10/12: 17 travellers stranded near a delta in Evros on the Greek side, pushed back to Turkey

Verified

  In Distress   Push-Back

11.12.2020 / 11:19 / Evros Region

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 10th of December 2020

Case name: 2020_12_10-AEG733

Situation: 17 travellers with a sick child were pushed back by Greek border police and brought back to Enez in Turkey

Status of WTM Investigation: concluded

Place of Incident: Evros river

Summary of the Case:

On 10th of December 2020 at 20:10h CET the Alarm Phone got a direct call from a group of 17 travellers. They got stuck in the Evros delta near Limni Nimfon, a lake on Greek territory. Among the 17 men was a 10 years old child which had a cold and needed help. The Alarm Phone collected all their names to inform the authorities (police, Frontex) and also human rights organizations. The shift team dialed some police stations later on but there was no outcome concerning rescue operations.

First tweet was sent out at 22:03h. At 23:20h the Alarm Phone called the police station in Feres in Greek language. The officer wondered if it’s their jurisdiction and will do a research on that. He told the people can call 112 and should stay where there are.

On 11th of December there where a lot of What’s App communication with the people. They informed the Alarm Phone that the child lost consciousness several times and that no one would responded to them. The shift team forward the telephone number of the police station in Feres and promised to stay in contact.

All calls to police station in that area failed the whole night. At 07:35h the people still were in need of rescue. Another Tweet were published to denounce the non-assistance. In the messages between 9:00h and 10:00h the people reported their story: they have been caught by one police and pushed back to the border where the Turkish police came and brought them to Enez, from where they sent the GPS position from. In a tweet from 14:00h Alarm Phone addressed Frontex and UNHCR as silent actors in this case who didn’t prevent a push-back.

Twitter chronology:

10th December

22:03h https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1337140660583985158

11th December

09:03h https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1337306883846180864

14h https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1337381709202026498
Last update: 23:57 Mar 15, 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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