Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of April 2021

Case name: 2021_04_12-AEG782

Situation: 9 people stuck near the Greek Turkish landborder without food nor water, later they are probably pushed back

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

At 15:58 of April 12th we were informed by a group of 9 people that they are north of Alexandroupolis, Greece near the border. They didn't have food nor water since 7 days, the foot of one person was probably broken and there was one old man among them. They wanted us to call the police despite their fear of a pushback, as their situation was so miserable.

At 16:27 we called the Tychero police station, but they didnt speak english. So we called the department of coordinated border management (PEKODISME) in Alexandropoulis, they promised to inform the police. We informed all other responsible authorities via email.

After telling us they want to go to the next village we lost contact to the traveling group at 18:15.

We called the department of coordinated border management (PEKODISME) in Alexandropoulis several times to ask for updates but they only repeat they do all they can. When we mentioned that, in the past, when we lost contact with the people, they ended up back in Turkey after getting beaten up and illegally pushed back, they say "no, no, this does not happen".

We kept trying to call the people on the move the whole night, but couldn't establish contact. Some days later we we were informed by a relative that the travelers are indeed back in Istanbul, which means another illegal pushback took place.