08/04: 50-60 people, including families and children, stuck on an islet in the river Evros at the landborder between Greece and Turkey after a pushback, brought to Istanbul

09.04.2021 / 16:16 / Aegean Sea

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The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – April 8th 2021


Case name: 2021_04_08AEG781

Situation: 50-60 people, including families and children stuck on an islet in the river Evros at the landborder between Greece and Turkey after a pushback, brought to Istanbul

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of Case
In the evening of April 8th the Alarm Phone was alerted to a group of men in distress at the landborder between Greece and Turkey. The person calling us claimed that they got abused by the Greek border police and he managed together with some friends to get back to Istanbul,but there were still people stuck at an islet in the Evros river at the landborder. At the same time the Alarm Phone got alerted to the same case by a person who had just managed to escape. He claimed that there were 50-60 people who were brought to an islet in the Evros river. Everything had been taken from them (papers, money, phones,clothes, shoes) and young people even got beaten up. The weather was very rainy and cold and there was no shelter for the people. He was concerned for the children who could die from the cold. He managed to cross the river in the morning and get to Turkey where he reported the case. The people on the islet didn’t have a phone. We later discovered that the people got arrested in Greece by the Greek police who took their phones, clothes and shoes and after prison they were brought to the islet in the river. We informed local authorities, but they did not know anything about the case. Later on we got a confirmation that they were rescued by the Turkish police and brought to Istanbul.
Last update: 01:03 Aug 25, 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