Watch the Med
Development WTM site30/08 Deadly Push-Back in the Evros region
02.09.2021 / 23:36 / Aegean Sea
Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 30th of August 2021:
Instead of being brought to hospital, a man in serious health condition was pushed back to an islet in the Evros/Maritsa river and died on 2 September 2021
Case name: 2021_08_30-AEG817
Situation: Instead of being brought to hospital, a man in serious health condition was pushed back to an islet in the Evros/Maritsa river and died on 2 September 2021
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea
Summary of the Case:
On 2 September 2021, Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri, a refugee from Syria, died on a small islet in the Evros/Maritsa river. We found out about his death days after we had alerted Greek authorities on Monday, 30 August, to a group in distress near Arianna in Greece that he was part of.
Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri, is married and has two children, an eight-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son. Now he is dead.
This was the message we sent to Greek authorities on 30 August at 15:02 CEST:
“We received a message from 4 refugees who are close to Arriana, Greece. Their position is: 41°08'34.2"N 25°47'38.4"E at 9:14 CEST and they are close to Arriana. They are 4 men. There are 1 man sick and injured among them. This man can't walk anymore and feel close to death, so they are stick there. They are in need of international protection and seek to apply for asylum in Greece.”
On Thursday, 2 September, at 13:30 CEST, we alerted the authorities about a group of people with a deceased person on an islet in the Evros/Martisa river. Finally, in the evening of 2 September, Turkish authorities rescued the survivors from this islet and took the dead body to Turkey.
We had received pictures of the sick person on 30 August near Arianna. And we received also pictures of the dead person on 2 August. When we were told that the man we alerted to died, we checked the pictures, and we can confirm that it is the same person.
The person who was with Alaa on 30th of August says: “I carried him on my back and took him for a long distance. I surrendered myself to the police and they put us in prison. Then we were disgustedly put in a car and thrown on an island in the middle of the Evros river. The young man died on the island.”
We are urgently asking for answers:
- How did this young man get to the island before he died, when he had already been near Arianna?
- Who was responsible for this illegal pushback that was carried out although the man was about to die?
- How is it possible that he did not receive the urgent medical treatment he needed?
- Who is responsible for this failure to render assistance to a person in a life-threatening medical condition?
„A very tired Person that may loose his life“ - details of this inevitable death
On 30 August, Alarm Phone was informed about a group of people who were near Arianna in Greece. We were told that there were four people in a valley in the forest, one man sick, who could not walk and felt close to dying. They say that there is “a very tired person that may lose his life” with them, who had been without food or water for four days and is very sick.
They sent a GPS-location, showing them on Greek mainland: 41°08'34.2"N 25°47'38.4"E at 9:14 CEST.
We alerted Greek authorities and informed the UNHCR, the Greek Ombudsman and several other actors by email at 15:02 CEST. We said that the group needed urgent help and that they wanted to seek asylum in Greece. We didn’t receive a phone number from the group, so we were not able to establish contact - and we could not find out what happened after our alert.
One person has already died
Three days later, on 2 September at 14:00 CEST, we were alerted about a group in distress on an islet in Evros river. Some of them had been stranded there for 5 days, and one woman was in a critical health condition. One of the Syrians among the group, a middle-aged man, had already died.
We received the following GPS-location: 41°41´01.2"N, 26°25`08.9"E
We informed the responsible authorities at 14:58 CEST and published the case on Twitter:
“SOS in the #Evros region! We were alerted by 8 people stranded on an islet between #Greece & #Turkey for over 5 days. They say that 1 person has already died due to dehydration/starvation & 1 woman is in critical condition. To all authorities: do not let them die!
„Please get us out of here". That is what the group wrote to us! We informed #Greek and #Turkish authorities, but the people told us that they can't move to either side. They sent us a video showing a person who appears to be dead. We request urgent medical support for the group!
At 17:54 CEST, the people on the island informed us that help had finally arrived.
We tweeted: The people on the islet just told us that help arrived - it seems they will be brought back to #Turkey. We hope the survivors will recover fast after these terrible days on the islet! Our thoughts are with them and with the loved ones of the person who reportedly died.
the group surrendered themselves to the police to get help for Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri
However, days later it became clear that there was connection between these two cases. The sick person of the first group was the same person who had been reported dead on the islet 2 September.
Consolidated Rescue Group reported about his death on their Facebook page on 12 September.
Alarm Phone started to investigate this case further, trying to establish what exactly had happened.
We were able to find out that the group on the islet was finally rescued in the early evening and that the body of the man who died was transferred to Edirne, where it was identified with the help of a family member on 8 September and buried in Edirne the next day. The name of the man who died was Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri.
Through the contact with a family member of Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri, we could confirm, that he had belonged to the group that had alerted us on the 30 August.
He was a Syrian living in Lebanon. He came through Iraq and Iran to Turkey to go to Greece. In Turkey he had symptoms of a cold, but because it was not too bad, he still left for Greece. After 4 or 5 days in the forest, it became worse. At some point the group he was traveling with, left him behind. He was found in the forest by another group of three travelers, also Syrians, who tried to help him and made emergency calls for him to different organizations, one of them reached out to Alarm Phone. When no help arrived, the group surrendered themselves to the police to get help for Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri. Instead, they were put into detention and then pushed back to the islet with another group, where the already sick man died on 2 September, possibly from Covid and due to the lack of medical care.
One of the persons, who found him in the forest said:
“I carried him on my back and took him for a long distance. I surrendered myself to the police and they put us in prison. Then we were disgustedly put in a car and thrown on an island in the middle of the Evros river. The young man died when we arrived on the island.”
We spoke to the brother of Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri on the phone, he had tried to find out what exactly had happened. This is his testimony:
“When he had crossed the border on the 25th of August, he sent us a selfie, “all good, we crossed” he said. Then after two days we lost contact with him, and then for four days we couldn't contact him. On the 30th there was a group of three people, that were crossing the forest that found him, he was alive, but he was sick. They asked him, what has happened to you? And he explained that his group had left him behind without food and water, because he was too sick to walk.
This group stays with him, gave him food and water, try to contacts all NGOs for help, they were also Syrians, but didn't belong to his original group. Then when there was no help coming, they turned him self in to the police with him. They carried him, and they walked for hours to the main road, and there was police there, that they stopped, and they took them to police station. His situation wasn't super bad at this point, he was sick, but he was ok, after they gave him water and food, and they were arrested for one day in Greece.
After they were in the jail for one day, the next day, the 31st August in the night, they took three Pakistani, and the three Syrians that found him and Alaa and they pushed back the 7 of them to the island. From this island, they tried to contact the Turkish Gendarma, to let them go back to Turkey, but the Turks were refusing that and they were swearing on them, and they were showing their gun, trying to force them not to come back. Then the Syrians tried to swim, but he was sick so he could not swim, and the Pakistani were beaten so bad by the police, that they couldn't swim also, so the Syrians went back to Turkey swimming and the others stayed. One day later, the 1st September in the morning another group came to the island, a group of 5 Syrians, they were pushed back there also. They found the person dead or dying, they contacted again NGOs and organisations, they took video, and sent it, they called 112, and finally the Turkish took them, the group and also the dead body.”
Was the death of Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri inevitable?
No.
We believe his death to be a result of the violent border regime and push-back practices.
If everybody was free to move, without being criminalized, he would not have had to wander through a forest for days in autumn.
If everybody’s dignity was respected, he would have received medical assistance.
If the Greek border guards had acted according to international law, he would have been able to ask for asylum instead of being imprisoned and violently pushed back to a Turkish island in a life-threatening medical condition.
If the Turkish Coastguard had given support instead of threatening the people with more violence, he might still be alive.
His death was not an accident. He did not die because of a severe illness that could not be treated. Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri’s death was another deadly consequence of the European border regime.
We stand in solidarity with all those fighting for freedom of movement.
We mourn with the family and friends.
We will never forget.
“>Consolidated Rescue Group, did an own report on their facebook-page:
English translation of their text:
Martyr of emigration
What is the story of the Syrian who died twice, once in Greece and once in Turkey.
The full story / Despite his health condition, the Greek police returned an immigrant to Turkey without providing treatment, and he died upon arrival.
The full report:
Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri is a Syrian, from the countryside of Aleppo, the city of Tadef, which is bordered by the Syrian regime, and which is considered a hot area. Born in 1991, married, has two children, a girl and a boy. The girl is 8 years old, the boy is 5 years old. He traveled because of the security situation and the difficulty of living after losing a job.
On 30.08.2021 we received a call that there were four people in one of its Greek valleys on the road in the Ariana region. "I am in a valley and my brother is with me. We will die. We will die. My brother is very tired and left us and the affliction is gone. He means fellow immigrants from the road." He sent their website, but then we lost contact via Facebook Messenger.
An email was sent at 03:01 to the Greek authorities about the patient's health condition, the number of his companions attached to the site, and the four days they spent without food or drink.
Unfortunately when we lose contact with migrants, the rescue and assistance process is difficult for us and the authorities usually do not give any information about the people we are reporting.
How did the young man die?
A few days after the incident, one of the accompanying persons who informed us said, We were among a group of immigrants, so they left us in the middle of the valley because of the health condition of the Syrian youth. He said we stayed four people with him, and he said that he waited a whole day after informing us and no one arrived and no help arrived.
He says: I carried him on my back and walked for a distance and surrendered myself to the Greek police in the city of Villera, which is 12 km away. We were placed in the detention center without providing food or drink and without providing any treatment to the young patient, whose health was very poor.
He said / We were put in each other's car, and they were not allowed to provide asylum, and the patient was not even treated, and then they were returned to the island in the middle of the Evros River separating Turkey and Greece in a legal violation and forcible return in violation of international law and international covenants. When the young man arrived, his health was very poor, he could not stand it and died immediately.
On 02.092021 we received a call that there is a body of a person who died in the morning due to his health condition on a small island in the middle of the Evros River. The Turkish authorities were informed and a few hours later the body was removed and the other migrants evacuated.
We were shocked days later that the body that was found belonged to the same person who sent a distress call a few days ago.
As a result of this shock, an investigation was opened and an urgent meeting was held with the parties we deal with on this issue of violation of human rights. This case will be submitted to the competent authorities to find out the merits of this flagrant violation, which caused the death of an immigrant seeking international protection.
We hold Greece and the Greek police the death of this young man and left him to die without treatment.
# Sources: C.R.G
Instead of being brought to hospital, a man in serious health condition was pushed back to an islet in the Evros/Maritsa river and died on 2 September 2021
Case name: 2021_08_30-AEG817
Situation: Instead of being brought to hospital, a man in serious health condition was pushed back to an islet in the Evros/Maritsa river and died on 2 September 2021
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea
Summary of the Case:
On 2 September 2021, Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri, a refugee from Syria, died on a small islet in the Evros/Maritsa river. We found out about his death days after we had alerted Greek authorities on Monday, 30 August, to a group in distress near Arianna in Greece that he was part of.
Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri, is married and has two children, an eight-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son. Now he is dead.
This was the message we sent to Greek authorities on 30 August at 15:02 CEST:
“We received a message from 4 refugees who are close to Arriana, Greece. Their position is: 41°08'34.2"N 25°47'38.4"E at 9:14 CEST and they are close to Arriana. They are 4 men. There are 1 man sick and injured among them. This man can't walk anymore and feel close to death, so they are stick there. They are in need of international protection and seek to apply for asylum in Greece.”
On Thursday, 2 September, at 13:30 CEST, we alerted the authorities about a group of people with a deceased person on an islet in the Evros/Martisa river. Finally, in the evening of 2 September, Turkish authorities rescued the survivors from this islet and took the dead body to Turkey.
We had received pictures of the sick person on 30 August near Arianna. And we received also pictures of the dead person on 2 August. When we were told that the man we alerted to died, we checked the pictures, and we can confirm that it is the same person.
The person who was with Alaa on 30th of August says: “I carried him on my back and took him for a long distance. I surrendered myself to the police and they put us in prison. Then we were disgustedly put in a car and thrown on an island in the middle of the Evros river. The young man died on the island.”
We are urgently asking for answers:
- How did this young man get to the island before he died, when he had already been near Arianna?
- Who was responsible for this illegal pushback that was carried out although the man was about to die?
- How is it possible that he did not receive the urgent medical treatment he needed?
- Who is responsible for this failure to render assistance to a person in a life-threatening medical condition?
„A very tired Person that may loose his life“ - details of this inevitable death
On 30 August, Alarm Phone was informed about a group of people who were near Arianna in Greece. We were told that there were four people in a valley in the forest, one man sick, who could not walk and felt close to dying. They say that there is “a very tired person that may lose his life” with them, who had been without food or water for four days and is very sick.
They sent a GPS-location, showing them on Greek mainland: 41°08'34.2"N 25°47'38.4"E at 9:14 CEST.
We alerted Greek authorities and informed the UNHCR, the Greek Ombudsman and several other actors by email at 15:02 CEST. We said that the group needed urgent help and that they wanted to seek asylum in Greece. We didn’t receive a phone number from the group, so we were not able to establish contact - and we could not find out what happened after our alert.
One person has already died
Three days later, on 2 September at 14:00 CEST, we were alerted about a group in distress on an islet in Evros river. Some of them had been stranded there for 5 days, and one woman was in a critical health condition. One of the Syrians among the group, a middle-aged man, had already died.
We received the following GPS-location: 41°41´01.2"N, 26°25`08.9"E
We informed the responsible authorities at 14:58 CEST and published the case on Twitter:
“SOS in the #Evros region! We were alerted by 8 people stranded on an islet between #Greece & #Turkey for over 5 days. They say that 1 person has already died due to dehydration/starvation & 1 woman is in critical condition. To all authorities: do not let them die!
„Please get us out of here". That is what the group wrote to us! We informed #Greek and #Turkish authorities, but the people told us that they can't move to either side. They sent us a video showing a person who appears to be dead. We request urgent medical support for the group!
At 17:54 CEST, the people on the island informed us that help had finally arrived.
We tweeted: The people on the islet just told us that help arrived - it seems they will be brought back to #Turkey. We hope the survivors will recover fast after these terrible days on the islet! Our thoughts are with them and with the loved ones of the person who reportedly died.
the group surrendered themselves to the police to get help for Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri
However, days later it became clear that there was connection between these two cases. The sick person of the first group was the same person who had been reported dead on the islet 2 September.
Consolidated Rescue Group reported about his death on their Facebook page on 12 September.
Alarm Phone started to investigate this case further, trying to establish what exactly had happened.
We were able to find out that the group on the islet was finally rescued in the early evening and that the body of the man who died was transferred to Edirne, where it was identified with the help of a family member on 8 September and buried in Edirne the next day. The name of the man who died was Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri.
Through the contact with a family member of Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri, we could confirm, that he had belonged to the group that had alerted us on the 30 August.
He was a Syrian living in Lebanon. He came through Iraq and Iran to Turkey to go to Greece. In Turkey he had symptoms of a cold, but because it was not too bad, he still left for Greece. After 4 or 5 days in the forest, it became worse. At some point the group he was traveling with, left him behind. He was found in the forest by another group of three travelers, also Syrians, who tried to help him and made emergency calls for him to different organizations, one of them reached out to Alarm Phone. When no help arrived, the group surrendered themselves to the police to get help for Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri. Instead, they were put into detention and then pushed back to the islet with another group, where the already sick man died on 2 September, possibly from Covid and due to the lack of medical care.
One of the persons, who found him in the forest said:
“I carried him on my back and took him for a long distance. I surrendered myself to the police and they put us in prison. Then we were disgustedly put in a car and thrown on an island in the middle of the Evros river. The young man died when we arrived on the island.”
We spoke to the brother of Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri on the phone, he had tried to find out what exactly had happened. This is his testimony:
“When he had crossed the border on the 25th of August, he sent us a selfie, “all good, we crossed” he said. Then after two days we lost contact with him, and then for four days we couldn't contact him. On the 30th there was a group of three people, that were crossing the forest that found him, he was alive, but he was sick. They asked him, what has happened to you? And he explained that his group had left him behind without food and water, because he was too sick to walk.
This group stays with him, gave him food and water, try to contacts all NGOs for help, they were also Syrians, but didn't belong to his original group. Then when there was no help coming, they turned him self in to the police with him. They carried him, and they walked for hours to the main road, and there was police there, that they stopped, and they took them to police station. His situation wasn't super bad at this point, he was sick, but he was ok, after they gave him water and food, and they were arrested for one day in Greece.
After they were in the jail for one day, the next day, the 31st August in the night, they took three Pakistani, and the three Syrians that found him and Alaa and they pushed back the 7 of them to the island. From this island, they tried to contact the Turkish Gendarma, to let them go back to Turkey, but the Turks were refusing that and they were swearing on them, and they were showing their gun, trying to force them not to come back. Then the Syrians tried to swim, but he was sick so he could not swim, and the Pakistani were beaten so bad by the police, that they couldn't swim also, so the Syrians went back to Turkey swimming and the others stayed. One day later, the 1st September in the morning another group came to the island, a group of 5 Syrians, they were pushed back there also. They found the person dead or dying, they contacted again NGOs and organisations, they took video, and sent it, they called 112, and finally the Turkish took them, the group and also the dead body.”
Was the death of Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri inevitable?
No.
We believe his death to be a result of the violent border regime and push-back practices.
If everybody was free to move, without being criminalized, he would not have had to wander through a forest for days in autumn.
If everybody’s dignity was respected, he would have received medical assistance.
If the Greek border guards had acted according to international law, he would have been able to ask for asylum instead of being imprisoned and violently pushed back to a Turkish island in a life-threatening medical condition.
If the Turkish Coastguard had given support instead of threatening the people with more violence, he might still be alive.
His death was not an accident. He did not die because of a severe illness that could not be treated. Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri’s death was another deadly consequence of the European border regime.
We stand in solidarity with all those fighting for freedom of movement.
We mourn with the family and friends.
We will never forget.
“>Consolidated Rescue Group, did an own report on their facebook-page:
English translation of their text:
Martyr of emigration
What is the story of the Syrian who died twice, once in Greece and once in Turkey.
The full story / Despite his health condition, the Greek police returned an immigrant to Turkey without providing treatment, and he died upon arrival.
The full report:
Alaa Muhammad Al-Bakri is a Syrian, from the countryside of Aleppo, the city of Tadef, which is bordered by the Syrian regime, and which is considered a hot area. Born in 1991, married, has two children, a girl and a boy. The girl is 8 years old, the boy is 5 years old. He traveled because of the security situation and the difficulty of living after losing a job.
On 30.08.2021 we received a call that there were four people in one of its Greek valleys on the road in the Ariana region. "I am in a valley and my brother is with me. We will die. We will die. My brother is very tired and left us and the affliction is gone. He means fellow immigrants from the road." He sent their website, but then we lost contact via Facebook Messenger.
An email was sent at 03:01 to the Greek authorities about the patient's health condition, the number of his companions attached to the site, and the four days they spent without food or drink.
Unfortunately when we lose contact with migrants, the rescue and assistance process is difficult for us and the authorities usually do not give any information about the people we are reporting.
How did the young man die?
A few days after the incident, one of the accompanying persons who informed us said, We were among a group of immigrants, so they left us in the middle of the valley because of the health condition of the Syrian youth. He said we stayed four people with him, and he said that he waited a whole day after informing us and no one arrived and no help arrived.
He says: I carried him on my back and walked for a distance and surrendered myself to the Greek police in the city of Villera, which is 12 km away. We were placed in the detention center without providing food or drink and without providing any treatment to the young patient, whose health was very poor.
He said / We were put in each other's car, and they were not allowed to provide asylum, and the patient was not even treated, and then they were returned to the island in the middle of the Evros River separating Turkey and Greece in a legal violation and forcible return in violation of international law and international covenants. When the young man arrived, his health was very poor, he could not stand it and died immediately.
On 02.092021 we received a call that there is a body of a person who died in the morning due to his health condition on a small island in the middle of the Evros River. The Turkish authorities were informed and a few hours later the body was removed and the other migrants evacuated.
We were shocked days later that the body that was found belonged to the same person who sent a distress call a few days ago.
As a result of this shock, an investigation was opened and an urgent meeting was held with the parties we deal with on this issue of violation of human rights. This case will be submitted to the competent authorities to find out the merits of this flagrant violation, which caused the death of an immigrant seeking international protection.
We hold Greece and the Greek police the death of this young man and left him to die without treatment.
# Sources: C.R.G
Last update: 20:13 Oct 18, 2021
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