.11.2020 / 16:03 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23rd of November 2020
Case name: 2020_11_23-AEG727
Situation: 23/11: Group seperated at the landborder Turkey-Greece, several people report being pushed back on different occasions to Turkey
Status of WTM Investigation: Ongoing
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:
On 23 November, we were contacted by a group of eight people. They were all men. Seven of them were from Syria and one from Gaza. They told us that they had originally been part of a group of 15, but they had split up because 7 people needed rest. Those seven people had
been arrested by the Greek police and were now back in Turkey. They gave us a number for their friends back in Turkey.

The 8 travellers still in Greece also told us that they had been chased and shot at by the Greek police, but they had managed to evade them unharmed. They were understandably afraid of pushback and did not trust anyone. They asked us for the number of the UNHCR in Athens as they wanted to claim asylum in Greece. We gave them the number.

Meanwhile, we got in contact with someone from the group who was back in Turkey. He explained that after they were arrested in Greece they were taken to a prison camp with tents. Other groups were brought to this
camp. About 100 people were then brought to the river at the border at 1:00am local time and forced in groups of 15/16 onto small
plastic boats made for 5/6. The overloaded boat they had pushed into capzized. 5 people, three men and two women, were swept away by the current. One of the missing men was his cousin. They walked then through the Turkish border station and then hired a taxi back to Istanbul.

On 2 December the group that had remained in Greece contacted us again. The previous afternoon five of them had been arrested at Kavala train station. The five had asked for asylum, but instead were treated very badly by the police and then pushed back to Turkey.
Last update: 06:36 Mar 08, 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